Could Animals Talk In The Garden Of Eden

Medieval beliefs about sin and forgiveness

Human sin

To appreciate the power the Church wielded in the lives of ordinary people in medieval England, it is important to understand key beliefs about sin and the need for forgiveness.

Sin, in Christian teaching, consists of disobedience to the known will of God. The first example of sin described in the Bible comes in the story of Adam and Eve, who were placed by God in the Garden of Eden. They chose to disobey God and, as a result, were expelled from his presence and condemned to live in a harsh and inhospitable world. [For further information see Big ideas: Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, 'Second Adam'].

The Medieval Church inherited and taught the doctrine of original sin, the belief that all human beings share in collective guilt as a result of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the Fall of Humankind, together with an ongoing predisposition to disobey God. Everyone, therefore, needed to be cleansed through baptism, to learn to resist temptation and to live in such a way that, when death came, they would be ready to face God's judgement on their thoughts, attitudes and actions.

The hope of forgiveness

Wooden cross, photo by Tangopaso, available though Creative Commons Christianity teaches that, through his death on the cross, Jesus Christ took the punishment for human sin, thus 'turning around' the effects of the Fall of Humankind, making it possible for individuals to be forgiven, to learn to live in obedience to God and eventually, to reach heaven (See Big ideas: Forgiveness, mercy and grace.) The Church has always seen it as being very important to remind individuals of this teaching and to encourage them to respond.

Delivery of Christian truth

There were three central elements on which the medieval Church focused.

The Mass

Celebrating mass (also known as the Eucharist) was an important sacrament. By taking part in this, believers symbolically shared in the victory paid for – and won by - Christ over the power of sin (known as the atonement). Through this they could receive the grace (meaning the undeserved gift) of salvation.

The sermon

Though richer people might own prayer books, knowledge of the Christian faith came, above all, from preaching and teaching, week by week from parish priests. This parish teaching was conducted in English and sometimes in Norman French. There were vernacular retellings of biblical stories and some French and English translations of the Psalms and other parts of the Bible, but few laypeople had direct access to the text of the Bible. It was in sermons that people learnt Bible stories as well as aspects of Christian history, such as saints' lives, and the basic doctrines and moral principles of the faith. Sermons could be very skillful and lively to illustrate Christian teaching.

Sermons had several functions:

To educate people about the Christian faith and the Church's rituals and practices
To make known the contents of the Bible, the Church's interpretations of the Bible, and also the lives of saints
To help people understand the system of confession and to prepare for their confession to their parish priest in a careful way
To explain about sin and virtues.

Confession

Helping people to confess their sins and receive assurance of forgiveness was the role of the priest. The medieval Church distinguished between venial and mortal sins:

Venial sins were relatively small faults and shortcomings. The individual could confess these privately to God
Mortal, or 'deadly', sins were wrong acts committed consciously and deliberately. They therefore placed the soul in serious danger and the Church taught that, in normal circumstances, they could only be forgiven through the sacrament of penance and by confession to a priest.

The Seven Deadly (or Cardinal) Sins

A number of specific sins are mentioned in the New Testament (see Mark 7:21-23 and Galatians 5:19-21). In time, lists of sins considered particularly serious were drawn up and, by the Middle Ages, seven 'deadly' sins had been identified:

Pride (Latin, Superbia)
Envy (Invidia)
Anger, or wrath (Ira)
Avarice or covetousness (the love of riches, Avaritia)
Sloth (laziness, also the loss of a hopeful and positive attitude or despair that someone is beyond God's love and salvation, Accedia)
Gluttony (greed for (especially rich) food and drunkenness, Gula)
Lust, or lechery (Luxuria).

This list of sins was an important teaching tool in the medieval Church and sermons, poems and wall paintings presented them dramatically and vividly in order to warn people of the danger they posed. The sins were sometimes presented as personifications or as animals. They occasionally underlie characters in literature.

Physical and spiritual sins

Much of Christian theology holds that the greatest sin is pride because it sets a person up against God – and pride was seen as leading Adam and Eve to follow their own judgement, not God's commands. The sins based in the body (lechery and gluttony) were considered less serious than the mental and spiritual sins, such as pride and envy.

Partly this is because a strong current of thought (which can be traced back to the pre-Christian classical world) rated the things of the body as being deeply inferior to the things of the mind and soul. It was, however, believed that being too absorbed in the life of the body and material things was bad for the soul. This attitude was demonstrated by:

The simple food monks and nuns were supposed to keep to
The regular fasting periods that all Christians observed during the Church year.

Medieval practices to ensure salvation from sin

Medieval Christianity stressed, above all, how vital it was for people to get themselves into a situation in which they were likely to receive God's grace and thereby spend the afterlife in Heaven, rather than being punished for their sins. The Church accordingly designed a set of practices which could help people regularly to repent of sin, receive forgiveness and undertake good works to show their sincerity about wanting to amend their lives.

Repentance

True repentance was essential for any hope of salvation. More than just feeling sorry about wrongdoing, repentance means the person wants to turn away from undertaking wrong behaviour and actively decides to do so henceforward.

Confession

In the medieval Church's 'routemap' of salvation, true repentance must be followed by confession to a priest. The priest would hear the confession and talk to the penitent to ascertain that they truly repented and resolved to do better in future. The priest then pronounced absolution, declaring that Christ forgave the sins of the truly repentant.

Penance

This means an action which demonstrates that someone has repented of their sins. The priest might order a penitent, for example, to do one of the following for a period:

Go on pilgrimage
Fast (abstain from food)
Donate alms to the Church or the poor.

Penance is thus the last part in the chain of processes ensuring forgiveness.

Purgatory: 'Cleansing' of souls in the next world

Penance was particularly important because of the medieval church's teaching about Purgatory. This was a doctrine that crystallised during the later medieval centuries.

The idea of purgatory was based on the obvious fact that most people are neither extremely good nor extremely evil. Therefore, the Church declared that most people, even if not going to eternal damnation in hell, would not go straight to heaven after death either. Instead, they would spend a period in the spiritual state of purgatory where they could 'pay for' / atone for sins committed on earth. Only when their souls were thus cleansed could they proceed to the full bliss of heaven.

It was believed that, whilst still alive, people could undertake deeds that would speed either themselves (in the future) or a dead friend or relative through this process. Penance was one such action.

Indulgences

The word means essentially the same as 'pardons'. Indulgences were promises, issued by the Church, which said that, in response to a person performing certain virtuous actions following confession, he or she would be released from additional penance:

Indulgences had initially been offered to people going on crusade in the twelfth century, since they might die before being able to undertake proper penance
The systematic use of indulgences only became regularised in the fourteenth century
In the late Middle Ages, they were claimed particularly to shorten the time of punishment that a soul spent in purgatory
To qualify for an indulgence, people had to confess, receive absolution and then do prescribed good works: for example, make certain prayers, go on a pilgrimage, donate to the upkeep of bridges or to hospitals (the medieval Church played a major role in both those social provisions)
However, the idea of simply paying the church's representatives arose as a convenient option.

The abuse of this system for gain, both by individuals and ecclesiastical institutions, caused great anger and was a common theme for condemnation and satire in Chaucer's period.

1. Term for a worshipping community of Christians. 2. The building in which Christians traditionally meet for worship. 3. The worldwide community of Christian believers.

Disobedience to the known will of God. According to Christian theology human beings have displayed a pre-disposition to sin since the Fall of Humankind.

1. The action of forgiving; pardon of a fault, remission of a debt. 2. Being freed from the burden of guilt, after committing a sin or crime, through being pardoned by the one hurt or offended.

Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church.

The Bible describes God as the unique supreme being, creator and ruler of the universe.

The Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament scriptures inherited from Judaism, together with the New Testament, drawn from writings produced from c.40-125CE, which describe the life of Jesus and the establishment of the Christian church.

According to Genesis (the first book of the Old Testament), Adam is the first human being, made in the image / likeness of God, placed in the Garden of Eden and given dominion over the earth.

According to the book of Genesis in the Bible the first woman, said to have been created by God out of Adam's rib, to be his companion.

The place described in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, in which God placed his first human creatures, Adam and Eve.

State of disobedience to - and alienation from - God believed to have characterised human beings since the Fall of Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve's act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden described in the Old Testament Book of Genesis which led to estrangement from God for them and their descendants.

The immersion in or pouring over of water, in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to signify the washing away of away of sin. Baptism in Christian churches marks the acceptance of the baptised child or adult into the church.

The act of tempting or something that entices an individual to do wrong. In the Bible, can come from a person's internal desires or from an external evil force such as the Devil.

1. Wisdom. 2. A decision about guilt, and / or the passing of sentence by the person presiding over a court of justice. 3. In the Bible, God's verdict on human behaviour especially on the Day of Judgement at the end of time.

The beliefs, doctrines and practices of Christians.

1. Instrument of execution used in the Roman Empire. 2. The means by which Jesus Christ was put to death and therefore the primary symbol of the Christian faith, representing the way in which he is believed to have won forgiveness for humankind.

(c. 4 BCE- c. 30 CE). The founder of Christianity, whose life and teaching are described and interpreted in the New Testament. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew 'Joshua'. He was also given the title 'Christ', meaning 'anointed one' or 'Messiah'.

In many religions, the place where God dwells, and to which believers aspire after their death. Sometimes known as Paradise.

The central religious service of the Roman Catholic Church, incorporating praise, intercession and readings from scripture. The central action is the consecration of the bread and wine by the priest.

An act of remembrance in which Christians consume bread and wine in the way that Jesus demonstrated at the Last Supper before his betrayal and death.

Religious ceremony which symbolises receiving an inward spiritual grace.

Title (eventually used as name) given to Jesus, refering to an anointed person set apart for a special task such as a king.

1.To set right or compensate for a wrong done. 2.The bringing together (reconciling) of man and God through the offering of a sacrifice which acknowledges human wrongdoing.

Undeserved favour. The Bible uses this term to describe God's gifts to human beings.

In the Bible, salvation is seen as God's commitment to save or rescue his people from sin (and other dangers) and to establish his kingdom.

Communication, either aloud or in the heart, with God.

Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church.

The delivery of Christian teaching in the form of a sermon.

Area with its own church, served by a priest who has the spiritual care of all those living within it.

A person whose role is to carry out religious functions.

A talk which provides religious instruction and encouragement.

In the New Testament the term is used of all Christians but gradually came to describe an especially holy person.

The teaching on the beliefs of a religion, usually taught by theologians or teachers appointed by their church.

A person whose role is to carry out religious functions.

Relatively trivial sin which was not a deliberate act of will; could be confessed privately to God.

The fact that all created beings will inevitably die.

To admit wrongdoing. In Christian practice, confession often forms part of communal worship; in addition formal confession may be made privately to a priest.

The spirit which gives life to a human being; the part which lives on after death; a person's inner being (personality, intellect, emotions and will) which distinguishes them from animals.

Religious ceremony which symbolises receiving an inward spiritual grace.

An act expressing repentance.

A 'testament' is a covenant (binding agreement), a term used in the Bible of God's relationship with his people. The New Testament is the second part of the Christian Bible. Its name comes from the new covenant or relationship with God.

Going without any food (and sometimes drink) for a specified period.

Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church.

Religious festivals and events in the Christian year

The beliefs, doctrines and practices of Christians.

Undeserved favour. The Bible uses this term to describe God's gifts to human beings.

The act of turning away, or turning around from, one's sins, which includes feeling genuinely sorry for them, asking for the forgiveness of God and being willing to live in a different way in the future.

In the Bible, salvation is seen as God's commitment to save or rescue his people from sin (and other dangers) and to establish his kingdom.

An individual who confesses guilt and desires to seek forgiveness, especially the forgiveness of God.

The formal declaration of God's forgiveness, pronounced by a priest.

A journey to a sacred place made for religious reasons. 2. In Christian thought, the journey of the believer through this world towards heaven.

Going without any food (and sometimes drink) for a specified period.

Charitable giving to the poor.

1.To set right or compensate for a wrong done. 2.The bringing together (reconciling) of man and God through the offering of a sacrifice which acknowledges human wrongdoing.

'Holy wars' occurring from 1095 - 1291. Most were focused on 'liberating' the Holy Land from Muslim control but they were also undertaken against 'heretics' in Western Europe.

In traditional Roman Catholic doctrine, an 'antechamber' to heaven, a place between Heaven and Hell, where the souls of those dead who are not damned, but not yet fit for heaven, go to be purged (purified) of their sins.

Essentially the hymn book of the Jerusalem temple, expressing the whole range of human emotion, from dark depression to exuberant joy; many attributed to David.

Big ideas: Psalms