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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tonguez" data-source="post: 7897738" data-attributes="member: 1125">Although the Church was influential in Medieval Europe and is often thought of as monoilithic it wasnt always so, and there was in fact much more diversity than the orthodoxy would concede. In the Early Medieval (before 1300) society was largely ‘Feudal’ with the political system determined by Ownership and Defence of Land. Lords owned land and everyone else owed loyalty to the local Lord. Because Clerics were often the only literate people around, Lords relied on them and granted land to establish Monastaries and Parishes who then were able to extract rents - the Catholic doctrine of Celibacy was designed to preserve Church ownership of these lands against inheritance claims - thus the Church grew wealthy. The Church however was not absolute at this time, there was tension between Lords and Bishops and a number of pagan traditions remained in place and slowly evolved into various superstitions, fortune-telling, dowsing and charms and although some of that got bound up as “Witchcraft” we still maintain some of the practices such as All Saints Eve remaining the Samhain Harvest festival.In the later Medieval you also get the widespread Anti-Clerical sentiment that arose due to the secular activities of the wealthy Bishops which lead to the reformations, Protestantism and the creation of the Anglican Church as a direct protest against the Roman Pope.So its inaccurate to think of a singular Catholic othodoxy in the Medieval period, there was much more dynamism and a number of lively debates on doctrine and dogma were going on. Many of these were eventually condemned as Heresies and were wiped out, but while they were active they could be construed as being ‘different sects’ worshipping different things.Rather than viewing your fantasy society as being part of the Orthodoxy consider what it was like to be a Hussite in medieval Bohemia where they were offered protection by a number of Knights and Nobles and initially became quite influential in a number of cities includiong Prague and Tabor. King Vaclav was tolerant of Hussite reforms but his brother was opposed and when this brother became king he allowed a crusade that became the Hussite Wars.You also have Jewish and Muslim merchants and scholars interacting amicably across Europe. This is notably illustrated by Offa’s Coin - a gold dinar that bears the inscription Offa Rex on one side and “there is no God but Allah alone” on the other. (King Offa, King of Mercia (Britain), 757 - 796 ad.[ATTACH=full]117615[/ATTACH]It doesnt go as far as multiple gods with different agendas, but neither should the Medieval period be misconstrued as being about a Monolithic Church orthodoxy</blockquote>

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