A MEDIAEVAL CITY

ADMINISTERING HOLY COMMUNION WITH THE HOUSEL CLOTH.

From a, Fourteenth-Century Manuscript.

D. RELIGIOUS l/ma

Insistence can hardly be too great on the
tremendous and wide-spread influence of the Church
in the Middle Ages. The greatness of the Church
continued during the fifteenth century ; it derived
from the traditions of an age when absolute power
prevailed, from the undisputed usage of centuries,
from a logical system of dogmas, and from inter-
national sanctions. The ornate services, allegiance
to the distant Pope, the immense hold of the priests
on the laity, the large territorial possessions of
ecclesiastical bodies, impressed the people with the
power of the Church. These things came to the
fifteenth century as established facts. The spirit
of revolt indeed had appeared with Wiclif and his
followers in the fourteenth century, but Lollardy
met with severe repressive opposition. It was
not till Tudor times that the new spirit, stimu-
lated by the Revival of learning, the Reformation,
the invention of printing from type, geographical
discovery, the suppression of long years of inter-
necine warfare, and the Establishment of a strong