Medieval vrs Modern Morality

The Middle Ages weren't all about wars and sieges. A number of famous writers came from England and other kingdoms throughout Europe. Still, the Middle Ages was much more than just the literary historical background for works like The Canterbury Tales and Piers Plowman. Contrary to many myths, Medieval people weren't ignorant as I discussed in blog posts here.
https://themedievalist.blogspot.com/2019/02/were-medieval-people-ignorant.html
https://themedievalist.blogspot.com/2019/08/some-great-books-that-defend-medieval.html
https://themedievalist.blogspot.com/2019/05/medieval-people-knew-bible.html

Liberal lies aside, let us unfold the curtain and find what Medieval people were like in their every day life.

Medieval People practiced courtship instead of dating. Marriages were often {though not always,} arranged by parents. We live in an environment today where many guys and girls go to the beach or hotel together with no parent around that it may all seem strange to many modernist.  Girls were often married at fourteen to young men usually around seven years their senior. Marriage at the dawn of youth may also seem practice to us from this era as few in the Middle Ages lived past fifty years of age. I remember seeing a clip from an old film in the past about a guy and girl that get into a car together and drive out as the young man suddenly turns into a wolf! I will say no more here of reasons why I support traditional courtship where young men approach the fathers of daughters before making serious relationships with the young women.
Whatever views we have about marriage, divorce and courtship we will soon find that people in the Middle Ages practiced very different customs and understandings of these subjects then most modernist do.

First of all, marriage was seen as a lifelong commitment between husband and wife by the Catholic Church. Although many of the early Protestants believed divorce and remarriage were allowed for exclusive cases like abandonment and remarriage only to those whose spouse had left them or committed sexual immorality, I have yet to see any Protestants that believed remarriage was just forgiven by Jesus as is the attitude of many Christians today. Protestants historically pointed towards Matthew 19: 9 and 1 Corinthians 7: 10-16 as legal grounds for divorce. On the other hand, some Roman Catholics claim the sexual immorality Christ spoke of was about those whose marriages were invalid due to incest etc, and therefore all divorces are morally wrong.  In reality, I don't think we will have to strive hard to find that both Roman Catholics and Protestants from the Medieval/Renaissance/Reformation Eras took the issue of marriage and divorce much more serious than we do today. Many of the same modern Christians that proclaim those that live in remarried estates to be forgiven are ever hypocritical as they are so quick to judge the homosexusal to be damned for him or her living in that abominable sin. Hypocrisy will only hurt the church, and Christians will always have to struggle with either being legalistic or worldly. In summary, whether we take the traditional Roman Catholic view that divorce is always forbidden, or if we take the view that divorce is sometimes allowed only for the partner done wrong by the cases mentioned, we still have to conclude that the majority of divorced and remarried cases in our present day churches wouldn't fit either's legal rights to divorce.

At any rate, Medieval Christians were much more conservative than many Christians today. Almost anything today that makes one be labeled a ''fundamentalist'' by mainstream audiences is exactly what was once the dominant view! Even ''Islamic radicalist,'' are really the true Muslims that interpret the Koran in many ways as Muslims once did.

Today, Christians that take the interpretation of the Bible as how it was always understood are also labelled ''fundamentalist.'' It is not popular nowadays to believe Jesus is the only way to Heaven and that all heathens that don't repent to Christ of their sins will burn in hell forever. Those that hold the liberal views generally find a way to bully the conservatives by portraying them as intolerant, Medieval and outdated.  Mainstream Catholicism and Protestantism have both put down the little guys in the traditional Roman Catholic or Evangelical Protestant circles.

I just wanted to share a few of those thoughts. In our modern age of leftist thinking, we don't need another cowardly Christian that goes with the flow but according to what we are commanded by the Holy Scriptures. Where are the men and women of God that are willing to be different? If Peter or Paul or John the Baptist excited today they would not be loved by the Greco-Romans of our churches despite the lip service to them made so many modern bishops and pastors make. While Christians die every day at the hands of Muslim countries every day too many American Christians are worried about the entertainment from the pulpit or being socially sensitive to what others want!

I will be covering Medieval Home Life in upcoming posts. This post was just to get some thoughts out!