Why did Medieval people become monks or nuns?

Answer 1

Maybe another way of thinking this is to ask why modern people don't go to church. Everyone else did.

Today we are born in hospitals, and we die in hospitals. Funerals are built around dead bodies that have been carefully altered to look lifelike. Infant mortality is very low, and people live a long time. A person can live to be ninety and never see anyone die.

In the middle ages, people were born at home, and they died at home. The Infant Mortality Rate was about 35%, and most people had siblings who had not survived. Everyone saw people die. People knew death, they understood death, and death was part of everyday life, an everpresent fact.

When people understand death, most either become religious or cynical. In those days, at least, it was considered better to be religious.

And of course, the Church wanted you to go. The Church offered inducements to go, and there was no advantage for most people not to go.

I would go on to say that many people regarded church as a way to have some relief from life, and maybe even have some fun. The Canterbury Tales depicts a lively, fun loving group of people who are having a vacation based on a religious excuse as much as being pilgrims for entirely devout reasons.

Answer 2

Though i cant prove this without doubt this is what is most logical to me.

Religion tends to be most common in areas and times where things where not know.

For example in times of ancient Greece, when scientific evidence of the way the earth worked wasn't known, they had a god to explain why tides, waves and rain happened, a god to explain why war happened, a god to explain the sun, a god to explain love etc (a polytheist religion, one of multiple gods). As knowledge importoved we moved to mono theiestic religions, having 1 know god, yah weh, alah etc. (btw religious will always exist because there a questions we cannot answer, love, why are we here)

SO if we look at the middle ages, we know theyre knowledge of the world was limited compared to now and so this relates to the presence of god. However most importantly the general population, outside of preists, scholars etc were very much uneducated. It could be easy to compare the number of un-answered questions a farmer or slave might have to a child.

With this then a child believes in santa-clause (until he discovers his/her parent putting presents down, eating cookies and writing "from santa") and those that cant answer questions like, how did humans come to be, what is good, what is evil, and why am i here would believe in god, or religion.

So to put it easily, religion will be more present the more un-knowledgable or ignorant the society. So the middle ages are more religious because religion answered there questions, there were no alternatives and therefore it is easy to believe.

I think this statement speaks a lot more to today's societies than to the middles ages.

There was a lot going on in the middle ages that people were fearful of and didn't know what to do about. People were dying from the black plague in unprecedented numbers, while the cause was unknown. It was logical for people to turn to something or someone that would give them assurance that they weren't alone. The lack of knowledge and the fear of the unknown caused people to resort to make up their own reasons for the things they experienced in everyday life. So they adopted beliefs that would explain why a fourth of Europe was dying and what they could do to stop this.

Answer 3

I believe that Medieval people were very religious because they were told by the monks and priests that the devil would get you if you didn't believe and you would be punished from god

Answer 4

It was important for kings to be religious because they believed that by having the power of god on their side, that they would be more powerful.

Answer 5

because they were weird.....

sacastic. the became popes to get aaway from there sins or to take a chance at the quite life.

XD