0:00:06 > 0:00:10We know our medieval forebears from what they left behind.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13The grandeur of their castles.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19The beauty of their cathedrals.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28But medieval ideas are less familiar territory.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33Who were these people who lived 1,000 years ago and built
0:00:33 > 0:00:37these extraordinary buildings and did these extraordinary things?
0:00:37 > 0:00:40How did they understand the world? What did they feel?
0:00:40 > 0:00:42And above all, what did they believe?
0:00:57 > 0:01:02Between the 10th and 15th centuries, the West was dominated by religious
0:01:02 > 0:01:06and supernatural beliefs in a way that is hard for us to imagine.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12People saw the world through the prism of those beliefs.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18It was a world touched by divine significance.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Enchanted...uncertain...
0:01:21 > 0:01:22unpredictable.
0:01:24 > 0:01:25This was a world in which
0:01:25 > 0:01:29some boundaries were less clear than they are today.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33Boundaries were blurred between the natural and the supernatural,
0:01:33 > 0:01:36between the ordinary and the miraculous,
0:01:36 > 0:01:39between the living and the dead.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48Medieval records evoke a time when the dead were always with us.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55The Abbot of the Monastery of Burton-on-Trent recorded
0:01:55 > 0:01:58an uncanny series of events which occurred around 1090.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06There were two villagers living in Stapenhill
0:02:06 > 0:02:08who ran away to the neighbouring village.
0:02:10 > 0:02:16The very next day at the third hour, they were suddenly struck down dead.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18Soon after their corpses were buried,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22word came of two alien beings roaming the woods.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37Now they appeared in the shape of men carrying wooden coffins on their shoulders.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40Now, in the likeness of bears or dogs.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42ANIMALS RUNNING AND PANTING
0:02:46 > 0:02:52The villagers were in mortal terror of the two phantom dead men who roamed the countryside at night.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58The Bishop authorised the villagers to dig up the bodies.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06The linen cloths over their faces were stained with blood.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09They cut off the men's heads and put them in the graves between their legs,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13tore out their hearts from their corpses and burned them.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23When the hearts had at last been burned up, they cracked with a great sound.
0:03:23 > 0:03:28Everyone there saw an evil spirit in the form of a crow fly from the flames.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33Soon after this was done, both the disease and the phantom ceased.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35These records show this remarkable story,
0:03:35 > 0:03:40with its walking dead and blood-stained shrouds was taken very seriously.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44This was no idle ghost story dreamed up to pass away an evening
0:03:44 > 0:03:47by the fire, but a reminder of a pressing reality.
0:03:47 > 0:03:53That the dead did not disappear into dust, but could occupy the same world as the living.
0:03:53 > 0:03:59Countless similar reports suggest the dead were an insistent presence.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Herefordshire in the 1150s.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06The corpse of a wicked man wanders the roads at night,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09calling out the names of villagers, who sicken and die.
0:04:11 > 0:04:18In Annandale, Scotland, a corpse roams the villages spreading the plague with his foul breath.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25In the 1190s in Buckinghamshire, a dead man returns to his widow's bed,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28almost crushing her with his weight.
0:04:30 > 0:04:37Such horror stories were taken as fact by chroniclers such as William of Newburgh.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43One would not easily believe that corpses come out of their graves
0:04:43 > 0:04:46and wander around to terrorise the living,
0:04:46 > 0:04:50were there not so many cases supported by ample testimony.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57At the time of these uncanny happenings,
0:04:57 > 0:05:01reburying the bodies of these restless souls was not uncommon.
0:05:01 > 0:05:07Excavations of medieval cemeteries throughout the country have revealed corpses buried in an unusual way.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11With the head removed and placed between the legs,
0:05:11 > 0:05:13just like in the story,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16to prevent the dead from ever walking again.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22The medieval dead shared the world with the living.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30And they could be encountered at any time.
0:05:30 > 0:05:37One of the most common medieval folk tales is the story of the Three Living And The Three Dead.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45Three rich young men are out walking when they meet three dead men.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52The dead men, each in varying stages of decomposition,
0:05:52 > 0:05:55have something to tell the rich young men.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01"Beware", they say.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Such as you are, so were we.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Such as I am, so will you be.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11They chide them for their love of worldly things.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14"Wealth, honour and power", they say,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17"are of no value at the hour of your death."
0:06:20 > 0:06:25Your time among the living was often described as "briefer than the blink of an eye."
0:06:25 > 0:06:28What mattered was the hour of your death,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31the crossing into the next world,
0:06:31 > 0:06:34when you too might become like one of the three dead,
0:06:34 > 0:06:36wandering the earth,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39warning the living to prepare for what lay in store.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42And this traffic between the living and the dead was two-way.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46Just as people believed that the dead might visit the living,
0:06:46 > 0:06:50so they believed that the living might visit the dead.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59In 1206, in the quiet countryside of Essex,
0:06:59 > 0:07:04a peasant called Thurkill, from the village of Stisted, was working in the fields.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13An accident left him in a deep coma.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20For two days he lay as if dead.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27When he revived, he had an extraordinary story to tell.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30To what one can only imagine was an astonished audience,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34he recounted everything that had happened while his body had been out cold.
0:07:34 > 0:07:40What he described was nothing less than a journey to the next world and back.
0:07:42 > 0:07:47He gave his listeners a detailed account of the geography of the afterlife.
0:07:48 > 0:07:54Thurkill describes how he first comes to a mysterious church, unlike any on Earth.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00To the north there is a wall about six feet high.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05In the middle of the church is a font, from which a bright flame emerges.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11Thurkill tells how all around him evil spirits come leaping to meet him,
0:08:11 > 0:08:12cackling to one another.
0:08:15 > 0:08:22This is where the souls of the dead went to be weighed, some to be damned and sucked into hell.
0:08:24 > 0:08:30They screamed, and cursed their mother and father who bore them for eternal torment.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35The saved are led straight through the jewelled gates to the church of gold.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43As for the rest of us, our fate was to serve out our time in what was called purgatory,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46the agonising waiting room for heaven.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49A place where your sins were purged, hence its name.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53And the greater your sins, the longer your wait.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00Then Thurkill passes through fire, and across a bridge of nails and spikes.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06It's here, among the huddled sinners,
0:09:06 > 0:09:08that he catches a glimpse of a shadowy figure.
0:09:10 > 0:09:16It's his father, hideously emaciated and monstrously deformed in pain.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21His father struggles to tell him how he's languishing here because of his shady business deals.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25Thurkill hears the voice of Saint Michael.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28"Ten masses will free your father,
0:09:28 > 0:09:33"and then you can accompany him to the church on the Mount of Glory."
0:09:33 > 0:09:36Thurkill never even glimpses his mother.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40Has she been damned to suffer eternity in hell?
0:09:45 > 0:09:49To the Essex villagers, Thurkill's vision would have sounded chillingly familiar.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54This was a journey which awaited them all.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02And this very exact description of the afterlife was not an isolated record.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05Such visions were frequent in medieval England.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08And many of them followed the pattern of Thurkill's,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11with torments designed for particular sins.
0:10:11 > 0:10:17Like gluttons being forced to starve, or misers having gold poured down their throats.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26The connection between this world and the next was an everyday reality.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34Such stories were widely discussed and repeated from pulpits throughout the land.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40Just such a vision of a journey through the next world
0:10:40 > 0:10:44is the subject of one of the greatest works in the whole of medieval literature -
0:10:44 > 0:10:46Dante's Divine Comedy.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Hell is a nightmare of endless torment.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00Purgatory is a mountain where the less sinful serve out
0:11:00 > 0:11:04their allotted time before they join God in the spheres of heaven.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17The dead could visit the living, the living could help the dead.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20The boundaries between these worlds were permeable.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25For life on this earth was just a fraction of our eternal existence.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28The real world was not this one, but the next.
0:11:36 > 0:11:41Constantly moving between these two worlds was a race of spirit beings.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43Good and evil.
0:11:48 > 0:11:53Leading the forces of darkness was the devil, Satan.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56A former angel cast out of heaven
0:11:56 > 0:12:00who was implacably opposed to God and his creation.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09The devil and his battalion of demons were everywhere.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13To tempt you, beguile you, destroy you.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35The devil might appear in all sorts of forms.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Perhaps in the form of a toad...
0:12:38 > 0:12:41or a black dog.
0:12:41 > 0:12:42Or a crow.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44Anything frightening.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46Anything unusual.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50Anything that nevertheless you might encounter every day.
0:12:55 > 0:13:00In the 1230s there was a man called William of Aberdeen, a sailor,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03who was walking on the Scottish moors.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05He noticed that a little dog was following him.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09Suddenly, the dog increased enormously in size,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11and turned into a dragon.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14William became possessed by a demon.
0:13:14 > 0:13:20He tore off all his clothes, apart from his breeches, and went down into the town of Dunfermline.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27At the devil's instigation, he tried to do many wicked things there.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31He forced indoors the little children and maidens, the old and the young,
0:13:31 > 0:13:36and tried to break down their doors around them with a mighty, sharp axe.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44Eventually, he was disarmed, tied up,
0:13:44 > 0:13:47taken into the local shrine, the Monastery of Saint Margaret.
0:13:47 > 0:13:52He was there for three days howling and wailing, not eating anything,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55until eventually he returned to his senses.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00The monks gave him some bread and cheese, he confessed his sins and the demon left him.
0:14:09 > 0:14:15But medieval men and women were not alone in their fight against the demon world.
0:14:20 > 0:14:26A heavenly army of angels stood ready to fight on their behalf.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29Nine orders of them.
0:14:29 > 0:14:36From Seraphim and Cherubim, down to Archangels and mere angels, each with his allotted role.
0:14:38 > 0:14:44The priest, Gerald of Wales, described their place in the scheme of things.
0:14:47 > 0:14:54They have a more subtle essence than man, a higher location, and a more intimate familiarity with God.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04Angels and demons battled constantly for possession of our souls.
0:15:07 > 0:15:13The angels display endless care for our well-being.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17The demons make fierce attacks upon us to compel us to surrender.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28Around 1110, William of Corbeil saw this battle
0:15:28 > 0:15:31at first hand in his house in Dover.
0:15:38 > 0:15:43As I lay gravely ill, a crowd of hideous demons rushed in
0:15:43 > 0:15:49and sat around my sickbed, gloating over what they would do with me.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58But then William became aware of a presence at his bedside,
0:15:58 > 0:16:01the Virgin Mary.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07He was still terrified, but the Virgin insisted the demons couldn't take him.
0:16:11 > 0:16:16She told them the angels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael would fight them.
0:16:16 > 0:16:22The demons slunk off, grumbling that they wouldn't take them on.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24William was saved.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28But at any moment anyone's life could be transformed,
0:16:28 > 0:16:31for better or worse, by these spiritual beings.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Would such ideas have generated anxiety or reassurance?
0:16:37 > 0:16:40Probably both at different times.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44But whatever the answer, there was nothing bizarre about divine intervention.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46It was just part of how things were.
0:16:59 > 0:17:04The most spectacular of all divine interventions would be the Day of Judgment,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06the Apocalypse itself.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10When all this world would be destroyed and the dead would rise again.
0:17:13 > 0:17:15When would this happen, exactly?
0:17:15 > 0:17:20Medieval scholars calculated that man was living in the sixth and final age.
0:17:20 > 0:17:25So, for people at the time, the Middle Ages were not the Middle Ages,
0:17:25 > 0:17:26it was the end of time.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37The end of the world approaching. Visits from the walking dead.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41First-hand accounts of journeys to the afterlife.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45Invisible battles between angels and demons.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48The supernatural had nothing abstract about it.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51It was real and it was all around.
0:17:57 > 0:18:05The only mediator between this world and the next was one of the most powerful forces in history.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09The medieval church.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26The soaring cathedrals of the Middle Ages protected the souls
0:18:26 > 0:18:31of men and women against evil interventions from the world beyond.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37God's power was made manifest in stone.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47The Church owned one fifth of the wealth of the country.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55It took one tenth of the income of all Christians.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02In return, it cast a protective shield around the faithful.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09To say this was a religious age doesn't even get close.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13In modern Western societies, religion is a matter of choice.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18Governments are not supposed to intervene on behalf of one religion against another.
0:19:18 > 0:19:24In the United States, the separation of Church and State is even written into the Constitution.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28Such ideas would have been incomprehensible in the Middle Ages.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Then, the Church was not an association
0:19:31 > 0:19:34of like-minded individuals getting together by choice.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37It was the very framework of society itself.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54The front line of defence against the forces of evil were the great medieval monasteries.
0:19:59 > 0:20:05By the 13th century, there were at least 1,000 religious houses in England alone.
0:20:11 > 0:20:17Many were built in remote sites, echoing Christ's struggle with Satan in the wilderness.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31Pluscarden Abbey, near Inverness, is the only medieval monastery
0:20:31 > 0:20:34in Britain still used for its original purpose.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36CHURCH BELLS RING
0:20:37 > 0:20:39CHURCH BELLS RING
0:20:43 > 0:20:47At the beginning of the 12th century, the monk, Orderic Vitalis,
0:20:47 > 0:20:51described the role of the monasteries in the army of God.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58Here Christ's garrisons reject the world and its parasites,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01scorning all its pleasures as filth,
0:21:01 > 0:21:05to struggle manfully against the devil.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11Monks here follow the rule of Saint Benedict, formulated in the sixth century.
0:21:16 > 0:21:22The essence of the Benedictine rule is the search for God,
0:21:22 > 0:21:25in an ordered and community life
0:21:25 > 0:21:31with special emphasis on prayer, reading and work.
0:21:31 > 0:21:37Living by a rule, living under the authority of an Abbot.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42Living a dedicated, celibate, Christian life.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48The monks' day starts at four in the morning
0:21:48 > 0:21:51and follows a pattern scarcely changed since the Middle Ages.
0:21:55 > 0:22:01For their medieval predecessors, such a routine formed part of an unremitting war.
0:22:03 > 0:22:08A monastery is a castle built against Satan,
0:22:08 > 0:22:13where the cowled champions engage in ceaseless combat against the devil.
0:22:19 > 0:22:25The monk is engaged in a struggle with all that is
0:22:25 > 0:22:30self-centred in himself, or with the...
0:22:30 > 0:22:34the forces of evil, if you like, within himself.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39So, in that sense, yes, and that is the idea of a spiritual combat.
0:22:39 > 0:22:44It is a very ancient one, going back to the desert fathers.
0:22:54 > 0:23:01Beyond the walls of these castles built against Satan were the local garrisons, the parish churches.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11The medieval churches stood guard over the soul
0:23:11 > 0:23:15of every man, woman and child.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20As God's intermediaries, priests administered the sacraments,
0:23:20 > 0:23:25marking the key stages on the dangerous journey from birth to death.
0:23:31 > 0:23:32First, baptism,
0:23:32 > 0:23:36a form of exorcism, casting out the devil.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42Then, confession.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47Communion.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49Marriage.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53And finally, they presided over burial,
0:23:53 > 0:23:55the most dramatic rite of passage of all.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59The medieval dead remained in our midst.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04They were our link with the next world.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09The mingling of the living and the dead is unusual.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13In ancient Greece and Rome, it was forbidden to bury corpses in the town.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15Medieval Christianity brought them in.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Every parish church was built with a cemetery.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23Go into a synagogue or a mosque or a Buddhist or Hindu temple,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26you don't see memorials and tombstones.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Every parish church is full of them.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31We take it for granted. But it's actually part of
0:24:31 > 0:24:34what we might call the cult of the dead.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46The tombs of the dead reminded everyone, rich and poor,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49that this world was not their real home.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01In medieval chantry chapels, the wealthy invested in magnificent tombs
0:25:01 > 0:25:04to help shorten their time in purgatory.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10This is the tomb of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick,
0:25:10 > 0:25:12one of the richest and most powerful men in England.
0:25:12 > 0:25:18When he died in 1439, he left money for 5,000 masses to be said for his soul.
0:25:18 > 0:25:24But his real safety net against the pains of purgatory was this chapel.
0:25:24 > 0:25:30Built in the 20 years after his death, costing thousands of pounds, the equivalent of millions nowadays,
0:25:30 > 0:25:36where he hoped, in his own words, that prayers would be said for him "until the end of time."
0:25:40 > 0:25:44The effigy of Richard Beauchamp is frozen for eternity.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49His hands open in prayer and veneration to the Virgin Mary
0:25:49 > 0:25:52who gazes down on him from the vaulted ceiling above.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01Around the sides of the tomb, statues, known as weepers,
0:26:01 > 0:26:07family members mourning his death and praying for his ascent into the arms of God.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24In this world, monks and priests pray for the dead,
0:26:24 > 0:26:29helping to shorten their time of torment in the labyrinth of purgatory.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34In the same way, the holy dead, the saints in heaven, were busy,
0:26:34 > 0:26:36offering their help to the living.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45People venerated the saints,
0:26:45 > 0:26:47men and women who had lived
0:26:47 > 0:26:50especially holy lives or performed miracles.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59They could directly intervene in the affairs of the living.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04So, the cult of the saints was at the heart of medieval life.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16Every parishioner could see the saints for themselves on the screen in the local church.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21It's where they came face to face with these heavenly beings.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Some saints even had a speciality,
0:27:40 > 0:27:44perhaps associated with an incident in their own lives.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48You prayed to Saint Margaret of Antioch during childbirth,
0:27:48 > 0:27:54possibly because she had emerged unharmed from the belly of the dragon that had swallowed her.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58St Apollonia was the patron saint of toothache.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00She was a martyr saint who had been tortured
0:28:00 > 0:28:03by having all her teeth pulled out.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05And as for St Wilgefortis,
0:28:05 > 0:28:10her speciality was helping wives get rid of unwanted husbands.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13She was also called Saint Uncumber.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21The intervention of a saint could mean the difference between life and death,
0:28:21 > 0:28:24even causing God to revise his judgment.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30In medieval trial by ordeal,
0:28:30 > 0:28:38God revealed the guilt or innocence of a suspect through their reaction to an excruciating test.
0:28:39 > 0:28:45In the test by water, if the accused floated, they were guilty.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50If they sank, they were innocent and quickly hauled out.
0:28:52 > 0:28:53In the test by fire,
0:28:53 > 0:28:57they were guilty if their skin swelled up into blisters,
0:28:57 > 0:28:59innocent if it healed.
0:29:01 > 0:29:07Around the year 1200, a woman in York was accused of murder.
0:29:10 > 0:29:12After the woman had carried the hot iron,
0:29:12 > 0:29:16a swelling was discovered on the woman's hand as large as a walnut,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19wherefore she was condemned to death.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21God had revealed her guilt.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26But the accused begged permission to pray at the tomb of Saint William.
0:29:28 > 0:29:33As soon as the woman entered the chapel, the swelling disappeared without trace.
0:29:34 > 0:29:39The justices pronounced her innocent, saying that as God and Saint William
0:29:39 > 0:29:43had absolved her, they did not wish to condemn her.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Saints were your companions, guiding and protecting you.
0:29:48 > 0:29:53Their awesome power was especially present in their physical remains.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57Small portions of their bone or hair or clothing
0:29:57 > 0:30:02were furiously collected and guarded in the years and the centuries after their deaths
0:30:02 > 0:30:07by people who believed that these tangible objects retained supernatural power.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13These remains were called relics.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16The word means literally what is left behind.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21Objects of supernatural power,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24they were to be approached with awe, even terror.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31The monk, Jocelin de Brakelond, in 1198,
0:30:31 > 0:30:36describes how he helped to move the body of the martyr Saint Edmund
0:30:36 > 0:30:39to the high altar of the abbey church.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45Approaching reverently, we made haste to open the coffin.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48The Abbot said he longed to gaze upon his patron.
0:30:48 > 0:30:54But the Abbot approached the 300-year-old bones of the saint with trepidation.
0:30:54 > 0:31:00A previous abbot had been left paralysed when he touched the saint's remains.
0:31:05 > 0:31:12Whilst the rest of the abbey slept, he carefully peeled away the layers of silk cloth covering the body.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26Taking the head in his hands, he uttered a prayer.
0:31:26 > 0:31:32"Oh, glorious martyr, do not cast me, a miserable sinner,
0:31:32 > 0:31:37"into perdition for daring to touch you.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40"You understand my devotion and purpose."
0:31:40 > 0:31:44This time the Abbot was spared the anger of the saint.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46The corpse remained quite still.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54This was the closest you could get to actually touching the holy.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57It was not something to be undertaken lightly.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11Getting close to dead saints was a medieval passion.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14Pilgrims travelled huge distances in the hope of doing so.
0:32:14 > 0:32:20To Rome, to Santiago in Spain... and, of course, to Canterbury.
0:32:23 > 0:32:30As Chaucer wrote of his pilgrims, "When spring comes, then people long to go on pilgrimage."
0:32:30 > 0:32:35They long to go. The roads of medieval Britain were busy with pilgrims.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39Men and women prepared to travel hundreds of miles, usually on foot,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43to get close to a relic or to pray at a shrine.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54Along the Pilgrims' Way to Canterbury was Aylesford Priory,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57a favourite resting place for medieval travellers.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03The priory dates back to the 13th century as a house
0:33:03 > 0:33:06of the Carmelite Order of Friars.
0:33:08 > 0:33:15Today, Aylesford houses one of the few surviving medieval relics in Britain...
0:33:16 > 0:33:18the skull of Saint Simon Stock.
0:33:26 > 0:33:32A venerated Carmelite friar, he had been blessed with a vision of the Virgin Mary.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Medieval Europe was full of them, thousands of relics.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45The bones, the physical remains of the saints, the holy dead.
0:33:45 > 0:33:51The saints might have been in heaven, but they were also here in their bones, in their relics.
0:33:51 > 0:33:56You came to them, you prayed, you tried to get as close to them as you could.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59You might even be hoping for a miraculous cure.
0:34:08 > 0:34:13The road to Canterbury led thousands to the most venerated pilgrim site in Britain.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30It was here in the cathedral that Saint Thomas Becket
0:34:30 > 0:34:33had been murdered by the soldiers of the king.
0:34:38 > 0:34:44As they arrived, pilgrims were offered bottles of the martyr's blood as souvenirs.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48And there was much more here to impress.
0:34:49 > 0:34:54A list of the relics in Canterbury Cathedral in the year 1316
0:34:54 > 0:35:00includes 12 whole bodies of saints, three heads, 12 arms,
0:35:00 > 0:35:04pieces of Jesus's cross, foreskin, cradle and tomb,
0:35:04 > 0:35:09as well as innumerable pieces of bone, hair and blood.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18As a pilgrim, you'd make your way around the cathedral,
0:35:18 > 0:35:20up the steps to the most sacred area of the church.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38This was your ultimate goal.
0:35:38 > 0:35:40The shrine of Saint Thomas of Canterbury.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44It would have stood here, encrusted with gold and jewels,
0:35:44 > 0:35:48containing the remains of England's most famous saint.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51A place of miracle. A centre of supernatural power.
0:35:53 > 0:35:59The shrine of Saint Thomas was designed to strike awe into the heart of the medieval pilgrim.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09As with many such shrines, it had openings in the side
0:36:09 > 0:36:13to allow the faithful to reach in and get even closer to the relic.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25Like a giant picture book, the stained glass windows
0:36:25 > 0:36:29around the shrine tell the story of the miracles of Saint Thomas.
0:36:33 > 0:36:38A terrifying reminder that saints could be vengeful as well as benign
0:36:38 > 0:36:43is shown in the story of the knight, Jordan Fitz-Eisulf.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49His household was struck by a dreadful disease.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51Amongst those who died was his younger son.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58Just at this time, he was visited by pilgrims coming from Canterbury,
0:36:58 > 0:37:02carrying with them some of the holy water from Saint Thomas's shrine.
0:37:04 > 0:37:05He thought he'd give it a try.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08He poured some of the holy water
0:37:08 > 0:37:11into the boy's mouth, the boy was miraculously revived.
0:37:13 > 0:37:20Naturally he made a promise to go on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to Saint Thomas's shrine at Canterbury.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24But with one thing and another, he postponed that pilgrimage,
0:37:24 > 0:37:27even though Thomas appeared in a vision reminding him.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30Eventually Saint Thomas's patience ran out.
0:37:30 > 0:37:35He returned and killed the knight's older son.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42This time, of course, Jordan and his family made the pilgrimage.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52Thousands came here, hoping for a miracle.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56And there was no shortage of supply.
0:37:59 > 0:38:05What today we take as coincidence, might in the Middle Ages be seen as something miraculous.
0:38:05 > 0:38:11You had a bad leg or a toothache, you went on pilgrimage to pray for a cure, it got better.
0:38:11 > 0:38:16And that would be seen as evidence of divine intervention.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22Medieval pilgrimage became a huge industry.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25Money poured in from the sale of badges and souvenirs
0:38:25 > 0:38:29and from offerings left at the site of a shrine.
0:38:34 > 0:38:36With money came corruption.
0:38:36 > 0:38:38Even forgery.
0:38:41 > 0:38:46Around 1270, the much-revered friar, Walter of Saint Edmunds, had recently been buried.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55One day, a man came to one of the friars and he said he could make them rich if they wished.
0:38:55 > 0:39:00When asked how, the man explained that Friar Walter had a reputation for sanctity
0:39:00 > 0:39:05and if a few miracles happened at his tomb, that could bring in a nice income for the friars.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09When the friar asked how miracles could take place,
0:39:09 > 0:39:13unless at God's command, the man had a ready answer.
0:39:15 > 0:39:20He had 24 men at his command who produced miracles whenever he wished.
0:39:20 > 0:39:25He had sent them to many places in England to produce miracles for a profit.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42Despite such instances of corruption and fraud,
0:39:42 > 0:39:47the Church's grip on the medieval mind remained strong.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53The word of the Church was the word of God.
0:39:58 > 0:40:00It could absolve you of your sins.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04It could shield you against Satan. It could even send you to war.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20If you didn't accept the beliefs and rituals of the Christian Church
0:40:20 > 0:40:23you were simply an outsider, and possibly an enemy.
0:40:23 > 0:40:29In the Middle Ages, the Christian Church became increasingly beligerent towards outsiders,
0:40:29 > 0:40:32people of different faiths, abroad and at home,
0:40:32 > 0:40:35and anyone who disagreed with the Church,
0:40:35 > 0:40:37the heretics, the enemy within.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46Christianity had not begun as a bellicose religion.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48"Turn the other cheek," Christ had said.
0:40:48 > 0:40:5211th-century Christians took a different view.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04The focus of their wrath was the rise of Islam.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12In just a few centuries,
0:41:12 > 0:41:17its teachings had spread as far afield as China and Spain.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24Its armies had even captured the holy city of Jerusalem.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28It was a thorn in the side of medieval Christianity.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35On the 27th of November 1095, Pope Urban II preached
0:41:35 > 0:41:37a sermon that was to change history.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41He urged the knights who were listening to him to march east,
0:41:41 > 0:41:44to Jerusalem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
0:41:44 > 0:41:49supposedly the site of Jesus's resurrection, and free it from Muslim rule.
0:41:49 > 0:41:51The response was astonishing.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57Thousands answered the call to action.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00They marched to the Holy Land.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08In less than four years, they recaptured Jerusalem.
0:42:11 > 0:42:18This extraordinary campaign is now known as the First Crusade.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21It was followed by many others.
0:42:22 > 0:42:29Fighting, even dying in the Crusades, was one of the highest ideals of the Middle Ages.
0:42:30 > 0:42:35The Temple Church in London symbolises the aspirations of the Crusaders.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39It's modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44It was the home of the Knights Templar,
0:42:44 > 0:42:51an elite group of warrior monks who formed one of the most feared fighting units of the Crusades.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57The Crusades were different from other wars because they were holy wars.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59Christian holy wars.
0:42:59 > 0:43:05They were authorised by the Pope, and they brought spiritual benefits to those who fought in them.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09If you died on crusade, all your sins were washed away.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15The battle on earth between good and evil,
0:43:15 > 0:43:18had been taken to a new level.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27Saint Bernard of Clairvaux urged on his fellow Christians.
0:43:31 > 0:43:33A new kind of knighthood has arisen.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37The knight of Christ, I say, kills with an untroubled mind.
0:43:37 > 0:43:43A Christian may glory in the death of a pagan, since Christ is glorified.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52The Crusades undoubtedly deepened hostility
0:43:52 > 0:43:54between Christians and Muslims,
0:43:54 > 0:43:57bringing the two worlds into collision
0:43:57 > 0:44:00in a way that has consequences even today.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05The very word "crusade" has opposite meanings in the West and in the Muslim world.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09In the West, it means a struggle for some good cause.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13In the Muslim world, it summons up pictures
0:44:13 > 0:44:15of brutal, aggressive Westerners.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20Those Muslims hostile to the American presence in the Middle East
0:44:20 > 0:44:24revile American soldiers there as "the Crusaders".
0:44:39 > 0:44:41The Christian world was now on the offensive.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46If Muslims were seen as the enemy at the gates,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50there was another enemy even closer at hand.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52The Jews.
0:45:00 > 0:45:05In most parts of medieval Europe, Judaism was the only non-Christian religion officially tolerated.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09Its position was precarious and sometimes perilous.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14Jews were reviled but they were also much relied on as moneylenders.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16And they were technically owned by the king,
0:45:16 > 0:45:21an uneasy arrangement that allowed for exploitation as much as protection.
0:45:24 > 0:45:29In medieval Britain, Jews were treated with growing intolerance.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32Rumours spread of strange practices in synagogues.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39In 1144, Jews in Norwich were accused of ritual murder,
0:45:39 > 0:45:44taking and killing a Christian boy in mockery of the crucifixion.
0:45:46 > 0:45:52But it was in York that hostility to Jews spilled into violence.
0:45:56 > 0:46:02In March 1190, the people of York turned against their local Jews.
0:46:02 > 0:46:04"Neither the law nor reason nor humanity stopped them,"
0:46:04 > 0:46:06in the words of a contemporary chronicler.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13The attack was led by local nobles who owed money to the Jews,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16and one thing they made sure to do during the disturbances
0:46:16 > 0:46:19was seize and burn the documents recording their debts.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28In desperation, the Jews sought refuge here in the royal castle,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31the site now known as Clifford's Tower.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36Outside, the Christian mob gathered -
0:46:36 > 0:46:40the indebted nobles, the local apprentices,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43a hermit who said, "You are doing God's work".
0:46:49 > 0:46:51The Jews resisted as best they could,
0:46:51 > 0:46:55throwing down rocks on the besiegers, one of which killed the hermit.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58But their situation was fairly desperate.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01The Christians brought up siege machines, huge engines
0:47:01 > 0:47:04that could throw rocks and batter down the walls.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07The Jews knew that further resistance was impossible.
0:47:07 > 0:47:14They turned to their oldest and wisest member, the Rabbi, who gave them simple but terrifying advice.
0:47:14 > 0:47:16Mass suicide.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21Each of the Jewish men was to take his knife
0:47:21 > 0:47:26to kill his own wife, to kill his own children and to kill himself.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30They set fire to the castle, which at that time was made of wood,
0:47:30 > 0:47:33and amongst the flames they began this grisly work.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38Those of the Jews who didn't take the option of suicide
0:47:38 > 0:47:41begged the Christians outside to let them go free.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45The Christians agreed and the Jews came out. They were all massacred.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49There was not a Jew left alive in York that day.
0:47:59 > 0:48:05Hostility towards Jews was fuelled by an increasingly intolerant Church and State.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08They were forced to wear distinguishing badges.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12And in 1290, Edward I of England announced
0:48:12 > 0:48:17that all Jews should either convert or leave the kingdom for good.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21They wouldn't return until the time of Oliver Cromwell.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34With the Jews banished,
0:48:34 > 0:48:36the onslaught against unbelievers continued,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39as the Church trained its sights on a new target -
0:48:39 > 0:48:43religious reformers in its own ranks.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52These reformers were dangerous, "the enemy within", and needed to be dealt with.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56Their opponents called them Lollards, which means mumblers.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01Much of what they mumbled about attacked the very essence of the medieval Church.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04From belief in pilgrimage, to the intervention of the saints.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17The Lollards were inspired by the Oxford theologian, John Wycliffe.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20He was for ten years rector of this church,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23Saint Mary's Lutterworth in Leicestershire.
0:49:23 > 0:49:28He attacked the wealth of the Church and its involvement in politics,
0:49:28 > 0:49:33and he wanted the Bible translated from Latin into English,
0:49:33 > 0:49:39so that ordinary people could hear and understand the words of scripture in their own language.
0:49:41 > 0:49:46Such a step threatened God's intermediaries,
0:49:46 > 0:49:50the priests who interpreted the Latin bible for the faithful.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55Worse, Wycliffe struck at a core belief
0:49:55 > 0:49:58that during Holy Communion,
0:49:58 > 0:50:04bread and wine were turned into the body and blood of Christ.
0:50:07 > 0:50:12His scorn for this doctrine undermined the mystery, the magic, of Christian ritual.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20As support for Wycliffe grew, at Lambeth Palace,
0:50:20 > 0:50:22seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25Church authorities decided to act.
0:50:30 > 0:50:36In 1378, Wycliffe was brought to the Chapel of Lambeth Palace to be tried for his beliefs.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40It was a raucous occasion. A crowd of Londoners burst in to express their support.
0:50:40 > 0:50:45Wycliffe defended his views, coolly and with conviction.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49But in the end, the bishops condemned him to perpetual silence.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56Wycliffe returned to Lutterworth,
0:50:56 > 0:50:59forbidden ever to speak out against the Church.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06He died there in 1384.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11The Pope did not forget John Wycliffe.
0:51:11 > 0:51:17Many years later, he ordered his bones to be burned and the ashes thrown into the local river.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24Meanwhile, Wycliffe's followers could not be silenced.
0:51:24 > 0:51:30In 1395, they nailed a stinging attack on the Church to the door of Westminster Hall.
0:51:35 > 0:51:41We, poor men, demand the reformation of the Holy Church of England,
0:51:41 > 0:51:44which has been blind and leprous many years,
0:51:44 > 0:51:48and a great burden to people here in England.
0:51:51 > 0:51:56Reformation was not a word the medieval Church wanted to hear.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01Many of Wycliffe's followers were rounded up and interrogated.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05Some, it is said, were locked up in Lambeth Palace itself.
0:52:15 > 0:52:21The traditional name of this place is Lollard's Tower.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33It's a rather grim and frightening place.
0:52:35 > 0:52:39You can still see the rings on the walls
0:52:39 > 0:52:42where the prisoners were manacled.
0:52:45 > 0:52:47It's a rather frightening reminder
0:52:47 > 0:52:51of the dangers of being a heretic in medieval England.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05In 1401, a Lollard preacher was burned at the stake.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13He was the first of many to be burned for their beliefs in medieval England.
0:53:30 > 0:53:35Across Europe, the Church aimed to root out all opposition.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43Men and women were dragged before religious courts.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48All heresy was to be crushed.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55Thousands were killed in the name of God.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04For growing numbers of people,
0:54:04 > 0:54:08the Church's brutal intransigence became intolerable.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20100 years after the Lollards attacked the idea of prayer for the dead,
0:54:20 > 0:54:26pilgrimage, the wealth and power of the bishops, and what they called the "feigned miracle of the mass",
0:54:26 > 0:54:30another assault was launched aimed at the heart of the medieval Church.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34And this time what followed was a full scale war of ideas,
0:54:34 > 0:54:37that marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41The medieval Church was about to face its own day of judgment.
0:54:48 > 0:54:53The religious landscape of Britain would never be the same again.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59The fear of Armageddon.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09The fascination with the supernatural.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16The cult of the saints.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27The great journeys of pilgrimage...
0:55:27 > 0:55:31destined to become relics of the medieval age.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:55:53 > 0:55:56E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk