Concern over Superstition in Late Medieval Europe

Bailey explores the developments in late medieval religious and intellectual culture that caused authorities to focus their concern on lay appropriations of ecclesiastical prayers, rites, and blessings, and on the common use of spells and charms. He argues that deeply rooted concerns about the nature of spiritual being and power combined with certain intellectual developments and the growth of specific intellectual structures in the early fifteenth century caused religious authorities to examine common beliefs and practices more closely than had previously been the case. These concerns then impelled them to see dangerous superstition in the many spells, blessings, and other rites that had long been diffused throughout medieval society.