Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - The Testimony of Augustine
Part 3 - Family Discipleship in Medieval Theology
Part 4 - The Challenge of Christian Training in the Middle Ages
In the seventh century, Caesarius had advocated the use of the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer for the discipleship of the laity. Caesarius had said, “You yourselves learn especially the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, and teach them to your children. Indeed, I do not know whether a person should even be called a Christian if he neglects to learn a few words of the creed” (1). He moved beyond words to action as he preached simple sermons expounding upon the words of both statements. Further, he urged parents to teach these statements to their children and baptismal sponsors to teach them to their godchildren when they reached a suitable age.
Building upon Caesarius’s methodology, reformers during the reign of Emperor Charlemagne required the sponsors of infants at baptism to commit to teach their godchildren the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. They made this requirement more practical by promoting translations of both statements into the language of the common people.This practice eventually became the standard approach in regions that had once comprised the Western Roman Empire.Documents from medieval England reveal that this practice definitely took hold there as well. Manuals intended for the training of priests in England contain admonitions that godparents should be charged with the spiritual upbringing of children, teaching them the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Hail Mary. The responsibility for the selection of godparents in these manuals apparently rested partly upon parents, who were urged not to accept as sponsor anyone who did not know these prayers.
Given the educational levels of both clergy and laity and the limited access to the Scriptures, use of these prayers was a practical solution to the problem of promoting a deeper understanding of the Christian faith among the masses. Further, admonishing baptismal sponsors to teach them provided the church with an official avenue to promote at least a basic level of discipleship. Unfortunately, the church had no means to hold parents and baptismal sponsors accountable to this task. In fact, no documentary evidence exists to reveal whether or not medieval godparents even taught the children these prayers. In some cases mothers took this task upon themselves (2).
Next: Medieval Resources for Family Discipleship
Notes
(1) Caesarius of Arles, , vol. 1, 100.
(2) Regarding godparents, see Barbara Hanawalt, The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 246; also Peter Fleming, Family and Household in Medieval England (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 62, and, Joseph H. Lynch, Godparents and Kinship in Early Medieval Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), 312-319. Numerous scholars make the argument that mothers trained their children in Christian faith, including Mitchell, Family Life in the Middle Ages, 171; Mary Martyn McLoughlin, “Children and Parents from the Ninth to Thirteenth Centuries,” in Medieval Families: Perspectives on Marriage, Household, & Children, ed. Carol Neel (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 47; Vauchez, The Laity in the Middle Ages, 91; Jennifer Ward, Women in Medieval Europe, 1200-1500 (New York: Longman, 2002), 58.
[Editor's Note: This article was adapted from the book Trained in the Fear of God, edited by Randy Stinson and Timothy Paul Jones. Used by Permission.]
