Lay piety in Visigothic Iberia: liturgical and paraliturgical forms

Abstract

While it is appropriate to remember that clerical and monastic elites form part of the whole which practices popular religion, it is clear that their spiritual habits were different from the rest of society. If ordinary Christians’ piety was less intense, less educated, and less documented than that of religious elites, it does not mean we should neglect this aspect of daily life. The leading bishops in post-imperial Iberia exhibited a clear concern to shape the laity's piety not only in terms of orthodoxy but also in vibrancy. Liturgical texts and related writings from the Visigothic and early Mozarabic periods, including hagiographic material, provide a view of religious practices of the masses and ways in which the episcopate endeavored to direct devotion. Taken together the evidence suggests a surprising range and depth of lay religious experience, notwithstanding the errors of common Christians frequently suggested in ecclesiastical texts.