Just a Dream (Image & Pilgrimage)

Nov 22 2017
During the High Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the ultimate power in Europe (Turner 172). Not only did they control the way people lived, but they also managed the way people thought. Occasionally, people would have visions which they believed were a message from God. These could be from an apparition, dream, or thought without any physical sensation (Turner 173). No matter how powerful their vision was, if the Church did not believe it, it meant nothing.
According to Catholics, only those who made it to heaven could interact with the living while protestants believed anybody could commune (Turner 204). When it came to interpreting a vision, the people turned to the Church. The Catholic Church saw itself as one unanimous body. Either a person’s claim of vision was encouraged  or it was dismissed (Turner 204).
This power to pick which religious encounter is real and which is not shaped the beliefs of the Church. One vision may say to create a place of worship facing one direction while another vision instructs the opposite. The Church’s interpretation of these visions decides which messages they will follow and which they will say is incorrect. This is similar to Lane in Landscapes of the Sacred who said our perception of a place determines how we experience and internalize it. People who have a vision may embellish it in order to receive acceptance from the Church.

The Church creates their own beliefs. They may reject some teachings while they encourage others. They use these teachings not only, in their eyes, as a way to better themselves, but as a way to control the behaviors of churchgoers.

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