Throughout the medieval times in England Christianity was prominent, if not dominant, and the pressures put on normal every day people by the Christian Church was to shape the society which followed, holding them not in subjection to God, but to the Catholic priests who supposedly represented God. And many superstitions originated from the enforcement of religion (all world religions have done this), a method of containing, of controlling and manipulating the lives of the common man.

During the 15th century both the Catholic and Protestant religions greatly influenced many superstitions which were to arise in England.

The pagan beliefs and superstitions which were ripe during this time in England became a challenge to religion; they realised that they could not compete with established beliefs easily and so created their own acceptances of them by incorporating them into their belief. In this way many pagan beliefs and superstitions became a part of the Christian religion in England and the paganistic association was replaced by a more acceptable identity. For example the Goddess Bridgit of Ireland became ‘Saint Bridgit,’ transforming this pagan Goddess into a Catholic Saint. The local people believed that Christianity was accepting their ways because the church had accepted the identification of the Goddess Bridgit; but religion merely ‘seduced’ the people to accept them, and over time the original understanding of the Goddess was lost becoming replaced by its Christian counterpart.

To be quite truthful the majority of Christian festivals and beliefs are based upon pagan rites or beliefs and it was simply a way or process of convincing the people that they (religion) were not seeking to change their lives or their beliefs; Christianity lied.

Both Catholicism and Protestantism misdirected the people, the pagans, to alter their religious course, and incorporated their beliefs and superstitions into their own religious belief. It was a very successful action and although the pagan rites are no longer performed as pagan rituals, they are performed has a Christian ritual. In fact four main pagan festivals that man celebrated before the introduction of Christianity are; the New Year, harvest Festival, Halloween and the spring rebirth.

These practices or superstitions could not be ignored by religion, although the practices were condemned by them in private, so instead they tolerated them, a course of action which would mean no confrontation. Confrontation would result in opposition and the church wanted no opposition. In fact the clergy of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were reviled for failing to stop superstition, and for actively promoting it.

In those days the church dominated everyone’s life, and the thoughts that God, Heaven and Hell all existed and they were taught that the only way they could get to Heaven was if the Roman Catholic Church allowed them. Hell became the focal point on which everyone focused, because no one wanted to go there and to be subjected to the horrors which awaited the unfaithful. It was simply one enormous confidence trick introduced to take the money off the poor by holding them in subjection to the church, by suggesting that the only eventuality one would find by being uncharitable was hell. This was one major factor which caused Henry the VIII to reform the churches and have the money for himself; people were simply afraid not to pay the churches the money they demanded for fear of going to hell.

It was around this time that other superstitions arose, such as a man and a woman being married by the church, baptisms, and funerals etc, were all regarded by the church to be the lawful and spiritual way to salvation, and of course, each service needed to be paid for; if you are not married you are living in sin, if you are not baptised you do not belong to God, if you do not have a Christian funeral your soul will wander in the afterlife. The body of the dead person was also expected by the church to be buried on hallow ground, in the precinct of the church; how else would your spirit be protected on its journey to heaven? A plot of land or a hole in the ground as always been expensive in a churchyard, but without it you were doomed to internal damnation.

All of these superstitions arose and were instigated and established because of the primeval fears of man in not knowing, and the religions of the world greatly influenced future man in every aspect of his life.

These superstitions, manufactured by religion created the man of today, the one who does not walk under ladders, the one who feels guilty for loving a woman out of wedlock, a man afraid to die without a belief.

But what man forgets is that during his infancy, through the dark ages and his uneducated existence, he was not asked to pay a price for the things in nature which were free; the natural things. Because in those days he was free with the right to worship in his own way, the natural way, the way of all men, and the superstitions he held were not manufactured by others, but were merely a process of the natural life that he inhabited.