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CHAPTER X
Fifteenth Century
CHURCH AND PEOPLE
"For all we thought and loved and did
And hoped and suffered, is but seed
Of what in them is flower and fruit."
IT is impossible to turn from the manners and customs of the Middle Ages without noting the immense influence of the Church on the social life of the people. In her "yet unbroken unity," she "appealed with overpowering force to the imagination of her children. Her ceremonies were associated with every important phase of private life from the cradle to the grave; her cathedrals and parish churches were the only public buildings to which every class had the same rights and opportunities of access … her sanctuaries alone could give passing shelter to
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