Women were generally considered to be in charge of running the household after marriage, and if a woman were to remain single, harsh judgement was pressed upon her. Such accusations included premisciousity, scandalousness and other forms of immoral behavior. "Young women whose parents had died and who lacked sufficient property to find a husband were seen as a threat to the community" (118). Men had troubles living on their own as well. They were forced to find jobs, and were banished from the village if they failed to do so. Overlaping seasonally into rural family life, was religion. It played an important role in family and society, as it does today. Looking back, one would find many aspects of religion which have survived to present-day. One of which, was the practice of holding Sundays for rest from work, and church services. These Sunday masses brought together both rich and poor Christian families alike. Religious worship was not exclusively reserved for Sundays, services were also held during Saturday afternoons and of course, certain holidays. Children were baptised at birth, and holidays were celebrated with feasts in which all family members attended. Certain parts of the religious facet have changed since this historical time period. One of the more surprising differences back then, was perhaps the fact that priests did not play a major role in religious activity. They spent most of their time in larger cities, thus resulting in the lack of importance that he played on the townsfolk where they occasionally resided. The people paid more tribute the Virgin Mary and various Saints, and especially embracing those who were known or said to cure illnesses successfully. The townsfolk were known to respect certain Saints and to disregard those whom they felt did not benefit them. Religion also played a large part in education, private schools taught religion as well as the basic reading, writing and mathematics. Even the p...
