was the time of tall, sweeping Gothic cathedrals adorned with gargoyles and devils. Everywhere the people looked, they saw death, and it became the sole thought in their minds- that and what came after death. With the spreading literacy among the clergy and nobility of the times came new literature. For hundreds of ears the only literature that had existed were those books saved from the destruction of the Dark Ages by the church and the monasteries. Now, scholars began to write new books- all of it, of course, religious in nature. One of the most influential books of the time was The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. The book gave "clear and simple instruction for modeling a Christian spiritual life on that of Christ" (The Volume Library, 1950. However, the way that it did this was to present the mind set of "a sober awareness of death and a general view that life is a veil of tears" (Carmody, 331). While The Imitation was not the progenitor of the mood for the next several hundred years, it certainly contributed to it. Everything in life became a form of suffering in imitation of Christ. It soon became that even the tiniest act or motion during church service became a holy symbol of part of Christ's pain. This was also the time of the greatest pilgrimages in history. People all over Europe travelled great distances to experience even the most insignificant of relics. Soon, the possession of relics became a kind of competition between churches and monasteries, denoting their popularity and piety. With the collection of relics came an increase in the size and wealth of the church which housed them. This led to an obsession for money and materialism within the church, which grew tremendously over the next few hundred years. It went so far as the selling of indulgences, which was basically the buying off of one's time spent in purgatory before ascending to heaven. As the Renaissance began, the clergy itself began collecting artwork...
