CHAPTER VI 



RELIGION OF THE VILLAGE 



RELIGIOUS faith has always died hard in the 

 village. Long after the constructive and de- 

 structive energies of the Church had triumphed 

 in the cities of the Roman Empire, the poor 

 pagani, or " villagers," preserved the dying 

 embers of the ancient faith. Even in the 

 twentieth century the former deities of the 

 corn crop and vintage are still invoked in 

 Christian Tuscany, while the traveller in the 

 Pyrenees may still hear the call of " lacche, 

 lacche," as the peasants winnow the corn with 

 the mystica vannus of the old-time god. The 

 mist of obscurity which settled on the 

 religious conditions of the English village 

 immediately after the Reformation has never 

 been, as yet, completely lifted : but enough 

 is known to make it clear that the change 

 in the theory and practice of the people's 

 religion was extremely gradual in many of 

 the more remote parishes. 

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