society

            The Role of Miracles and the Supernatural in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages Supernatural events and miracles are very common in medieval lierature. Many of these miracles were used for common purposes, which were to provide examples of an ideal Christian way of life and promote conversion to Christianity. They do this by writing about miracles that punished people who acted improperly, miracles that took place to reward Christians for doing good deeds, showing extreme and persistent faith, or for those who were leading moral lives. Some examples of medieval literature that contain miracles which serve this purpose are Saint Augustine's Confessions, MacMullen's Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, HillGarth's Christianity and Paganism, 350-750, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Gregory of Tours" History of the Franks, and in the works of Saint Boniface. Saint Augustine's work includes a miracle that took place because a man begged his admission to god. This man was blind and had heard of people who were ".vexed by impure spirits and were healed." (165). He immediately asked his guide to being him to the place were this was happening, which was where the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius lay. He rubbed a sacred cloth over his eyes and immediately regained his lost eyesight. This miracle was included to show the benefits of showing one's allegiance to god and by doing so, Augustine would be able to get others to convert to Christianity. Augustine describes the roles of miracles himself when he wrote that they ".symbolize the sacraments of initiation and miraculous wonders necessary to initiate and convert "uninstructed and unbelieving people" (I Cor. 14:23)" (299). MacMullen's book also contains accounts of miracles that were used for conversion. One such miracle (from Augustine's catalog) took place when a youth was said to have been entered by a water demon.