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over
the hidden gateways that led to an unseen heaven and hell. With
his influence over an unprovable realm, the Pope claimed the right to
control the uncontrollable.
Medieval Christianity made substantial sums by selling its
illusions.46 But the phantasms pardoners peddled--control and hope--
were vital to individual survival. (A study of 2,832 subjects by Robert
Anda of the Centers for Disease Control showed that adults suffering
from extreme hopelessness were four times as likely to die of heart
disease.)47
In real life, the average serf was nailed to the land as Christ had
been nailed to the cross. He was subject to famine and plague. The
major decisions that affected his days were made by the lord of the
manor. Periodically a serf's cottage was ravaged, his crops destroyed,
his cattle taken, and his wife was raped by the troops of a neighboring
noble, a passing foreign military group, a band of brigands, or
sometimes by the troops of his own king.48 The serf had no hope; he
had no control.
But hope and control, as we've seen, are biologically necessary to
both the immune system and the brain. The church said this earthly
life would be but a short period of torment followed by a stretch of
time that counted infinitely more--an eternal afterlife. Only one in a
thousand, said the church, would make it to the golden gates of
paradise. But that, at least, was hope. And there were ways to
guarantee that you would be among those bound for heaven's glory.
You could show repentance for your sins. You could purchase
pardons that brought you immunity to the results of your evil acts.
You could share in the body and blood of Christ through the
communion offered by your local priest on a regular basis for a small
fee. You could go on a pilgrimage. No wonder the citizens of
Germany found the Pope's excommunication intolerable. He was
excluding them from hope, snatching away the only thing which made
life tolerable. More to the point, he was depriving them of the fantasy
of control, a necessary device for tricking the body into survival.
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