To what extent were responses to death characterized by fear in medieval religious culture? This investigation will analyze responses to death in medieval religious culture. Relationships with death likely varied between social classes, making it difficult to state a generalized response to death. Death was commonplace among farmers and therefore few sources document it. Responses to death can be inferred from sermons, which influenced the beliefs of the lower classes. The nobility, however, provided accounts of deaths and answers can be asserted from these sources. Likewise, it is difficult to state a general definition of death since in the medieval period the concept of death was multidimensional. Death was both physical and spiritual for medieval religious culture. Furthermore, medieval religious culture was diverse. This investigation will address these issues by using religious sources specific to both the lower and upper classes and analyzing their content to decipher whether responses to death were characterized by fear. The 14th and 15th centuries were plagued by devastating events including; The Great Famine (1315-1322), The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487), and the Black Death (1348-1350). Society adapted to cope with the abundance of deaths and this is evident in the numerous primary sources commenting on death in this period. Death was approached by medieval society from different social and religious angles. For example, the Danse Macabre can be presented as both a social satire and a commentary on religious culture. For the purposes of this essay, it is important to be selective among the abundant sources available, referring to sources with specific reference...... middle of paper ......ars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400-c. 1580 (Yale University Press, 2005). Fletcher, A., 'Unnoticed Sermons from John Mirk's Festial, Speculum, vol. 55, no. 3 (July 1980), 514-522. Ford, J., John Mirk's Festial: Orthodosy, Lollardy, and the Common People in Fourteenth-Century England (DS Brewer, 2006). Huizinga, J., The Waning of the Middle Ages (Dover Publications, 1999). James, T., Black Death: The During Impact (BBC History, 2011). Langmuir, G., 'Review: Sin and Fear: The Emergence of a Western Guilt Culture, 13th-18th Centuries, Medieval Academy of America, vol. 67, no. 3 (1992), 657-659. Liguori, AM, Preparation for Death or Considerations on the Eternal Maxims (St Athanasius Press, 2010). Ross, C., Edward IV (Yale University Press, 1997). Rubin, M (ed.), Medieval Christianity in Practice (Princeton University Press, 2009).