Back in the Middle Ages, life revolved around folk religion, devoted in most of Europe to the Mother Mary. The beliefs of common people gradually changed as literacy increased and they were able to read the Bible for themselves and make their own interpretations. The printing press was a cultural revolution which allowed all kinds of previously forbidden books to be mass produced. I think that era would have felt similar to the emergence of the internet, and the way that suddenly new ideas could spread. Then as now there were a lot of conspiracy theories driving folk mad. Fear of physical and spiritual attack increased the intensity of Marian worship among all classes. With the dissolution of the monasteries and the Catholic church losing influence, public shrines to Mary became increasingly popular in England. Some conflated all the Marys of the Bible into one "mother of all". Mary represented every woman, and everyone was a child of Mary. She is explicitly linked to Eve, bu...