ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the Beaugency family and examines the role that religion and the church played in their lives. Religion was the warp and weft of medieval society. It was woven so inexorably into daily life that it is virtually impossible to extract it from the other threads that made up the tapestry of medieval existence – as is evident in the interplay between economic change and religious transformations. Scholars have argued that the socio-economic changes had profound consequences for religion and the church, and author would agree with their interpretation. The profit economy also shaped the experiences of the small community of Jews living in Beaugency and with whom the Beaugencys interacted. The Beaugency family was eyewitnesses to these very changes and practiced both compassion and intolerance. To give voice to how these larger economic, social and religious transformations affected the lives of individuals, let us turn to the last will and testament of Lord Simon I.
