The element of ritual was prominent in early modern Catholicism, even after Luther's critique of the "empty rituals" in late medieval Christianity. There were processions to commemorate almost all the holiday. Though 18th-century Church reformers made strides to simplify the liturgical year and its complex web of holidays, festivals and processions, these practices remained as essential to Catholic ritual traditions in 1750 as they had been in the 15th-century. After 1650 the number of processions was on the rise as processions became as essential to the observance of feast days as Catholic Mass. Some processions were tied to agricultural lifestyles, while others were pilgrimages to shrines and holy places, or to develop ties with other parishes.