The amount and type of payment was not influenced by market forces it was coercive, or forced. This could be a portion of the harvest, days of labor in the lord's own fields-called the demesne-or money. Tenant farmers-that is, people who didn't own the land they worked-owed some kind of payment to their landlords. For our purposes, the important thing is that those lands were cultivated with a combination of free and unfree labor-let's talk about how that came to be. Rather than diving into the arguments of how to organize this history, let's discuss some common threads about those estates. Modern historians dispute whether or not it's useful to lump together the management of these estates in that way. Medieval economies were largely based around the operations of those landed estates. Though these arrangements could range widely in style, they were lumped together under the label of feudalism, from the Medieval Latin term feudum referring to a landed estate. Seventeenth-century historians and lawyers who studied the Middle Ages decided to give a common name to the diverse landowner-tenant arrangements that existed in northwest Europe during the Middle Ages, starting with the collapse of Charlemagne's empire in the late ninth century and declining after the Black Plague and the Peasant Revolt in the fourteenth century. The very real fear of hell (as often seen in Doom Paintings) kept people in line with doctrine and ensured obedience to the Church.The term feudal is a tricky one, because few scholars can quite agree on what it means these days. Having the Papacy on side during a dispute was important: during the Norman invasion of England, King Harold was excommunicated for supposedly going back on a holy pledge to support William of Normandy’s invasion of England: the Norman invasion was blessed as a holy crusade by the Papacy.Įxcommunication remained a sincere and worrying threat to monarchs of the time: as God’s representative on earth, the Pope could prevent souls from entering Heaven by casting them out of the Christian community. The clergy swore allegiance to the Pope rather than to their King. Monarchs were no exception to papal authority, and they were expected to communicate with and respect the Pope including monarchs of the day. Dissent was treated harshly, and non-Christians faced persecution, but increasingly sources suggest that many people did not blindly accept all Church teachings. The Church demanded that all accept its authority. Churchgoing was a chance to see people, there would be celebrations organised on saints’ days and ‘holy days’ were exempt from work. Parishes were made up of village communities, and the Church was a focal point in peoples’ lives. 1000AD), society was increasingly orientated around the church. Communityīy the turn of the millennia (c. Image Credit: Carlo Crivelli, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 3. Those accepted into the monastic life also had a more stable, more privileged life than ordinary people.Īn altarpiece in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, by Carlo Crivelli (15th century) Then as now, education was a key factor in the limited social mobility offered in Medieval society. Monasteries in particular often had schools attached, and monastic libraries were widely regarded as some of the best. Many clergy had some level of education: much of the literature produced at the time came from the Church, and those who entered the clergy were offered the chance to learn to read and write: a rare opportunity in the agrarian society of the Medieval period. However, the Church also was one of the main distributors of charity at the time, giving alms to those in need and running basic hospitals, as well as temporarily housing travellers and providing places of shelter and sanctity. Martin Luther later attacked the practice in his 95 Theses. The sale of indulgences, papers which promised absolution from sin yet to be committed and an easier route to heaven, proved increasingly controversial. This system was not without fault: whilst greed was a sin, the Church made sure to financially profit where possible. Churches were constructed by fine craftsmen and filled with precious objects to reflect the Church’s high status within society. The Church placed value on beautiful material possessions, believing art and beauty was for the glory of God. Monetary donations were given by many levels of society, most commonly in the form of a tithe, a tax which normally saw people give roughly 10% of their earnings to the Church. The Catholic Church in Medieval times was extremely wealthy. Image Credit: Jan Matejko, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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