Medieval society initially was divided into three orders: those "who fought," those "who prayed," and those "who worked." In this fragment from the Meeting of the ​ Golden Gate, members of two of those orders, a monk and a peasant, appear to be following Saint Joachim as he travels to the Golden Gate outside Jerusalem. ​ Artist Maso di Banco created the work, located at the Museo di S. Marco monastery in Florence, Italy. [Museo di San Marco, Florence, Italy/The Bridgeman Art Library] ​ What is the Middle Ages/Medieval Times? The "Middle Ages" is a term used to describe the period between the end of the late classical age and the time of the Renaissance. The most common starting point for the Middle Ages begins around the year 500 CE, with the most common end point being around 1500. That time frame is divided into the early Middle Ages (500 to 1050); the High Middle Ages (1050 to 1300); and the late Middle Ages (and early Renaissance: 1300 to 1500). The Beginnings of the Middle Ages The Middle Ages began with the fall of the Roman Empire. In the Roman Empire, a number of interconnected Germanic kingdoms arose as the power of the Romans receded. During that early post-Roman period (Early Middle Ages), life in Western Europe was difficult, often violent, and for almost everyone, set within a very small world. Eventually, the centralized power that had once held together the domains of the powerful local lords disappeared, and it was left to armed and aggressive mounted nobles, known as knights, to fight amongst themselves for control of the choicest lands. Meanwhile, raids by Vikings and Muslim pirates often went unopposed, which made the absence of effective centralized government all the more painfully apparent. The answer came with the rise of feudal manors. Under a system that has come to be called feudal manorialism, peasants (a class that included just about everyone) lived under the protection of a local strongman know as a lord. There was no centralized government to speak of and no centralized state. For that reason, the things Roman citizens had once looked to the Roman government for—protection and justice, for example—were the responsibility of the local lord. In return, the peasants who resided on a lord's lands owed him either rent, labor, or some combination of the two, which was dependent on the specifics of the relationship between them. More crucially, for the peasants, the lord of the manor had what amounted at times to absolute power over them. The lord, in turn, owed his allegiance to the king in whose realm he resided. Medieval Society: The Structure of the Church During the Middle Ages the Catholic Church was the organization that kept social order when a strong central government was absent. The officials that ran the Church were called clergy. The structure of the Clergy was as follows: 1. Pope – Head of the Catholic Church; is stationed in the Vatican in Rome, Italy ​ 2. Bishops – Leaders of all the churches within a specific area who supervise priests ​ 3. Priests – conducts religious services at the local church & runs that church ​ 4. Monks – a community of men who have taken a religious vow ​ 5. Nuns – a community of women who have taken a religious vow ​ Monks lived in monasteries and nuns lived in convents apart from society. They took a vow to live a life of chastity, obedience, and poverty. They were not interested in attaining wealth or social status. Instead, they dedicated they were dedicated to God and their Catholic faith. Parishioners, or church members, were not part of the clergy. They included the peasants and the nobles. The Social & Educational Role of the Church Although most people in medieval society led very difficult lives, they were able to relax and attend church on Sundays and holy days. They enjoyed dancing, singing, and sports. Although they knew they were at the bottom of the social hierarchy, they believed that in the “eyes of God” everyone was equal. Therefore they looked forward to eternal life after death. Since most peasants at the time were illiterate, the Church played a pivotal role in preserving knowledge from the past. Many monks worked as scribes and copied over the ancient religious works and classical writing of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Many nuns also worked on religious manuscripts. Finally, both monks and nuns provided schools for young people, hospitals for the sick, food for the needy and guesthouses for weary travelers. They also taught the peasants carpentry, weaving, and improved farming methods Peasants, Salvation, & Church Teachings Poverty and hardship characterized peasant life, and few lived beyond the age of 40. Famine and disease were constant dangers. In times of war, the peasants were the first and hardest hit. Invading knights trampled crops and burned villages, causing famine and loss of life. The life of a peasant was very hard. They worked from dusk to dawn. Women sheared the sheep, spun wool, sewed garments, prepared breads and puddings, and cared for young children. The men tended to the sheep and farm animals, vines, and fields. They mowed hay and cut trees. Children had no childhood as you know it. They worked with their parents as soon as they were able. Peasants lived without luxuries and labored constantly to provide themselves and their families with food, clothing, and shelter. Therefore, they looked forward to salvation, or eternal life after death. Peasants made prayer a part of their daily life and committed themselves to following the teachings of the Church and their priests in order to achieve salvation. The pope was the head of the Catholic Church. He and the bishops decided what would be taught in the churches and the priests would teach it. One of the things they taught their parishioners (church members) was that the route to salvation was through receiving the sacraments. The sacraments were seven sacred rituals, which were given by the priests. They include baptism, penance, communion, confirmation, matrimony, anointing of the sick, and holy orders. The most important sacrament was communion, which was a wheat wafer blessed by a priest to commemorate Christ’s death. To receive this sacrament, members had to attend church or mass. Medieval Society: What is Feudalism? In its most general form, the term "feudalism" has been used to refer to the oppressive hierarchy in European society as a whole during the Middle Ages; however, it more accurately describes the specific economic, political, and social relationships (contracts) between lords and vassals during that era. The context for feudal contracts was the series of Viking invasions in the ninth and 10th centuries, when kings were unable to meet every threat and local men with the power to repulse the invaders took a more prominent role in defense. The Feudalism as described here began around the 10th and 11th centuries in France. The word "feudalism" derives from the Latin feudum, or fief, the land given by a lord to a vassal in return for military service. Nobles received their land from the Kings, making them lords. The terms of the lord’s contract varied considerably, but generally in granting his vassals land and thus a means to earn money, the lord was then able to equip and maintain a body of armed knights. Typically, a vassal also provided other such services as housing the lord and his men when they visited, acting as a juror in the lord's court, giving gifts of money or goods for important occasions within the lord's household, and even helping to pay the ransom should the lord be captured. Such an arrangement added not only to his military might but also to his prestige, as a large entourage was a tangible sign of a lord's wealth and power. The contract between lord and vassal was cemented through the ceremony of homage. In that ceremony, the lord presented his vassal with a banner or a handful of soil (which symbolized the fief), and the vassal swore fealty to his lord. Fealty involved a formal oath, taken publicly, in which a vassal promised to serve his lord and uphold their contract. Eventually, Kings, and even nobles, began setting their feudal relationships down in ink. It was a mutual agreement, one that either party could break in case of a breach of contract. A vassal could break his oath if his lord failed in his obligations. Likewise, if the vassal failed to serve his lord, his fief was surrendered. Feudal relationships were complex. In a decentralized state, which most feudal monarchies in the Middle Ages were at some point in their histories, one might have multiple loyalties. In theory, everyone owed their primary allegiance to the king, but in actual practice most people never met the king or served him personally. A king's major lords, like dukes and counts, had vassals; their vassals had vassals; and so on down the line. Not infrequently, a man might owe allegiance to more than one lord. The Three Orders of Feudalism th From the 11 ​ century forward, medieval society has often been simplified, ​ even by medieval sources, into three orders, or estates: “who fought”- The knights (miles) were fighters (bellatores), charged with protecting the other classes; “who prayed" -the clergy (clerus) were prayers (oratores), who prayed for the other classes; and "who worked"- the peasants and serfs (cultori) were the workers (laborers), whose industry sustained the other two classes by providing them food and labor. Medieval writers regarded of those who prayed as first in rank of the three orders; medieval society was a religious society, and clergy and monks held a special place because they served God.