Medieval+Christianity...+The+Social+Order

Niki Hindmon

In the medieval times, the society was divided into three orders or groups of people. (Duby) The orders are those groups where, those who work, those who fight, and those who pray. The reason I picked this topic was because I wanted to know how far we have come since the medieval times. This proves that yes, while we have some changes, people are still in groups, certain levels as we could say in today’s times. There are still people that get put into groups or social structure in today’s day in age. There are still groups that are grouped together like people of higher class, middle class, and lower class. This is the way from elementary school all the way up to the corporate world. People are put into these groups by what they own or what they inherit. Those Who Work The people considered in the group, “those who work” consisted of serfs who lived on their lord’s manor. Serfs were peasants who were owned by a lord, like slaves. (Applebaum) The serfs had to work for their lord and in their lord’s fields. Then the lord allowed them to use a piece of land for themselves and their family. The lord was then in charge of protecting the serfs and make sure they where safe. (Applebaum) On a typical life of a serf, the serf would have to work for three days a week on his or her lord’s lands. But they might have had to work more during the harvest season. (Padrino) And then the rest of the time was spent for what they needed and wanted to do, they could work on their fields, which was given to them by their lord. But, serfs were not allowed to leave their lord’s manor when ever they wanted to. Most serfs spent their entire lives on the lord‘s manor. (Padrino) Some never even left the manor. A serf‘s position was inherited when the children grew up. Most serfs had little to no money and where no very educated. (Applebaum) They where religious, and their lives were focused on their fields and the village church. Those Who Pray Clergy where the people who prayed. They were people of village priests, bishops, and monks. These where considered the highest order because they where so called closest to God. The clergy members were the second or third sons of noble houses. The responsibility of the village priest was looking after the spiritual lives of serfs on the manor. (Padrino) For the most part the village priest had little or no money and was not educated. The village priest was also not to get married. Bishops were also priests, but they had more power than the local village priests. They were also more educated then the village priest. Monks lived on estates of their own called monasteries. They made a promise to God and themselves that they would practice poverty and obedience. (Padrino) They spent their days at work in their fields or in prayer. Like priests, they were also not to get married.

Those Who Fight In the medieval ages the war was fought by knights, which in turn cost a lot of money. The were very little peasants that could afford a horse, a suit of armor, or a sword. Therefore, the people who fought were from the richest order, known as the nobles. The nobles owned their own land. Men and women were called lords and ladies. (Speed) They got to lived on estates called manors. A manor is an area of land owned by a noble person and the lord owned all the people that work his manor called serfs. (Duby) The nobles were free, where as the serfs did not have freedom. The nobles did have to answer to military to the higher nobles. They could also expect vassals, which was military aid from lower nobles. (Speed) The lords would promise to protect the vassals, and when war was happening a vassal was expected to bring horses and men to the lord’s help. The nobles never worked, they were expected to be strong and warriors. They spent most of their time training for war and going to tournaments, where they would fight other nobles.



References

Speed, Peter. Those Who Fought: An Anthology of Medieval Sources. New York. Italica Press, Inc. 1996. Duby, Georges. The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined. Chicago. The University of Chicago Press. 1980. Applebaum, Herbert. The concept of work: ancient, medieval, and modern. Albany. State University of New York Press. 1992. Padrino, Mercedes. Feudalism and village life in the Middle Ages. New York. World Almanac Library. 2006