1. Life in the Middle Ages, 900-1300

2. Manorialism
The manor was an agricultural estate run by a lord and worked by peasants
Free peasants tied to the land of a manor were called SERFS
By the ninth century 60% of the people of Western Europe were serfs
Serfs worked 3 days a week and paid rent by giving a share of their produce to the lord

3. Daily Life The Church played an important role in manorial life
Serfs had over fifty holidays a year
As trade returned, gold and silver coins replaced bartering MONEY ECONOMY
COMMERCIAL CAPITALISM: investing in trade and goods to create profits follows

4. Cities
Cities became the centers of trade where merchants could live and build warehouses
Most cities were usually built alongside rivers
Large cities had about 5,000 people
In 1200, London had 30,000 people
Venice, Milan, Naples, Florence, and Genoa had about 100,000 each
But these were small compared to the Arabic cities of Damascus, Cairo, and Baghdad

5. The Church
By the 1200’s, the Catholic Church was the most powerful force in Europe
Even kings had to answer to the power of the pope
The land of central Italy even became known as “The Papal States”
Kings practice LAY INVESTITURE and try to place people loyal to them in church offices
Popes would order bishops to refuse to offer sacraments as a way to exert pressure on kings

6. Don’t Cross the Boss
Anyone who defied the Church was readily labeled a heretic: someone who went against church teachings
Dealing with heretics led to the INQUISITION: a special court who tried accused heretics
Accused heretics were sometimes tortured until they confessed

7. A Center for Learning
Monasteries were places where students learned Roman law: today, we call them UNIVERSITIES
The University of Bologna, Italy is the oldest university in the world founded in 1088
University of Oxford founded in 1096 is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world!
Students studied the liberal arts: law, grammar, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy to earn a Bachelor of Arts and then a Master of Arts
Students of Law, Medicine, and Theology could earn the Philosophiae Doctor and earn a Doctorate Degree

8. Reading and Writing
Universities instructed in Latin, but in the 1100’s, literature moved away from Latin to VERNACULAR: the language used in a particular region

9. Architecture
During the Middle Ages, some of the greatest examples of architecture was built in Europe: the great cathedral churches
Romanesque Architecture was inspired by semicircular arches
Gothic Architecture is defined by the pointed arch, flying buttress, and ribbed vaults

10. Lisbon Cathedral, 1147

11. Lincoln Cathedral, 1311

13. Gothic Architecture at its Best
Perhaps the two most famous examples of medieval Gothic architecture are…
Westminster Abbey, London
Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris