Life in the Middle Ages, 900-1300

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lisbon Cathedral, 1147

Lincoln Cathedral, 1311

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