1. Feudalism and the Manor Economy

2. Mutual Obligation Failures of the Empire Weak central government
Need for protection
Unable to maintain law and order
Led To:
Emergence of Feudalism
-political system of the middle ages
-based on mutual obligations (I do something for you, you do something for me)
-based on loyalty, service and feudal contracts

3. Feudalism
Political and social system based on loyalty, military service and birth. Rigid with little to now social mobility, your birth determined your social status.

4. Structured Society - Nobles
Men
Knights
Training
Warfare
Tournaments
Chivalry
Code of loyalty, duty and service
Women
“Lady of the Manor”
Training
Politics
Eleanor of Aquitaine

5. Structured Society – Serfs/Peasants
Bound to the land
Farmers
Maintenance
Permission to marry; leave the estate
Payments to lord
Majority of the population
Protection
Land to farm

6. Peasant’s Life Unable to attend school Limited or no travel
Could not read or write
Limited or no travel
Long work hours
Hunger
Disease
Few opportunities to celebrate
Christmas, Easter

7. Self-Sufficiency
Manorialism- economic system of the early middle ages.
Due to a lack of trade the manor was self-sufficient
Produced on the manor
Food, clothing, furniture, tools
Buildings
Manor House
Church
Mill
Cottages/Huts
Fields/Pastures

8. The Manor Economy

9. The Medieval Church

11. The Church and Medieval Life
The church was a social center as well as a place of worship.
Christian rituals and faith were part of the fabric of everyday life (sacraments).
Priests guided people on issues of values and morality.

12. The Church and Medieval Life
Church required people to pay a tithe (10% of their income).
Monks and nuns cared for the poor and sick, set up schools for children, and gave food and lodging to travelers.
Friars were monks who did not live in a monastery, but traveled and preached to the poor.

13. A Medieval Monk’s Day

14. The Power of the Church Grows
In the centuries after the fall of Rome, the Church became the most powerful secular, or worldly, force in medieval Europe
Medieval popes began to claim papal supremacy, or authority over all secular rulers.

15. The Power of the Church Grows
The medieval Church developed its own body of laws, known as canon law, as well as its own courts. Anyone who disobeyed canon law faced a range of penalties.
The Church also had absolute power in religious matters.

16. Religious Authority
Excommunication: Pope forbade people to receive sacraments or a Christian burial
Interdict: an order excluding an entire town, region, or kingdom from receiving some sacraments or a Christian burial

17. Reform Movements The success of the Church brought problems:
As Church wealth and power grew, discipline weakened.
Some clergy ignored their vows and lived in luxury.
Some priests focused more on family than on Church duties.

18. Reform Movements A number of reform movements spread across Europe:
(1) Benedictine Rule, monks and nuns took vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity.
(2) Pope Gregory VII outlawed marriage for priests and prohibited simony, the selling of Church offices.

19. Jews in Europe
In hard times, Christians persecuted the Jews, blaming them for economic problems, illness, and disasters.
Prejudice against Jews is called antisemitism.
Migration from Western to Eastern Europe.

20. Economic Expansion and Change

21. Agricultural Revolution
New farming technologies
iron plow harness windmill three-field system
Increase in food production
Population explosion
Between 1000 and 1300, the population of Europe doubled.

22. Trade in Europe
Europe’s growing population needed goods that were not available to them.
As foreign invasions and feudal warfare declined, trade increased

23. Commercial Revolution
The revival of trade led to a revolution in commerce.
New business practices emerged, such as:
setting up banks
joining together to set up partnerships
developing insurance
adopting the bill of exchange

24. Social Changes
The use of money undermined serfdom. Most peasants became tenant farmers or hired farm laborers.
In towns, a new middle class of merchants, traders, and artisans emerged.
The Church forbade Christians from becoming moneylenders. Since Jews were barred from other professions, many took on this role.

26. Guilds
In medieval towns, merchants and artisans formed associations called guilds.
Merchant guilds appeared first. They dominated town life, passing laws, levying taxes, and making other important decisions.

27. Guilds
A craft guild was made up of workers in a particular occupation. To prevent competition, only a certain number of people could work in any trade.
Becoming a guild member involved many years of hard work.

28. Guilds What are the two types of medieval guilds?
What modern organization do medieval guilds remind you of?

29. Medieval Guilds: A Goldsmith’s Shop

30. Crest of a Cooper’s Guild