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