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Medieval Church And The Middle Ages

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The time period lasting from approximately 800-1500 A.D. was known as the Middle Ages. The most important component of the Middle Ages was feudalism, a system of social hierarchy. In the European feudal pyramid, the uppermost ranking was the king, followed by nobles and church officials, knights, and peasants. One’s social ranking determined their place in society as well as their amount of power. The manor system was the economic system associated with feudalism. In the manorial system, a landowner, or lord, would grant a piece of their land to someone in exchange for their service and loyalty. The person who receives the land is known as a vassal. People who worked on the lord’s manor were serfs, people who were forbidden to leave their place of birth. The medieval church played a very important role in feudal society and in the Middle Ages. The Medieval Church unified people among different classes with a similar set of beliefs in the teachings of the church. A few hundred years after the rise of feudalism, it slowly began to decline. A series of events such as the Bubonic Plague, corruption in the Medieval Church and the Crusades took place, which weakened the feudal system. Eventually, the feudal system collapsed. The Middle Ages came to an end because the feudal system, which was the basic structure of medieval society, crumbled. The Crusades brought about a new economic system, replacing the manorial system with a more trade-based economy. The crusades, or the

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