The Great Chain Of Being Essay

Although the feudal system presented a mutually beneficial relationship at first, over time many burdens were placed on the vassals. A serf was bound to the land, thus resulting in a fixed income. Since he was unable to move to another lord, he was reliant on only what was originally agreed upon to provide monetary support. [Support was generally in kind, or in labor.] With no “right” to adjust the support needed for survival, the serf and his family experiences tremendous hardships.

Feudalism, during medieval society, was parallel to the existence of the Catholic Church and its influence over the population. Religion permeated all elements of society and the way in which they related to each other. The Church wasn’t only a spiritual power, but a political and economic one and the struggles between the political and religious leaders will be key factors in the development of the medieval world. The church will also be the primary keeper of knowledge in the Middle Ages, and they will accomplish most cultural advancements.

The Chain of Being is a theory that was founded in the Elizabethan era where the people had a belief. The belief was that everything in this world, from non-living things all the way to the God of the world, plays a role in existence. Hence, it can be deduced that the Chain of Being is a concept of Christianity that defines and justifies all life and matter since the Elizabethan era until now. Further clarification of the order of the Chain of Being would be that it starts from the most basic things such as the comprehensible minerals and elements of the earth and stretches towards the incomprehensible almighty God. There is a very distinct difference between each of the listed beings. Existing in spirit form, both God and the angels are positioned at the top of the chain. This is due to the fact that a spirit is unchanging and everlasting. On

The significance of religious leaders during this era is evident by the fact that the writer of this poem places the bishop at the beginning of the table. Due to the fact that the “medieval society was a religious society” and that these religious leaders held a special relationship with God, it is no surprise that these individuals held the second highest social class position in the medieval time period (Feudalism and the Three Orders (Overview) 2).

During the middle ages the lack of protection and a stable government after the Fall of Rome created the need for a new political system. Feudalism was the political system that emerged and shaped the lives of people socially and politically. Manors were small communities that were made up of a castle, church, village, and land for farming. The structured society provided a place and responsibility for everyone. The feudal obligations showed that in exchange for one thing they would be provided with something else. Serfs and peasants would work and produce goods for the rest of the manor and in return had their land and promised protection. The vassals would need to obtain land from the Lord and in return would provide the Lord with military service, loyalty, and ransom if asked for (Doc. 4). To make clear the vassal’s specific allegiance to their lord whom they owed in for exchange for their fief they would take the Homage Oath (Doc. 2). This interdependent system required everyone to do their part and it created social classes that they were born into. Their daily lives were centered on the manor and that was how it stayed until towns began to

During the medieval times Kings had absolute power and the Catholic Church made sure God help the King retain this power. During this time feudalism was the structure that shaped society. In the feudalism structure the people that work the land the poor got cero power and live at the mercy of the barons. Barons where the owners of the land that people where let to work and make really low amounts of money while the baron sells and exchange the goods produced by the land and makes a fortune. At the end of the day the land belongs to the king and the king taxes the barons and collects money from all the land making him very, very wealthy and powerful.

Under the feudal system, people would usually either work on manors or fields. According to document 4, vassals would give their loyalty, Military service, even a ransom if needed and in exchange, the Lord would give them both protection as well as land. Most people during the Middle Ages were vassals, very few were lords. If one was a lord, they then held absolute power over the fiefs. This meant the Lord could hold a court and decide the punishment for crimes. In this Age of Feudalism, the only people who had a higher status than the Lords was the King. In document 2 John of Toul the liege man of the count and countess of Champagne is promising to, "- aid the count of Champagne in my own person," as well as saying, "- whose service I owe to them for the fief which I hold of them." In these two statements, John of Toul is willing to fight in battle for the count of Champagne because he owes them service because of the land he was given by them. This statement shows how truly powerful the feudal system was at the time and how people did follow the rules of

This was influenced by the manor system, “ The manor was the economic side of feudalism” (Doc 2). This meaning that your ranking in the feudalism was your job in the manor system. If you were a serf you worked, and farmed for the King, Knights,and Nobles and you had one day a week to farm to feed yourself and your family. If that isn't hard enough they also had to pay high rents to the lords for using his land to farm. The Knights and Nobles had to fight and serve the King for exchange of land,and they had to pay taxes. This showing that life in the Middle Ages was hard for many

The feudal system was a system which the government made to organize the people in certain social classes, and it was unfair because the citizens were not treated the way that they should be. Once the feudal system was slowly fading away, “Astute lords granted charters exempting city dwellers from feudal obligations…” (Document 1). What this means is that as long as the people paid taxes, they did not have to follow the feudal system. The people that lived in the feudal system in the lower social classes hated it though. So along with this, many of these people fought in the Crusades because Pope Urban promised “All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission {forgiveness} of sins…” (Document 3). Pope Urban’s promise attracted them because even though the lower social class men and women were stuck in the system, they were able to die freely. Without the feudal system, lives were easier because the people were able to be whatever they had wanted without others getting in the way. Eventually, everyone was

Since warfare and disease made life unbearable, everyone from the common serfs to the prosperous king looked to Church for direction on the key to a happy afterlife (Document 9). People paid heavy taxes/gifts and devotion to guaranteed themselves in themselves a place in the Church since their births (Document 9). This showed how they had much power over all the other classes in medieval society, especially when the Truce of God was proclaimed to control knights from committing felonies on holy days (Document 4 and

In the middle ages, the church had complete power over the peasants. They had the peasants’ farm land for them and even pay taxes. The church influenced peasants to pay tithes, otherwise known as taxes, by threatening them. The church convinced the peasants that if they did not pay taxes then their souls would go to Hell in the afterlife. The poor had to pay ten percent of their earnings to the vastly rich church every year. All of the peasants are too scared to stand against the church

Feudalism is “a political, military and social system in the Middle Ages, based on the holding of lands in fief” (Dictionary). The feudal system relies on a very strict hierarchy. There are fewer people working on the lord’s land and the land that had usually been the main source of the economy was now valueless. The foundation of feudalism relied upon was broken, which lead to the end of the feudal system. Also, the medieval people believed that the church has a direct context to God. However, the churches were not able to provide an explanation of the plague or stop the plague from happening. Because of this, their authority and power were questioned by many followers and many of them lost faith in God and turned

Feudalism provided security of the people of the Medieval Europe by working for nobles and knights to get protection in return. Also, “the peasants or serfs worked the land for the knights and nobles and in return they received protection and a portion of the harvest to feed to their families” (Doc. 1). This states that when serfs worked for nobles and knights, they

The medieval world placed God at the centre of existence, leaving the individual and the

Life as a serf or peasant was not easy. Serfs were bound to their lord's land and required to do services for him. Although they could not be sold like slaves, they had no freedom (Ellis and Esler 219-244). Peasants farmed for the goods that the lord and his manor needed. They went through difficult hardship because of this. Peasants were heavily taxed and had to provide for themselves the goods that they needed (“The Middle Ages”). According to the medieval law, the peasants were not considered to 'belong to' themselves (“The Middle Ages”). Although serfs were peasants and had relatively the same duties and similar rights, what differentiated a peasant from a serf was that a peasant was not bound to the land (“The Middle Ages”). Peasants had no schooling and no knowledge of the outside world (Ellis and Esler 219-244). They rarely traveled more than a couple miles outside of their villages. All members of a peasant family, including children, tended crops, farmed, and did some sort of work to help out (Ellis and Esler 224). Very few peasants lived past the age of 35 because of hunger in the winter and the easy development and transmission of disease (Ellis and Esler 224).