Peasants Belief In The Power Of The Middle Ages

Middle Ages DBQ Hard work, sweating, labor, torture, all this for a piece of land. Well, that’s how serfs and peasants lived in the Middle Ages in Europe. The middle ages was a time period back around 476 AD (OI). It was a time period back when knights and kings were a thing and where they had hardly any technology. The middle ages was a time period like in the movies when you see and old movie with kings and knights.

As the tenth century rolled about, the power of the Roman Catholic Church grew steadily stronger, the church had an argument with the normal Kingdom over who should rule supreme out of the Pope or the King, the church believed that the Pope who is the voice of God on Earth should be the ruler of the world while the peasants thought that the King should, the power struggle eventually ended with the Church coming out as the dominant force in the West. The Church passed a law that stated that everyone (mostly peasants) is forced to pay 10% of their income to the Church. The church had the ability to stop any laws that they did not like or make some new laws that benefited them, they were a very powerful group that could manipulate the peasants and knights in any way they liked, in Church there were photos of people being tortured in hell, this intensified the peoples longing for heaven and therefore extended the power and influence of the church. All Christians were expected to attend the mass and, by the 13th century, were expected to take the Eucharist at least once a year.

During the mid 15th century to the early 18th century almost half of Europe’s total population could be considered poor and destitute. The attitudes of the clergy and the attitudes of the socially elite toward these people varied from pity to disgust, and their proposed solution to these problems differed. Some suggested helping all of the poor by giving them alms, some warned others to be careful of whom the money was given to and some people believed that being poor was a voluntary decision and if they wanted to get out of that situation, they do so without the help of others. In particular the clergy supported alms giving, government officials and the nobility advocated controlled giving, and some of the middle class were suspicious

Between 1450 and 1700, attitudes toward the European poor changed dynamically, roughly following a three-part cycle. In the late 1400's, the poor were regarded with sympathy and compassion; generous aid from both public and religious institutions was common. By the 16th Century, however, the poor were treated with suspicion and harsh measures, to ensure that they were not becoming lazy, using welfare as a substitute for labor. Beginning in the 17th Century, the attitudes toward the poor again shifted, returning to more sympathetic views and responses, though many members of the upper-class still retained the negative outlook on the destitute of the 16th Century.

This can be seen the reports Leonhard Von Eck, Chancellor of Bavaria gave to Duke Ludwig of Bavaria. His thoughts of the peasants were “The peasants are blinded, led astray, and made witless.” He is clearly against the revolt and his undermining of the peasants was obvious as he believed he was far above them. He also wanted to remain at his position of authority and he wanted to keep serfs without compensation. Lords also attempted to justify their social status by displaying the idea of serfs as a fair economic transaction. This can be seen in document 3 we’re it is stated that “we, your lords, purchased this right for a considerable sum of money, and the serfdom of a Christian is no hindrance to the salvation of his soul.” The lords are attempting to convince the peasants that they are not justified in the decisions since it is a simple and “fair” economic transaction and they also manipulate their own idea of everyone being equal in the eyes of God. They state that no matter if one is a serf or a lord everyone has the opportunity for salvation. Eventually the noble’s massacre the serfs and in order justify their counterattacks to the revolts the noble’s act that the revolts were unacceptable and that the nobles were in the right to murder all those peasants. This can be shown in in the Decree of the Imperial Diet of Speyer by referring to the revolts as “unchristian” and “The common man… acted violently against his authorities.” Overall, the lords responses to the peasants was meeting them with force and justifying their actions by calling the revolts and peasants unchristian and witless, manipulating Lutheran ideas and, acting as if serfs are a fair economic

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

Their only real burden was choosing where they held their loyalty; whether Catholic or Protestant, they had a decision to make. A large majority of them saw Protestantism as a way of avoiding responsibilities thrust upon them by the Catholic Church hierarchy. Document 2 brings up the “Twelve Articles,” a list of peasant demands for the Protestant church. However, feeling devoid of responsibility, they did nothing to deserve any cooperation with these demands. While this new-found liberty was exciting for the peasants, they took advantage of it at times, angering the Protestant church with rebellions, specifically Luther himself. Document 3 brings up another example of the Protestant foundation being for everyone. It sought to let peasants be as successful as possible, rather than keeping them in the dark and in poverty as the Catholic Church did. Luther wrote, “Let the government, when it sees a promising boy, have him kept in school; if the father is poor, let it help him with church property.” This conveys Luther’s feelings towards the peasants, wanting them to reach their potential, while still helping the church, and being helped by the nobles. As it would play out, peasants typically converted to Protestantism, and were required to in England (under Henry VIII’s new Anglican Church). This impacted all of their lives, and unlike the Catholic clergy, it was usually for the

Peasants were members of the lowest class, those who work. They were the most common class. They were the millers, blacksmiths, butchers, carpenters, farmers, and other trades people. Peasant women in particular, spent much of their time taking care of children, making clothes, and cooking meals. They also tended gardens, took care of animals by tending chicken, shearing sheep, and milking cows (Cels 16). Within peasants, there were two main groups of people, the serfs and the freemen. Both were employed by the lords. And serfs were people that paid more fees, and had less rights. Freemen on the other hand paid less fees and had more rights than serfs (Noiret). While freemen could leave the manor when at whim, serfs were not allowed to leave

During the Middle Ages a peasant’s life was, indeed, very rough, there were anywhere from ten to sixty families living in a single village; they lived in rough huts on dirt floors, with no chimneys, or windows. Usually one end of the hut was given over to storing livestock. Furnishings were quite sparse; three legged stools, a trestle table, beds softened with straw or leaves and placed on the floor; the peasant diet was mainly porridge, cheese, black bread, and a few homegrown vegetables. Peasants had a hard life, yet they did not work on Sundays, and they could travel to nearby fairs and markets. The basic diet of a lord consisted of meat, fish, pastries, cabbage, turnips, onions, carrots, beans, and peas, as well as fresh bread, cheese, and fruit. This is by no means equivalent to the meals the peasants ate, a lord might even feast on boar, swan, or peacock as well.

This is a very useful source because it shows us how a peasant used to work in the medieval ages. It can teach us one small thing which we can then link to other well-known facts about peasants in the medieval ages. This tells us that peasants had to work really hard to make a living. The sad thing about this painting is that it only shows the peasants true working habits and their exhaustion. Where on the other hand, such people like kings might say that this was an exaggeration of the work that they had to do. Also, that the faces that they made were fake or that the peasants just wanted sympathy. This is a primary source because this is a painting of what peasants actually had to do. This was a realistic impression of a hard working peasant

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).

The time before the Revolution was hard for peasants as they were taxed heavily, “The peasant, the farmer, the townsman, from their scanty purses were drawn the large sums required.” The King and all the nobles “used their power badly”. Peasants paid their taxes “in coin, in kind, and in labour”, therefore they paid lots of money “to cover the value of the holding”, then had to send food such as “corn”, “butter”, etc. to the “big house”, and then he had to act as a workman for the noble (his master) doing things such as mending “the roads of his master”, “cart

1000, Wood’s description of the peasants was well done; the reader will get as accurate a picture of the peasants and their life style. Also, the role of the church is clear and its function in making life a little bit easier to live. Religion meant a lot in the middle ages, especially Christianity. Their devotion to this religion helped

“One-Ox” and “Luttrell Psalter” are texts that I think give an interesting perspective on village life. Based on my readings of “One-Ox, I would characterize village life in the High Middle to have been ruled with aristocracy, secularism, and church, with a strong emphasis on farming, money, and markets showing an agrarian society. The “Luttrell Psalter” shows images of agriculture labor by peasants, men, women, and children alike showing the importance of agriculture, as well as a wealthy class of magistrates, showing the same ruling systems present in “One-Ox”, but a market system, and secularism are absent.