The High Middle Ages: Feudalism, Social Organization, and the Church
The High Middle Ages and Feudalism
Characteristics of the Fiefdom
Many fiefdoms were self-sufficient, providing everything their inhabitants needed.
A fiefdom consisted of various areas:
- The castle: the lord’s residence, shared with family, vassals (knights), and servants.
- The demesne: the lord’s land.
- The village: home to farmers (serfs and free peasants), a church, taverns, traders’ stalls, and workshops.
- Tenements: plots of land rented to peasants in exchange for part of their harvest.
- Other communal areas: bridges, mills, forge, and furnace.
Travellers included traders, beggars, pilgrims, acrobats, and jongleurs.
Clothing quality depended on social status.
Economic Activities
Agriculture remained the primary economic activity, with crops including cereals, vegetables, and pulses.
Other economic activities included:
- Livestock (milk, eggs, cheese, honey)
- Hunting and gathering (game, wild berries, fish)
Meat was reserved for the privileged.
Livestock also provided wool, leather, draught animals, and war horses.
The economy was subsistence-based, with surplus sold at local markets and fairs.
Production increased due to deforestation and technological advancements, leading to population growth.
Social Organization
Society was divided into three hereditary estates:
- Nobility: responsible for defense.
- Clergy: responsible for spiritual well-being.
- Peasants and other workers: obliged to work for the rest of society.
The Nobility
The nobility had a hierarchy:
- Upper nobility: monarch, dukes, marquises, counts
- Lower nobility: knights
The Clergy
The clergy also had a hierarchy:
- Upper clergy: Pope, bishops, abbots
- Lower clergy: priests, monks
Peasants and Other Workers
- Serfs: partly free farmers and servants of a lord.
- Villeins: free peasants, craftsmen, and traders.
The Organization of the Church
The Pope led the Western Christians. Cardinals appointed his successor.
There were two branches of the clergy:
- Secular clergy: bishops and priests
- Regular clergy: abbots, monks, and nuns
The Political Power of the Church
The Church and political power were intertwined.
Monarchs influenced the appointment of bishops.
Excommunication by the Pope could condemn a monarch and release their subjects from obedience.
The Economic Power of the Church
The Church acquired lands and fiefs from monarchs and nobles.
The Church became a major landowner and collected the tithe, a tax on agricultural production.
General Characteristics
Romanesque art (11th-13th centuries) had the following characteristics:
- Rural style
- Promoted by nobility and Church
- Spread by Cluniac monks along pilgrimage routes
- Fortress-like churches with thick walls and few windows
Romanesque Architecture
Characteristics of Romanesque architecture:
- Thick stone walls, buttresses, columns, and pillars
- Semi-circular arches, barrel vaults, groin vaults, and domes
- Latin cross shape with apse at the end
- Portals on church façades
Romanesque Painting and Sculpture
Romanesque painting and sculpture served educational and decorative purposes.
Images were often symbolic, helping priests explain religious concepts.
Style was schematic, with rigid figures, inexpressive faces, and flat colors.
Sculptures were made of stone or wood.