Medieval Church Flashcards
What were some of the bad things about Medieval sports?
People died in medieval football.
Where was the church located in a medieval village?
A medieval church was located at the centre of the village.
What were the medieval houses like?
“Wattle and Daub” were the villagers huts. They only had one room for the WHOLE family!
What religion was medieval Europe?
Medieval Europe was strongly Christian.
How was the church important?
Church services and the Bible were both in Latin, meaning that ordinary people relied on priests to help them understand (most couldn’t read or write I English, let alone Latin!). This made the church extremely powerful and wealthy.
They also had control of what people could believe and couldn’t believe - translate the Latin into something that they wanted the people to believe eg. if something read “everyone will go to hell” then they would translate it to the people in a different way eg. “everyone who does bad will go to hell.” This makes the people believe what they are saying and not the exact meaning.
What were the different responsibilities in medieval Europe (power pyramid)?
At the bottom of the power pyramid, were the peasants and villeins. A step higher, were the Knights. Another step higher, were the Barons. At the top of the pyramid, you had the King.
What were the duties of the groups of people in the power pyramid?
The peasants and villeins gave the Knights military service and labour. The Knights gave the Barons military service and the Barons gave the King loyalty and imposed laws.
What were the duties of the groups of people in the power pyramid starting from what the King gave to the Barons and working backwards?
The king gave the Barons land. The Barons gave the Knights land and the Knights rented land to the peasants.
What did the power pyramid mean about the power of the different groups?
The people closer to the top usually had less people than the powers at the bottom eg. there would be less Barons than peasants.
This also showed that most of the medieval population were peasants/farmers.
How would the King be threatened using the power pyramid?
The King relies on loyalty from the Barons if he gives them land but he could be easily threatened if the relationship between the King and his Barons broke down - there are more Barons than Kings at a time so they could easily overthrow him ( multiple people against one person).
What did medieval people believe?
They were strongly Christian. The Roman Catholic Church spanned their continent and was headed by the Pope in Rome. In general, people were very devoted in their beliefs because:
Life could be short and harsh - heaven gave meaning to this suffering;
It was the only way of understanding the world - very little scientific discover etc. ;
Farmers relied heavily on prayers to help grow crops - there were no modern fertilisers etc.
(see question on church for more on what they believed - covered in that question!)
In the Doom Painting, what different things were on the side of heaven?
In the Doom Painting, there were:
Musicians;
A church;
A heaven-like place in the background of the heaven side;
People worshipping Jesus on the side of heaven.
In the Doom Painting, what different things were on the side of hell?
In the Doom Painting, there were:
A hell-like place in the background;
Devils killing children;
Devils dragging children back from the Church and into their fire-burning hell-like place;
People not wearing clothes - the devils had stripped them of their clothes on the side of hell.
What does the Doom Painting tell us about the way the medieval people thought about heaven and hell?
The Doom Painting tells us that medieval people thought that after they died, they would be judged and sent to heaven or hell.
It also tells us that they believed in a “Doomsday”.
What was the purpose of the Doom Painting and where was it found?
The Doom painting was found in churches and its purpose was to scare people into following the right beliefs and teach them about heaven and hell.
It was taught through a painting as people couldn’t read or write so they would read the painting.
