Religion In The High Middle Ages

of Rome . The creation of this new empire also further distanced the Byzantine Empire and church from the west, giving power of much of Europe solely to the Catholic church. By later in the 10th century, however, the church had lost a substantial portion of its power. Many officials in the church were being elected by political leaders. This resulted in a corrupt and secularized church, as many of the officials elected by the political leaders obtained the positions as favours. In 1050, Pope Leo IX attempted to reform the church to its original configuration by ending simony and investiture, as well as by enforcing celibacy in the clergy. This, however, created turmoil between the church and the Holy Roman Emperor, which led to a sequence of …show more content…
At the end of the Roman empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages, kingdoms and empires where ruled by a single individual with absolute power over both politics and military . During the high Middle Ages, many rulers lacked the power to control an entire country, only having power over a city and the area around it, with their distant lords acting largely autonomously. This, mixed with complex succession laws that would often lead to multiple claims to rulership and fractured kingdoms after the death of a leader, resulted in a lack of clear and centralized power during this time . This imperfect political system began to change during the 12th century. Monarchs began to create government institutions in the areas of justice, administration, and finance. These institutions allowed for uniform control over an entire nation, contrasting the varying laws and ineffectual rulership seen across single countries in previous centuries . As well as this consolidation of laws in a nation, this period in the late Middle Ages also brought about reduction in the power of monarchs. One of the earliest examples of this is seen in the Magna Carta, a charter written by English barons to their king, John. It required John to recognize the every “freeman” had certain liberties, and that his word would not be arbitrarily …show more content…
While this certainly is based in fact, social reformations over the course of the entire medieval era led to drastic changes in the quality of life and social status of an average person. The first attempts to increase the quality of life of the peasantry is seen in the rule of Charlemagne in the 9th century, in which he instituted schools for teaching Latin to the commoners. As well as this, he created Roman inspired institutions which brought in artists and scholars to his empire, though much of this was lost upon his death when the empire fractured . The following period, between the 9th and 11th centuries, marked the institution of feudalism and manorialism across Europe. This societal change, while increasing order and power in kingdoms overall, made life very difficult for the working population. The manorial system connected peasants to lords via manors, allowing them to be sold along with the associated manor at their lords will. Any land with good soil would be taken by lords who would build manors on them, making it very difficult for an individual to survive outside of the system . The life of peasants changed in the 12th and 13th, however, as manors grew due to a warmer climate, and attracted more individuals. As manors began to specialize their production and trade with each other, currency began to be used instead of