Feudalism and the Church in Class during the Middle Ages

The feudalist system was used to govern Europe from the 10th to the 13th centuries CE. During these medieval times, the society was divided into groups and classes; each of these played a different role. There was a distinct social hierarchy whose basis was administrative control and land division into units known as fiefs. Land owners were referred to as lords, and they would give a fief to a vassal to get military and legal protection, money or produce. In the feudalism system, the social system meant that the king was at the top of the societal pyramid, followed by nobles, the knights, the clergy, the tradesmen and at the bottom, the peasants. The church contributed significantly to creating the class system because it also had a class system; the highest being the Pope and the lowest being the monastic orders.



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