Adalbero of Leon

A detailed Summary of Adalbero of Leon

Medieval society, as characterized by Adalbero of Laon, can be said to have contained three social orders, "those who worked, those who fought, and those who prayed." In theory, and during the period in which it was stated, this could be a reasonable assertion, although reality probably painted a slightly different picture. It seems an oversimplified interpretation of a heavily stratified society, one whose true nature should be separated from this idealistic description.

Around 1000 AD, there seems to begin a shift in the social and economic climate of Western Europe. Increased agricultural production due to technological innovations helped to boost the population to twice that of what it had been prior to the eleventh century. An increased birthrate, stabilizing political climate, and reduction of external raiding, as well as internal and external expansion, were also plausible causes for this boom in population. The significant changes in rural society gave way to several influences on the order known to Adalbero as "those who worked." This order consisted of "an extremely diverse segment of society, 'peasants'"(P.317). While in the eyes of the clergy and nobility, this group was seen as inferior, it is clear that without the

Noble, Strauss, Osheim, Neuschel, Cohen, Roberts. Western Civilization; The

By and large, the perspective of religion that has survived is that of the nobility. They were the ones who were educated, who were literate, and could therefore record both their daily habits as pertained to piety, as well as their greater common beliefs. Manuscripts of this period were expensive and limited to the opinions of the few who knew how to write; those that have survived offer little in the way of the general population's point of view. In fact, this skewed representation of the greater part of the medieval population is present in nearly every aspect of history, simply because those who did the documentation considered the peasantry inferior and therefore did not value their perspective, even though it was their labor upon which the elite classes depended (P.312).

Many serfs "entered into economic bonds" with the lord of a manor, a "key development in the Frankish West"(P.317, 299). The manor was a bipartite estate, usually surrounding a castle, in which "one part of the land was set aside" as a demesne (P.299). This portion was generally one quarter to one half of the manor's total area, and was exploited strictly for the lord's benefit (P.299). The rest of the manor was divided into plots called tenancies, and were usually farmed by the peasants for their own sustenance (P.299). However, peasants were required to provide labor services to their lord, working a certain number of days per year on the demesne, or were required, and charged to use the lord's mill and oven (P.318). These estates were of great benefit to the aristocracy, and in fact allowed the presence of one of the other orders, those who fought. Once the aristocracy was provided with the livelihood made possible by the labor of the peasants, they had free time for milita!

During the fall of the Carolingians, there was a great religious decline, which by the Middle Ages left the Catholic Church in a terrible state. Ripe for reform, the Church underwent several changes during this period, starting with the establishment of Cluny, a monastery in France, which was built by William the 9th of Aquitaine in 910. This monastery was different from those that had preceded it in that William, one, gave the monks the right to appoint the abbot, and two, placed the monastery under the direct control of the pope, as opposed to the bishop of the region as had been done in the past. This gave Cluny freedom from the trappings of the secular world, allowing the monks that prayed there to promote "two powerful ideas:" "the role of the church was to pray for the world," and "freedom from lay contro

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Approximate Word count = 1792
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History