Why Were Medieval Churches so Powerful?

A detailed Summary of Why Were Medieval Churches so Powerful?

Medieval churches have been around for hundreds of years in their time and have maintained their power throughout. There are many reasons why this is- some say because of Economic reasons, the church's influence on people, how popular the churches were and many more. The rest of this essay will explain these and more reasons in detail of why medieval churches were so powerful.

First of all, the churches were very popular. On a normal basis, people spent most of their time at church. Here are some examples of why this is...

Normally the priest knew how to read and write, this was good because people from local villagers nearby would take their children or themselves to church, not to worship often but to be educated (learn to read and write) by the priest. The priest's knowledge of reading and writing also comes to use when the church receives news from other parts of the country. Many people at that time came to church to receive important news from the priest because they themselves didn't know how to read or write. This meant more people came to church which made it powerful. Celebrations and special occasions were also held in the building, for instance... weddings, christenings and funerals. Many villagers w

All the examples given above are related to more people going to church. The more people who go the church the more powerful it is because it meant the church had many supporters behind it, which made it powerful.

The priests in those days were incredibly rich, much richer than the villagers and peasants. Priests were also landlords. Every week, they receive what is called a 'tithe' from the peasants who work on their land. A tithe is 1/10 of what the peasants owned, and they would pay them in order to stay on their land. The priest owned a big plot of land in different places, so there were churches everywhere, to be precise 25% of the land were owned by the church- whereas the king only owned 20%. Priests also owned glebes- this is the best part of the land, villagers and peasants looked up to this. With so much money, the churches also had a lot of resources such as... books and feathers/ink that many people look up to. If they didn't have these resources, they wouldn't have known how to read or write which reduces the chance of the church being popular. All these examples above are all related to the church being rich. The richer the church, the more powerful it was because it showed the status of the church- whether it was a high class, a lower class or just nothing. Also if the church was rich, people will look up to it and respect it. (MONEY IS POWER)

Another reason why the church was so powerful was because people were frightened of

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Approximate Word count = 985
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Religion