Medieval Society, Culture, Art, and Architecture

Medieval Society

Society was divided into privileged and non-privileged estates:

• Privileged Estates: Nobility and clergy. Members were subject to different laws than the rest.
• Non-privileged Estates: People who weren't members of the clergy or nobility. Most were peasants, but there were also craftsmen, traders, etc.

Nobility

Nobles were dedicated to fighting wars.

• Higher Nobility: Consisted of dukes, marquises, counts, etc. They were vassals of the king and lords of other vassals of lower rank. They lived in castles, collected taxes, and administered justice in their fiefs.

Clergy

There were two different groups of clergy:

• Secular Clergy: Priests that depended on a bishop.
• Regular Clergy: Members of a religious order who lived in a monastery.

• Higher Clergy: Bishops and abbots that generally belonged to noble families.
• Lower Clergy: The rest of the clergy: Monks, priests, etc.

Peasants

Peasants made up 90% of the population and had to pay tithe.

• Free Peasants: Cultivated the tenements. Could leave the fief. If they committed a crime, they were judged by a lord and had to perform certain services on the demesne. Paid taxes to the lord.
• Serfs: Couldn't leave the fief. Needed permission from the lord to do certain activities. Had to pay taxes. Most worked on the demesne lands. Some carried out domestic tasks in the lord's castle.

Medieval Culture

During the first centuries of the Middle Ages, cultural activity was reduced to monasteries, where monks copied ancient manuscripts in order to prevent their disappearance. Teaching took place in monastic schools and cathedral schools. The first universities were founded.

Romanesque Art and Architecture

From the end of the 10th century until the beginning of the 13th century, the artistic style of Christian Europe was Romanesque.

Romanesque main features were:

• It was essentially religious art.
• It developed primarily in rural areas.
• Monastic orders and the development of pilgrim routes helped it to spread throughout Europe.

Romanesque Architecture

The most common buildings were religious buildings like churches and monasteries made of stone.

Different kinds of vaults, like barrel vaults and groin vaults, and semicircular arches were used. Walls were thick. Doors and windows were semicircular with archivolts, but there weren't many. The main supports were pillars. Columns had capitals. Churches often had a basilica plan, a Latin-cross plan, or a central plan. In the chancel, there was one or several apses. Some churches had an ambulatory.