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Middle Ages Social Changes

1063 Words5 Pages

But in the late Middle Ages, there were many wars which killed large number of people. At this time, the people of Europe were horribly facing the effects of the Black Death, which was the worst pandemics in human history. The Catholic church began to have bad reputation as the priests did not help the people during the Black Death and angered people because of their wealth. After the High Middle Ages, there were many social and economic reasons that led to the decline of the Catholic Church in Western Europe. There were many social changes that had taken place in Europe that caused the Catholic Church to lose power and popularity. In the High Middle Ages, the first Universities were established, which allowed teachers and students to work …show more content…

The early Middle Ages consisted of instability in Europe and many invasions like the Magyars and new Germanic tribes like Vikings. These events caused a lot of panic and confusion in Western Europe, also took many lives and destroyed homes. In the High Middle Ages there was more stability and peace, which encouraged new innovations in agriculture like the Three-field system. This would increase agricultural yields rapidly and towns were created where people could sell their products. These were the reasons that gave rise to towns and they played a key role in the economic growth of Western Europe. It allowed peasants to move away from farms and make money by working in towns. The towns were attracting more people from the villages as it provided better opportunities to work and live. The village with its surroundings was known as a manor and the most people there were serfs, who were bound to the manor. They had to work for the Lord of the manor and were offered protection. But in the towns, people had more freedom and opportunities to learn new skills. The towns also gave people the ability to trade and acquire materials from other places. The economy began to grow as trade increased and people were able to make money. The lives of people before this was quite primitive, but with towns people were able to live in better conditions, mainly due to economic growth in towns. Thus, …show more content…

A major social change in the High Middle Ages was that people were able to open their minds towards natural facts and science. Universities were also built allowing teachers and students to collaborate. Ideas from other places, like the Greeks and Arabs were following into Western Europe. The Universities translated these new ideas which allowed many people to learn and open their minds towards intellectual thinking. All these social changes were bringing the people away from the Catholic Churches. The growth of towns was provided an economic growth for Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The towns attracted people as it provided many benefits to people and gave more freedom. People living in the towns were becoming more independent and did not like to take orders of the church. The church also collected a lot of money which was not supported by a lot of people. The growth in towns and economy caused people to slowly drift away from the Catholic Churches. Thus, as time went on more people were becoming busier in increasing their profits causing the Catholic Churches to gradually decline in

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