Power of the Church
The Medieval Church played a far greater role
in Medieval England than the Church does today. In Medieval England, the Church controlled everybody's life. All
Medieval people – including village peasants or towns’ people - believed that God, Heaven and Hell
all existed. From the very earliest of ages, the people were taught that the
only way they could get to Heaven was if the Roman Catholic Church let them.
Everybody would have been terrified of Hell.
Peasants worked for free on Church land. This proved difficult for peasants as the time they spent working on Church land, could have been better spent working on their own plots of land making food for their families.
They paid 10% of what they earned from a year of work to the Church (which was called tithes). Tithes could be paid in either money or in goods created by the peasant farmers. Peasants had little money, almost always had to pay in seeds, harvested grain, animals, etc. This usually caused a peasant a lot of hardship as seeds, for example, would be needed to feed a family the following year. What the Church got in tithes was kept in huge tithe barns. A failure to pay tithes, told by the Church, would take their souls to Hell after they had died. This is one reason why the Church was so wealthy. One of the reasons Henry the Eighth wanted to reform the Church was get hold of the Catholic Church's money. People were too scared not to pay tithes despite the difficulties it meant for them.
You also had to pay for baptisms (if you were not baptized you would go to Hell when you died), marriages (there were no couples living together in Medieval times as the Church taught that this equaled sin) and burials - you had to be buried on holy land if your soul was to get to heaven. So the Church received a lot of money. The Church also did not have to pay taxes. This saved them a lot of money and made the Church far wealthier than any kings of England at this time.
In Medieval England, peasants lived in unsanitary houses. They were filthy, usually no more than two rooms, with a wooden frame covered. No peasant houses exist now, most collapsed after a while since they were so poorly built. But, there are many medieval churches around. The way they were built and have lasted for centuries, is showing how well they were built and the money the Church had to invest in these building. Important cities would have cathedrals in them. Cathedrals were vast. They are big by our standards today, but in Medieval England they were bigger than all buildings including royal palaces. Their size showed that people would see them from miles around, and remind them of the huge power of the Catholic Church in Medieval England. To work on the building of a cathedral was a great honor. They would have used just the most basic of tools and less than strong scaffolding to do the ceilings. However, if you were killed in an accident while working in a cathedral or a church, you were guaranteed a place in Heaven, so the workers were told.
Peasants worked for free on Church land. This proved difficult for peasants as the time they spent working on Church land, could have been better spent working on their own plots of land making food for their families.
They paid 10% of what they earned from a year of work to the Church (which was called tithes). Tithes could be paid in either money or in goods created by the peasant farmers. Peasants had little money, almost always had to pay in seeds, harvested grain, animals, etc. This usually caused a peasant a lot of hardship as seeds, for example, would be needed to feed a family the following year. What the Church got in tithes was kept in huge tithe barns. A failure to pay tithes, told by the Church, would take their souls to Hell after they had died. This is one reason why the Church was so wealthy. One of the reasons Henry the Eighth wanted to reform the Church was get hold of the Catholic Church's money. People were too scared not to pay tithes despite the difficulties it meant for them.
You also had to pay for baptisms (if you were not baptized you would go to Hell when you died), marriages (there were no couples living together in Medieval times as the Church taught that this equaled sin) and burials - you had to be buried on holy land if your soul was to get to heaven. So the Church received a lot of money. The Church also did not have to pay taxes. This saved them a lot of money and made the Church far wealthier than any kings of England at this time.
In Medieval England, peasants lived in unsanitary houses. They were filthy, usually no more than two rooms, with a wooden frame covered. No peasant houses exist now, most collapsed after a while since they were so poorly built. But, there are many medieval churches around. The way they were built and have lasted for centuries, is showing how well they were built and the money the Church had to invest in these building. Important cities would have cathedrals in them. Cathedrals were vast. They are big by our standards today, but in Medieval England they were bigger than all buildings including royal palaces. Their size showed that people would see them from miles around, and remind them of the huge power of the Catholic Church in Medieval England. To work on the building of a cathedral was a great honor. They would have used just the most basic of tools and less than strong scaffolding to do the ceilings. However, if you were killed in an accident while working in a cathedral or a church, you were guaranteed a place in Heaven, so the workers were told.