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Every king was supposed to have one Bishop in his court for consultation.

The rulings of the clergy affected everyone during the Middle Ages.

Peasant life in the Middle Ages was noticeably difficult. Families and entire villages were exposed to disease, war and generally a life of poverty.

most people across Europe were peasants or “velleins”

worked in the vast stretches of lands owned by the local lords

Working hard did not change your status. Your clothing, food, marriage, homes, etc., were determined for you. After the rank of king, the hierarchy was the nobles, the knights, the clergy (religious people), the tradesmen and the peasants.

You were born into a class of people and generally stayed in that class for your entire life.

the momentum started by these people tended to stagnate and it did not develop at the same pace until the Seventeenth/Eighteenth Centuries.

In Britain, as an example, most things linked to the Romans was destroyed – villas were covered up as the Ancient Britons believed that they contained ghosts and evil spirits. With this approach, it is not surprising that anything medical linked to the Romans fell into disuse in Britain.

Dissections of human bodies were carried out in these universities so anyone wanting to study medicine in the Middle Ages was not totally ignorant of facts about the human body.

Byzantine Art was the name given to the style of art used in very early Middle Ages Art.

Byzantium Art and its effects on art during the Middle Ages.

The Roman Empire was spit into two sections - the Eastern and Western part of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire fell when the German Visigoth

A monastery was a building, or buildings, where people lived and worshiped, devoting their time and life to God.

The people who lived in the monastery were called monks. The monastery was self contained, meaning everything the monks needed was provided by the monastery community. They made their own clothes and grew their own food. They had no need for the outside world. This way they could be somewhat isolated and could focus on God. There were monasteries spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.

only people in the Middle Ages who knew how to read and write. They provided education to the rest of the world.

It is estimated that by 1330, only 5% of the total population of Europe received any sort of education

Even then education, as we understand it, was not accessible or even desired by everyone. Schools were mostly only accessible to the sons of high lords of the land.

In most kingdoms in Europe, education was overseen by the church.

or safety and for defense, people in the Middle Ages formed small communities around a central lord or master. Most people lived on a manor, which consisted of the castle, the church, the village, and the surrounding farm land. These manors were isolated, with occasional visits from peddlers, pilgrims on their way to the Crusades, or soldiers from other fiefdoms.

n this "feudal" system, the king awarded land grants or "fiefs" to his most important nobles, his barons, and his bishops, in return for their contribution of soldiers for the king's armies. At the lowest echelon of society were the peasants, also called "serfs" or "villeins." In exchange for living and working on his land, known as the "demesne," the lord offered his peasants protection.

Feudal SystemThe Feudal System was sustained by the rights and privileges given to the Upper Classes and in most cases enacted by laws. Everything was a source of privilege for the nobles. They had a thousand pretexts for establishing taxes on their vassals, who were generally considered "taxable and to be worked at will." Kings and councils waived the necessity of their studying, in order to be received as bachelors of universities. If a noble was made a prisoner of war, his life was saved by his nobility, and his ransom had practically to be raised by the "villains" of his domains.

: In the early Middle Ages, the Church played a very important role in protecting ancient works, and monks were heavily involved in the “reproduction and preservation of the literature that had been inherited from earlier writers,—writers whose works had been accepted as classics.”

The monks who were not yet competent to work as scribes were to be instructed by the others.”

The copying of books was also slow, tedious, and very time-consuming; it took years for a scribe to complete “a particularly fine manuscript with colored initials and miniature art work.”

Puss-Drinking and Scab-Eating--The general populace scorned lepers for their appearance and disease. As an act of humility and caring, many female saints such as St. Catherine would care for these "untouchables" by licking away the puss in their wounds then eating the scabs. People considered these saints especially holy.

These men would take a ladder, climb up to the top of a ruined Roman column, sit down, and then kick away the ladder, vowing to remain there contemplating God until they died.