1. By: Megan McGuinness
November 4th
6th Period

2.  The church was very rich and powerful during
the Middle Ages.
 The church was organized like a government
with laws. It even collected its own taxes.
Some of these taxes went to help the poor.
Most of the taxes were spent to build
beautiful churches.
 The nobles and the church worked together
to control the common people. They wanted
everyone to practice Christianity
in a certain way.
Cologne Cathedral -
the largest church in
Germany

3.  All Medieval people
believed that God, Heaven  From the very earliest of
and Hell all existed. 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 and the
people would have been
told of the sheer horrors
awaiting for them in Hell in
the weekly services they
attended.

4.  Peasants worked for free on Church land.
 It was difficult for peasants as the time they spent
working on Church land, could have been better
spent working on their own plots of land producing
food for their families.
 Peasants paid 10% of what they earned in a year to
the Church. This tax could be paid in either money or
in goods produced by the peasant farmers.
 As peasants had little money, they almost always had
to pay in seeds, harvested grain, animals etc. This
usually caused a peasant a lot of hardship for the
following year.
 If a peasant failed to pay their taxes, they were told
by the Church, would lead to their souls going to Hell
after they had died.

5.  You also had to pay  Whichever way you
for: looked, the Church
◦ Baptisms - if you were
not baptized you could received money.
not go to Heaven when
you died.
◦ Marriages - there were no
couples living together in
Medieval times as the
Church taught that this
equaled sin.
◦ Burials - you had to be
buried on holy land if
your soul was to get to
heaven.

6.  Being a monk was one way to stay alive during the
Middle Ages. Some young nobles became monks to
avoid a life of constant battling.
 Monks lived in monasteries or abbeys. They worked
and prayed. Women could also serve a religious life
as a nun.
◦ The first nun was St. Claire. She was a good friend of St.
Francis of Assisi who was a member of the Franciscan
Brothers. St. Francis felt all living creatures on the earth
were special.
 Monks were often teachers who taught noble
children. Some monks worked the land of the
monastery, growing vegetables, herbs, and fruit.
Some even had the job of praying for
everyone else.

7.  Almost all the churches that
were built during the
Middle Ages were made of
stone. A little wood was
used on these churches. It
was used on the
ceilings, floors, and doors.
 The early churches were
built in the Roman style
with round arched roofs. Worcester
Cathedral
Later the churches were
built in the Gothic style with
tall pointed towers. These
churches grew so large that
many collapsed within a
century or less after their
construction.

8.  http://library.thinkquest.org/10949/fief/lochurch.html
 http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval_church.htm
 http://francisandclare.net/orders_monks.html
 http://theonlinebibleschool.net/mod/resource/view.php?id=179
 http://www.learner.org/interactives/middleages/religion.html
 http://www.mce.k12tn.net/middleages/church.htm
 http://www.medievalhistory.net/build~g1.htm
 Pictures from Google