During the Medieval times there was no central government to landless peasants and their families.Besides,war had destroyed lots keep the order.The only organization that seemed to unite Europe of towns,trade and business had declined,more and more was the Christian church.It continued to gain widespread power and townspeople fled to the countryside to seek protection from those influence.In the Late Middle Ages,almost everyone in western powerful landowners.In this way,the large landowners came to own Europe was a Christian and a member of the Christian Church. more and more and while the peasants ended up giving the lords not (hristianity took the lead in politics,law,art,and learning for only their land but their freedom as well.Most of them became serfs, hundreds of years.It shaped people's lives.That is why the Middle bound to the land where they had been born.Only very few peasants Ages is also called the "Age of Faith". were freemen,they were usually the workers who made the ploughs, Whatever names we may give to this span of time,this is a shod the horses,and made harnesses for oxen and horses. period in which classical,Hebrew and Gothic heritages merged.And Then in 732 Charles Martel,a Frankish ruler gave his soldiers it is this fusion and blending of different ideas and practices that estates known as fiefs as a reward for their service.They granted the paved the way for the development of what is the present-day right to govern large sections of land as fiefs to great lords.These uropean culture. lords known as vassals in turn promised to fight for the king.And they themselves further granted parts of their fiefs to lesser vassals. Thus,a complicated system of government developed.After 800, Ⅱ.Manor and Church the kings in Europe were usually very weak.Without a strong central government the kingdoms of Western Europe were divided into thousands of feudal manors or farming communities,each as big as an 1.Feudalism ancient polis.Some nobles grew more powerful than the king,and Feudalism in Europe was mainly a system of land holding-a became independent rulers.They had the right to collect taxes and to system of holding land in exchange for military service.The word make their own laws.Many of them coined their own money and "feudalism"was derived from the Latin "feudum",a grant of land. raised their own armies.Therefore feudalism was also a system of government-a form of local and decentralized government. a.Growth of Feudalism When the western Roman Empire grew weak,people lived in b.The Manor constant danger of attacks from invaders and robbers.They had to The centre of medieval life under feudalism was the manor. find ways to protect their families and homes.Owners of small farms Manors were founded on the fiefs of the lords.Some lords owned sought protection from large land-owners,by giving them land and only one manor;others owned many.They lived in a manor house. services.In return the large landowners promised to protect the The manor house originally consisted of one big room with a high 92 93