Introduction

Medieval society could basically be divided into three groups. Use the links above to learn who the members of this interesting and complex social group consisted of. Make sure to use complete sentences and include the question in your answers so that accessing this information later on will make sense to you.

Questions

1. List the three orders of medieval society.
   
   
2. Who are those who pray?
   
   
3. What was the difference between a village priest and a bishop?
   List three things only a priest could do in medieval society.
   Why did priests have a higher order in society than any other social group?
   
   
   
4. Explain what a hermit was. What did they do? Whose example were they following?
   How did hermit communities begin to form?
   Who first organized the monks? When? Where?
   What did St. Basil (ca. 360)do?
   Why were monks considered among the most holy in medieval society?
   What are the ideals of the Benedictine Rule?
   
   
   
5. Explain how the Dominicans dedicated themselves to fighting heresy.
   Contrast monks to friars. How are they different?
   
   
6. What about knights is a stereotype? Why?
   By Charlemagne's day, what did a knight tend to look like?
   What changed by the twelth century about the qualifications of a knight?
   
   
7. What is the German word for knight?
   What does it mean?
   
   
8. Who made up the great bulk of the population of Europe?
   Who are the townsmen?
   Why do you think that the nobility of Europe did what it could to ignore the townspeople?
   
   
   
9. Define peasants.
   
   
10. define the two types of villages.
    Describe what a village with poor soil would be like.
    Describe what a village with good soil would be like.
    
    
11. Describe a typical farm (one paragraph).
    
    
12. What rights did a Baron have?
    How about the lord of the manor?
    
    
13. Describe seven aspects of being a serf.
    
    

The Internet Resources

• Serfdom
• The Manor
• Farm
• Our English word 'knight'
• The Village
• Friars
• Monks
• Those Who Work
• Medieval Society: Introduction
• Those Who Fight
• Priests
• Those Who Pray
• Peasants

The Big Question

What are three main aspects of this topic? How would you chunk what you learned into clusters or a brainstorm map?