As we have seen in our previous article on the medieval church, this institution was the entity with the greatest intellectual and spiritual power in the Middle Ages. But this influence was not limited to these areas, but rather helped to sustain an enormous economic power. What were the main economic advantages enjoyed by the Church in the Middle Ages?
The church in the Middle Ages
We must remember that the Middle Ages (especially the High and Low Middle Ages) was framed in a feudal system of production, with feudal lords who received land tenure with farmers dependents (servants).
Within the long hierarchy of churchin the highest spheres we find those we will call “ecclesiastical gentlemen”. They would be the bishopswho exercised their power from the cathedrals of the cities, and the abbots who did the same from monasteries in rural areas.
The bishops Y abbots They were, like the nobles, possessors of fiefdomswhose lands were inhabited by dependent peasants with obligation to pay tributes. Given that both groups – laymen and ecclesiastics – functioned as a group exploiting the peasants, it can be said that they formed the same social class. They represented within the feudal society to the privileged sector, and many times, they belonged to the same families.
But beyond the wealth that implied the possession of these fiefdomsthe Church had another important source of goods. Significant amounts of property, from peasants and lords, were seized through donations.
In the sermons that were performed in religious services, spread the fear of hell after death. According to the beliefs of the ecclesiastics, to avoid this fate for the soul of the deceased, it was necessary to do good in life. One of the ways to purify donating properties to monasteries or cathedrals. That would help the priests to pray for the good fortune of the soul and its arrival in paradise.
These beliefs had a very strong diffusion and roots among all the social classes during the Middle Ages. As a consequence, large amounts of land and property were transferred to the Church, in fear of suffering in the afterlife. In this sense, the Church, as always, played with the ignorance and fear of the population, for something this stage is known as «dark stage«.
More economic advantages of the Medieval Church
In addition to the advantages of the privileged social classes, such as the possession of land and wealth, the possession of peasants who worked those lands and obtaining donations from the population for fear of passing to a better life without a purified soul , the Medieval Church still had a few more economic advantages that made them one of the most privileged classes of this era, in which Christianity was established as the dominant belief.
It should be noted that during this time the Church never prohibited the slaveryOn the contrary, he used it to enrich himself. At most, the Church of the Middle Ages established some limitations on the slave trade, for example, it prohibited its sale to the pagans, but they never prohibited them and in fact they used them to work their land or to offer them in exchange for political favors. or social.
It is also fair to point out that from the eleventh century and especially from these dates until the thirteenth century numerous movements arose that preached the begging and poverty as the true sign of faith. These movements rejected the life of ostentatiousness and power that had led to the Church and dedicated themselves to begging, in many cases they only pegged the rich. Some of these spontaneous movements that arose in Europe was that of the Beghardsin Germany.
These mendicant orders began to get rich and were criticized by the non-mendicant, who claimed that begging caused the numbness of the religious and his submission to those who had money.
In short, the Medieval Church managed, in one way or another, to be one of the richest estates, which also translates into the enormous and prominent religious architectural works that were built during this period, which could well be the symbol that exemplifies the economic, political and social power of the Church in the Middle Ages.
In Superhistory we have many other articles about the Middle Ages that you will surely find very useful and interesting: