Adalbero of Leon

Medieval society, as characterized by Adalbero of Laon, can be said to have contained three social orders, “those who worked, those who fought, and those who prayed.” In theory, and during the period in which it was stated, this could be a reasonable assertion, although reality probably painted a slightly different picture. It seems an oversimplified interpretation of a heavily stratified society, one whose true nature should be separated from this idealistic description.

Around 1000 AD, there seems to begin a shift in the social and economic climate of Western Europe. Increased agricultural production due to technological innovations helped to boost the population to twice that of what it had been prior to the eleventh century. An increased birthrate, stabilizing political climate, and reduction of external raiding, as well as internal and external expansion, were also plausible causes for this boom in population. The significant changes in rural society gave way to several influences on the order known to Adalbero as “those who worked.” This order consisted of “an extremely diverse segment of society, ‘peasants’”(P.317). While in the eyes of the clergy and nobility, this group was seen as inferior, it is clear that without the

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Western Civilization; The

Continuing Experiment. ” The need for money to provide oneself with weapons, armor, and a horse were also factors that limited this order to the wealthy classes. The word “serf” emerged during this period, having shifted meanings from the classical Latin “servus” or “slave” to one who is “bound to the soil”(P.

During the fall of the Carolingians, there was a great religious decline, which by the Middle Ages left the Catholic Church in a terrible state. This new social class made up the majority of the peasants, and their existence was dominated by a conjunction of legal, personal, and economic influence (P. Serfs were often “excluded from judicial proceedings,” “denied the right to bear arms,” “ required approval to contract a marriage,” and could even be “set upon by dogs” or “flogged in public”(P.

The third group in Adalbero’s tripartite scheme, and perhaps representative of the smallest percentage of the actual population, was “those who pray. His presentation of the medieval world is valuable in learning about the aristocratic perspective, the ecclesiastic experience, and the biases of the nobility, but it does little to accurately describe the true demographics of the middle ages. “Because so many bishops came from great families and were so well connected, they were less inclined to be rigid about the line of demarcation between lay and clerical responsibilities” (P.

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