Manorialism

Manorialism

Manorialism came about during the Rome Empire. It can basically be described as the economic ties between lords and peasants. Manorialism was when the landowners needed to combine the control over both the land they owned as well as the people they had working the land. This was a necessity in the midst of the civil disorders, enfeebled governments, and barbarian invasions that inhibited Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries AD.1 During this time the small farmers and poor who worked the land exchanged either their land or freedom and guaranteed their services in return for the protection of the powerful landowners who were able to defend them with the military. With this agreement in place the poor and landless were given permanent access to plots of land where they could work and give the funds of the work to the lords who owned the land. Manorialism gave the society a stable social order where each person knew their place in society. People believed that society functioned smoothly when individuals accepted their status and performed their proper roles.2 As a result, a person's rights, duties, and relationship to the law depended on his or her ranking in the social order. This can be proven by the clergy of the time, "God himself has willed that among men, some must be lords and some serfs, in such a fashion that the lords venerate and love God, and that the serfs love and venerate their lord following the word of the Apostle; serfs obey your temporal lords with fear and trembling; lords treat your serfs according to justice and equity."2

Manorialism started with Roman times and continued into European societies up until current times. The impact of Manorialism on the development of the present is clear. Even in today's time there are the social class separations. Today there are classes of society such as high, middle, lower, and poverty classes. In today's

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