The Structure Of Medieval Society Summary

From my reading of the chapter, ‘The Structure of Medieval Society’ by Christopher Brooke, I obtained a vast amount of knowledge regarding Medieval Society, that I was previously unaware of. Subsequently, I chose the following topics, which I felt were most important: the pope and the beggar, wealth charity and hopes of heaven, anointed kings, king-making, the politics of marriage and the landlords and townsmen.

The author, Brooke, opens the ‘Structure of Medieval society’ by discussing the Pope and the beggar. He outlines how twelve beggars approached Pope Innocent III looking for approval to live consistently with religious regulation of which included obedience, chastity and poverty. The Pope agreed. The author notes that we, people of the developed world, are not accustomed to the difficulties of want and poverty. Therefore, we possess a contrasting attitude to that of Pope Innocent

He mentions that Abbot Suger, did not agree with the previous so-called distractions of the church. He loved these glories and had the job of beautifying churches. One of which was St. Denis outside of Paris. The author notes how both St. Francis and Pope Innocent displayed the social disparity of the church and the medieval ages. While Suger provides us with a distinction between himself as a monk-statesman and the medieval government. Suger was a leading statesman in France, during a time when King Louis was away during the second crusade. The author interestingly, compares France to England during the mid 11th century. He points out how the English kings had no capital or the patron saint like French kings had at the time. When Westminster Abbey was built by William the Confessor, it became a focal point for the English kings just like St. Denis was for the French. To this day, it is still used for coronations. In my opinion, the English were learning from the French medieval society in order to improve their own