Reasons For The End Of The Middle Ages

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The End of the Middle Ages In 476 AD, the western part of the Roman empire fell to Germanic tribes. For centuries, people who had once lived in western Rome were constantly under attack from foreign enemies. Western Europeans needed both protection from the invaders, and a source of food. To attain these necessities, people developed a new form of government known as feudalism. Feudalism depended on the control of land and the promise of loyalty. In this form of government, the higher classes provided protection for lower classes, while lower classes provided food and services, and also pledged their loyalty. There was cooperation between classes. Christianity held the entire feudal system together, and the Pope was the most powerful person at the time, even more powerful than the king. However, many events caused a decline in the power of the Church, and resulted in feudalism no longer keeping people in order. Kings gain control, and people began to live more secular lives and develop new ideas about ways of life. …show more content…

All three events resulted in the decline in power of the Church. The Church was what bonded people together, and when people started to turn away from the Church, it lost its prestige. The Church kept everyone in their place in the feudal pyramid, by saying that staying in order would earn them rewards in the afterlife. Because religion was starting to become less important, people started living more secular lives, meaning they began to focus on enjoying life instead of preparing for the after-life. As the Pope lost the control he had over the people, power shifted to kings as people started looking to the monarchs to lead them. The end of feudalism started with a call by the Pope to a “Holy War,” or a

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