Beowulf: The Role Of The ChurchBy: Steven Mitchell and Kayla

Felton

September 2, 2009

In Everyday Life• Gods in medieval times were

fact, not fiction from the lowly peasant to the high kings. Everyone worshiped.

• Such a thing as atheism had not even been thought of.

• The church held daily and weekly services along with special services for Christmas and Easter, baptisms and marriages.

• The church and service of God or the Gods, monopolized everyone’s lives.

Civil Service

• In medieval times, there were no schools. The church educated everyone.

• Men were taught to read and right in English and Latin.

• These trained men scribed for the church and for the government.

• The words “cleric” and “clerk” have the same origin for every church needed a “clerk” to become the “cleric”.

Tithes and Offerings• The church collected tithes at least once a year. These tithes were

usually grain or other seed, seeing as though most peasants had no way to pay in coins.

• Tithes were 10% of what people made in a year.• Tithes were used to feed the parish priest, maintain the fabric of

the church, or to “help the poor”. • A failure to pay tithes, peasants were told, was a direct path to

Hell.

Tithe Barns

• Churches received a lot of grain, animals, and other types of seeds as payment instead of coins.

• These things had to be stored, so churches started building barns to store everything.

• These barns were filled with rats that ate the grain, and urinated on the food, poisoning it.

Hierarchy of Church• Priests ranked as “thegn”. (baron)• Bishops were at least that of “eolderman”. (close to

king)

Later Corruption• The church did not have to pay taxes, making them richer than

usual.• The church also employed local peasants for free, not bothering to

pay them and still making them pay yearly tithes. • At some points in history, the church had more money than some

of the kings. • People had to pay for baptisms, marriages, and other special

ceremonies such as funerals.• Any way you looked at it, the church was a huge money making

scheme after the time Beowulf was written.

Works Cited• http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval_church.htm

• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442933/

• http://www.regia.org/church/church5.htm

The End