ABSTRACT
The stratification of medieval Europe can be described as an estate system, where the status of an individual depended upon one's function in the working of the overall society. The years between around 1000-1300 CE, which saw a slowing of the movements of peoples, are known as the High Middle Ages, sometimes called the "Age of Faith". Much of the economy of the Middle Ages was based upon manorialism, a term that usually refers to largely self-sufficient localized agricultural system that organized the labor of the village community. The church had considerable legal and economic power, as well as enjoying a near monopoly on literacy. The major secular institution of northern medieval Europe was feudalism, the means by which the nobility exercised both land ownership and political authority. By the end of the twelfth century, a process of systemic social change—a chain reaction of changes in one aspect of society that led to changes in other aspects.
