Religion in Norman England

• Religion


  Getting people to attend Church so they can live a good life in order to go into Heaven
• Law

  • Heard cases that happened on Church land
  • Carried out Justice in the King's name
• Politics

  • Leading members of the Church advised the King on issues of national importance as members of the Witan
  • Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots and occasionally Abbesses (Female leaders of Convents) and Priests were members of the Witan
  • The Archbishops of Canterbury, York and Winchester were Senior members of the Witan
• Role of Priests

  • Helped the sick
  • Heard confessions
  • Married people
  • Baptised children
  • Provided advice to everyone in the community
• Health

  • Belief that disease was a punishment from God
  • Priests would pray for the sick and recommend they make a penance for their sins in order to get better
• Education

  • Church was the only institution to produce books
  • All texts and illustrations were hand copied by Monks (Only ones who were legible)
  • This meant all books and information were passed by the Church
• Pilgrimage

  • Those who could afford it went on journeys to Jerusalem and the Church of St Etienne (Where William 1 and his wife were buried
  • Others went on journeys to Abbeys and Monasteries in England
• Economics

  • Church owned 25% of the Land
  • Peasants were forced to work on Church land for free, it was believed if they didn't God would punish them
  • Collected Tithes (10% of taxes on farm land) paid in the form of supplies such as seeds and tools, stored in a tither barns
  • Other taxes were paid to the priest at certain times like Easter Dues
  • People were taxed when they died for their marriage, baptism and funeral - called Surplice Fees
• What form of art made people in Norman England so religious?

  Doom Paintings (Depictions of Life after death)