You are the fourth son in a large family. You realize that your oldest brother is going to get all of your father's lands and possessions. There is nothing you can do about this so you decide to become a monk.
2006-12-29 14:08:08 · 5 answers · asked by German Gurl 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
This wasn't an unusual situation in the Middle Ages. The oldest son got the lands and any titles (and could expect a good marriage, too), and the oldest daughter was expected to marry well and thereby increase her family's prestige, but younger sons and daughters were often at a real disadvantage.
The younger boys could attain knighthood and hope to pick up some money on the tournament circuit, or take service with some duke or earl or count and hope that they could make a living fighting. With any luck, they might capture someone of high rank and be able to found a fortune through ransoming this prisoner. With real luck, they might find an heiress to marry (perhaps the lord they were serving might have some wardships and either arrange a marriage or pass one of the wardships along to a good knight).
Some younger sons chose the religious life as a way to preferment, and some did so from a genuine desire for it. The same could be said of their sisters who entered convents, but realistically, few people in this situation were inspired by piety to become monks, priests, or nuns. For women, it was a convenient way to provide for their security and possibly some degree of comfort (consider Chaucer's Prioress), and for men it was simply an alternative career path. A bright young man from a good family could expect to become an administrator of some sort, collecting offices and benefices along the way--many had parishes that they never visited, merely collecting the support from them while paying another priest to do the work itself--and believe it, the pay was as small as they could possibly make it. He might even progress so much as to become a bishop, archbishop, even cardinal--but the papacy in medieval times was pretty well dominated by the French and Italians.
A well-born girl could probably look forward to becoming an abbess or prioress, especially if the convent was connected in some way to her family--a lot of people endowed convents in the Middle Ages and continued to influence the running of these places for generations. The same could be said of many monasteries, which provided for many a younger son with no prospects. Unfortunately, this led to abuses, as anyone might guess, and often the abbots and abbesses were no more qualified or suited to a life of self-denial (that was, at least in theory, expected of reliegieuses) than the average person was. Many of them just plainly didn't deny themselves much at all, and lived almost the same as they would in the secular world.
No wonder there were repeated calls to reform the church!
2006-12-29 14:49:29 · answer #1 · answered by Chrispy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Primogeniture: The succession of the eldest.
Actually, my family would send me to a parish or cathedral school to learn to read and write a little Latin. Then they would have me ordained, establish a church on their land, and install me as priest. I would live on the agricultural produce of the land attached to the church, worked by serfs. The local bishop would have to agree, because it's the family's land. It's called a benefice.
Alternatively, I would go on crusade and try to become a vassal of some lord in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Principality of Antioch, Latin Empire of Romania, Principality of Achaia, or Duchy of Athens & Thebes.
Also, there are monks, and there are monks. In the middle east, I would join the Templars or Hospitalars. Or I would travel to Prussia or Poland and enroll in the Teutonic Knights.
2006-12-29 14:29:47 · answer #2 · answered by steve_geo1 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I feel it is simple, a sense of betrayal, maybe? But perhaps looking at the bigger picture, did you set yourself up to believe you were entitled to this. The will, if this involves a death is the sole decision of the person who has written this will and we should all be grateful for what we have versus what we don't.
just a thought, respectfully so
2006-12-29 14:19:00 · answer #3 · answered by Angela W 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
faggetry, its a term my friends and i made up in iraq, and on our fagcon scale this is fagcon lvl 10
2006-12-29 14:20:19 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
YOU MUST BE VERY INSECURE, WHY NOY BECOME YOUR OWN PERSON ANDDO WHATEVER YOU WANT?
2006-12-29 14:31:04 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋