In the Middle Ages, life for the peasant was very restricted and unfavorable.

In history class, many topics were covered reflecting on their life and the struggle

they went through to make it all worthwhile. Life for peasants could have been quite

dreadful. Yet, living had improved as Europe was closing the chapter on the Middle

ages, and the Renaissance was slowly coming into view.

There were some major problems with common medieval living. The

peasants made a hard living on a manor (headed by a noble), but were tied to the

land, as if indentured or enslaved to it. They had no political, economical, or

religious say. If they rebelled, they were considered upstarts, tried as heretics, and

often excommunicated or killed. The majority of European peasant population was

uneducated and illiterate.

The sanitary level of life was atrocious and appalling. People would usually

not wash for months or years at a time. There was little or no septic or sanitation

system. They also dumped rotten garbage near homes and in communal centers.

This situation helped yet another element spread incessantly throughout European

commonlife: disease. The Bubonic Plague was one of the worst pandemic diseases up

until medieval times because it spanned much of the European world. It attacked at

a ferocious rate, killing 25% of Europe's total population within fifty years. This

caused a widespread crisis about whether or not it was the infamous "days of

Judgment," based on the Bible. This brought many people to seek refuge in the

Roman Catholic Church for salvation.

There were some positive aspects to the peasants' life, however. As the years

passed, the old custom of serfs being tied to the land slowly diminished, and the

peasants soon moved up the ranks into merchants and middle class. With the

invention of the printing press later on, illiteracy dropped drastically because books

became more widespread. The idea of keeping clean soon came into widespread use,

and sanitation improved slowly but surely. This greatly decimated the cases of

disease.

To conclude this paper, I would like to say, in my opinion, that peasant life in

the Middle Ages was getting worse. While things began to change, it moved very

slow and there was not much difference until the Renaissance. The life for a peasant

was utterly depressing because he worked to the bone all his life, and must have felt

worse knowing that his future family would be doing the same thing. Also, the

elements of disease, no political freedom, and war would spiral depression

downwards. Peasantry was probably a long, overworked, and sad life.