"There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled.
The Medieval Ages is the period of time between the fall of Rome in the 5th Century and the beginning of the Renaissance in the 15th Century. The Middle Ages was also characterized as the "Dark Ages" because it "described the cultural and economical deterioration as well as expressing what little was known during that period "("The Dark Ages,"). During this period, Europe adopted a feudalistic social system. Feudalism in essence meant, "the country was not governed by the king but by individual lords, who administered their own estates, dispensed their own justice, and demanded their own military services" ("Feudalism in Medieval life"). During the Middle Ages there was a very distinctive system of social classes each playing different roles in society. Church, royalty, nobles and peasant made up the social classes during the Middle Ages and determined what place people occupied in society.
In the present, the Roman Catholic Church has little to no influence in government as well as peoples everyday lives. In the Middle Ages however, the Church was a very authoritative section of the community. "The church basically saw itself as the spiritual community of Christian believers, in exile from God's kingdom, waiting in a hostile world for the day of deliverance. During the high Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church became organized into an elaborate hierarchy with the pope as the head in Western Europe. He establishes supreme power." ("Church and the Middle Ages"). The church during the Middle Ages held so much authority that they had an abundance of money as well as being able to have their own sets of rules for the Catholic followers to live by ("Church in the Middle Ages"). The Middle Ages was the period of time in history in which the church had the most power.