ublic schools were strictly watched by the Church.While religion was a backdrop for everyday life in rural Europe, the main focus daily was working to provide for the family. The work habits were quite different five hundred years ago. The children were often apprentices in the family guild, and colleagues kept close ties. The families spent holidays together celebrating, and attended marriages respectively. If the wife's husband died, she took his place in the guild until the oldest child became of age to then take her place. As previously mentioned, parents retired soon after their children married and passed their businesses on to them. Peasants worked their lands strenuously, and earned just enough to support themselves and their children. In the twenty-first century, one rarely sees work and family tied in so closely together, unless of course, it is a family business. It is the differences of the past which help us to understand how far, or how little, society has progressed. By observing the similarities and contrasting various aspects of the ways of life in Europe during the 1500-1800's, one can more deeply consider the way life had been, and how far we have come in this world. †George Huppert, After the Black Death (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998)...
