The rest of the time the villagers were free to work their own fields.During the Middle Ages a peasants life was, indeed, very rough, there were anywhere from ten to sixty families living in a single village; they lived in rough huts on dirt floors, with no chimneys, or windows. Usually one end of the hut was given over to storing livestock. Furnishings were quite sparse; three legged stools, a trestle table, beds softened with straw or leaves and placed on the floor; the peasant diet was mainly porridge, cheese, black bread, and a few homegrown vegetables. Peasants had a hard life, yet they did not work on Sundays, and they could travel to nearby fairs and markets. The basic diet of a lord consisted of meat, fish, pastries, cabbage, turnips, onions, carrots, beans, and peas, as well as fresh bread, cheese, and fruit. This is by no means equivalent to the meals the peasants ate, a lord might even feast on boar, swan, or peacock as well. However both lords and peasants rarely drank water, due to the degree of contaminates in it, instead they often drank wine or beer. Serfs had neither freedom nor personal possessions and had to ask permission to be married, for they were bound to a lord for life. A serf could not leave the land under any circumstances, unless he ran away; if he chose to run to a town and managed to stay there for a year and a day, he was considered a free man. Even though it seems otherwise, the surfs did have rights; he could not be displaced if the manor changed hands, he was not required to fight, and he was entitled to the protection of the lord.Conflicts Involving the ChurchThe vast accumulation of the Churchs material possessions instigated a problem: Who is superior, the pope or the king? This question spurred a great deal of controversy during the Middle Ages; however the pope had an advantage until the end of the Middle Ages when the state finally defeated the popes powers of interdict and excommunication. Str...
