Scott Peck
Bruce Nye
HIS 255
12 December 2017
Medieval Lives
I would want to be a monk for several reasons. It was said in Medieval Lives that “It became the custom for rich people and fighting men like the Norman soldiers, whose ways of life put their souls in such great jeopardy, to pay the monks to do the praying they were too busy to do for themselves” (Jones and Ereira 92). To me, this seems like a really easy task to do and a good way to make money.
In addition to this, monks made a good sum of money through indulgences. It was said in Medieval Lives that “In the fourteenth century pilgrim indulgencies were extended even further, negating guilt itself and giving the opportunity of acquiring an indulgence of the souls of those already in purgatory” (Jones and Ereira 104). This means that if a person decided not to go on the pilgrimage they could achieve the same result by paying the church the money they would have spent if they had gone. While this is kind of immoral, it seems like an easy way to make …show more content…
It was said, in Medieval Lives, that “Each week contained at least one feast day on which the unfortunate monks would have to deal with something like 16 dishes” and “even on a normal working day the menu available to them was one that most lay folk could only have dreamt about” (Jones and Ereira 108). It was also said in Medieval Lives that “on a typical day beef, boiled mutton, roast pork and roast mutton were served at dinner in the misericord, while meat fritters and deer entrails were served in the refectory” (Jones and Ereira 108). It addition to this it was said, in Medieval Lives, that “It was clear that the monks were taller than the lay people (suggesting they were better nourished all their lives) and had much worse teeth (indicating a sweeter diet)” (Jones and Ereira 109). I would rather be well nourished and have bad teeth than be malnourished and have good