How did monks and nuns influence life in the middle ages?
1 Answer
From the 4th Century until modern times, Christian monasteries created communities that tended to be self-sufficient religious centres that provided many valuable services.
Explanation:
The Monastery movement spread through much of Roman Europe (and to Ireland!) before the end of the West Roman Empire. Monasteries, and then nunneries, provided a temporary or lifelong retreat from normal life into a spiritual community that tended to be self-supporting, and which often provided valuable support to the larger community.
Monasteries provided safe havens for travellers, schools, hospitals, refuge for the aged and dying, orphanages, and much else. For much of the Middle Ages, they were what passed for the 'social safety net'. Women in particular could find a life of dignity and purpose beyond that of being wife (or mistress).
They weren't perfect, and were often notorious. Unwanted daughters were often consigned to nunneries, and the portrait of the fat, lecherous, and ignorant monk appeared often enough in late Medieval literature.... just as zealous fanatics sometimes popped up too from 5th Egypt to Savonarola in 15th Century Florence. Some monasteries became powerful institutions, which could lead to the abuses that come with power.
Against this were the long centuries of architecture, art, charity, engineering, medicine, music, philosophy, scholarship, science, teaching and hard-work. The Benedictines were (and remain) famous for their libraries and devotion to preserving knowledge, Cistercians for many agricultural developments, Franciscans and Poor Clares for their devotion to those in need.
