How was it like to be a peasant during the Middle Ages?

Peasants were resented in the Middle Ages. It did not matter how intelligent or highly ambitious you were. You see, the prevailing worldview in the Middle Ages was referred to as the “great chain of being.” This was the idea that every living thing had a place in an orderly and fixed hierarchy established by God himself, and to move this hierarchy was undesirable. And so if you were born poor, you were to remain poor your entire life. Any effort to get out of poverty was deemed disruptive to this social order established by God.

If you are familiar with papal history, then you might have heard of Pope Sylvester II. Born to an undistinguished family in France, he joined a local monastery where he proved to be a brilliant student. In those days, the church was the centre of learning and literature. And so monks and priests were often proficient scribes and mathematicians who lived a life of academic rigour. Pope Sylvester II was such a brilliant mathematician that he landed a job as a tutor to the future Roman Emperor Otto II.

As he progressed in life, he ended up in the highest circles of both Church and State. When Otto II finally became emperor, he appointed Sylvester as the Archbishop of Ravenna in 998 and supported his election as Pope in 999. However, social mobility could only take him so far. Because of his undistinguished family background, the Roman and French nobility conspired to depose and replace him with Theophylactus of Tusculum, the son of a Roman nobleman, in 1032. In fact Theophylactus’ father obtained his election by bribery, making him one of the youngest popes in history at the age of 20.

Pope Sylvester II had what it took to be Pope. He had the discipline to lead both the church and the state. His problem was his peasant background. He was replaced by an undeserving 20-year-old whose only qualification was having been born in nobility.