Beginning of Essay
Introduction As the third year that followed the year on thousand grew near, there was to be seen over almost all the earth, but especially in Italy and in Gaul, a great renewal of church buildings; each Christian community was driven by a spirit of rivalry to h ....

Middle of Essay
.... more from all of the tithes all of the people who were born in the population explosion gave faithfully. Another even bigger source of income for the Church came to it in the shape of power and prestige, when the power of the church peaked in AD 1277. Not only was this a good time for the Church, but this was also a very good time for all of humanity. The standard of living dramatically rose, and along with it, the population of Western Europe shot up. In 1346, the estimated population of Europe was fifty-four point four million just before the plague hit and wiped out more than a third of the population.1 2 This was more than twice the popula ....