WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Monasteries, or communities of monks, provided hospitality to refugees and travelers. Monks also copied and preserved old texts, and in this way helped keep both new and ancient learning alive. The spread of monasteries and the preaching of missionaries helped bring new converts to the Christian faith.

Detailed explanation-2: -A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, and may also serve as an oratory, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Church was one of the main distributors of charity during the medieval period and gave out alms – such as money or food – to the poor and needy. Hospitals, run by religious orders, cared for the sick and poor, and gave shelter to travellers. As to where the money came from, the Church possessed endowments.

Detailed explanation-4: -Monasteries were also important centres of learning which educated the young, and, perhaps most significantly for today’s historians, laboriously produced books and preserved ancient texts which have greatly enhanced our knowledge of not only the medieval world but also classical antiquity.