The Church was powerful and had a lot of control along with the monarchy (although they were separate). You had to pay a tithe to the Church, and the Church would religiously impacted your life in a good way.
Even so, the Church maintained its power and exercised enormous influence over people's daily lives from the king on his throne to the peasant in the field. The Church regulated and defined an individual's life, literally, from birth to death and was thought to continue its hold over the person's soul in the afterlife
