Christianity became increasingly widespread, with church power intertwined with political power. A church or monastery was not just a place of worship on a Sunday, but a homestead for monks, nuns or other devotees who might work the land and live there in the same way as serfs would work and live on land owned by a lord or king.
This setup meant that the church required land, which was usually granted to them by the local king. The bishop or abbot in charge of a church tended to be well-connected politically – there are many instances where the bishop was the brother or close relative of the king.
As before, society at this time was very stratified. Law-texts from the 7th century lay out at least 13 different classes of person, from the King to the Senchléithe (effectively a land-bound serf, property of their local lord) to the slave. Slavery was very common.
