society, orders of

…the idea of the three orders of society—those who fight, those who pray, and those who labor—come into use to describe the results of the ascendancy of the landholding aristocracy and its clerical partners. In cooperation with bishops and ecclesiastical establishments, particularly great monastic foundations such as Cluny (established 910),…

…that human society consisted of three orders: those who fight, those who pray, and those who labor. The structure of the second order, the clergy, was in place by 1200 and remained intact until the religious reformations of the 16th century. The very general category of those who labor (specifically,…