Answer: In a system so divided between rich and poor, the peasants were the ones who felt the disadvantages of feudalism. Serfs made a subsistence living in which they had to forfeit virtually everything to keep their homes. Compounding that hardship were the often heavy taxes that these individuals had to pay. The manorial system was the most convenient device for organizing the estates of the aristocracy and the clergy in the Middle Ages in Europe, and it made feudalism possible.