>>518848455
>Donated their work to the chirch most of the time? Had abundant free time?
Medieval peasants worked less than half of the year full-time. The entirety of winter was more or less just light chores and handicrafts because you can't fuckin' farm in winter.
Sundays were mandated rest days, Saturdays were frequently half-days, all major holy days (Epiphany, Candlemas, Annunciation, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Pentecost, Easter, Christmas, etc) were mandatory rest days, as well as a pretty big chunk of saint's feast days being either full or half rest days (This particular type of observance varied significantly by region) - and there are a LOT of saint's feast days.

And it's true that significant amounts of labor and material were donated to The Church for construction, but it's also true that this is hardly true of every grand cathedral - some where financed and built by the people, some were sponsored by nobility, royalty, or the merchant class, some were financed via taxes and tithes, and some like Rouen here were financed by a culturally blind 'indulgence'