Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading - George Park Fisher

ECCLESIASTICAL FEUDALISM.—The clergy were included in the feudal system. The bishop was often made the count, and, as such, was the suzerain of all the nobles in his diocese. Cities were often under the suzerainty of bishops. Besides their tithes, the clergy had immense landed possessions. The abbots and bishops often availed themselves of the protection of powerful vassals, of whom they were the suzerains. On the other hand, bishops, who were also themselves dukes or counts, sometimes did homage for their temporalities to lay suzerains, especially to the king. In France and in England, in the middle ages, the feudal clergy possessed a fifth of all the land; in Germany, a third. The church, through bequests of the dying and donations from the living, constantly increased its possessions. It might be despoiled, but it could defend itself by the terrible weapon of excommunication.

SERFS AND VILLAINS.—In the eleventh century Europe was thus covered with a multitude of petty sovereigns. Below the body of rulers, or the holders of fiefs, was the mass of the people. These were the serfs,—the tillers of the ground, who enjoyed some of the privileges of freemen, and who, since they were attached to the seigneurie, could not be sold as slaves. The villains were a grade above the serfs. The term (from villæ) originally meant villagers. They paid rent for the land which the proprietor allowed them to till; but they were subject, like the serfs, to the will of the suzerain; and the constant tendency was for them to sink into the inferior condition. Slavery, as distinguished from serfdom, gradually passed away under the emancipating spirit fostered by Christianity and the Church.

THE INHERITANCE OF FIEFS.—At first the Salic principle, which excluded females from inheriting fiefs, prevailed. But that gave way, and daughters were preferred in law to collateral male relatives. When a female inherited, the fief was occupied by the suzerain up to the time of her marriage. It never ceased to be under the protection of the sword. In France, the right of primogeniture was established, but with important qualifications, which varied in different portions of the country. The eldest, however, always had the largest portion. In Germany, the tendency to the division of fiefs was more prevalent. Among the Normans in England, and under their influence in Palestine, the law of inheritance by the eldest was established in its full rigor.

SPIRIT OF FEUDALISM.—Feudalism had more vitality than the system of absorbing all the land by a few great proprietors, which existed in the period of the decline of the Roman Empire. Individuality, courage, the proud sense of belonging to an aristocratic order, were widely diffused among the numerous feudal landowners. The feeling of loyalty among them was a great advance upon the blind subjection of the slave to his master. But the weight of feudalism was heavy on the lower strata of society. The lord was an autocrat, whose will there was neither the power nor the right to resist, and who could lay hold of as much of the labor and the earnings of the subject as he might choose to exact. The petty suzerain, because his needs were greater, was often more oppressive than the prince. The serf could not change his abode, he could not marry, he could not bequeath his goods, without the permission of his lord.

THE SAXON, FRANCONIAN, AND HOHENSTAUFEN IMPERIAL HOUSES.

2, Leopold III, Marquis of Austria, d. 1136.

2, Adelaide, a Russian princess.

1 Conrad I and Henry I seem to have been related. By one account their mothers were the daughters of Emperor Arnulf.