Fideles. See Faithful.
Fidelis, St., properly Marcus Roy, was born at Sigmaringen in 1577. He studied law, and in 1604-10 visited the principal cities of Europe, but on his return he quitted his profession, and entered the order of the Capuchins under the name of Fidelis. After studj'ing theology in the convents of Constance and Frauenfeld, he was ordained, and in 1G21 obtained charge of Feld- kirch, in Vorarlberg, Tyrol. Here he labored with great success, tiying to re-establish the sway of the Roman Church among the Grisons. "When Austria afterwards attempted to put down Protestantism by force of arms, Fidelis was sent by the pope as a mem- ber of the Propaganda, and the ruflSan general Baldi- ron, with his dragoons, travelled from town to town ex- terminating those who refused to obey. But the peas- ants rose, defeated Bnldiron, and only siKired his life upon his taking the oath not to bear arms against them any more. The promise was soon broken ; but tha peasants rose again, and during the insurrection, Fide« lis, having fallen into tlie hands of a party of peasants, was put to death, April 24, 1622. He was canonized by Clement XIII.— Herzog, Real-Encijllop. iv, 403.
Fidelinm Missa, ]\[ass of the Faithful. Undet the Arcnni L}iscipl>na (q. v.) the catechumens were ncf> permitted to partake of the Lord's Supper with the
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faithful (q. v.) : they were allowed to join with them in worship only until the offertory. Then the deacon gave a signal to the catechumens to leave the church, saying Ite, vdssa es<, " Depart, the assembly is dis- missed." Hence arose the twofold missu, namely, the mlssa catechumenorum and the missa Jidelium ; the former meaning tliat portion of the public worship which was psrformod before the dismissal of the cute- chumens, and the latter that portion wluch was con- tinued until the communicants wentawaj". — Bingham, Oriff. Ecd. bk. xiii, ch. i, § 3 ; bk. xv, ch. i, § 1 ; Far- rar, Bictiomiri/, s. v. See Mass.
Fief, Peod, Feud; Fevidalisni : Feudal System. These terms relate to the peculiar organ- ization of society in Western Europe during the Mid- dle Ages, and specifically to institutions afl'ecting real estata more profoundly than it has ever been affected b\' anj^ others — institutions whose influence is still manifest in the language, doctrines, and procedure of law tln-oughout Christendom.
A fief, fcod, feud, or fee is an estate — and, primarily, an estate in land — held of a superior on condition of the faithful discharge of prescribed services, chiefly militarJ^ Feudalism denotes the essential character of the organization founded on the basis of such es- tates, and is frequently employed in a concrete sense to signify the organization itself and its accompani- ments. The Feudal System is the name given to this organization, or to that body of institutions, political and social, establislied upon tlie military tenure of land which characterized the rising Ivingdoms of mod- ern Europe. In the period of its incipient growth, in its maturity, and in its decline, the feudal system, lilie all other yiolitical arrangements, assumed diverse as- pects, and assimilated to itself otlier coincident tenden- cies, but its identit}' may be discerned through all its manifold transformations. Its existence has been dis- tributed b_v Sir Thomas Craig into four periods: I. From the barl)arian invasions of the Roman empire to the reunion of the Frank monarch}^ undsr Dagobert I in 628; II. To the restoration of the Western empire in the person of Charlemagne in 800 ; III. To the ac- cession of the Capetian dynasty in France, and of the Franconian line in Germany; IV. From the commence- ment of the lltli century to the gradual extinction of the polity at different times and in different degrees, in different countries. This division has not been uni- versally accepted, and is open to many objections, but it may be of service. The culminating era of feudal- ism may be assigned to the times of the first crusade, and to the earlj' ages of chivalry which constituted its bloom and expedited its deca}-.
An examination of the principles and phenomena of the feudal system will furnish all necessary informa- tion in regard to the other terms included in this title, so far as these illustrate the religious, moral, and social aspect of Europe during the period over which feudal- ism extends.
Under the feudal system the whole order of society rested directly on the tenure of land by militar}' serv- ice. Territorial possessions were granted by the su- zerain, or supreme lord, in consideration of prompt and gratuitous service in war, and participation in his de- liberative and judicial courts. Lands were held of the principal lords, or tenants in capi/e, by the lesser bar- ons, by similar obligations. By the like service, lands were held by vavassors, Icnights, and squires. Even the lowest tenure of all, the peculiarly English tenure of socage, frank and villein, was of an analogous char- acter, and secured the cultivation of the lord's domain, and the maintenance of himself, his family, and his re- tainers, in war and in peace. The system was strict!}' militaiy in its nature — a uniform organization from the crown to the lowest landholder, estaldisliing a regu- larly appointed army in scattered strongholds through every part of the country, to insure the support of the ■whole body politic in arms for the repression of do-