In the 10th and 11th centuries the feudal system acquired its widest extension, assumed its full, sj-m- metrical form, and engrossed nearly all the functions of government, judicature, police, war, and industrial organization. It constrained and overshadowed the attenuated framework of the Roman administrative constitution (which, however, coexisted with it), and adapted itself to it bj' making the king the feudal su- zerain of the nation — the emperor, the supreme tem- poral head of Christendom. Everything accepted a feudal complexion and a feudal structure — " nothing but did suffer a sea-change." The process of govern- ment, the puldic revenue, the offices of state, the modes of jurisdiction, the command in war, the ecclesiastical constitution, the municipal arrangements, the guilds and corporations of arts and trades, the occupations of rural, mining, and other industry, were all feudalized. Ever3'thing rested on homage, fealtj', and the military tenure of land, or was assimilated to the forms spring- ing from that basis. As in the Russian empire, alj
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office or authority is invested with a military charac- i ter and desiy;nation, so everything under the feudal system adopted a feudal type. To this cause we must attribute the ecclesiastical baronies which arose during the period, and also the priestly warriors, the fighting abbots, and the knightly bishops, who inspire such surprise and disgust during the Middle Ages. The Koman Church, with the pope at its head, was the spi^.- itual empire, rivalling and co-ordinate with the secu- lar empire of Germany, and contending for a loftier supremac}'. The ecclesiastical organization became baronial and feudal throughout all its provinces and dioceses, as the counterpart and counterpoise of the feudal kingdoms, and duchies, and counties, under the acknowledged but disregarded suzeraint}' of the hoh^ Eoman empire. No other scheme, no idea inconsis- tent with the prevailing scheme, could be entertained among populations saturated with feudalism, and en- vironed with its universal atmosphere. How thor- oughly the Church had accepted the general feudali- zation is shown by an allocution of pope Innocent II to the Lateran Council, April 20, 1139: "The pontifi- cal throne is the source of all ecclesiastical authority and dignity ; so that every such office or dignity is to be received at the hands of the Koman pontiff as a feoff of the Holy See, without which enfeoffment no such office can be laufully exercised or enjoyed" (quoted hy Greenwood, Cathedra Petri, bk. xii, ch. i).
B}' this process, infinitely diversified, though ever essentially the same, society was slowly reconstructed and re-edified through long generations of anarchy, ■wretchedness, and foreign peril from new swarms of rutliless assailants. The elements and forces of a new civilization were thus collected and harmonized, and were recombined into a uniform and coherent system on the simple basis of fidelity between man and man. Ancient paganism had died out, and universal scepti- cism had supervened before the new religious faith ■which was to regenerate the world had been accepted hy minds still largelj' tainted with heathenism. All human trust had been betrayed and dissipated; all so- cial ligaments had been corioded or ruptured ; all de- pendence upon government, law, and public force had been deceived and outraged ; and yet — consentaneous- ly with the introduction of a new religious creed, and of fresh races to maintain that creed (Salvian. De Gii- bernat. Dei; Augustine, Civitas Dei) — the seeds of a renovated social union were sprouting in the dust and ashes of the dissolving empire, and grew up in the midst of violence and disorder :
" Per (lamna, per rscles, ab ip?o Ducit opea aniinuiiique ferro."
This new growth, from its earliest development, pro- tected life and property, rendered industry possible once more, sustained or revived languishing hope, de- fended the shattered relics of the old civilization from the ruin of interminable swarms of ever-increasing barbarians, disciplined communities in habits of obe- dience and order, renewed the culture of the soil, re- organized the nations, and inaugurated a new series of the ages by introducing loyal faith between lord and vassal, and the honorable protection of the weak by the powerful. The political renovation thus ran parallel with the spiritual transmutation, deriving life and encouragnment from it even when resisting its in- fluence, and confirming its dominion even while con- taminating its morality Ijv tlie infection of -worldly interests and passions. Though the feudal order nev- er realized in practice the ideal which its function sug- gests— what human institution has ever done tliis? — though sore blemishes at all times stained its actual manifestations, j-ot the strong but rare eulogies be- stowed upon it are full}"^ justified by the inestimable services which it rendered to the nations during the millennial agonv of humaiTity. High, •indeed, must be the merits which i>rovoke a eoncert of ])raise from such antipodes as Montesquieu and De Maistre, and
make the former proclaim his conviction that "the feudal system was the best-constituted government that ever existed upon earth;" and the latter declare that "feudalism was the most perfect institution that the universe lias seen." The criminations which have been so bitterly, and not altogether unjustly, directed against the feudal spirit, are applicable to its decline, when it had rendered its incomparable service to man- kind, and had become an embarrassment and a tj'ran- ny amid the enlarging industry, the augmented intel- ligence, and the ampler aspirations which its long du- ration had cherished and trained.