id="n269">
269
By this I mean, that the divergence now first became clear to every observer; but the origin of the divergence dates from a much earlier period, as we shall see in the next chapter.
270
That is to say, their practical recognition; theoretically, they are still denied by innumerable politicians, who, nevertheless, assist in carrying them into effect, fondly hoping that each innovation will be the last, and enticing men into reform under the pretext that by each change they are returning to the spirit of the ancient British constitution.
271
‘Toute influence qu'on accordait à la science ne pouvait, dans les premiers temps, qu'être favorable au clergé.’ Meyer, Institut. Judic. vol. i. p. 498.
272
Early in the eleventh century the clergy first began systematically to repress independent inquiries by punishing men who attempted to think for themselves. Compare Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. iv. pp. 145, 146; Neander's Hist. of the Church, vol. vi. pp. 365, 366; Prescott's Hist. of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. i. p. 261 note. Before this, such a policy, as Sismondi justly observes, was not required: ‘Pendant plusieurs siècles, l'église n'avoit été troublée par aucune hérésie; l'ignorance étoit trop complète la soumission trop servile, la foi trop aveugle, pour que les questions qui avoient si long-temps exercé la subtilité des Grecs fussent seulement comprises par les Latins.’ As knowledge advanced, the opposition between inquiry and belief became more marked: the church redoubled her efforts, and at the end of the twelfth century the popes first formally called on the secular power to punish heretics; and the earliest constitution addressed ‘inquisitoribus hæreticæ pravitatis’ is one by Alexander IV. Meyer, Inst. Jud. vol. ii. pp. 554, 556. See also on this movement, Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, vol. i. p. 125, vol. iv. p. 284. In 1222 a synod assembled at Oxford caused an apostate to be burned; and this, says Lingard (Hist. of England, vol. ii. p. 148), ‘is, I believe, the first instance of capital punishment in England on the ground of religion.’ Compare Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit. vol. ii. p. 444.
273
Sir F. Palgrave (English Commonwealth, vol. ii. p. ccvi.) says, ‘it is generally admitted, by the best authorities, that from about the eleventh century benefices acquired the name of fiefs or feuds;’ and Robertson (State of Europe, note viii. in Works, p. 393) supposes that the word feudum does not occur before 1008. But according to M. Guizot (Civilisation en France, vol. iii. p. 238), ‘il apparaît, pour la première fois, dans une charte de Charles le Gros en 884.’ This is a question more curious than important; since whatever the origin of the word may be, it is certain that the thing did not, and could not, exist before the tenth century at the earliest: inasmuch as the extreme disorganisation of society rendered so coercive an institution impossible. M. Guizot, in another work (Essais sur l'Hist. de France, p. 239), rightly says, ‘Au Xe siècle seulement, les rapports et les pouvoirs sociaux acquirent quelque fixité.’ See also his Civilisation en Europe, p. 90.
274
‘La terre est tout dans ce système… Le système féodal est comme une religion de la terre.’ Origines du Droit, in Œuvres de Michelet, vol. ii. p. 302. ‘Le caractère de la féodalité, c'était la prédominance de la réalité sur la personnalité, de la terre sur l'homme.’ Eschbach, Etude du Droit, p. 256.
275
According to the social and political arrangements from the fourth to the tenth century, the clergy were so eminently a class apart, that they were freed from ‘burdens of the state,’ and were not obliged to engage in military services unless they thought proper to do so. See Neander's Hist. of the Church, vol. iii. p. 195, vol. v. pp. 133, 140; and Petrie's Ecclesiast. Archit. p. 382. But under the feudal system this immunity was lost; and in regard to performing services no separation of classes was admitted. ‘After the feudal polity became established, we do not find that there was any dispensation for ecclesiastical fiefs.’ Hallam's Supplemental Notes, p. 120; and for further proof of the loss of the old privileges, compare Grose's Military Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 5, 64; Meyer, Instit. Judic. vol. i. p. 257; Turner's Hist. of England, vol. iv. p. 462; and Mably's Observations, vol. i. pp. 434, 435: so that, as this writer says, p. 215, ‘Chaque seigneur laïc avait gagné personnellement à la révolution qui forma le gouvernement féodal; mais les évêques et les abbés, en devenant souverains dans leurs terres, perdirent au contraire beaucoup de leur pouvoir et de leur dignité.’
276
The great change of turning life-possessions of land into hereditary possessions, began late in the ninth century, being initiated in France by a capitulary of Charles the Bald, in 877. See Allen on the Prerogative, p. 210; Spence's Origin of the Laws of Europe, pp. 282, 301; Meyer, Instit. Judiciaires, vol. i. p. 206.
277
That surnames first arose in the tenth century is stated by the most competent authorities. See Sismondi, Hist. de Français, vol. iii. pp. 452-455; Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 138; Monteil, Hist. des divers Etats, vol. iii. p. 268; Petrie's Ecclesiast. Archit. pp. 277, 342. Koch (Tableau des Révolutions, vol. i. p. 138) erroneously says, ‘c'est pareillement aux croisades que l'Europe doit l'usage des surnoms de famille;’ a double mistake, both as to the date and the cause, since the introduction of surnames being part of a large social movement, can under no circumstances be ascribed to a single event.
278
On this process from the end of the ninth to the twelfth century, compare Hallam's Supplemental Notes, pp. 97, 98; Dalrymple's Hist. of Feudal Property, p. 21; Klimrath, Hist. du Droit, vol. i. p. 74.
279
As to the origin of armorial bearings, which cannot be traced higher than the twelfth century, see Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. pp. 138, 139; Ledwich, Antiquities of Ireland, pp. 231, 232; Origines du Droit, in Œuvres de Michelet, vol. ii. p. 382.
280
For, as Lerminia says (Philos. du Droit, vol. i. p. 17), ‘la loi féodale n'est autre chose que la terre élevée à la souveraineté.’ On the decline of the church in consequence of the increased feudal and secular spirit, see Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. iii. p. 440, vol. iv. p. 88. In our own country, one fact may be mentioned illustrative of the earliest encroachments of laymen: namely, that, before the twelfth century, we find no instance in England of the great seal being entrusted ‘to the keeping of a layman.’ Campbell's Chancellors, vol. i. p. 61.
281
Celibacy, on account of its supposed ascetic tendency, was advocated and in some countries was enforced, at an early period; but the first general and decisive movement in its favour was in the middle of the eleventh century, before which time it was a speculative doctrine, constantly disobeyed. See Neander's Hist. of the Church, vol. vi. pp. 52, 61, 62, 72, 93, 94 note, vol. vii. pp. 127–131; Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. pp. 248, 249; Eccleston's English Antiq. p. 95.
282
Where it was particularly flourishing: ‘la féodalité fut organisée en Normandie plus fortement et plus systématiquement que partout ailleurs en France.’ Klimrath, Travaux sur l'Hist. du Droit, vol. i. p. 130. The ‘coutume de Normandie’ was, at a much later period, only to be found in the old ‘grand coutumier.’ Klimrath, vol. ii. p. 160. On the peculiar tenacity with which the Normans clung to it, see Lettres
