The Life and Opinions of John de Wycliffe, D.D. (Volume 1); With a Preliminary View of the Papal System, and of the State of the Protestant Doctrine in Europe, to the Commencement of the Fourteenth Century (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1831. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... SECTION II. THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. PROGRESS OF ENGLISH COMMERCE. ITS INFLU- ENCE ON THE CONSTITUTION. THE DECLINE OF LEARNING. RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES. STATE OF LEARNING IN ENGLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. -- SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY ITS GOOD AND EVIL INFLUENCE. CIVIL AND CANON LAW. A SUMMARY OF THE PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS. CHAP. The elements of the feudal polity were not unknown to III. 'the Anglo-Saxon tribes; but the maturity of the system The feudal in England is to be numbered among the effects of the conquest. The new possessions of William and of his followers were acquired by the sword; and were to be retained, but by a military establishment, pervading every portion of the conquered territory. The barons received their lands from the crown, and on condition of appearing in defence of the king and of the kingdom on every emergency. On such occasions, the followers of each lord were determined--with respect to numbers and equipment--by the extent of his possessions; and these again were men who held their portions of the baronial estate, on the same conditions with regard to the baron, which had been previously demanded from that chieftain, as the immediate tenant of the whole, by the sovereign. Such, too, was the jurisdiction of those chief tenants of the crown, that every barony became a petty kingdom; nor were the exactions of the monarch from the aristocracy really so arbitrary as those which commonly oppressed the people, and in some cases even the military vassals, as subject to the will of these lesser or tributary princes. However tyrannical his superior, the soldier SECT. could hardly violate his oath of fealty without becoming odious;J while the greater part of the community employed in cultivating the soil, or in those ruder arts which were ...