the conversion of the Barbarians. They rather changed the object, than the spirit of their religion.

The Christian emperors had enriched the church. They had lavished on it privileges and immunities. These seducing advantages had but too much contributed to a relaxation of discipline, and the introduction of disorders, more or less hurtful, which had altered the spirit of the gospel.

Under the dominion of the Barbarians, the degeneracy increased, till the pure principles of Christianity were lost in a gross superstition, which, instead of aspiring to sanctity and virtue, the only sacrifice which can render a rational being acceptable to the great Author of order and of excellence, endeavored to conciliate the favor of God, by the same means that satisfied the justice of men, or by those employed to appease their fabulous deities.

Such of the Barbarians as entered into orders carried their ignorance and original prejudices along with them. They made a mystery of the most necessary sciences. Truth was not permitted to see the light, and reason was fettered in the cell of superstition.

The priests invented fables to awe the people into submission. They employed the spiritual arms in defence of their temporal goods. They changed the mild language of charity into frightful anathemas. The religion of Jesus breathed nothing but terror. To the thunder of the church, the instrument of so many wars and revolutions they joined the assistance of the sword,

E

Warlike prelates, clad in armor, combatted for their possessions, or to usurp those of others.

Without arts, science, commerce, policy, or principle, almost all the European nations were as barbarous and wretched as they could possibly be, unless a miracle had been wrought for the disgrace of humanity. Charlemagne, indeed, in France, and Alfred the great in England, as we have already had occasion to see, endeavored to dispel this darkness, and tame their subjects to the restraints of law; and they were so fortunate as to succeed. Light and order distinguished their reigns. But the ignorance and barbarism of the age were too powerful for their liberal institutions. The darkness returned after their time, more thick and heavy than before, and settled over Europe, and society again tumbled into chaos.

Letters began to revive in the eleventh century; but what letters? A scientifical jargon, a false logic, employed about words, without conveying any idea of things, composed the learning of those times. It confounded every thing, in endeavoring to analyse every thing. As the new scholars were principally divines, theological matters chiefly engaged their attention; and, as they neither knew history, philosophy, nor criticism, their labors were as futile as their enquiries, which were equally disgraceful to reason and religion.

CHAP. XII.

Of the Feudal System, and its Prevalency during the Tenth Century.

THE Goths and Vandals, who dismembered the Roman empire, considered their conquests as common property, in which all had a right to share, as all had contributed to acquire them; nor was any obligation whatsoever, entailed on possessions thus obtained. Every one was the king of his own little territory. But after settling in the Roman provinces, where they had their acquisitions to maintain, not only against the ancient inhabitants, but also against the inroads of new invaders, they saw the necessity of a closer union, and of relinquishing some of their private rights for public safety.

They continued, therefore, to acknowledge the general, who had led them to conquests. He was considered as the head of the colony. He had the largest share of the conquered lands; and every free man, or every inferior officer and soldier, upon receiving a share according to his military rank, bound himself to appear against the enemies of the community.

This new division of property, and the obligations consequent upon it, gave rise to a species of government formerly unknown, and which is now distinguished by the name of the Feudal System.

Towards the close of the tenth century, the feudal policy was become universal. The dukes or governors of provinces, the marquises em

ployed to guard the marches, and even the counts intrusted with the administration of justice, all originally officers of the crown, had made themselves masters of their duchics, marquisates, and counties. The king, indeed, as superior lord, still received homage from them for those lands, which they held of the crown, and which, in default of heirs, returned to the royal domain. He had a right of calling them out to war, of judging them in his court by their assembled peers, and of confiscating their estates in case of rebellion; but in all other respects, they themselves enjoyed the rights of royalty. They had their sub-vassals, or subjects; they made laws, held courts, coined money in their own name, and levied war against their private enemies.

The most frightful disorders arose from this state of feudal anarchy. Force decided all things. Europe was one great field of battle; where the weak struggled for freedom, and the strong for dominion. The king was without power, and the nobles without principle. They were tyrants at home, and robbers abroad. Nothing remained to be a check upon ferocity and violence. The Scythians, in their deserts, could not be less indebted to the laws of society, than the Europeans, during the period under review. The people, the most numerous, as well as the most useful class in the community, were either actual slaves, or exposed to so many miseries, arising from pillage and oppression, to one or other of which they were a continual prey, and often to both, that many of them made a voluntary surrender of their liberty, for bread and pro

tection. What must have been the state of that government, where slavery was an eligible condition?

CHAP. XX.

Of Chivalry.

MR HUME observes, that there is a point of depression, as well as of exaltation, beyond which human affairs seldom pass, and from which they naturally return in a contrary progress. This utmost point of decline, society seems to have attained in Europe, about the begin ning of the eleventh century; and, accordingly, from that era, we can trace a succession of causes and events, which, with different degrees of influence, contributed to abolish anarchy and barbarism, and to introduce order and politeness.

Among the first of these causes we must rank Chivalry; which, as the elegant and inquisitive Dr Robertson remarks, though commonly considered as a wild institution, the result of caprice and the source of extravagance, arose naturally from the state of society in those times, and had a very serious effect in refining the manners of the European nations.

The feudal state, as has been observed, was a state of perpetual war, rapine, and anarchy. The. weak and unarmed were exposed, every moment, to insults or injuries. The power of the sovereign was too limited to prevent these.