Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 5).
- Date:
- 1830-33
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 5). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![the bishops), whose duty it was to levy and command the army, instead of em- ploying the raw militia, who often forgot their military skill in long-continued peace, preferred their own attendants, now styled the vassals, and released such of the king's subjects as were willing to become their vassals, and pay a certain contribu- tion, from the obligation of serving in the national militia. The emperoi-s and kings cared little from what source the dukes obtained their forces, provided the num- ber was complete. Besides the advan- tages just mentioned, they even preferred an anny of vassals to the national soldiery, because the latter were bound only to serve in the defence of the country, while the former were bound to a much less limited, sometimes unconditional service, and were hence far more useful. Thus the national militia gradually went out of use, and gave place to the feudal militia. Another, and not a small class of men, including the wealthy families, afterwards called the inferior nobility, who cultivated their land by means of hirelings or bonds- men, were not anxious to free themselves from the militaiy service; for war was always their favorite employment. But they could not dispense with the protec- tion of the nobles ; on the other hand, their pride could not stoop to serve in an army which was every day sinking into dis- grace. They longed for the honor of be- ing received among the vassals of the no- bility, and consented to hold their estates as the feudatories of the nearest duke, or earl, or bishop. Often, too, from a feeling of devotion, they became the feu- datories of the great religious establish- ments. This is the origin of the great number of feudal estates in Germany at the present day, with the exception of the north-eastern provinces, formerly Sclavonic, and subsequently conquered and divided among vassals. They were bound, like other vassals, under the penal- ty of losing their lands, to follow their lord in all his quarrels against any person excepting other lords of whom they held lands, and excepting also the emperor and empire. Moreover, in war, the vas- sals were recjuired to throw open their fortresses and castles for the use of their masters. The dukes, and counts, and bishops, who were i)aid in fiefs for their several services, stood in this relation to the emperor ; and inferior landed propri- etors stood also in the same relation to the superior nobility (for this was the origin of the inferior nobility). Rich and adventurous peasants, likewise, who pre- ferred honorable vassalage to honest but despised patronage, invested some noble- man with their lauds, or were invested by him, with the consent of the lord para- mount, with a further portion of his feu- dal territory (under tenants). The in- vestiture was made, froni the time of the Saxon emperors, in the great vice-regal fiefs, by a banner (which was the ensign of command); in tlie inferior ones by a sword ; and in the spiritual fiefs, by a ring and a staff; after the peace of Worms, in 1122, which confined the power of the emperor to secular affuii-s, by a sceptre. The castle-Jiefs, so called, were a pecu- liar kind of military fiefs, the possessor of which was bound to defend the castle belonging to his lord. The vassal who directed the defence was called, in the imperial fortresses, a burgrave. Thus the several orders of vassals formed a system of concentric circles, of which each was under the influence of the next, and all moved around a common centre, the king, as the supreme feudal lord. With military vassals another class arose. From the oldest times, we find in the courts of kings, and the governors whom they appointed, as well as in those of the bishops, certain officers, who at first per- formed active service, but were after- wards rather a splendid appendage to the court. The four offices of the marshal, the chamberlain, the cup-bearer and the sewer, are the oldest and most honorable, but by no means the only ones: offices, on the contrary, were as numerous as the employments which could be devised at court. These officers, at a period when money was scarce, and the old German notion in liill vigor, which considered none but landed proprietors as citizens, and none but the ownei-s of large estates as noblemen, were naturally rewarded by grants of land during the time of service ; and these estates, like the militaiy fiefs (but somewhat later, certainly not before the time of Frederic I), became by de- grees hereditary. The splendor of the court, and the advantages accruing from these services, induced many noblemen to solicit them. They became the first in the new class of servants or ministers which was thus formed; and under them there was a multitude of other servants, particularly on the estates of the nobiUty. Every farmer [villicus] was paid for the cul- tivation of one piece of land by the invcsd- ture of another smaller piece ; and there was scarcely a sen'ant of the court who had not been invested, for his services, with at least a house or a garden in the village](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21136749_0103.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
