FEUDAL SYSTEM

(From the modern Latin word feodum or feud; in English fief or fee.) A body of institutions of a peculiar character, introduced into Europe by the German and Gothic tribes which conquered th.e provinces of Rome, which prevailed for a long period, and has left important traces of its existence in most European countries. The words fief and feud are both, it is conjectured with much probability, corruptions of the Grseco-Latin term emphyteusis (pronounced emphytefsis), signifying a contract whereby an individual acquired the enjoyment of a piece of land without the absolute property in it. Hence by contraction came fef or fief, and by the addition of a neuter term in a.twnfeiiodum,feudu9?i, feodum. Another derivation, recently suggested, is from the Irish " fuidhur," " fuidh," signifying, in the Brehon Laws, a stranger who enjoys land within the domains of a clan, and the tenure by which he enjoyed it. It is singular that the word " va al " is also probably of Celtic derivation. (See Va al.) The English word "feud" (quarrel or strife) is of an entirely distinct origin, beipg the same with the German fchde. The German equivalent for fief is another original word, lehn. It is clear that feudal usages were absolutely unknown to the ancient Romans; but as among that people, and especially in the later times of the empire, there existed certain customs which were analogous in appearance, although not in origin, — such as the establishment of military colonies on the frontier, where the tenant of land was a soldier, and liable to be called into active duty; and the cultivation of great part of the empire by coloni, a distinct cla of men, raised above the condition of the slave, and yet bound to render services to the proprietor, and in some instances annexed to the soil,— the barbarians in many instances adapted the conventional language and the laws of Rome to their own native customs; thus producing a confusion of idiom and practice, of which a better instance cannot be found than the fact ali-eady mentioned, that the word " feud" itself is derived from a legal term of the Greek empire (emphyteusis). The immediate result of the conquest of Gaul, Italy, and Spain by the various barbarian tribes, was the division of the lands (except such portions as were left in the po e ion of the Roman cultivators and only ren^ dered liable to tribute) between all the armed men of the nation. The shares were undoubtedly unequal even in the earliest of these divisions; but however differing in point of wealth, all the free proprietors were equal in rights: all were held liable to serve with the national force when called into the field; all had a voice, at least nominally, in the making of laws and in the choice of a sovereign. These free citizens are called by various names in the legislation of the different tribes; the Lombard title of Arimannus (ehren-mann, 7nan of honour, or heer-man, warrior) seems to have been the most permanent. Such, however, was the general constitution of the kingdoms of the Lombards in Italy; the Franks in Gaul; the Visigoths, Ostrogotho, and Burgundians; and of the variou.s st^ites which grew up within the limits of Germany itself, after the confusion occasioned by the great migrations had pa ed away. The decay of these aristocratic republics was brought about by nearly the same causes which operate in undee. [s. 459]