. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. s and churchmen alike taught that it was the duty of 1 While many of the statements in this chapter apply to the whole of westernEurope, especial reference is made to France, as the most typical of all feudalizedcountries. 2 In being thus bound to the soil, and having the real use if not actual owner-ship of a little farm, the mediaeval serfs differed from absolute slaves. Therewere a few genuine slaves in Europe in the Middle Ages, but not enough to makethem a real factor. i42 HISTORY OF EUROPE these villeins l to submit cheerf
. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. s and churchmen alike taught that it was the duty of 1 While many of the statements in this chapter apply to the whole of westernEurope, especial reference is made to France, as the most typical of all feudalizedcountries. 2 In being thus bound to the soil, and having the real use if not actual owner-ship of a little farm, the mediaeval serfs differed from absolute slaves. Therewere a few genuine slaves in Europe in the Middle Ages, but not enough to makethem a real factor. i42 HISTORY OF EUROPE these villeins l to submit cheerfully to their lot, to supportthe upper classes with their labors, to thank Heaven if theywere treated with a modicum of justice, and to endure patientlyif the feudal lord abused them (as too frequently) a little worsethan his dogs and cattle. Truth to tell, the villeins were prob-ably a brutish lot. Their days were consumed in grinding fieldlabor with spade and mattock; their homes were mere hovelsof wood, sun-dried brick and thatch; their clothing a few coarse. PEASANTS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY (Adapted from a Bible of 1380 in the Brussels Library) rags; their food always scanty. Of their intelligence, manners,cleanliness, nothing need be said. In the average peasantshut, the dirty, half-naked children would struggle on the earthenfloor along with the little pigs and the poultry. How couldGod and the saints love such creatures? — Betwixt peasantand noble there was surely a great gulf fixed! 73. The slow rise of the agricultural classes. In the Middle 1 That is, dwellers in a villa or farm, whence later came the idea of a vil-lain as a clownish, rascally countryman. THE RISE OF THE NON-NOBLE CLASSES 143 Ages the towns were at first few and insignificant, and nearlyall peasants lived in miserable huts on the feudal methods were extremely primitive; a drought ora wet year meant a famine and misery for a wide district. Dur-ing times of great shortage there
Size: 1943px × 1286px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherbostonnewyorketcho
