propriated by the feudal barons. Even the
Church was subordinated by the prevailing system. Bishops became feudal
lords. The incomes of religious service were, in some cases, seized upon
by the irresponsible barons, and disposed of according to the feudal
policy. This, however, is but one example of the struggle of a system or
movement to subordinate what stands in its way, and become universal; it
is a law of history.

The feudal system was a very complete embodiment of despotism. It grew
out of the political circumstances and mental status of the times, and
could only exist by the warrant of these conditions. It had its
redeeming qualities, however, and, no doubt, promoted the conditions and
the spirit which prepared the way for its own overthrow and the
inauguration of a better system. The isolated and pent-up condition of
all classes, together with such culture as was afforded by their mode of
life to the inmates of the baronial castle, made the occasion for that
general restlessness in society from which proceeded such ready response
to the fanatical appeals of Peter the Hermit. The Crusades lasted two
hundred years, and contributed to the overthrow of feudalism by the
increase of general intelligence and the diminution of the baronial
estates.

After the fall of the empire, the cities began to decline, and their
government fell, in a great measure, into the hands of the clergy; and
thence supervened a kind of ecclesiastical municipal system. Commerce,
which some centuries later began to develop, gave renewed importance to
the cities; and the activities developed within them were antagonistic
to the feudal spirit, and destined to contribute their part, and an
important one, to the process of ultimate organization and its
accompanying phenomena. The cities at length became free, not without a
struggle; for it is not to be supposed that the great barons would
passively allow the enfranchisement of a rival power within their own
domains. In those rude times, the cities had little intercourse with
each other; yet they became independent nearly at the same time, showing
that this political phenomenon was also a growth arising out of the
condition of the times--the result of political and social causes acting
in concert over more than half a continent.

The cities accomplished their political mission by doing something
toward establishing law and order, and fostering the germs of freedom.
Their example could not but t