ing their own positions sure, they
were in the habit of impressing it upon their people that the kingship
was a divine institution. They proclaimed that the office of king was
made by the gods, or in Christian nations, by God, and that it was the
divine will that the people of the nations should be ruled by kings.
The great Roman orator, Cicero (Sis'ero), in a speech delivered
in the year 66 B.C., referring to people who lived in kingdoms, says
that the name of king "seems to them a great and sacred thing." This
same feeling has lasted through all the ages down to the present time,
and the majority of the people in European kingdoms, even among the
educated classes, still look upon a king as a superior being, and are
made happy and proud if they ever have a chance to do him a service of
any sort.

Questions for Review

1. Why was it that in barbarian tribes there was no private ownership
of land?
2. What is meant by saying that government was based upon the consent
of the governed?
3. Was there anything besides love of plunder that induced the German
tribes to move southward?
4. Explain the beginnings of slavery.
5. Explain the value of armor in early times.
6. What is meant by the "Dark Ages"?
7. What is meant by saying that the fighting men were parasites?
8. When the first kings were chosen was it intended that they should
be rulers for life?
9. Is it easy for a man in power to retain this power?
10. Why is it that most Europeans bow low before a king?

CHAPTER IV

Master and Man

The land is the king's.--He lends it to barons.--Barons lend it to
knights and smaller barons.--Smaller barons collect rent for it from
the peasants.--A father's lands are lent to his son.--Barons pay for
the land by furnishing men for the king's wars.--No account is taken
of the rights of the peasant.--The peasant, the only producer, is
despised by the fighting men.--If a baron rebels, his men must rebel
also.--Dukes against kings.--What killed the feudal system.--Feudal
wrongs alive today.

When one great tribe or nation invaded and conquered a country, as the
Ostrogoths came into Italy in the year 489 A.D., or as the Normans
entered England in 1066, their king at once took it for granted that
he owned all the conquered land. In some cases, he might divide the
kingdom up among his chiefs, giving a county to each of forty or fifty
leaders. These great leaders (dukes or barons, as they were cal