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Article Untitled Article ← Page 5 of 5 Article ON THE POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.* Page 1 of 5 →
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of secrecy were strictest , never ignored the claim of the external world to be taught by them , some elements of general improvement ; and even the Sacred Writing ( hieroglyphic ) of sacerdotal secrecy , did not prevent the possessor of esoteric knowledge , using " a common writing , " wherein to convey some species of instruction to
the people . Surely , then , we have said enough to cause every rightminded Mason to ponder over the measures which must enhance the estimation of the world for his Order , must elevate himself in the scale of social civilization , and induce him henceforward to corroborate our own efforts , that he should take a pride in his Magazine , causing
it to take a place amongst the literary celebrities of the land , consistent with the excellency of the principle it advocates , the Eraternity it represents , the intelligence it diffuses , and last , not least , with that united patronage of it by all classes of the Order , on which must depend its entire success .
On The Political Condition Of The English Peasantry During The Middle Ages.*
ON THE POLITICAL CONDITION OE THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY DURING THE MIDDLE AGES . *
Upok tracing back the history of the different tribes of the great Germanic race to the earliest period , we find invariably that society consisted of two distinct portions , freemen and slaves , one portion being the masters , the other the cultivators of the soil they inhabited .
Not that this is a peculiar characteristic of the Teutonic tribes , for the same state of things is discernible among other nations of antiquity , and in Russia a similar division of the population exists up to the present time . We have no historical account of the origin of this state of society ; but many circumstances combine in leading us
to the conclusion that conquest first originated this division , that the cultivators of the soil were the remnant of a preceding race which had been formerly subdued by foreign invasions . Afterwards , there were added to these captives made in warlike expeditions , persons sold into slavery by themselves or by others , and some who had been condemned for offences against the laws to a similar condition .
Perhaps the word slave scarcely conveys a just idea of the state of the class of society to which we apply it , although in many respects their position was as much , if not more degraded than the slaves in our colonies , in some circumstances they differed from them essentially . The better term , therefore , will be serfs , a name which has the same signification , but is used in a more restricted sense .
The historian Tacitus is the sole writer who furnishes us with any information relative to the condition of the German serfs before the period when the barbarians began to threaten the Roman provinces with their inroads ; and it is remarkable that his description at this * Condensed from a valuable paper on this subject by Thomas Wright , Esq ., ¦ M . A ., F . S . A .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
of secrecy were strictest , never ignored the claim of the external world to be taught by them , some elements of general improvement ; and even the Sacred Writing ( hieroglyphic ) of sacerdotal secrecy , did not prevent the possessor of esoteric knowledge , using " a common writing , " wherein to convey some species of instruction to
the people . Surely , then , we have said enough to cause every rightminded Mason to ponder over the measures which must enhance the estimation of the world for his Order , must elevate himself in the scale of social civilization , and induce him henceforward to corroborate our own efforts , that he should take a pride in his Magazine , causing
it to take a place amongst the literary celebrities of the land , consistent with the excellency of the principle it advocates , the Eraternity it represents , the intelligence it diffuses , and last , not least , with that united patronage of it by all classes of the Order , on which must depend its entire success .
On The Political Condition Of The English Peasantry During The Middle Ages.*
ON THE POLITICAL CONDITION OE THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY DURING THE MIDDLE AGES . *
Upok tracing back the history of the different tribes of the great Germanic race to the earliest period , we find invariably that society consisted of two distinct portions , freemen and slaves , one portion being the masters , the other the cultivators of the soil they inhabited .
Not that this is a peculiar characteristic of the Teutonic tribes , for the same state of things is discernible among other nations of antiquity , and in Russia a similar division of the population exists up to the present time . We have no historical account of the origin of this state of society ; but many circumstances combine in leading us
to the conclusion that conquest first originated this division , that the cultivators of the soil were the remnant of a preceding race which had been formerly subdued by foreign invasions . Afterwards , there were added to these captives made in warlike expeditions , persons sold into slavery by themselves or by others , and some who had been condemned for offences against the laws to a similar condition .
Perhaps the word slave scarcely conveys a just idea of the state of the class of society to which we apply it , although in many respects their position was as much , if not more degraded than the slaves in our colonies , in some circumstances they differed from them essentially . The better term , therefore , will be serfs , a name which has the same signification , but is used in a more restricted sense .
The historian Tacitus is the sole writer who furnishes us with any information relative to the condition of the German serfs before the period when the barbarians began to threaten the Roman provinces with their inroads ; and it is remarkable that his description at this * Condensed from a valuable paper on this subject by Thomas Wright , Esq ., ¦ M . A ., F . S . A .