inst the nobility, the
Church and the Princes,--a bulwark that broke down by little and little,
but that did not wholly crumble even after the feudal State had come to
power, and the one-time free peasants were in droves reduced to the
condition of serfs and dependents.

The confederation of marks was represented by the heads of the families.
Married women, daughters, daughters-in-law were excluded from council
and administration. The time when women were conspicuous in the conduct
of the affairs of the tribe--a circumstance that likewise astonished
Tacitus in the highest degree, and which he reports in terms of
contempt--were gone. The Salic law abolished in the fifth century of our
reckoning the succession of the female sex to hereditary domains.

Soon as he married, every member of a mark was entitled to a share in
the common lands. As a rule, grand-parents, parents and children lived
under one roof, in communal household. Hence, with a view of being
allotted a further share, under-aged or unripe sons were not
infrequently married by their father to some marriageable maiden; the
father then filled the duties of husband, in the stead of his son.[35]
Young married couples received a cart-load of beechwood, and timber for
a block-house. If a daughter was born to the couple, they received one
load of wood; if a son, two loads.[36] The female sex was considered
worth only one-half.

_Marriage was simple. A religious formality was unknown. Mutual
declarations sufficed. As soon as a couple mounted the nuptial bed, the
marriage was consummated._ The custom that marriage needs an act of the
Church for its validity, came in only in the ninth century. Only in the
sixteenth century, on decree of the Council of Trent, was marriage
declared a sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church.

With the rise of feudalism, the condition of a large number of the
members of the free communities declined. The victorious army-commanders
utilized their power to appropriate large territories unto themselves;
they considered themselves masters of the common property, which they
distributed among their devoted retinue--slaves, serfs, freedmen,
generally of foreign descent,--for a term of years, or with the right of
inheritance. They thus furnished themselves with a court and military
nobility, in all things devoted to their will. The establishment of the
large Empire of the Franks finally put an end to the last vestiges of
the old gentile constitu