mselves, the whole nation participated sooner or later
in their blessings. The Barons of Runnymede were fighting the battles of
every ploughboy in England when they wrenched _Magna Charta_ from King
John.

Although many a feudal lord was a proud and hard-driving master, yet the
vassal and the serf knew that there were limits which his lord dared not
transgress; that the very spirit of his "caste", for such to a certain
extent was the social rank to which the feudal lord belonged, would not
tolerate any too flagrant a violation of his privileges. A bond of
united interests was found between feudal noble and his vassal. They
were found side by side in war; their larger interests were the same in
peace. Loyalty, honor, fidelity took deep root in the society which they
represented.

As the aristocracy of feudalism was founded, not on wealth or money, but
on land tenure, one of the most stable titles to prestige and authority
found in history, there was in the underlying concept of society in
those days a feeling of stability and permanency, which for a time made
feudalism, in spite of its flaws, a bulwark of order. It fostered even
a strong family spirit. Baron, count or earl, behind the thick ramparts
of his castle, lived a patriarchal life. He was, with his retainers and
men-at-arms, his chaplains, to watch over his spiritual needs, his wife
and children and vassals, dependent upon him for protection and safety,
impelled by every sense of honor, duty and chivalry to make them feel
that he was their sword and buckler. They were closely knit to him.
There was a patriarchal bond between them. Family spirit grew strong
and, under the teaching of the Church, it became pure.

Feudalism had its flaws. It was strictly an aristocratic institution. It
fostered the spirit of pride and bore harshly at times upon the serf and
the man of low degree. But its harsher features were softened by the
teachings of the Church. When it was at its height, voices of Popes like
Alexander III and of Doctors like St. Thomas Aquinas, were lifted to
proclaim the equality of all men in the sight of God. At the altar, serf
and master, count or cottier, knelt side by side. In the monasteries and
convents, the poor man's son might wear the Abbot's ring and in the
assemblies and councils of the realm, the poor clerk of former days,
might speak with all the authority of a Bishop to sway the destinies of
both Church and State.

One of the greatest evils