d as it was, the
system of slavery had given a house and a home to the great mass of the
lowest orders. And the laws, which placed the middling classes under the
protection, and at the same time under the control of the more powerful,
prevented all such as really belonged to society, from experiencing any
severe privations in those years when the people were not visited
by any particular misfortunes. But mankind were then subjected to many
calamities, which have been moderated in our times. If crops failed, and
the earth did not bring forth her fruit, vessels arrived not from distant
parts, laden with corn. Hunger wasted the land. Sickness and pestilence
followed, and thinned the remnant who had been left. Families were broken
up, and the survivors became helpless outcasts; for the people of each
country raised only as much grain as was sufficient for their own use, and
could not supply their neighbours. War often produced still greater
miseries. In all these distresses, the spirit of Christianity constantly
urged those who were influenced by this enduring spring of action, to
exert themselves in affording relief;--to clothe the naked and feed the
hungry,--to visit the sick--and bury the corpses of the departed.

The higher or ruling orders saw, in the plain letter of the Bible, the
means of amending the rude and savage laws which had governed their
forefathers; and religion also afforded the means of improving the whole
fabric of the state. In addition to their piety, the clergy were the
depositaries of all the learning of the age. All the knowledge which
distinguishes civilization from savage life was entrusted to them.
Admitted into the supreme councils of the realm, they became an order,
possessing acknowledged rights which could not be lawfully assailed. And
though they may occasionally have attempted to extend their privileges
beyond their proper bounds, yet, in a monarchy, the existence of any one
rank or order invested with franchises which the king must not assail, is
in itself a strong and direct protection to the privileges of all other
ranks of the community. Powerful as the nobles may have been, it is
doubtful whether they could have maintained their ground, had they been
deprived of the support which they derived from the Bishops and Abbots,
who stood foremost in the ranks, amongst the peers of the monarchy. Many a
blow which would have cleft the helmet, turned off without harm from the
mitre; and the crozi