the hall for
supper; and then the orders for the ensuing day were given to the
servants and retainers. Soon after dark the members of the family and
their guests sought their respective sleeping-places, as contrivances
for lighting were rude, and had to be economized. Such of the servants
as had special chambers or sleeping-places retired to them, whilst a
large proportion of the male servants and such of the retainers as
belonged immediately to the household stretched themselves on the
benches or floor of the hall, and were soon fast asleep. Such is a
sketch of the ordinary course of domestic life among the higher classes
of English society in the fourteenth century.

Among the greater nobles, the details of the daily life were sometimes
on a more magnificent scale; but the leading features were as we have
described them. Rude pomp and barbaric splendor marked the
establishments of some of the powerful barons and ecclesiastical
dignitaries. At tilt and tournament, the contending knights strove to
outshine each other in gorgeousness of equipment, as well as in deeds of
arms. Nor were the ladies averse to richness of attire in their own
persons. Costly robes and dainty furs were worn, and jewels and gems of
price sparkled when the dames and demoiselles appeared at great
gatherings, or on occasions of state and ceremony. The extravagance of
dress in both sexes had grown to be so great an evil, that stringent
sumptuary laws were passed, but without producing any effect.

The moral state of even the highest classes of society was not of a
flattering character. Europe was one huge camp and battle-field, in
which all the chivalry of the day had been educated,--no good school for
purity of life and delicacy of language. The literature of the time, at
least that portion of it which penetrated to ladies' chambers, was of an
amorous, and too frequently of an indelicate character. A debased and
sensual clergy swarmed over the land, finding their way into every
household, and gradually corrupting those with whom their sacred office
brought them into contact. The manners and habits of the time afforded
every facility for the gratification of debased passions and indulgence
in immoral practices.

Whilst the barons feasted and fought, the ladies intrigued, and the
clergy violated every principle of the religion they professed, the
great mass of the population lived on, with scarcely a thought bestowed
on them by their social superi