dishonorable
servitude. They were regarded as the rightful prey of the Feudal Lord
from one to three days after their marriage, and from this custom, the
oldest son of the serf was held as the son of the lord, 'as perchance
it was he who begat him.' From this nefarious degradation of woman, the
custom of Borough-English arose, in which the youngest son became the
heir.... France, Germany, Prussia, England, Scotland, _and all
Christian countries_ where feudalism existed, held to the enforcement of
Marquette. The lord deemed this right as fully his as he did the claim
to half the crops of the land, or to half the wool of the sheep. More
than one reign of terror arose in France from the enforcement of this
law, and the uprisings of the peasantry over Europe during the _twelfth
century_, and the fierce Jacquerie, or Peasant Wars, of the _fourteenth
century_ in France owed their origin, among other causes, to the
enforcement of these claims by the lords upon the newly-married wife.
The edicts of Marly transplanted that claim to America when Canada was
under the control of France. To persons not conversant with the history
of feudalism, and of the Church for the first fifteen hundred years of
its existence, it will seem impossible that such foulness could ever
have been part of Christian civilization. That the crimes they have been
trained to consider the worst forms of heathendom could have existed
in Christian Europe, _upheld by both Church and State_ for more than a
thousand five hundred years, will strike most people with incredulity.
Such, however, is the truth; we can but admit well-attested facts of
history, how severe a blow soever they strike our preconceived beliefs.

"Marquette was claimed by the Lords Spiritual,* as well as by the
Lords Temporal. _The Church indeed, was the bulwark of this base feudal
claim_. With the power of penance and excommunication in its grasp,
this demand could neither have originated nor been sustained unless
sanctioned by the Church.... These customs of feudalism were the customs
of Christianity during many centuries. (One of the Earls of Crawford,
known as the 'Earl Brant,' in the _sixteenth_ century, was probably
among the last who openly claimed by right the literal translation of
_droit de Jambage_.) These infamous outrages upon woman were enforced
under Christian law by both Church and State.

* "In days to come people will be slow to believe that the
law among _Christian