ans
encouraging universal education, while the English have attended chiefly
to the education of the higher classes. Alfred established many
monasteries and made them centers of learning. It seems clear that he
assisted in laying the foundations from which Oxford University grew. He
left his impress upon the English people as no other ruler has done,
implanting love for law, justice, freedom, national honor, and the
domestic virtues which characterize that nation. His influence is felt
upon English institutions to this day.

CHAPTER XXII

FEUDAL EDUCATION

=Literature.=--_Stille_, Studies in Mediaeval History; _Bulfinch_,
Legends of Charlemagne; _Emerton_, Mediaeval Europe.

Emerton defines feudalism as "an organization of society based upon the
absence of a strong controlling power at the center of the State."[41]
It marks a step in the reorganization of society which was slowly going
forward during the Middle Ages. It was an element in the movement toward
freedom, in which men of large landed possessions gained the allegiance
of vassals by gifts of land, in return for which the latter bound
themselves to defend the former in case of attack. "The tie by which the
higher freeman bound the lower one to himself was ordinarily a gift of
the use of a certain tract of land, together with more or less extensive
rights of jurisdiction over the dwellers thereon. By means of this gift
he secured the service of the lesser man in war, and as war was the
normal condition of things, such service was the most valuable payment
he could receive."[42]

While it is true that the feudal lords were in many cases little else
than robber chieftains, especially in the earlier history of the system,
it would be false to history to picture them in general as being of that
character. The knights were chivalrous in battle, ever ready to fight
for their religion, as shown in the crusades, to defend the weak, to
show greatest respect for woman, and to maintain freedom. Fortified in
an impregnable castle on some eminence, with his loyal retainers about
him, the feudal baron was able to defy kings. The system marks a stage
in the development of civilization, and when feudalism fell into decline
its purpose had been fulfilled.

With such an independent manner of living, and such ideas of their own
rights, it is not strange that the knights had a form of education
peculiar to themselves, and this education is full of interest to the
stu