8 THE PEASANTS’ REVOLT OF 1381. 
the monk drifting into a mere self-indulgent and grasping land- 
lord, impoverishing the parish priest by incorporating at every 
opportunity the parish tithes into the already wealthy foundations 
and monasteries; and, lastly, Wycliffe’s “poor priest” as an 
itinerant preacher endeavouring to make up for the shortcomings 
of many of the parochial clergy—for their worldliness and incom- 
petence, for their neglect of preaching, which with many of them 
had become a lost art, and for the evil custom of non-residence 
in their parishes. Abroad, English arms had suffered defeat and 
disgrace, while at home the men who remembered Cressy and 
Poitiers saw towns destroyed, districts ravaged, and English ships 
carried off from English harbours by their hated foreign foes. 
Torn by the dissensions of the nobles and higher clergy, and with 
a king barely fifteen years of age, the country could then appre- 
ciate to the full the wisdom of Solomon when he said, ‘* Woe to 
thee, O land, when thy king is a child!” for even within the 
royal family itself there was intrigue and plot, if not actual 
treason. With the religious and political affairs of the country, 
however, we shall have nothing to do except so far as they 
directly bore upon and influenced the social condition of the 
people. Our business is to endeavour to ascertain what were the 
aims and aspirations of the mass of the English people five 
centuries ago ; how far these aims and aspirations were justified ; 
by what means it was attempted to attain them; and to what 
extent such attempts were successful. 
Let us consider briefly what was the social system existing in 
England from the Conquest to the middle of the fourteenth 
century. In theory, all the land belonged to the king. From 
him the barons held tracts or fiefs (often in several portions in 
different counties), and were expected as tenants to make some 
acknowledgment to the king in the shape of some service, and 
not, originally, by a money payment. In many cases the barons 
found it necessary, or more profitable, to place under sub-tenants 
those scattered portions of their estate which they could not 
personally look after. These sub-tenants rendered service to the 
lord of the fief, were the great men of the several parishes, and 
