FESTUS 



2158 



FEUDAL SYSTEM 



Feasts are immovable and movable as to dates ; 

 the former are those which fall on the same 

 day every year; the latter are those whose 

 dates vary. The principal feast of the latter 

 class is Easter, which determines the time of 

 .many of the others. See EASTER; CHRISTMAS, 

 etc., also HOLIDAY; OLYMPIAN GAMES. 



FES'TUS, PORCIUS, the successor of Felix 

 as ruler of the province of Judea in the reign 

 of Nero, who appointed him about A. D. 60. 

 He held the place for only two years, when he 

 died. In New Testament history he is men- 

 tioned in connection with the case of the 

 Apostle Paul, who had been held a prisoner 

 by Felix. When Paul came before Festus for 

 trial, the latter, who wished to please the 

 Jews, tried to induce Paul to go to Jerusalem 

 for a final hearing, but the Apostle appealed 

 to Caesar, which was his privilege as a Roman 

 citizen, and so was sent to Rome (Acts XXV). 



FETISH, jet'ish, a word from the Portu- 

 guese, first applied to objects of worship among 

 the savages of Western Africa. It is descrip- 

 tive of any material thing credited by the un- 

 civilized with mysterious powers, whose pos- 

 session can secure for them the services of the 

 spirit lodged within it. Any object may be- 

 come a fetish providing it can be associated 

 with an event as its cause. Fetish worship, 

 which is the lowest form of religion among 

 savages, exists among the negroes of Africa, 

 the Polynesians, Australians and Siberians. 

 The mascots carried by gamblers and other 

 superstitious persons correspond to the fetishes 

 of the barbarians. 



FEUDAL, fu'dal, SYSTEM or FEUDAL- 

 ISM, ju'daliz'm, in European history, one of 

 the most important institutions of the Middle 

 Ages, a form of society and government based 

 on the ownership of land. In the latter part 

 of the fifth century, Gaul, the country roughly 

 corresponding to modern France, was con- 

 quered by a race of people known as the 

 Franks, who divided the land among them- 

 selves, the king keeping the largest share. As 

 the turbulent and unsettled conditions of that 

 period made it impossible for the king to 

 rule so extended a kingdom, he divided his 

 estates among his warriors, each of whom was 

 given the authority of a sovereign on his own 

 domain. These warriors bound themselves 

 to give military aid to their lord whenever 

 they were called upon to do so; in this agree- 

 ment are found the germs of the institution 

 which became a definite system about the 

 ninth century, and which reached its highest 



stage in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth 

 centuries. 



Development of Feudalism. Feudalism de- 

 veloped rapidly after the breaking up of 

 Charlemagne's great empire, for all classes 

 were glad to put themselves undier the pro- 

 tection of a system that would save them 

 from the lawlessness that then prevailed. 

 Kings and princes gave over their estates to 

 feudal lords, who in turn granted sections of 

 land to lesser tenants, and so on down. 



Land so granted was called a fief, or feud. 

 The grantor of a fief was called lord, suzerain, 

 or liege; the one who received it, vassal, liege- 

 man or retainer. The vassal made pledges of 

 loyalty, military service and other aid to his 

 lord, and the lord in turn promised his vassal 

 counsel and protection. Lowest in rank of 

 the several classes, and forming the great bulk 

 of the population, were the serjs, who were 

 bound to the soil and who passed with the 

 land when it changed masters. 



The feudal system became most thoroughly 

 developed in France, Germany, Italy, North- 

 ern Spain, England and Scotland; its cradle 

 was the empire of Charlemagne. 



Its Decline. As a system of government, 

 feudalism passed into history with the Middle 

 Ages. Important causes which led to its de- 

 cay were the opposition of the kings and 

 common people to it, the Crusades, the growth 

 of cities and the introduction of firearms in 

 warfare. The common people opposed it be- 

 cause it gave them no opportunity to ad- 

 vance; the kings hated it because it restricted 

 their power. During the period of the Holy 

 Wars large numbers of the feudal lords lost 

 their lives, and others lost their fortunes and 

 their estates, which so weakened the power 

 of the nobility that the system received there- 

 by a crushing blow. 



As the cities grew in power and influence 

 they became strong enough to resist the tyr- 

 anny of the lord of whose fief they were a 

 part, and in some instances they formed inde- 

 pendent governing bodies. The introduction 

 of firearms hastened the decline of the system, 

 because it made the common foot-soldier the 

 equal of the armorclad knight in warfare, thus 

 destroying the military supremacy of the feu- 

 dal aristocracy. 



Its Strength and Its Weakness. In the pro- 

 tection it gave to society during the lawless 

 period following the breaking up of Charle- 

 magne's empire, feudalism rendered its great- 

 est service to European civilization. "It was 



