COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



dividual rights and obligations. On the rise of 

 the feudal system, the relations of vassal to 

 suzerain were, through the influence of Roman 

 conceptions, extensively regulated by contract ; 

 and it is in this respect that the feudal institu- 

 tions are most widely distinguished " from the 

 unadulterated usages of primitive races.'* ^ It 

 was, I believe, mainly owing to this that the 

 integration of feudal lordships into nations was 

 accompanied by the enlargement of individual 

 liberty to a much greater extent than the inte- 

 gration of ancient clans, gentes, and phratries 

 into civic communities. The Roman Church 

 also aided in promoting the freedom of individ- 

 uals, as well as in facilitating the consoHdation 

 of states. By the more or less strict enforce- 

 ment of clerical celibacy, it maintained in the 

 midst of hereditary aristocracy a comparatively 

 democratic organization, where advancement 

 largely depended upon moral excellence or in- 

 tellectual ability. And preserving, by the same 

 admirable institution, its independence of feudal 

 patronage, it was often enabled successfully to 

 interpose between the tyranny of kings and the 

 helplessness of subjects. To ecclesiastical celi- 

 bacy, more than to almost any other assignable 

 institution, we owe our emancipation from an- 

 cient patriarchal conceptions of social duty. The 

 development of industry, crossing in various 

 1 Maine, op. cit. p. 365. 

 326 



