be considered partly as a commemoration of the victory of the good principle over the bad, and partly as a children's feast (according to Matt. xviii. 1-11). August 6th is the festival of the transfiguration of Christ, which was celebrated with great rejoicing, particularly among the Greeks. The worship of the cross has introduced two festivals; that of the invention of the holy cross (May 3), and that of the exaltation of the cross (September 1). The festival of the holy body of Christ, or corpus Christi (see Corpus Christi), established in 1264, is observed on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. On this day, the eucharist is carried in solemn procession, the object of the festival being the preservation of the belief in the eucharist. Luther himself says, in his Table Talk, page 359, "The feast of corpus Christi has, of all others, the greatest and best appearance." The great influence of the festivals of the eucharist upon the mind needs not be commented on at present. It is only necessary to notice the advantages which they afforded for the instruction of the populace in religious truth, in former times, when printing and instruction in schools had not yet begun to operate in the dissemination of knowledge. In the 18th century, many feast days of the Catholic church were abolished, or transferred to Sundays. When the national convention of France had, in 1793, on the motion of Robespierre, acknowledged the existence of a Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul, and dedicated a national festival, on the 20th of Prairial, to the Deity, the following festivals, to be kept on the decade days of the republic, were also instituted-1. of the Supreme Being and nature; 2. of the human race; 3. of the French nation; 4. of the benefactors of mankind; 5. of liberty and equality; 6. of the martyrs of liberty; 7. of the republic; 8. of the freedom of the world; 9. of the love of country; 10. of the hatred of tyrants and traitors; 11. of truth; 12. of justice; 13. of modesty; 14. of fame and immortality; 15. of friendship; 16. of temperance; 17. of heroism; 18. of constancy; 19. of disinterestedness; 20. of stoicism; 21. of love; 22. of conjugal fidelity; 23. of filial affection; 24. of childhood; 25. of youth; 26. of manhood; 27. of old age; 28. of misfortune; 29. of agriculture; 30. of industry; 31. of the forefathers; 32. of posterity and felicity. There are 34 religious and four civil festivals observed by the established church of England and Ireland; and the Prot9

VOL. V.

estant Episcopal church in the U. States observes 32 religious festivals in the year. Christian feasts are observed extensively and solemnly among Catholics, Greek and Roman, and the Protestants of the European continent, but have comparatively little attention paid to them by the Protestants of the U. States.

FETICH; an idol. This word, now not unfrequently met with in French and German, was first brought into use by De Brosses, in his work Du Culte des Dieux Fétiches (1760), and is derived either from the Portuguese fetisso, a block adored as an idol, or, according to Winterbottom, from feticzeira, an enchantress. The Portuguese gave this name to the idols of the Negroes on the Senegal; and afterwards the word received a more extensive meaning. The general meaning given to fetich now seems to be, an object worshipped not representing a living figure. Such a figure is called, more properly, an idol. Hence stones, arms, vessels, plants, &c., which are objects of worship, are fetiches. The Negroes of Guinea suppose a fetich to preside over every canton or district, one also over each family and each individual, which the individual worships on the anniversary of his birth-day. Those of the better sort have, besides this, weekly festivals, on which they kill a cock or sheep. They believe the material substances, which they worship, to be endowed with intelligence and the power of doing them good and evil, and also that the priest or fetichere, being of their council, is privy to all that those divinities know, and thence acquainted with the most secret thoughts and actions of men. The household or family fetich narrowly inspects the conduct of every individual in the house, and rewards or punishes each according to his deserts. The rewards consist in the multiplication of the slaves and wives of the worshippers, and the punishments in the deprivation of these; but the most terrible of their punishments is death. At Cape Coast there is a public guardian fetich, the highest in power and dignity. This is a rock that projects into the sea from the bottom of the cliff on which the castle is built. To this rock sacrifices are offered yearly by the priests, with ridiculous gestures and strange invocations. The priest assures the spectators that he receives verbal answers from Tabra, as to what times and seasons will be propitious; and, for this intelligence, every fisherman presents him with an acknowledgment proportioned to his ability.

FETVA. (See Mufti.)

FEUDAL SYSTEM. [The following article relates more particularly to Germany, where this system originated and received its fullest developement; but the account is, in all important particulars, applicable to the other parts of Europe where this system prevailed.] A fee, feud or fief is a possession, of which the vassal receives the right of use and enjoyment, of disposition and alienation, on condition of fidelity (that is, of affording assistance or counsel, and avoiding all injurious acts), together with the performance of certain services incident to the tenure, while the feudal lord still retains a paramount right (dominium directum). A fief is distinguished from allodial possessions by the circumstance, that it cannot be alienated without the consent of the feudal lord, by the services usually due from the vassal, and by a peculiar kind of inheritance. The nature of feudal property is explained by its origin. Such was the passion of the ancient Germans for war, that, in time of peace, private feuds took the place of public contention; and, in default of these, the men of military age spent weeks, and months, and years, in adventures, and made incursions into the territory of the neighboring tribes, or took part in the quarrels of the distant ones. On these expeditions, the experienced and powerful were usually attended by a number of equally valiant youths, who were furnished by the chief with provisions, and, perhaps, with arms, and composed his retinue or following (Latin, comitatus). This retinue, which was well known in the time of Cæsar and Tacitus, was bound to the commander by firmer ties than the transient love of war or inconstant success. If the leader did not prove false (which was never known), the attendant devoted his whole life to his service, and was always ready to meet the summons to new adventures. And when the whole nation marched to war, the warriors formed about their chieftain a devoted band, ready to sacrifice themselves for his safety. Each of them looked upon the life and liberty of his leader as intrusted to his own peculiar care; and, if any one survived his imprisonment or death, he was forever branded as a coward. The general of the national militia (heerbann), always one of the wealthiest landholders, had a crowd of them constantly about his person. These companions (in German, Gesellen, whence the later barbarous Latin word vasallus) received no pay except their arms, horses and pro

visions, and the portion of the spoils, which remained after the chieftain had taken his own share. In the expeditions of particular adventurers against the adjacent tribes, or the Roman provinces, their booty consisted of garments, arms, furniture, slaves. But when the northern hordes broke into the south, and, in the partition of the conquered lands, large districts fell into the hands of kings or dukes and their subordinates, they gave certain portions of the territory to their attendants, to enjoy the possession for life. These estates were called beneficia, or fiefs, because they were only lent to their possessors, to revert after their death to the grantor, who immediately_gave them to another of his servants. From this custom of the ancient Germans arose the feudal system, and feudal service, which is purely German, and unknown to other nations. As the son commonly esteemed it his duty, or was forced by necessity, to devote his arm to the lord in whose service his father had lived, he also received his father's fief; or, rather, he was invested with it anew. By the usage of centuries this custom became a right; and to deprive one of his paternal fief, though it was prohibited by no law, seemed an act of injustice. At length, express provision was made by Conrad II, in Germany, in the year 1025, and in Italy in 1037 (or perhaps in 1026), by which the feudal possessions of a father were to descend to his son (female fiefs are later deviations from the system), or those of clergymen to their successors. In that period of lawless violence, which followed the migration of nations, and the death of Charlemagne, it soon appeared useful and indispensable that those states which were well protected from foreign invasion, though they had no assurance of internal security, should put themselves under the protection of a powerful governor. Powerful barons and rich bishops on one side, dukes and counts, the representatives of the kings, on the other, oppressed the neighboring free proprietors of landed property, till they looked with jealousy on the dependent vassals, and submitted to the protection of the oppressor, or some other nobleman, in order to obtain security. Many persons, especially the poor, who were obliged to cultivate their land themselves, and could not leave it without much inconvenience, submitted to this protection, though they were in no danger of oppression, merely to escape the military service. For dukes, and counts, and the bailiffs (who acted on behalf of

the bishops), whose duty it was to levy and command the army, instead of employing the raw militia, who often forgot their military skill in long-continued peace, preferred their own attendants, now styled the vassals, and released such of the king's subjects as were willing to become their vassals, and pay a certain contribution, from the obligation of serving in the national militia. The emperors and kings cared little from what source the dukes obtained their forces, provided the number was complete. Besides the advantages just mentioned, they even preferred an army of vassals to the national soldiery, because the latter were bound only to serve in the defence of the country, while the former were bound to a much less limited, sometimes unconditional service, and were hence far more useful. Thus the national militia gradually went out of use, and gave place to the feudal militia. Another, and not a small class of men, including the wealthy families, afterwards called the inferior nobility, who cultivated their land by means of hirelings or bondsmen, were not anxious to free themselves from the military service; for war was always their favorite employment. But they could not dispense with the protection of the nobles; on the other hand, their pride could not stoop to serve in an army which was every day sinking into disgrace. They longed for the honor of being received among the vassals of the nobility, and consented to hold their estates as the feudatories of the nearest duke, or earl, or bishop. Often, too, from a feeling of devotion, they became the feudatories of the great religious establishments. This is the origin of the great number of feudal estates in Germany at the present day, with the exception of the north-eastern provinces, formerly Sclavonic, and subsequently conquered and divided among vassals. They were bound, like other vassals, under the penalty of losing their lands, to follow their lord in all his quarrels against any person excepting other lords of whom they held lands, and excepting also the emperor and empire. Moreover, in war, the vassals were required to throw open their fortresses and castles for the use of their masters. The dukes, and counts, and bishops, who were paid in fiefs for their several services, stood in this relation to the emperor; and inferior landed proprietors stood also in the same relation to the superior nobility (for this was the origin of the inferior nobility). Rich and adventurous peasants, likewise, who pre

ferred honorable vassalage to honest but despised patronage, invested some nobleman with their lands, or were invested by him, with the consent of the lord paramount, with a further portion of his feudal territory (under tenants). The investiture was made, from the time of the Saxon emperors, in the great vice-regal fiefs, by a banner (which was the ensign of command); in the inferior ones by a sword; and in the spiritual fiefs, by a ring and a staff; after the peace of Worms, in 1122, which confined the power of the emperor to secular affairs, by a sceptre. The castle-fiefs, so called, were a peculiar kind of military fiefs, the possessor of which was bound to defend the castle belonging to his lord. The vassal who directed the defence was called, in the imperial fortresses, a burgrave. Thus the several orders of vassals formed a system of concentric circles, of which each was under the influence of the next, and all moved around a common centre, the king, as the supreme feudal lord. With military vassals another class arose. From the oldest times, we find in the courts of kings, and the governors whom they appointed, as well as in those of the bishops, certain officers, who at first performed active service, but were afterwards rather a splendid appendage to the court. The four offices of the marshal, the chamberlain, the cup-bearer and the sewer, are the oldest and most honorable, but by no means the only ones: offices, on the contrary, were as numerous as the employments which could be devised at court. These officers, at a period when money was scarce, and the old German notion in full vigor, which considered none but landed proprietors as citizens, and none but the owners of large estates as noblemen, were naturally rewarded by grants of land during the time of service; and these estates, like the military fiefs (but somewhat later, certainly not before the time of Frederic I), became by degrees hereditary. The splendor of the court, and the advantages accruing from these services, induced many noblemen to solicit them. They became the first in the new class of servants or ministers which was thus formed; and under them there was a multitude of other servants, particularly on the estates of the nobility. Every farmer (villicus) was paid for the cultivation of one piece of land by the investiture of another smaller piece; and there was scarcely a servant of the court who had not been invested, for his services, with at least a house or a garden in the village

adjoining the castle. The great ministerial officers, too indolent to execute the duties of their offices themselves, with the permission of their lords, soon began to commit them to others, whom they paid in like manner for their administration by the investiture of some other estates. Fiefs were gradually introduced, which were acquired not by military or court services, but by performing certain duties of no great difficulty, amounting to little more than the acknowledgment of the lord's feudal superiority; as by the yearly gift of a horse, a pair of hounds, a falcon, or the like. Very slight acts were often admitted as acknowledgments, as the holding of a stirrup, or walking before the feudal lord on certain occasions. Among the presents and acts are some of a most ridiculous character, according to the humor of the feudal lord; such as dancing before the army, performing some trick, offering an egg, a penny, &c. A refusal to perform feudal service, or any other violation of fealty, was styled felony. (q. v.) Upon this and other difficulties incident to feudal property, as in cases growing out of the succession, surrender, alienation or under-tenure of a fief, the lord decided in a feudal court, filled by vassals, who were required to be of equal rank with the accused. To appear in these courts at the summons of the lord of the manor, and accept the place of an assessor there, was reckoned among the duties incident to a fief. As the relation of lords and vassals (at that time one of the most important relations in life) became more and more widely spread, and the number of vassals increased at the expense of the ancient immediate subjects of the empire, the latter were thrown into the back ground, and at length nearly forgotten. In the 10th and 11th centuries, no duty due from subjects was known, except feudal duties; the whole German empire was one vast feudal possession, and the ideas of feudal lords and national sovereigns were wholly confounded. If any one was neither a lord nor a vassal, he was scarcely looked upon as a citizen, and no one took care for his safety. Hence few rich landed proprietors ventured to rely upon their own strength, without a feudal connexion. And even most of these at last yielded to the spirit of the age, and became royal vassals (as the lords of Brunswick and Hesse, and the counts in Thuringia, at that period called dukes and landgraves). The emperor likewise used every means to inluce them to adopt sach a course. Thus,

when the haughty baron of Krenzingen, who was the vassal of no one, refused to do homage to Frederic I, the enraged monarch invested him with the right of coinage, that he might become his lord. On the other hand, it was considered the duty of the German emperor not to extinguish a fief which reverted to the sovereign for want of heirs to inherit it, but to infeoff some other person (though the selection depended entirely on the pleasure of the monarch), and thus to secure the continuance of the feudal system, on which the continuance of the empire seemed to depend; for a reversion of fiefs to the emperor would bring into his hands an excess of power; and a release of the princes from their feudal ties would be followed by a state of anarchy. Besides, the necessary connexion of all the offices with the fiefs rendered the line of separation between them very indistinct; and the service which was paid for a fief was regarded as the fief itself; so that persons were no longer invested with estates as the reward of office, but with the office, as a productive capital, on account of the property attached to it. The dukes, bishops, bailiffs and burgraves, sometimes from ignorance, and sometimes from interested motives, increased this confusion. They made no difference between their fiefs and the districts and castles for the government of which they were given to them. They exercised in these places, which were filled mostly by their own vassals, the power of feudal landlords, and esteemed any attempt to curtail their rule as an act of flagrant injustice, equivalent to a withdrawal of the fief. In the provinces where the ducal power was early abolished, as in Franconia, Suabia and Westphalia, the counts and abbots took the same course; while in Bavaria, Misnia, Thuringia, Austria and Brandenburg, often wholly forgetful of their dignity as imperial governors, they sunk into the state of mere vassals to the dukes, landgraves and margraves, and were hardly able to maintain their under-tenures in a state of dependence. From the feudal system, the only social organization of the European states in the middle ages, a new system of civil rank arose. The inferior nobility, a rank intermediate between the higher nobility (princes) and freemen, owes its origin, it is said, to this institution; and a regular scale of rank was formed among the vassals, without detriment, however, to the principle of equal birth. The king formed the first class; the spiritual princes, bishops and