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CHAPTER V.
PERS0X4LRA.NK. THE FREEMAN. THE NOBLE.
Γhe second principle laid down in the first chapter
of this book, is that of personal rank, which in the
Teutonic scheme appears inseparably connected
with the possession of land.
The earliest records we can refer to, place before
us a system founded upon distinctions of birth, as
clearly as any that we can derive from the Parlia-
mentary writs or rolls of later ages : in our history
there is not even a fabulous Arcadia, wherein we
may settle a free democracy : for even where the
records of fact no longer supply a clue through the
labyrinths of our early story, the epic continues the
tradition, and still celebrates the deeds of nobles
and of kings.
Tacitus, from whom we derive our earliest infor-
mation, supplies us with many details, which not
only show the existence of a system, but tend also
to prove its long prevalence. He tells us not only
of nobles, but also of kings, princes and inherited
authority1, more or less fully developed: and the
1 The Cherusci feeling the want of α king sent to Rome for a de-
scendant of Arminius. Tac. An. xi. 17. The Heruli in Illyria having
slain their king, sent to their brethren in Thule (Scandinavia) for a
descendant of the hlood royal. During his j ourney however they ac-
cepted another king from the hands of Justinian. This person and
their alliance with the emperor they renounced upon the arrival of the
CH. V.]
THE FREEMAN. THE NOBLE.
123
unbiassed judgment of the statesman who witnessed
the operation of institutions strange to himself,
warns us against theoretical appeals to the fancied
customs of ages not contemporaneous with our
own. The history of Europe knows nothing of a
period in which there were not freemen, nobles and
serfs ; and the institutions of Europe, in proportion
as we pursue them to their earliest principles, fur-
nish only the stronger confirmation of history. We
may, no doubt, theorize upon this subject, and
suggest elementary forms, as the necessary con-
ditions of a later system : but this process is and
must be merely hypothetical, nor can such forms
be shown to have had at any time a true historical
existence. That every German was, in the begin-
ning, Kaiser and Pope in his own house1 may be
perfectly true in one sense; just as true is it that
every Englishman’s house is his castle. Neverthe-
less, the German lived under some government,
civil or religious, or both : and—to the great ad-
vantage of society—the process of law surmounts
without the slightest difficulty the imaginary battle-
ments of the imaginary fortress.
The whole subject must be considered in one of
two ways : with reference, namely, to a man living
PrincefromtheNorth. Procop. Bell. Got. ii. 15. "Regesexiiohilitate,
duces ex virtute sumunt.” Tae. Germ. vii. “ Magna patrum mérita
prineipis dignationem etiam adoleseentulɪs assignant.” Ihid. xiii.
Although mere boys might be kings, they could hardly be duces, in
the old Teutonic sense.
’ Moser, Osnabruckische Geschichte (1780), Ier Abschn. § 8.
Solche einzelne wohner waren Priester und Konige in ihren Hausern
und Hofmarken,” etc. See his references to Tac. Germ. x. etc.