Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/278

 234 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE estate where one man owned all the land and every one else living on the estate worked for him ; and that in the German kingdoms established upon Roman soil many of the once free German warriors soon sank to a position of economic dependence and social inferiority — in short, to serfdom. The serfs had to cultivate part of the estate for their master, to labor in and about his house, cut wood for his fire, cart his grain and wine and hay, repair the roads and bridges on his property. Their lord usually did not feed or clothe or house them, though he would probably provide breakfast and lunch for them when they worked all day in his fields or on his errands. But except perhaps in the case of a few domestic servants, he avoided the expense of supporting them by giving them bits of land, of which he had a plenty, where they could raise a scanty crop for their own suste- nance on such days as they were not engaged in toiling for him. In the course of time it came to be understood that these bits of land could not be arbitrarily taken away from them, and that their children could inherit the same by paying a fee or tax to the lord in recognition of his claim to ownership thereof. The serfs did not live together in slave barracks, but were allowed to build separate huts of their own. The rude walls The were made of crossed or interwoven laths with peasant's the interstices stuffed with straw or grass, and dwelling. & ' with a thatched roof. There was only one floor to the hut, and it was the ground floor, and usually there was but one room inside with a fire in the center. Yet there was no chimney; and if there were any windows, there was no glass in them, and in rain or winter they would have to be filled up with straw to keep the damp and cold out. If the serf's entire family had a single bed, they were lucky; it was more likely their lot to sleep with a little hay between them and the soil. Their other furniture was equally scanty. The lord was far from allowing the serf to keep for him- Seigneurial self all that he raised on his own land. Even of tlon his own wheat and oats and barley, and even of his sheep, pigs, hens, and eggs, he had to hand over a part