The eleventh century was at hand before foundations had been laid upon which, partly in opposite conditions, the new culture was developed. The feudal system had divided the nations into masters and serfs, and between these two classes the inhabitants of the cities in the more favored countries were slowly advancing and planting the sparse seeds of a new liberty.
Especially in Germany, where rugged Nature too grudgingly supplied the indispensable requirements of life, both classes became possessed of a deep unrest, the one through a sense of insecurity, the other through dis content. The hopes of another life which the Church offered were some solace. Still, this earthly life required its satisfaction, and here too the Church was a friend to the race in its present misery. As, from the beginning, it had been prudent enough to spare as much as possible the ancient traditions by erecting its churches on the places of ancient wor ship, and by substituting its Christian feasts for the old pagan ones (Easter, Ostern, derives its name from Ostara, the Teutonic goddess of spring), so it did not disdain to unite in a proper manner church festiv ities with secular amusements and to garnish its services with worldly pomp. Strict as it was in regard to doctrines, it was in other respects lenient. For example, it took from the people their beloved rites of burial ; severe prohibitions were enacted by the Carlovingian kings against pagan burials, and during the Middle Ages it was deemed appro priate to consign the body to the earth wrapped simply in rags. On the other hand, the industrious and skilful inmates of the convents created and supplied needs of a higher order and compensated the inner life for the narrowness of the outer world. Fairs were originally associated with church services, as is evident from their name Hesse (Kirmcs, " a fair," is derived from Kirchmcssc, " church-mass").
While energetic measures were taken against the immorality of priests who, after officiating by clay at the altar of the one God, went at night to mountain-tops or sacred groves to sacrifice to the old gods, the people were permitted to enjoy the festivities which they had inherited from their fathers. The reconciliation of the new religion with the national spirit of the people did not become complete until the religion was able to satisfy more fully than could the realities of daily life that deeply rooted longing for an ultimate ideal which specially pertains to the Teu tonic character.
However barren of external results the Crusades may have been, their influence on the inner life of the nations was none the less permanent.
The struggle between paganism and Christianity, which still went on, though silently and with a certain languor, terminated at last in the com plete victory of the latter. For the first time, as a result of the feeling of self-consciousness which sprang from deeds of pious valor, a sense of nationality, based on a purely Christian foundation, was created in the West. The imaginations of men received a powerful stimulus from the contemplation of wonders hitherto unknown; and although the ecstasy of religions enthusiasm had naturally to suffer rapid diminution, the feeling thus created was sufficiently permanent and vigorous to become the incentive to action for succeeding ages.
Social Position of consequence of this heightened sensi bility, which indeed affected every phase of existence, woman regained her former honored position among the Teutonic nations. The high consideration which woman enjoyed in early times (p. 233), and which formed a salient feature in the primitive life of the nation, had been utterly lost in the overwhelming stress of the great migrations. The Church had not restored it. In fact, apart from spiritual considera tions, the position of woman had been better established in the pagan marriage than in the Christian sacrament; for the Church, confounding self-renunciation with chastity, ranked celibacy above that union of the sexes which both natural and dix inc laws demand. Sentiment, however, considered the charms of the object more than the object itself, and love was converted into the well-known service of the Minuesingers, which found also a religious expression in the veneration of the Blessed Virgin.
This phase of life in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is made known to us chiefly by the school of national poetry which sprang up under the influence of the spirit of the times. But the historian of cul ture occupies a different position from that of the student of literature: the former finds sufficient evidence to prove that fact and fiction have diverged widely respecting the subject under consideration as well as in many other particulars. The regions of Southern France, with their voluptuous climate and scenery, offered an appropriate field for the Min nesingers. In Germany they remained an exotic institution. What they sang about the grace of the German women represented their own re fined and exalted sentiments rather than the actual qualities of their heroines.