ABSTRACT
A knight, says Bonizo of Sutri, must “be prepared to die in defence of his lord and to fight to the death for the commonwealth”. A long list could be made of the activities which people consider inseparable from the idea of the State, but which the feudal states completely ignored. Education belonged to the Church, and the same was true of poor relief, which was identified with charity. Public works were left to the initiative of the users or of petty local authorities—a most palpable breach with Roman tradition and even with that of Charlemagne. The best minds clearly appreciated the permanence of the State. A picture of feudal society, especially in its first age, would inevitably give but an inaccurate idea of the reality if it were concerned exclusively with legal institutions and allowed one to forget that men in those times lived in constant and painful insecurity. The peace associations had their origin in meetings of bishops.
