The German races also established everywhere the feudal system, that curious institution, which has been the subject of so much discussion, and has perplexed the readers of history by its incongruities.  These perplexities, however, may perhaps be relieved if we see that the essential character of this institution was this, that it was an army permanently quartered on a subject people.  This definition contains the explanation of the whole system.  The Germans had overrun and conquered the Roman Empire.  They intended to possess and retain it.  But being much fewer in numbers than the conquered people, how could they do this?  Suppose that when the Confederate States had been conquered by the Union Army it had been determined to hold them permanently as a conquered territory.  It could be done thus.  First, the original inhabitants must be disarmed and put under stringent laws, like that of the curfew, etc.  Then to every private soldier in the Union Army a farm, say of fifty acres, would be assigned, on condition that whenever summoned by the captain of his company he would present himself armed to do military duty.  In like manner the captain would receive, say a hundred acres, on condition of appearing with his company when summoned by his colonel.  Then the colonel would receive five hundred acres, on condition of appearing with his regiment when summoned by the general.  The general (dux, duke) must appear with his brigade when summoned by the commander-in-chief (imperator, emperor), and he would hold perhaps a thousand acres on this condition.  All this land, thus held on condition of military service, would be held in fee, and would exemplify the actual foundation of the whole feudal system, which was simply an arrangement by which a conquering army could hold down the conquered nation.

Of course, such a system as this was one of tyranny and cruelty, and during several centuries it was tempered and softened only by the mediatorial influence of the Christian Church.  This was the only power strong enough to shield the oppressed and to hold back the arm of the tyrant.  Feudalism served, no doubt, some useful purposes.  It was a method of riveting together, with iron nails, the conquerors and conquered, until they could come into a union of a better kind.

It was about the year 1000 that the people of the North were converted to Christianity.  This process of conversion was a long time going on, and there were several relapses into paganism; so that no precise time can be fixed for the conversion of a single nation, much less for that of the different branches of the Scandinavian stock separately situated in Sweden and Denmark, Iceland and Greenland, and colonized in England and Normandy.  A mission was established in Denmark, A.D. 822, and the king was baptized; but the overthrow of this Christian king restricted the labors of the missionary.  An attempt was made in Sweden in 829, and the missionary, Anschar, remained there a year