FEUDALISM. -
I. History
It is the socio-political regime prevailing in Western and Central Europe during the Middle Ages. Purely formal analogies allow one to speak of feudal institutions among other peoples (Egyptians, Japanese, Arabs, etc.), but it is erroneous to consider feudalism as a phase in the historical development of all peoples.While Roman civilization was based on the concept of the State as a value superior to the concrete forms of government and on the concept of absolute property, in the feudal regime these two concepts vanish: only a class of landowners exists who exercise sovereign rights. One should not speak of a Roman or Germanic origin of feudalism, nor of a combination of Roman and Germanic elements: feudalism formed and developed with full spontaneity, according to the political and economic exigencies of medieval life; the Roman and Germanic elements assumed in the new feudal institutions a completely new aspect and value.
In the Late Empire period (3rd century A.D.), one witnesses the progressive decline of the State and of the law: in contrast, the value of the man who could impose himself over the representatives of the law is affirmed. Roman society now comprises only two categories of persons: the most powerful and the humble. The former form the great landed aristocracy, the latter are the small