If his
granaries are full, his purse is empty, and the want of
cities or commerce, the difficulty of finding or reaching a
market, obliges him to consume on the spot a part of his
useless stock, which cannot be exchanged for merchandise or
money.... The entertainment of his vassals and soldiers,
their pay and rewards, their arms and horses, surpassed the
measure of the most oppressive tribute, and the destruction
which he inflicted on his neighbours was often retaliated on
his own lands. The costly elegance of palaces and gardens
was superseded by the laborious and expensive construction
of strong castles on the summits of the most inaccessible
rocks, and some of these, like the fortress of Canossa in
the Apennine, were built and provided to sustain a three
years' siege against a royal army. But his defence in this
world was less burdensome to a wealthy lord than his
salvation in the next; the demands of his chapel, his
priests, his alms, his offerings, his pilgrimages were
incessantly renewed; the monastery chosen for his sepulchre
was endowed with his fairest possessions, and the naked heir
might often complain that his father's sins had been
redeemed at too high a price.
Pages:
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269