[The Origins of Contemporary France Volume 1 (of 6) by Hippolyte A. Taine]@TWC D-Link bookThe Origins of Contemporary France Volume 1 (of 6) CHAPTER I 23/26
In this work we see the prosperity of the domain belonging to the Abbey of St.Germain des Pres at the end of the eighth century.
According to M.Guerard's statistics, the peasantry of Paliseau were about as prosperous in the time of Charlemagne as at the present day.] [Footnote 1107: Taine's definition would also fit contemporary (1999) drugs and video entertainment which also provide mankind with both hope, pleasure and entertainment.
(SR.)] [Footnote 1108: There are twenty-five thousand lives of the saints, between the sixth and the tenth centuries, collected by the Bollandists .-- The last that are truly inspired are those of St.Francis of Assisi and his companions at the beginning of the fourteenth century. The same vivid sentiment extends down to the end of the fifteenth century in the works of Fra Angelico and Hans Memling .-- The Sainte Chapelle in Paris, the upper church at Assisi, Dante's Paradise, and the Fioretti, furnish an idea of these visions.
As regards modern literature, the state of a believer's soul in the middle ages is perfectly described in the "Pelerinage a Kevlaar," by Henri Heine, and in "Les Reliques vivantes," by Tourgueneff.] [Footnote 1109: As, for example, Tertulle, founder of the Platagenet family, Rollo, Duke of Normandy, Hugues, Abbot of St.Martin of Tours and of St.Denis.] [Footnote 1110: See the "Cantilenes" of the tenth century in which the "Chansons de Geste" are foreshadowed.] [Footnote 1111: Laws governing the feudal system (1372) where the feudal lord is unable to transmit his property by testament but has to leave them to the next holder of the title.
The "mainmortables" were serfs who belonged to the property.
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