【单选题】For the writers who first gave feudalism its name, the existence of feudalism presupposed the existence of a noble class. Yet there cannot be a noble class, properly speaking, unless both the titles t...
A.
To say that feudalism by definition requires the existence of a nobility is to employ a definition that distorts history.
B.
Prior to the twelfth century, the institution of European feudalism functioned without the presence of a dominant class.
C.
The fact that a societal group has a distinct legal status is not in itself sufficient to allow that group to be properly considered a social class.
D.
The decline of feudalism in Europe was the only cause of the rise of a European nobility.
E.
The prior existence of feudal institutions is a prerequisite for the emergence of a nobility, as defined in the strictest sense of the term.