 Preface of Menor's Custom and Dress The several successive editions of The Arts of the Middle Ages and Period of the Renaissance sufficiently testify to its appreciation by the public. The object of that work was to introduce the reader to a branch of learning to which access has hitherto appeared only permitted to the scientific. That attempt, which was a bold one, succeeded too well not to induce us to push our researches further. In fact, art alone cannot acquaint us entirely with an epoch. The arts, considered in their generality, are the true expressions of society. They tell us its tastes, its ideas, and its character. We thus spoke, in the preface to our first work, and we find nothing to modify in this opinion. Art must be the faithful expression of a society, since it represents it by its works, as it has created them, undeniable witnesses of its spirit and manners for future generations. But it must be acknowledged that art is only the consequence of the ideas which it expresses. It is the fruit of civilization, not its origin. To understand the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it is necessary to go back to the source of its art, and to know the life of our fathers. These are two inseparable things, which entwine one another, and become complete one by the other. The manners and customs of the Middle Ages. This subject is of the greatest interest, not only to the man of science, but to the man of the world, also. In it, too, we retrace not only one single period, but two periods, quite distinct one from the other. In the first, the public and private customs offer a curious mixture of barbarism and civilization. We find barbarian, Roman and Christian customs and character in presence of each other, mixed up in the same society, and very often in the same individuals. Everywhere, the most adverse and opposite tendencies display themselves. What an ardent struggle during that long period, and how full, too, of emotion is its picture. Society tends to reconstitute itself in every aspect. She wants to create, so to say, from every side, property, authority, justice, etc., etc. In a word, everything which can establish the basis of public life. And this new order of things must be established by means of the elements supplied at once by the barbarian, Roman and Christian world. A prodigious creation, the working of which occupied the whole of the Middle Ages. Hardly does modern society, civilized by Christianity, reach the fullness of its power. Then it divides itself to follow different paths. Ancient art and literature resuscitates because custom insensibly takes that direction. Under that influence, everything is modified, both in private and public life. The history of the human race does not present a subject more vast or more interesting. It is a subject we have chosen to succeed our first book, and which will be followed by a similar study on the various aspects of religious and military life. This work, devoted to the vivid and faithful description of the manners and customs of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, answers fully to the requirements of contemporary times. We are, in fact, no longer content with the chronological narration and simple nomenclatures which formerly were considered sufficient for education. We no longer imagine that the history of our institutions has less interest than that of our wars, nor that the annals of the humbler classes are irrelevant to those of the privileged orders. We go further still. What is, above all, sought for in historical works nowadays, is the physiognomy, the inmost character of past generations. How did our fathers live, is a daily question. What institutions have they? What were their political rights? Can you not place before us their pastimes, their hunting parties, their meals, and all sorts of scenes, sad or gay, which compose their home life? We should like to follow them in public and private occupations, and to know their manner of living hourly, as we know our own. In a high order of ideas, what great facts serve as a foundation to our history and that of the modern world. We have first royalty, which, weak and debased under the Merovingians, rises and establishes itself energetically under Pepin and Charmagne, to degenerate under Louis-les-de-Bonair and Charles-les-Chauves. After having dared a second time to found the Empire of the Caesars, it quickly sees its sovereignty replaced by feudal rights, and all its rights usurped by the nobles, and has to struggle for many centuries to recover its rights one by one. Fuedalism, evidently of Germanic origin, will also attract our attention, and we shall draw a rapid outline of this legislation, which, barbarian at the onset, becomes by degrees subject to the rules of moral progress. We shall ascertain that military service is the essence itself of the thief, and that dense springs feudal right. On our way, we shall protest against civil wars, and shall welcome emancipation and the formation of the communes. Following the thousand details of the life of the people, we shall see the slave become serf, and the serf become peasant. We shall assist at the dispensation of justice by royalty and nobility, at the solemn sittings of parliaments, and we shall see the complicated details of a strict ceremonial, which formed an integral part of the law, developed themselves before us. The counters of dealers, fairs, and markets, manufacturers, commerce, and industry also married our attention. We must search deeply into corporations of workmen and tradesmen, examining their statutes, and initiating ourselves into their business. Fashion and dress are also a manifestation of public and private customs. For that reason, we must give them particular attention. And to accomplish the work we have undertaken, we are lucky to have the conscientious studies of our old associates in the great work of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to assist us. Such as those of Emile Bejan, Elziard Blasé, Dappin, Mange Manguerra, Les Roues de l'Anci, H. Martin, Marie Lafond, Francisque Michel, Amontail, Rabouteau, Ferdinand Seyré, Horace de Viel Castel, Art de la Ville L'Éguile, Valais des villes vivides. As in the volume of the arts of the Middle Ages, engraving and chromolithography will come to our assistance by reproducing, by means of strict facsimiles, the rarest engravings of the 15th and 16th centuries, and the most precious miniatures of the manuscripts preserved in the principal libraries of France and Europe. Here again, we have the aid of the eminent artist M. Kellechowen, who quite recently found means of reproducing, with so much fidelity, the gems of Italian painting. Section 1 of Menor's Custom and Dress This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Leni Menor's Custom and Dress during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance period by Paul Lacroix. Section 1 Condition of Persons and Lands This organization of the West at the beginning of the Middle Ages. Mixture of Roman, Germanic and Gaelic institutions. Fusion organized under Charlemagne. Royal authority. Position of the great feudalists. Division of the territory and prerogatives attached to landed possessions. Freeman and tenants. The letai, the colon, the serf, and the liberer, who may be called the origin of the modern lower classes. Formation of communities. Right of mortemen. The period known as the Middle Ages, says the learned Benjamin Gerard, is the produce of pagan civilization, of Germanic barbarism, and of Christianity. It began in 476 on the fall of Augustalis and ended in 1453 at the taking of Constantinople by Mohammed II and consequently the fall of two empires, that of the West and that of the East, marks its duration. Its first act, which was due to the Germans, was the destruction of political unity and this was destined to be afterwards replaced by religions unity. Then we find a multitude of scattered and disorderly influences growing on the ruins of central power. The yoke of imperial dominion was broken by the barbarians but the populace, far from acquiring liberty, fell to the lowest degrees of servitude. Instead of one despot, it found thousands of tyrants and it was but slowly and with much trouble that it succeeded in freeing itself from feudalism. Nothing could be more strangely troubled than the West at the time of the dissolution of the empire of the Caesars. Nothing more diverse or more discordant than the interests, the institutions, and the state of society which were delivered to the Germans. In fact, it would be impossible in the whole pages of history to find a society formed of more heterogeneous or incompatible elements. On the one side might be placed the Goths, Burgundians, Vandals, Germans, Franks, Saxons, and Lombards, nations, or more strictly Hordes, accustomed to rough and successful warfare and on the other the Romans, including those people who by long servitude to Roman dominion had become closely allied with their conquerors. There were on both sides freemen, freedmen, colons, and slaves, different ranks and degrees being, however, observable both in freedom and servitude. This hierarchical principle applied itself even to the land which was divided into freeholds, tributary lands, lands of the nobility, and servile lands, thus constituting the freeholds, the benefices, the feasts, and the tenures. It may be added that the customs, and to a certain degree the laws, varied according to the masters of the country, so that it can hardly be wondered at that everywhere diversity and inequality were to be found, and, as a consequence, that honor key and confusion ruled supreme. The Germans had brought with them over the Rhine none of the heroic virtues attributed to them by Tacitus when he wrote their history, with the evident intention of making a satire on his countrymen. Amongst the degenerate Romans whom those ferocious Germans had subjugated, the colonization was reconstituted on the ruins of Vices, common in the early history of a new society, by the adoption of a series of loose and dissolute habits, both by the conquerors and the conquered. In fact, the conquerors contributed the worst share, for, whilst exercising the low and debasing instincts of their former barbarism, they undertook the work of social reconstruction of the sword of natural and innate servitude. To them, liberty, the desire for which caused them to brave the greatest dangers, was simply the right of doing evil, of obeying their ardent thirst for plunder. Long ago, in the depths of their forests, they had adopted the curious institution of vassalage. When they came to the West to create states, reducing personal power, every step in their social edifice, from the top to the bottom, was made to depend on individual superiority. To bow to a superior was their first political principle, and on that principle feudalism was one day to find its base. Servitude was in fact to be found in all conditions and ranks, equally in the palace of the sovereign as in the dwellings of his subjects. The vessel who was waited on at his own table by a varlet himself served at the table of his lord. The nobles treated each other likewise according to their rank, and all the exceptions which each submitted to from his superiors and required to be paid to him by those below him were looked upon not as honorous duties, but as rights and honors. The sentiment of dignity and of personal independence, which has become, so to say, the soul of modern society, did not exist at all, or at least, but very slightly, amongst the Germans. If we could doubt the fact, we have but to remember that these men, so proud, so indifferent to suffering or death, would often think little of staking their liberty in gambling, in the hope that, if successful, their gain might afford them the means of gratifying some brutal passion. When the Franks took root in goal, their dress and institutions were adopted by the Roman society. This had the most disastrous influence in every point of view, and it is easy to prove that civilization did not emerge from this chaos until, by the Greece, the Teutonic spirit disappeared from the world. As long as this spirit reigned, neither private nor public liberty existed. Individual patriotism only extended as far as the border of a man's family, and the nation became broken up into clans. Goal soon found itself parceled off into domains which were almost independent of one another. It was thus that Germanic genius became developed. The advantages of acting together for mutual protection first established itself in families. If anyone suffered from an act of violence, he laid the matter before his relatives for them jointly to seek reparation. The question was then settled between the families of the offended person and the offender, all of whom were equally associated in the object of vindicating a cause which interested them alone, without recognizing any established authority, and without appealing to the law. If the parties had sought the protection or advice of men of power, the quarrel might at once take a wider scope and tend to kindle a feud between two nobles. In any case, the king only interfered when the safety of his person or the interests of his dominions were threatened. Penalties and punishments were almost always to be averted by a money payment. A son, for instance, instead of avenging the death of his father, received from the murderer a certain indemnity in specie, according to a legal tariff, and the law was thus satisfied. The tariff of indemnities or compensations to be paid for each crime formed the basis of the Code of Laws amongst the principal tribes of Franks, a code essentially barbarian, and called the Salic Law, or Law of the Salience. Such, however, was the spirit of inequality among the German races, that it became an established principle for justice to be subservient to the rank of individuals. The more powerful a man was, the more he was protected by the law. The lower his rank, the less the law protected him. The life of a Frank, by right, was worth twice that of a Roman. The life of a servant of the king was worth three times that of an ordinary individual who did not possess that protecting tie. On the other hand, punishment was the more prompt and rigorous according to the inferiority of position of the culprit. In case of theft, for instance, a person of importance was brought before the king's tribunal, and, as it respected the rank held by the accused in the social hierarchy, little or no punishment was awarded. In the case of the same crime by a poor man, on the contrary, the ordinary judge gave immediate sentence, and he was seized and hung on the spot. In as much as no political institutions amongst Germans were nobler or more just than those of the Franks and the other barbaric races, we cannot accept the creed of certain historians who have represented the Germans as the true regenerators of society in Europe. The true sources of modern civilization are indisputably pagan antiquity and Christianity. After the fall of the Merovingian kings, great progress was made in the political and social state of nations. These kings, who were but chiefs of undisciplined bands, were unable to assume a real character, properly so-called. Their authority was more personal than territorial, for incessant changes were made in the boundaries of their conquered dominions. It was therefore with good reason that they styled themselves kings of the Franks, and not kings of France. Charlemagne was the first to recognize the social union, so admirable an example of which was furnished by Roman organization, and who was able, with the very elements of confusion and disorder to which he succeeded, to unite, direct and consolidate diverging and opposite forces, to establish and regulate public administrations, to found and build towns, and to form and reconstruct almost a new world. We hear of him assigning to each his place, creating for all a common interest, making of a crowd of small and scattered peoples a great and powerful nation, in a word, rekindling the beacon of ancient civilization. When he died, after a most active and glorious reign of forty-five years, he left an immense empire in the most perfect state of peace. But this magnificent inheritance was unfortunately destined to pass into unworthy or impotent hands, so that societies soon fell back into anarchy and confusion. The nobles, in their turn invested with power, were continually at war and gradually weakened the royal authority, the power of the kingdom, by their endless disputes with the crown and with one another. The revolution in society, which took place under the Carlovingian dynasty, had, for its special object, that of rendering territorial what was formerly personal, and, as it were, of destroying personality in matters of government. The usurpation of lands by the great, having been thus limited by the influence of the lesser holders, everybody tried to become the holder of land. Its possession then formed the basis of social position, and, as a consequence, individual servitude became lessened, and society assumed a more stable condition. The ancient laws of wandering tribes fell into disuse, and, at the same time, many distinctions of caste and race disappeared, as they were incompatible with the new order of things. As there were no more salience, impoerience, nor viscigoths among the free men, so there were no more colons, letai, nor slaves amongst those deprived of liberty. Heads of families, only becoming attached to the soil, naturally had other ones and other customs than those which they had delighted in when they were only the chiefs of wandering adventurers. The strength of their followers was not now so important to them as the security of their castles. Fortresses took the place of armed bodies, and at this time everyone who wished to keep what he had entrenched himself to the best of his ability at his own residence. The banks of rivers, elevated positions, and all inaccessible heights were occupied by towers and castles surrounded by ditches which served as strongholds to the lords of the soil. These places of defense soon became points for attack. Out of danger at home, many of the nobles kept watch like birds of prey on the surrounding country, and were always ready to fall, not only upon their enemies, but also on their neighbors, in the hope either of robbing them when off their guard, or of obtaining a ransom for any unwary traveler who might fall into their hands. Everywhere a society was in ambush-cade and waged civil war, individual against individual, without peace or mercy. Such was the reign of feudalism. It is unnecessary to point out how this system of perpetual petty warfare tended to reduce the power of centralization, and how royalty itself was weakened towards the end of the Second Dynasty. And the descendants of Hugh Capet wished to restore their power by giving it a larger basis, they were obliged to attack, one after the other, all these strongholds, and practically to re-enact each thief, city and province held by these petty monarchs in order to force their owners to recognize the sovereignty of the king. Centuries of war and negotiations became necessary before the Kingdom of France could be, as it were, reformed. The corporations and the citizens had great weight in restoring the monarchical power, as well as informing French nationality. But by far the best influence brought to bear in the Middle Ages was that of Christianity. The doctrine of one origin and of one final destiny being common to all men of all classes constantly acted as a strong inducement for thinking that all should be equally free. Religious equality paved the way for political equality, and as all Christians were brothers before God the tendency was for them to become, as citizens, equal also in law. This transformation, however, was but slow and followed concurrently the progress made in the security of property. At the onset the slave only possessed his life and this was but imperfectly guaranteed to him by the laws of charity. Laws which, however, year by year became of greater power. He afterward became colon or laborer, working for himself under certain conditions and tanniers, paying fines or services, which, it is true, were often very extortionate. At this time he was considered to belong to the domain on which he was born and he was at least sure that that soil would not be taken from him and that in giving part of his time to his master he was at liberty to enjoy the rest according to his fancy. The farmer, afterwards, became proprietor of the soil he cultivated and master not only of himself but of his lands, certain trivial obligations or fines being all that was required of him and these daily grew less and at last disappeared altogether. Having thus obtained a footing in society he soon began to take a place in provincial assemblies and he made the last bound on the road of social progress when the vote of his fellow-electures sent him to represent them in the parliament of the kingdom. Thus the people who had begun by excessive servitude gradually climbed to power. End of Section 1 Section 2 of Manners' Custom and Dress This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Lényi Manners' Custom and Dress during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance period by Paul Lacroix Section 2 We will now describe more in detail the various conditions of persons of the Middle Ages. The king who held his rights by birth and not by election enjoyed relatively an absolute authority proportioned according to the power of his abilities to the extent of his dominions and to the devotion of his vessels. Invested with a power which for a long time resembled the command of a general of an army he had at first no other ministers than the officers to whom he gave full power to act in the provinces and who decided arbitrarily in the name of and representing the king on all questions of administration. One minister alone approached the king and that was the chancellor who verified, sealed and dispatched all royal decrees and orders. As early however as the 7th century a few officers of state appeared who were specially attached to the king's person or household. Account of the palace who examined and directed the suits dropped before the throne. A mayor of the palace who at one time raised himself from the administration of the royal property to the supreme power. An art chaplain who presided over ecclesiastical affairs. A lord of the bed chamber charged with the treasure of the chamber. An account of the stables charged with the superintendents of the stables. For all important affairs the king generally consulted the grandees of his court. But as in the five or six first centuries of monarchy in France the royal residence was not permanent. It is probable the council of state was composed in part of the officers who follow the king and in part of the nobleman who came to visit him or resided near the place he happened to be inhabiting. It was only under the capitions that the royal council took a permanent footing or even assembled at stated periods. In ordinary times that is to say when he was not engaged in war the king had few around him besides his family, his personal attendants and the ministers charged with the dispatch of affairs. As he changed from one of his abodes to another he only held his court on the great festivals of the year. Up to the 13th century there was strictly speaking no taxation and no public treasury. The king received through special officers appointed for the purpose tributes either in money or in kind which were most variable but often very heavy and drawn almost exclusively from his personal and private properties. In cases of emergency only he appealed to his vessels for pecuniary aid. A great number of the grandees who lived far from the court either in state offices or on their own fees had establishments similar to that of the king. Numerous and considerable privileges elevate them above other free men. The offices and fees having become hereditary the order of nobility followed as a consequence and it then became highly necessary for families to keep their genealogical histories not only to gratify their pride but also to give them the necessary titles for the feudal advantages they derived by birth. Without this right of inheritance society which was still unsettled in the Middle Ages would soon have been dissolved. This great principle, sacred in the eyes both of great and small, maintained feudalism and in so doing it maintained itself amidst all the chaos and confusion of repeated revolutions and social disturbances. We have already stated and we cannot sufficiently insist upon this important point that from the day on which the adventurous habits of the chiefs of Germanic origin gave place to the desire for territorial possessions the part played by the land increased insensibly towards defining the position of the persons holding it. Domains became small kingdoms over which the Lord assumed the most absolute and arbitrary rights. A rule was soon established that the nobility was inherent to the soil and consequently that the land ought to transmit to its possessors the rights of nobility. This privilege was so much accepted that the long tenure of a thief ended by ennobling the commoner. Subsequently, by a sort of compensation which naturally followed lands on which rent had hitherto been paid became free and noble on passing to the possession of a noble. At last, however, the contrary rule prevailed which caused the lands not to change quality in changing owners. The noble could still possess the laborer's lands without losing the property. But the laborer could be proprietor of a thief without thereby becoming a noble. To the comites who, according to Tacitus, attached themselves to the fortunes of the Germanic chiefs, succeeded the Merovingian Leudes whose assembly formed the king's council. These Leudes were persons of great importance owing to the number of their vassals. The noble could still possess the laborer's lands without losing his nobility or into the number of their vassals. And although they composed his ordinary council, they did not hesitate at times to declare themselves openly opposed to his will. The name of Leudes was abandoned under the second of the then French dynasties and replaced by that of Fidelis which, in truth, soon became a common designation of both the vassals of the crown and those of the nobility. Under the kings of the Third Dynasty, the kingdom was divided into about one hundred and fifty domains which were called Great Thieves of the Crown and which were possessed in hereditary right by the members of the highest nobility, placed immediately under the royals of reinty independence. Vassals emanating directly from the king were then generally designated by the title of barons and mostly possessed strongholds. The other nobles indiscriminately ranked as chevalier or knights, a generic title, to which was added that of baneré. The feasts of Halberk were bound to supply the sovereignty with a certain number of knights covered with coats of mail and completely armed. All knights remounted in war, but knights who were made so in consequence of their high birth must not be confounded with those who became knights by some great feat in arms in the house of a prince or high noble, nor with the members of the different orders of chivalry which were successively instituted, such as the Knights of the Star, the Genet, the Golden Fleece, Saint Esprit, Saint John of Jerusalem, etc. Originally the possession of a benefice or thief meant no more than the privilege of enjoying the profits derived from the land, a concession which made the holder dependent upon the proprietor. He was, in fact, his man to whom he owed homage, service in case of war, and assistance in any suit the proprietor might have before the king's tribunal. The chiefs of German bands at first recompense their companions in arms by giving them feasts of parts of the territory which they had conquered, but later on everything was equally given to be held in feasts, namely dignities, offices, rites, and incomes or titles. It is important to remark, and it is in this alone that feudalism shows its social bearing, that if the vessel owed obedience and devotion to his lord, the lord in exchange owed protection to the vessel. The rank of free man did not necessarily require the possession of land, but the position of free men who did not hold the chiefs was extremely delicate and often painful, for they were by natural rights dependent upon those on whose domain they resided. In fact, the greater part of these nobles without lands became by choice the king's men and remained attached to his service. If this failed them, they took lands on these so as to support themselves and their family and to avoid falling into absolute servitude. In the event of a change of proprietor, they changed with the land into new hands. Nevertheless, it was not uncommon for them to be so reduced as to sell their freedom. But in such cases, they reserved the right, should better times come, of repurchasing their liberty by paying one-fifth more than the sum for which they had sold it. We thus see that in olden times, as also later, freedom was more or less the natural consequence of the possession of wealth or power on the part of individuals or families who considered themselves free in the midst of general dependence. During the tenth century, indeed, if not impossible, it was at least difficult to find a single inhabitant of the kingdom of France who was not the man of Samoan and who was either tied by rules of a liberal order or else was under the most servile obligations. The property of the free men was originally the Alleux, which was under the jurisdiction of the royal magistrates. The Alleux gradually lost the greater part of its franchise and became liable to the common charges due on lands which were not freehold. In ancient times, all landed property of a certain extent was composed of two distinct parts. One, occupied by the owner, constituted the domain or manner. The other, divided between persons who were more or less dependent, formed what were called tenures. These tenures were again divided according to the position of those who occupied them. If they were possessed by free men, who took the name of vessels, they were called benefices or thieves. If they were led to letai, colons or serfs, they were then called colonies or demen. The letai occupied a rank between the colon and the serf. They had less liberty than the colon, over whom the proprietor only had an indirect and very limited power. The colon only served the land, whilst the letai, whether agricultureists or servants, served both the land and the owner. They nevertheless enjoyed the right of possession and of defending themselves or prosecuting by law. The serf, on the contrary, had neither city, tribunal nor family. The letai had, besides the power of purchasing their liberty when they had amassed sufficient for the purpose. Serfs occupied the lowest position in the social ladder. They succeeded to slay, thus making, thanks to Christianity, a step towards liberty. Although the civil laws barely protected them, those of the church continually stepped in and defended them from arbitrary despotism. The time came when they had no direct masters and when the almost absolute dependence of serfs was changed by the nobles requiring them to farm the land and pay tithes and fees. And lastly, they became farmers, and regular taxes took the place of tithes and fees. The colons, letai and serfs, all of whom were more or less tillers of the soil, were, so to speak, the ancestors of the people of modern times. Those who remained devoted to agriculture were the ancestors of our peasants, and those who gave themselves up to trades and commerce in the towns were the originators of the middle classes. As early as the commencement of the Third Royal Dynasty, we find in the rural districts, as well as in the towns, a great number of free men, and as the charters concerning the condition of lands and persons became more and more extended, the tyranny of the great was reduced and servitude decreased. During the following centuries, the establishment of civic bodies and the springing up of the middle classes made the acquisition of liberty more easy and more general. Nevertheless, this liberty was rather theoretical than practical, for if the nobles granted it nominally, they gave it at the cost of excessive fines, and the community, which purchased at a high price the right of self-administration, did not get rid of any of the feudal charges imposed upon it. Fortunately, for the progress of liberty, the civic bodies, as if they had been providentially warned of the future in store for them, never hesitated to accept from their lords, civil or ecclesiastical conditions, honors though they were, which enabled them to exist in the interior of the cities to which they belonged. They formed a sort of small state, almost independent for private affairs, subject to the absolute power of the king, and more or less tied by their customs or agreements with the local nobles. They held public assemblies and elected magistrates, whose powers embraced both the administration of civil and criminal justice, police, finance and the militia. They generally had fixed unwritten laws. Protected by ramparts, each possessed a town hall, hotel de Villes, a seal, a treasury and a watchtower, and it could arm a certain number of men, either for its own defense or for the service of the noble or sovereign under whom it held its rights. In no case could a community such as this exist without the sanction of the king, who placed it under the safeguard of the crown. At first, the kings, blinded by a covetous policy, only seemed to see in the issue of these charters an excellent pretext for extorting money. If they consented to recognize them, and even to help them against their lords, it was an account of the enormous sacrifices made by the towns. Later on, however, they affected, on the contrary, the greatest generosity towards the vessels who wished to incorporate themselves when they had understood that these institutions might become powerful auxiliaries against the great titularie feudalists. From the reign of Louis XI, when the power of the nobles was much diminished and no longer inspired any terror to loyalty, the kings turned against their former allies, the middle classes, and deprived them successively of all the prerogatives which could prejudice the rights of the crown. The middle classes, it is true, acquired considerable influence afterwards by participation in the general and provincial councils. After having victoriously struggled against the clergy and nobility in the assemblies of the three states or orders, they ended by defeating royalty itself. Louis Legault, in whose orders the style or title of bourgeois first appears, is generally looked upon as the founder of the franchise of communities in France. But it is proved that a certain number of communities or corporations were already formally constituted before his accession to the throne. The title of bourgeois was not, however, given exclusively to inhabitants of cities. It often happened that the nobles, with the intention of improving and enriching their domains, opened a kind of asylum under the attractive title of free towns or new towns, where they offered to all wishing to establish themselves, lands, houses, and a more or less extended share of privileges, rights and liberties. These congregations or families soon became boroughs, and the inhabitants, though agriculturalists, took the name of bourgeois. There was also a third kind of bourgeois, whose influence on the extension of royal power was not less than that of the others. There were free men who, under the title of bourgeois of the king, bourgeois du roi, were given liberty by virtue of letters of protection given them by the king, although they were established on lands of nobles, whose inhabitants were deprived of liberty. Further, when a villain, that is to say the serf of a noble, bought a lease of land in a royal borough, it was an established custom that, after having lived there a year and a day without being reclaimed by his lord and master, he became a bourgeois of the king and a free man. The serfs and villains emigrated from all parts in order to profit by these advantages to such a degree that the lands of the nobles became deserted by all the serfs of different degrees and were in danger of remaining uncultivated. The nobility, in the interests of their properties and to arrest this increasing emigration, devoted themselves to improving the condition of persons placed under their dependents and to create on their domains boroughs, analogous to those of royalty. But however liberal these ameliorations might appear to be, it was difficult for the nobles not only to concede privileges equal to those emanating from the throne, but also to ensure equal protection to those they thus enfranchised. In spite of this, however, the result was that a double current of enfranchisement was established, which resulted in the daily diminution of the miserable order of serfs, in which, whilst it emancipated the lower orders, had the immediate result of giving increased weight and power to royalty, both in its own domains and in those of the nobility and their vassals. These social revolutions did not, of course, operate suddenly, nor did they at once abolish former institutions, for it was still fine that after the establishment of communities and corporations, several orders of servitude remain. At the close of the 13th century, on the authority of Philippe de Beaumanois, the celebrated editor of Coutum de Bevoisi, there were three states or orders amongst the laity, namely the noblemen, the freemen and the serf. All noblemen were free, but all freemen were not necessarily noblemen. Generally, nobility descended from the father, and franchise from the mother. But according to many other customs of friends, the child, as a general rule, succeeded to the lower rank of his parents. There were two orders of serfs, one rigorously held in the absolute dependence of his lord, to such a degree that the latter could appropriate during his life or after death if he chose all he possessed. He could imprison him, it will treat him as he thought proper, without having to answer to anyone but God. The other, though held equally in bondage, was more liberally treated, for unless he was guilty of some evil doing, the lord could ask of him nothing during his life but the fees, rents or fines, which he owed on account of his servitude. If one of the latter class of serfs married a free woman, everything which he possessed became the property of his lord. The same was the case when he died, for he could not transmit any of his goods to his children and was only allowed to dispose by will of a sum of about 5 sous or about 25 francs of modern money. As early as the 14th century served them or servitude no longer existed except in Mourmâ, of which we still have to speak. Mourmâ consisted of the privation of the right of freely disposing of one's person or goods. He who had not the power of going where he would, of giving or selling, of leaving by will or transferring his property fixed or movable as he thought best, was called a man of Mourmâ. This name was apparently chosen because the hand considered a symbol of power and the instrument of donation was deprived of movement, paralyzed, in fact struck us by death. It was also nearly in the sense that men of the church were also called men of Mourmâ because they were equally forbidden to dispose, either in life or by will after death, of anything belonging to them. There were two kinds of Mourmâ, real and personal, one concerning land and the other concerning the person. That is to say, land held in Mourmâ did not change quality, whatever might be the position of the person who occupied it. And a man of Mourmâ did not cease to suffer the inconveniences of his position on whatever land he went to establish himself. The Mourmâ were generally subject to the greater share of feudal obligations formerly imposed on serves. These were particularly to work for a certain time for the Lord without receiving any wages or else to pay him the tax when it was due on certain definite occasions, as for example when he married, when he gave a dowry to his daughter, when he was taken prisoner of war, when he went to the holy land, etc., etc. What particularly characterized the condition of Mourmâ was that the lords had the right to take all their goods when they died without issue or when the children held a separate household and that they could not dispose of anything they possessed either by will or gift beyond a certain sum. The noble who franchised Mourmâ imposed on them in almost all cases very heavy conditions consisting of fees, labours and fines of all sorts. In fact, a Mourmâ person to be free not only required to be franchised by his own Lord but also by all the nobles on whom he was dependent as well as by the sovereign. If a noble franchised without the consent of his superiors he incurred a fine as it was considered a dismemberment or depreciation of the thief. As early as the end of the 14th century the rigorous laws of Mourmâ began to fall into disuse in the provinces though if the name began to disappear the condition itself continued to exist. The free men, whether they belong to the middle class or to the peasantry, were nevertheless still subject to pay fines or obligations to their lords of such a nature that they must be considered to have been practically in the same position as Mourmâ. In fact, this custom had been so deeply rooted into social habits by feudalism that to make it disappear totally at the end of the 18th century it required three decrees of the national convention July 17th and October 2nd 1793 and 8 ventos year 2nd that is March 2nd 1794. It is only just to state that 12 or 14 years earlier Louis XVI had done all in his power towards the same purpose by suppressing Mourmâ both real or personal on the lens of the crown and personal Mourmâ that is the right of following Mourmâ out of their original districts all over the kingdom. End of Section 2 Section 3 of Manor's Customs and Dress This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Donna Stewart Manor's Customs and Dress during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance period by Paul Lacroix Section 3 Privileges and Rights Feudal and Municipal Elements of Feudalism Rights of Treasure Trove Sporting, Safe Conducts Ransom, Disinheritance, etc Immunity of the Feudalists Dews from the Nobles to their Sovereign Law and University Dews Curious Exactions Resulting from the Universal System of Dews Struggles to Enfranchise the Classes Subjected to Dews Feudal Spirit and Citizen Spirit Resuscitation of the System of Ancient Municipalities in Italy, Germany, and France Municipal Institutions and Associations The Community The Middle Class Cities Origin of National Unity So as to understand the numerous charges, dews, and servitudes often as quaint as Iniquitous and Vexatious which weighed on the lower orders during the Middle Ages we must remember how the Upper Class who assumed to itself the privilege of oppression on lands and persons under the feudal system was constituted. The Roman Nobles, heirs to their father's agricultural dominions, succeeded for the most part in preserving through the successive invasions of the barbarians the influence attached to the prestige of birth and wealth. They still possessed the greater part of the land and owned as vassals the rural populations. The German Nobles on the contrary had not such extended landed properties but they appropriated all the strongest positions. The dukes, counts, and marqueses were generally of German origin. The Roman race mixed with the blood of the various nations it had subdued was the first to infuse itself into ancient society and only furnished barons of a secondary order. These heterogeneous elements brought together with the object of common dominion constituted a body who found life and motion only in the traditions of Rome and ancient Germany. From these two historical sources as is very judiciously pointed out by Monsieur Marie Lafond issued all the habits of the new society and particularly the rights and privileges assumed by the nobility. These rights and privileges which we are about to pass summarily in review were numerous and often curious. Amongst them may be mentioned the rights of treasure trove, the rights of wreck, the rights of establishing fares or markets, rights of mark, of sporting, etc. The rights of treasure trove were those which gave full power to dukes and counts over all minerals found on their properties. It was in asserting this right that the famous Richard Cour de Lyon, King of England met his death. Adhemar, Viscount of Limoges, had discovered in a field a treasure of which, no doubt, public report exaggerated the value, for it was said to be large enough to model in pure gold and life size a Roman emperor and the members of his family at table. Adhemar was a vassal of the Duke of Guyenne and, as a matter of course, set aside what was considered the sovereign's share in his discovery. But Richard, refusing to concede any part of his privilege, claimed the whole treasure. On the refusal of the Viscount to give it up he appeared under arms before the gates of the castle of Chalice, where he supposed that the treasure was hidden. On seeing the royal standard the garrison offered to open the gates. No, answered Richard, since you have forced me to unfurl my banner I shall only enter by breach and you shall all be hung on the battlements. The siege commenced and did not at first seem to favour the English for the besieged made a noble stand. One evening, as his troops were assaulting the place in order to witness the scene, Richard was sitting at a short distance on a piece of rock protected with a target, that is, a large shield covered with leather and blades of iron, which two archers held over him. Impatient to see the result of the assault Richard pushed down the shield and that moment decided his fate. 1199 An archer of Chalice, who had recognised him and was watching from the top of the rampart sent a bolt from a crossbow which hit him full in the chest. The wound, however, would perhaps not have been mortal but shortly after having carried the place by storm and in his delight at finding the treasure almost intact he gave himself up madly to degrading orgies during which he had already dissipated the greater part of his treasure and died of his wound twelve days later. First having, however, graciously pardoned the bowman who cost his death. The right of shipwrecks, which the nobles of seaboard countries rarely renounced and of which they were the more jealous from the fact that they had continuously to dispute them with their vassals and neighbours was the pitiless and barbaric right of appropriating the contents of ships happening to be wrecked on their shores. When the feudal nobles granted to their vassals the right of assembling on certain days in order to hold fares and markets they never neglected to reserve to themselves some tax on each head of cattle as well as on the various articles brought in and put up for sale as these fares and markets never failed to attract a great number of buyers and sellers this formed a very lucrative tax for the noble. The right of mark or reprisal was a most barbarous custom a famous example of it. In 1022 William the Pious, Count of Angoulême before starting for a pilgrimage to Rome made his three brothers who were his vassals and swear to live in honourable peace and good friendship but not withstanding their oath to the brothers having invited the third to the Easter festivities seized him at night in his bed put out his eyes so that he might not find his way to his castle and cut out his tongue so that he might not name the authors of this horrible treatment. The voice of God however denounced them and the Count of Angoulême shuddering with horror referred the case to his sovereign the Duke of Aquitaine, William IV who immediately came and by fire and sword exercised his right of mark on the lands of the two brothers leaving them nothing but their lives and limbs after having first put out their eyes and cut out their tongues so as to inflict on them the penalty of retaliation. The right of sporting or hunting was of all prerogatives that dearest to and most valued by the nobles not only were the severest and even cruelest penalties imposed on villains who dared to kill the smallest head of game but quarrels frequently arose between nobles of different degrees on the subject some pretending to have a feudal privilege of hunting on the lands of others from this tyrannical exercise of the right of hunting which the least powerful of the nobles only submitted to with the most violent and bitter feelings sprung those old and familiar ballads which indicate the popular sentiment on the subject in some of these songs the inveterate hunters are condemned by order of the fairies or the fates either to follow a phantom stag for everlasting or to hunt like King Artis in the clouds and to catch a fly every hundred years the right of jurisdiction which gave judicial power to the Dukes and Counts in cases arising in their domains had no appeal saved to the King himself and this was even often contested by the nobles as for instance in the unhappy case of Angherande de Coussi Angherande had ordered three young Flemish noblemen who were scholars at the Abbey of St. Nicholas de Bois to be seized and hung because not knowing that they were on the domain of the Lord of Coussi they had killed a few rabbits with arrows Saint-Louis called the case before him Angherande answered to the call but only to dispute the King's right and to claim the judgment of his peers the King without taking any notice of the remonstrance ordered Angherande to be locked up in the big tower of the Louvre and was nearly applying the law of retaliation to his case eventually he granted him letters of pardon after condemning him to build three chapels where masses were continually to be said for the three victims to give the forest where the young scholars had been found hunting to the Abbey of St. Nicholas de Bois to lose on all his estates the rights of jurisdiction and sporting to serve three years in the Holy Land and to pay to the King a fine of £12,500 tunois it must be remembered that Louis IX although most generous in cases relating simply to private interests was one of the most stubborn defenders of royal prerogatives a right which feudalists had the greatest interest in observing and causing to be respected because they themselves might with their wandering habits require it at any moment was that of safe convoy or guidance this right was so powerful that it even applied itself to the lower orders and its violation was considered the most odious crime thus in the 13th century the King of Aragon was severely abused by all persons and all classes because in spite of this right he caused a Jew to be burned so as not to have to pay a debt which the man claimed of him the right of the crown should also be mentioned which consisted of a circle of gold ornamented in various fashions according to the different degrees of feudal monarchy which vassals had to present to their Lord on the day of his investiture the right of seal was a fee or fine they had to pay for the charters which their Lord caused to be delivered to them the duty of Obain was the fine or due paid by merchants either in kind or money to the feudal chief when they passed near his castle, landed in his ports or exposed goods for sale in his markets the nobles of the second order possessed among their privileges that of wearing spurs of silver or gold according to their rank of knighthood the right of receiving double rations when prisoners of war the right of claiming a year's delay when a creditor wished to seize their land and the right of never having to submit to torture after trial unless they were condemned to death for the crime they had committed if a great baron for serious offenses confiscated the goods of a noble who was his vassal the latter had a right to keep his palfry, the horse of his squire various pieces of his harness and armor, his bed, his silk robe, his wife's bed one of her dresses, her ring, her cloths, stomacher, etc. the nobles alone possessed the right of having seats of honor in churches and chapels and to erect therein funereal monuments and we know that they maintained this right so rigorously and with so much effrontery that fatal quarrels at times arose on questions of precedence the epitaphs, the placing of tombs, the position of a monument were all subjects for conflicts or lawsuits the nobles enjoyed also the right of disinheritance that is to say of claiming the goods of a person dying on their lands who had no direct heir the right of claiming a tax when a fee for domain change tans the right of common oven or requiring vassals to make use of the mill, the oven, or the press of the Lord at the time of the vintage no peasant might sell his wine until the nobles had sold theirs everything was a source of privilege for the nobles kings and councils waived the necessity of their studying in order to be received as bachelors of universities if a noble was made a prisoner of war his life was saved by his nobility and his ransom had practically to be raised by the villains of his domains the nobles were also exempted from serving in the militia nor were they obliged to lodge soldiers etc they had a thousand pretexts for establishing taxes on their vassals generally considered quote taxable and to be worked at will thus in the domain of Montignac the count of Paragore claimed among other things as follows for every case of censure or complaint brought before him ten denies for a quarrel in which blood was shed sixty souls if blood was not shed seven souls for the use of ovens the sixteenth loaf of each baking for the sale of corn in the domain forty three satay's besides these six satay's of rye one hundred sixty one satay's of oats three satay's of beans one pound of wax eight capons seventeen hens and thirty seven loads of wine there were a multiple of other rights due to him including the provost chip fees the fees on deeds the tolls and furnaces of towns the taxes on salt on leather corn nuts fees for the right of fishing for the right of sporting which last gave the lord a certain part or quarter of the game killed and in addition the deem or tenth part of all the corn wine etc etc this worthy noble gathered in besides all this during the religious festivals of the year certain tributes in money on the estate of montignac alone amounting to as much as twenty thousand pounds to and why one can judge by this rough sketch of the income he must have had both in good and bad years from his other domains in the rich county of Paragore it must not be imagined that this was an exceptional case all over the feudal territory the same state of things existed and each lord farmed both his lands and the persons whom feudal right had placed under his dependence to add to these already excessive rates and taxes there were endless dues under all shapes and names claimed by the ecclesiastical lords and not only did the nobility make without scruple these enormous exactions but the crown supported them in avenging any act however opposed to all sense of justice so that the nobles were really placed above the great law of equality without which the continuance of social order seemed normally impossible the history of the city of Toulouse gives us a significant example on this subject on Easter day 1335 some students of the university who had passed the night of the anniversary of the resurrection of our savior in drinking left the table half intoxicated and ran about the town during the hours of service beating pans and cauldrons and making such a noise and disturbance that the indignant preachers were obliged to stop in the middle of their discourses and claimed the intervention of the municipal authorities of Toulouse one of these the lord of Gower went out of church with five sergeants and tried himself to arrest the most turbulent of the band but as he was seizing him by the body one of his comrades gave the lord a blow with a dagger which cut off his nose, lips, and part of his chin this occurrence aroused the whole town Toulouse had been insulted in the person of its first magistrate and claimed vengeance the author of the deed named Améry de Béranger was seized, judged, condemned, and beheaded and his body was suspended on the spikes of the Château-Narbonnet Toulouse had to pay dearly for the disrespect shown to its municipal dignity the parents of the student presented a petition to the king against the city for having dared to execute a noble and to hang his body on a gibbet in opposition to the sacred right which this noble had of appealing to the judgment of his peers the parliament of Paris finally decided the matter with the inflexible partiality to the rights of rank and confiscated all the goods of the inhabitants forced the principal magistrates to go on their knees before the house of Améry de Béranger and ask pardon themselves to take down the body of the victim and to have it publicly and honorably buried in the burial ground of the dorade such was the sentence and humiliation to which one of the first towns of the south was subjected for having practiced immediate justice on a noble whilst it would certainly have suffered no vindication if the culprit condemned to death had belonged to the middle or lower orders End of Section 3 Recording by Donna Stewart, Seattle, Washington Section 4 of Manors, Customs and Dress This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Donna Stewart Manors, Customs and Dress during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance period by Paul Lacroix Section 4 We must nevertheless remember that heavy dues fell upon the privilege class themselves to a certain degree and if they taxed their poor vassals without mercy they had in their turn often to reckon with their superiors in the feudal hierarchy Albert, or right of shelter was the principal charge imposed upon the noble When a great baron visited his lands his tenants were not only obliged to give him and his followers shelter but also provisions and food the nature and quality of which were all arranged beforehand with the most extraordinary minuteness The lesser nobles took advantage sometimes of the power they possessed to repurchase this obligation but the rich on the contrary were most anxious to seize the occasion of proudly displaying before their sovereign all the pomp in their power at the risk even of mortgaging their revenues for several years and of ruining their vassals History is full of stories bearing witness to the extravagant prodigalities of certain nobles on such occasions Payments in kind fell generally on the abbeys up to 1158 That of Saint Denis which was very rich in lands was charged with supplying the house and table of the king This tax which became heavier and heavier eventually fell on the Parisians who only succeeded in ridding themselves of it in 1374 when Charles V made all the bourgeois of Paris noble In the 12th century all furniture made of wood or iron which was found in the house of the bishop at his death became the property of the king but in the 14th century the abbeys of Saint Denis Saint Germain de Prey Saint Genevieve and a few priories in the neighborhood of Paris were only required to present the sovereign with two horse loads of produce annually so as to keep up the old system of fines This system of rents and dues of all kinds was so much the basis of social organization in the Middle Ages that it sometimes happened that the lower orders benefited by it Thus the bed of the bishop of Paris belonged after his death to the poor invalids of the Hôtel d'Hue The cannons were also bound to leave theirs to that hospital as an atonement for the sins which they had committed The bishops of Paris were required to give two very sumptuous repasts to their chapters at the feasts of Saint Elois and Saint Paul The holy men of Saint Martin were obliged annually on the 10th of November to offer to the first president of the court of parliament two square caps and to the first usher a writing desk and a pair of gloves The executioner too received from various monastic communities of the capital bread, bottles of wine and pigs' heads and even criminals who were taken to Mont-Fausson to be hung had the right to claim bread and wine from the nuns of Saint Catherine and the Fille d'Hue as they passed those establishments on their way to the gibbet Fines were levied everywhere at all times and for all sorts of reasons Under the name of Apice the magistrates, judges, reporters and council who had at first only received sweetmeats and preserves as voluntary offerings eventually exacted substantial tribute in current coin Scholars who wished to take rank in the university sent some small pies costing ten souls to each examiner Students in philosophy or theology gave two suppers to the president eight to the other masters besides presenting them with sweetmeats, etc It would be an endless task to relate all the finds due by apprentices and companions before they could reach mastership in their various crafts nor have we yet mentioned certain finds which from their strange or ridiculous nature proved to what a pitch of folly men may be led under the influence of tyranny, vanity or caprice Thus we read of vassals descending to the humiliating occupation of beating the water of the moat of the castle in order to stop the noise of the frogs during the illness of the mistress We elsewhere find that at times the lord required them to hop on one leg to kiss the latch of the castle gate or to go through some drunken play in his presence or sing a somewhat broad song before the lady At tulle all the rustics who had married during the year were bound to appear on the Puy or Mont Sinclair At twelve o'clock precisely three children came out of the hospital, one beating a drum violently the other two carrying a pot full of dirt A herald called the names of the bridegrooms and those who were absent or were unable to assist in breaking the pot by throwing stones at it paid a fine At Perigieux the young couples had to give the consuls a pin cushion of embossed leather or cloth of different colors A woman marrying a second time was required to present them with an earthen pot containing twelve sticks of different woods A woman marrying for the third time a barrel of cinders past thirteen times through the sieve and thirteen spoons made of different fruit trees And lastly one coming to the altar for the fifth time was obliged to bring with her a small tub containing the excrement of a white hen The people of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period were literally tied down with taxes and dues of all sorts says Monsieur Marie Lafond If a few gleams of liberty reached them it was only from a distance and more in the hope of the future than as regarded the present As an example of the way people were treated A certain Lord of La Guenne spoken of in the Chronicles of the South may be mentioned Every year this cunning baron assembled his tenants in the village square A large maypole was planted and on the top was attached a wren The Lord pointing to the little bird declared solemnly that if any villain succeeded in piercing him with an arrow he should be exempt from that year's dues The villains shot away but to the great merriment of their Lord never hit and so had to continue paying the dues One can easily understand how such a system legalized by law hampered the efforts for freedom which a sense of human dignity was constantly raising in the bosoms of the oppressed The struggle was long, often bloody and at times it seemed almost hopeless For on both sides it was felt that the contest was between two principles which were incompatible and one of which must necessarily end by annihilating the other Any compromise between the complete slavery and the personal freedom of the lower orders could only be a respite to enable these implacable adversaries to reinforce themselves so as to resume with more vigor than ever this desperate combat, the issue of which was so long to remain doubtful These efforts to obtain individual liberty displayed themselves more particularly in towns but although they became almost universal in the west they had not the same importance or character everywhere The feudal system had not everywhere produced the same consequences Thus whilst in ancient Gaul it had absorbed all social vitality we find that in Germany the place of its origin the Teutonic institutions of older date gave a comparative freedom to the laborers In southern countries again we find the same beneficial effect from the Roman rule On that long area of land reaching from the southern slope of the Sevens to the Apennines the hand of the barbarian had weighed much less heavily than on the rest of Europe In those favored provinces where Roman organization had outlived Roman patronage it seems as if ancient splendor had never ceased to exist and the elegance of customs re-flourished amidst the ruins There a sort of urban aristocracy always continued as a balance against the nobles and the Council of Elected Prudome the Syndix, jurors or capi-tools who in the towns replaced the Roman honorati and curiales still were considered by kings and princes as holding some position in the state The municipal body, larger and more open than the old ward, no longer formed a corporation of unwilling aristocrats chained to privileges which ruined them The principal cities on the Italian coast had already amassed enormous wealth by commerce and displayed the most remarkable ardor, activity and power The eternal city which was disputed by emperors, popes and barons of the Roman states bestirred itself at times to snatch the ancient phantom of republicanism and this phantom was destined soon to change into reality and another Rome, or rather a new Carthage the lovely Venice, arose free and independent from the waves of the Adriatic In Lombardy so thickly colonized by the German conquerors feudalism on the contrary weighed heavily but there too cities were populous and energetic and the struggle for supremacy continued for centuries in an uncompromising manner between the people and the nobles between the Guelphs and the Givolines In the north and east of the Gallic territory the instinct of resistance did not exist any the less although perhaps it was more intermittent. In fact in these regions we find ambitious nobles forestalling the action of the king and in order to attach towns to themselves and their houses addressing the most obnoxious of the taxes and at the same time granting legal guarantees for this the counts of Flanders became celebrated and the famous was noted for being so exacting in his demands with the great and yet so popular with the small The eleventh century during which feudal power rose to its height was also the period when a reaction set in of the most people against the nobility the spirit of the city revived with that of the bourgeois a name derived from the Teutonic word Berg habitation and infused a feeling of opposition to the system which followed the conquest of the Teutons but says Monsieur Henri Martin what reappeared was not the Roman municipality of the Empire stained by servitude although surrounded with glittering pomp and gorgeous arts but it was something coarse and almost semi-barbarous in form though strong and generous at core and which as far as the difference of the times would allow rather reminds us of the small republics which existed previous to the Roman Empire two strong impulses originating from two totally dissimilar centers of action irresistibly propelled this great social revolution with its various and endless aspects affecting all central Europe and being more or less felt in the west the north and the south on one side the Greek and Latin partiality for ancient corporations modified by a democratic element and an innate feeling of opposition characteristic of barbaric tribes and on the other the free spirit and equality of the old Celtic tribes rising suddenly against the military hierarchy which was the offspring of conquest Europe was roused by the double current of ideas which simultaneously urged her on to a new state of civilization and more particularly to a new organization of city life Italy was naturally destined to be the country where the new trials of social regeneration were to be made but she presented the greatest possible variety of customs, laws and governments including emperor, pope, bishops and feudal princes in Tuscany and Liguria the march towards liberty was continued almost without effort whilst in Lombardy on the contrary the feudal resistance was very powerful everywhere however cities became more or less completely enfranchised though some more rapidly than others in Sicily feudalism swayed over the countries but in the greater part of the peninsula the democratic spirit of the cities influenced the enfranchisement of the rural population the feudal caste was in fact dissolved the barons were transformed into patricians of the noble towns which gave their republican magistrates the old title of consuls the Teutonic emperor in vain sought to seize and turn to his own interest the sovereignty of the people who had shaken off the yoke of his vassals the signal of war was immediately given by the newly enfranchised masses and the imperial eagle was obliged to fly before the banners of the besieged cities happy indeed might the cities of Italy have been had they not forgotten in their prosperity that union alone could give them the possibility of maintaining that liberty which they so freely risked in continual quarrels amongst one another the Italian movement was immediately felt on the other side of the Alps in Provence, Septimani and Aquitaine we find in the 11th century cities which enjoyed considerable freedom under the name of communities and universities which meant that all citizens were part of the one body they jointly interfered in the general affairs of the kingdom to which they belonged their magistrates were treated on a footing of equality with the feudal nobility and although the latter at first would only recognize them as good men or notables the consuls knew how to make a position for themselves in the hierarchy if the consulate which was a powerful expression of the most prominent system of independence did not succeed in suppressing feudalism in Provence as it did in Italy it at least so transformed it that it deprived it of some of its most unjust and insupportable elements at Toulouse for instance where the consuls were by exception called capitoules that is to say, heads of the chapters or consuls of the city the lord of the country seemed less a feudal prince in his capital than an honorary magistrate of the bourgeoisie Avignon added to her consuls two potestas from the Latin potestas power at Marseille the University of the High City was ruled by a republic under the presidency of the Count of Provence although the lower city was still under the sovereignty of Avicount Perigur which was divided into two communities the great and the small fraternity took up arms to resist the authority of the Counts of Perigur and Arles under its potestas was governed for some time as a free and imperial town amongst the constitutions which were established by the cities from the 11th to the 16th centuries we find admirable examples of administration and government so that one is struck with admiration at the efforts of intelligence and patriotism often uselessly lavished on such small political arenas the consulate which nominally at least found its origin in the ancient grandeur of southern regions did not spread itself beyond Lyon in the centre of France at Poitiers Tour, Moulin, etc the urban progress only manifested itself in efforts which were feeble and easily suppressed but in the north on the contrary in the provinces between the Seine and the Rhine and even between the Seine and the Loire the systems of franchise took footing and became recognized in some places the revolution was effected without difficulty but in others it gave rise to the most determined struggles in Normandy, for instance under the active and intelligent government of the Dukes of the race of Raul or Roland the middle class was rich and even warlike it had access to the councils of the Duchy and when it was contemplated to invade England the Duke William found support from the middle class both in money and men the case was the same in Flanders where the towns of Ghent, of Bruges of Ypres after being enfranchised but a short time developed with great rapidity but in the other counties of western France the greater part of the towns were still much oppressed by the counts and bishops if some obtained certain franchises these privileges were their ultimate ruin owing to the ill faith of their nobles a town between the Loire and the Seine gave the signal which caused the regeneration of the North the inhabitants of Ma formed a community or association and took an oath that they would obtain and maintain certain rights they rebelled about 1070 and forced the Count and his noble vassals to grant them the freedom which they had sworn to obtain though William of Normandy very soon restored the rebel city to order and dissolved the presumptuous community however the example soon bore fruit Cambrai rose in its turn and proclaimed the Commune and although its bishop aided by treason and by the count of Hainot reduced it to obedience it only seemed to succumb for a time to renew the struggle with greater success at a subsequent period we have just mentioned the Commune but we must not mistake the true meaning of this word which under the Latin form Communitas expresses originally a Germanic idea and in its new form a Christian mode of living societies of mutual defense, guilds, etc had never disappeared from Germanic and Celtic countries and indeed knighthood itself was but a brotherhood of Christian warriors the societies of the Pae de Dieu and of the Trev de Dieu were encouraged by the clergy in order to stop the bloody quarrels of the nobility and formed in reality great religious guilds this idea of a body of persons taking some common oath to one another of which feudalism gave so striking an example could not fail to influence the minds of the rustics and the lower classes and they only wanted the opportunity which the idea of the Commune once gave them of imitating their superiors they too took oaths and possessed their bodies and souls in common they seized by force of strategy the ramparts of their towns they elected mayors, aldermen and jurors who were charged to watch over the interests of their association they swore to spare neither their goods their labor nor their blood in order to free themselves and not content with defending themselves behind barricades or chains which closed the streets they boldly took the offensive against the proud feudal chiefs before whom their fathers had trembled and they forced the nobles who now saw themselves threatened by this armed multitude to acknowledge their franchise by a solemn covenant it does not follow that everywhere the Commune was established by means of insurrection for it was obtained after all sorts of struggles and franchises were sold in some places for gold and in others granted by more or less voluntary liberality everywhere the object was the same everywhere they struggled or negotiated to upset by a written constitution or charter the violence and arbitrary rule under which they had so long suffered and to replace by an annual and fixed rent under the protection of an independent and impartial law the unlimited exactions and disguised plundering so long made by the nobility and royalty circumstances as they were what other means had they to obtain this end but ramparts and gates a common treasury a permanent military force and magistrates who were both administrators judges and captains the Hotel de Ville or mansion house immediately became a sort of civic temple where the banner of the Commune the emblems of unity and the seal which sanctioned the municipal acts were preserved then arose the watchtowers where the watchmen were unceasingly posted night and day and whence the alarm signal was ever ready to issue its powerful sounds when danger threatened the city these watchtowers the monuments of liberty became as necessary for the burgers as the clock towers of their cathedrals whose brilliant peels and joyous chimes possessed to the popular feasts the mansion houses built in Flanders from the 14th to the 16th centuries under municipal influence are marvels of architecture who is there who could thoroughly describe or even appreciate all the happy or unhappy vicissitudes relating to the establishment of the communes we read of the Commune of Cambrai four times created four times destroyed which was continually at war with the bishops the Commune of Beauvais sustained on the contrary by the diocesan prelate against two nobles who possessed feudal rights over it Laon a Commune bought for money from the bishop afterwards confirmed by the king and then violated by fraud and treachery and eventually buried in the blood of its defenders we read also of Saint Quentin where the count of Vermontois and his vassals voluntarily swore to maintain the right of the bourgeois and scrupulously respected their oath in many other localities the feudal dignitaries took alarm simply at the name of Commune and whereas they would not agree to the very best arrangements under this terrible designation they did not hesitate to adopt them when called either the laws of friendship the peace of God or the institutions of peace at Lille for instance the bourgeois magistrates took the name of appeasers or watchers over friendship at Eir in Artois the members of friendship mutually not only helped one another against the enemy but also assisted one another in distress Amiens deserves the first place among the cities which dearly purchased their privileges the most terrible and sanguinary war was sustained by the bourgeois against their count and lord of the manner assisted by King Louis Legault who had under similar circumstances just taken the part of the nobles of Laon from Amiens which having been triumphant became a perfect municipal republic the example propagated itself throughout the rest of Picardy the Isle of France, Normandy Brittany and Burgundy and by degrees without any revolutionary shocks reached the region of Lyon where the consulate a characteristic institution of southern communes ended from Flanders also the movement spread in the direction of the German Empire and there too the struggle was animated and victorious against the aristocracy until at last the great system of enfranchisement prevailed and the cities of the west and south formed a confederation against the nobles whilst those in the north formed the famous Teutonic haunts so celebrated for its maritime commerce the center of France slowly followed the movement but its progress was considerably delayed by the close influence of royalty which sometimes conceded large franchises and sometimes suppressed the least claims to independence the kings who willingly favored communes on the properties of their neighbors did not so much care to see them on their own estates unless the exceptional position and importance of any town required a wise exercise of tolerance thus Orléans situated in the heart of the royal domains was roughly repulsed in its first movement whilst Mont which was on the frontier of the Duchy of Normandy and still under the King of England had but to ask in order to receive its franchise from the King of France it was particularly in the royal domains that cities were to be found which although they did not possess the complete independence of communes had a certain amount of liberty and civil guarantees they had neither the right of war the watchtower nor the exclusive jurisdiction over their elected magistrates for the bailiffs and the royal provosts represented the sovereign amongst them in Paris less than anywhere the King's consent to the organization of an independent political system although that city succeeded in creating for itself a municipal existence the middle-class influence originated in a Gallo-Roman corporation the company of Not or the corporation of the water trade formed a center round which were successfully attached various bodies of different trades gradually a strong concourse of civic powers was established which succeeded in electing a municipal council composed of a provost of merchants four alderman and 26 councillors of the town this council afterwards succeeded in overstepping the royal influence at difficult times and was destined to play a prominent part in history they're also sprang up a lower order of towns or burrows than these bourgeois cities which were especially under the crown not having sufficient strength to claim a great amount of liberty they were obliged to be satisfied with a few privileges conceded to them by the nobles for the most part with a political end these were the free towns or new towns which we have already named however it came about it is certain that although during the 10th century feudal power was almost supreme in Europe as early as the 12th century the municipal system had gained great weight and it was constantly progressing until the policy of the kingdom became developed on a more and more extended basis so that it was then necessary for it to give up its primitive nature and to participate in a great movement of consolidation and national unity in this way the position of the large towns in the state relatively lost their individual position and became somewhat analogous as compared with the kingdom at large to that formally held by bourgeois in the cities friendly ties arose between provinces and distinct and rival interests were effaced by the general aspiration towards common objects the towns were admitted to the state's general and the citizens of various regions were mixed as representatives of the Thiers-État three orders thus met who were destined to struggle for predominance in the future we must call attention to the fact that as Monsieur Henri Martin says by an apparent contradiction the fall of the communes declared itself in inverse ratio to the progress of the Thiers-État by degrees as the government became more settled from the great fiefs being absorbed by the crown and as parliament and other courts of appeal which emanated from the middle class extended their high judiciary and military authority so the central power organized under monarchical form must necessarily have been less disposed to tolerate the local independence of the communes the state replaced the commune for everything concerning justice, war and administration no doubt some valuable privileges were lost but that was only an accidental circumstance for a great social revolution was produced which cleared off at once all the relics of the old age and when the work of reconstruction terminated homage was rendered to the venerable name of commune which became uniformly applied to all towns boroughs or villages into which the new spirit of the same municipal system was infused End of Section 4 Recording by Donna Stewart, Seattle, Washington