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COMMUNE, MEDIEVAL
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See also: COMMUNE, See also:MEDIEVAL . Under this See also:head it is proposed to give a See also:short See also:account of the rise and development of towns in central and western See also:continental See also:Europe since the downfall of the See also:Roman See also:Empire. All these, including also the See also:British towns (for which, however, see See also:BOROUGH), may be said to have formed one unity, inasmuch as all arose under similar conditions, economic, legal and See also:political, irrespective of See also:local peculiarities. Kindred economic conditions prevailed in all the former provinces of the Western empire, while new See also:law concepts were everywhere introduced by the Germanic invaders. It is largely for the latter See also:reason that it seems advisable to begin with an account of the See also:German towns, the See also:term German to correspond to the limits of the old See also:kingdom of See also:Germany, comprising the See also:present empire, German See also:Austria, German See also:Switzerland, See also:
Most of these had never been entirely destroyed during the Germanic invasion. Roman civic institutions perished; but probably parts of the See also: population survived, and small See also:Christian congregations with their bishops in most cases seem to have weathered all storms. Much of the See also:city walls presumably remained See also:standing, and within them German communities soon settled. In the zoth See also:century it became the policy of the German emperors to See also:hand over. to the bishops full jurisdictional and administrative See also:powers within their cities. The See also:bishop hence-forward directly or indirectly appointed all See also:officers for the town's government. The chief of these was usually the advocaius or See also:Vogt, some neighbouring See also:noble who served as the See also:proctor of the See also:
Besides, the inhabitants might be sued before the town court only, and to fugitives from the country who had taken See also: refuge in the town belonged a similar See also:privilege. This special legal status probably arose from the towns being considered in the first See also:place as the See also:
' As to the towns as fortresses, see also F. Keutgen, Untersuchungen fiber den Ursprung der deutschen Stadtverfassung (Leipzig, 1895) ; and " Der Ursprung der deutschen Stadtverfassung " (Neue Jahrbiicher See also: fur das klassische Altertum, &c., N.F. vol. v.). 4 See S. Rietschel, Markt and Stadt, and J. Fritz, Deutsche Stadtanlagen (See also:Strassburg, 1894).on the new towns in a more clearly defined See also:form from the beginning. An important difference lay in the mode of See also:settlement. There is See also:evidence that in the quondam Roman towns the German newcomers settled much as in a village, i.e. each full member of the community had a certain portion of arable land allotted to him and a See also:share in the See also:common. Their pursuits would at first be mainly agricultural. The new towns, on the other hand, general economic conditions having meanwhile begun to undergo a marked See also:change, were founded with the intention of establishing centres of See also:trade. Periodical markets, weekly or See also:annual, had preceded them, which already enjoyed the special See also:protection of the king's See also:ban, acts of violence against traders visiting them or on their way towards them being .subject to special See also:punishment. The new towns may be regarded as markets made permanent. The settlers invited were merchants (mercatores personati) and handicraftsmen.The land now allotted to each member of the community was just large enough for a See also:
(It was only after the See also: Renaissance that the town-council came to be styled See also:senate, and the burgomasters in Latin documents, consules.) As units of local ,government the towns must be considered as originally placed on the same legal basis as the villages, viz. as having the right of taking care of all common interests below the cognizance of the public courts or of those of their lord.5 In the towns, however, this right was strengthened at an early date by the See also:jus negotiate. At least as early as the beginning of the 11th century, but probably long before that date, See also:mercantile communities claimed the right, confirmed by the emperors, of settling mercantile disputes according to a law of their own, to the horror of certain conservative-minded clerics.s Furthermore, in the rapidly developing towns, opportunities for the exercise of self-administrative functions constantly increased. The new self-governing See also:body soon began to legislate in matters of local government, imposing fines for the 'See also:breach 2G. von Below, Die Entstehung der deutschen Stadtgemeinde (See also:Dusseldorf, 1889); and Der Ursprung der deutschen Stadtverfassung (Dusseldorf, 1892). s F. Keutgen, Urkunden zur stadtischen Verfassungsgeschichle, No. 74 and No. 75 (See also:Berlin, 1901). of its by-See also:laws. Thus it assumed a jurisdiction, partly concurrent with that of the lord, which it further extended to breaches of the peace. And, finally, it raised funds by means of an See also:excise-See also:duty, Ungeld (cf. the English malatolta) or Accise, Zeise. In the older and larger towns it soon went beyond what the bishops thought proper to tolerate; conflicts ensued; and in the 13th century several bishops obtained decrees in the imperial court, either to suppress the Rat altogether, or to make it subject to their nomination, and more particularly to abolish the Ungeld, as detrimental to episcopal finances. In the long run, however, these attempts proved of little avail.Meanwhile the tendency towards self-government spread even to the See also: lower ranks of town society, resulting in the establishment of craft-gilds. From a very early See also:period there is reason to believe merchants among themselves formed gilds for social and religious purposes, and for the furtherance of their economic interests. These gilds would, where they existed, no doubt also. See also:influence the management of town affairs; but nowhere has the Rat, as used to be thought, developed out of a gild, nor has the latter anywhere in Germany played a See also:part at all similar in importance to that of the English gild See also:merchant, the only exception being for a time the Richerzeche, or Gild of the Rich of See also:Cologne, from early times by far the largest, the richest, and the most important trading centre among German cities, and therefore provided with an See also:administration more complex, and in some respects more primitive, than any other. On the other hand, the most important commodities offered for sale in the market had been subject to See also:official examination already in Carolingia.n times. Bakers', butchers', shoemakers' stalls were grouped together in the market-place to facilitate See also:control, and with the same See also:object in view a master was appointed for each craft as its responsible representative. By and by these crafts or " offices " claimed the right of electing their master and of assisting him in examining the goods, and even of framing by-laws regulating the quality of the wares and the See also:process of their manufacture. The bishops at first resented these attempts at self-management, as they had done in the See also:case of the town council, and imperial legislation in their interests was obtained. But each craft at the same time formed a society for social, beneficial and religious purposes, and, as these were entirely in accordance with the wishes of the clerical authorities, the other powers could not in the long run be withheld, including that of forcing all followers of any craft to join the gild (Zunftzwang). Thus the official inspection of markets, community of interests on the part of the craftsmen, and co-operation for social and religious ends, worked together in the formation of craft-gilds. It is not suggested that in each individual town the rise of the gilds was preceded by an organization of crafts on the part of the lord and his officers; but it is maintained that as a general thing voluntary organization could hardly have proceeded on such orderly lines as on the whole it did, unless the framework had in the first instance been laid down by the authorities: much as in modern times the working together in factories has practically been an indispensable preliminary to the formation of trade unions. Much less would the principle of forced entrance have found such ready acceptance both on the part of the authorities and on that of the men, unless it had previously been in full practice and recognition under the See also:system of official market-control. The different names for the See also:societies, viz. fraternitas, Bruderschaft, officiurn, Amt, condictum, Zunft, unio, Innung, do not signify different kinds of societies, but only different aspects of the same thing.The word Gilde alone forms an exception, inasmuch as, generally speaking, it was used by merchant gilds only). From an early date the towns, more particularly the older episcopal cities, took a part in imperial politics. Legally the bishops were in their cities See also: mere representatives of the imperial government. This fact found formal expression mainly in two ways. The Vogt, although appointed by the bishop, received the " ban," i.e. the See also:power of having See also:justice executed, which he passed on to the lesser officers, from the king or emperor See also:direct. Secondly, whenever the emperor held a See also:curia generalis 1 F. Keutgen, Amter and Zunfte (See also:Jena, 1903). (or general See also:assembly, or See also:diet) in one of the episcopal cities, and for a See also:week before and after, all jurisdictional and administrative power reverted to him and his immediate officers. The citizens on their part clung to this connexion and made use of it whenever their See also:independence was threatened by their bishops, who strongly inclined to consider themselves lords of their cathedral cities, much as if these had been built on church-lands. As early as 1073, therefore, we find the citizens of Worms successfully rising against their bishop in See also:order to provide the emperor Henry IV. with a refuge against the rebellious princes. Those of Cologne made a similar See also:attempt in 1074. But a second class of imperial cities (Reichsstadte), much more numerous than the former, consisted of those founded on See also:demesne-land belonging either to the Empire or to one of the families who See also:rose to imperial See also:rank.This class was largely reinforced, when after the extinction of the royal house of See also: Hohenstaufen in the 13th century, a See also:great number of towns founded by them on their demesne successfully claimed immediate subjection to the See also:crown. About this time, during the See also:interregnum, a federation of more than a See also:hundred towns was formed, beginning on the Rhine, but spreading as far as See also:Bremen in the See also:north, See also:Zurich in the See also:south, and See also:Regensburg in the See also:east, with the object of helping to preserve the peace. After the See also:death of King See also:
But a considerable number survived until the reorganization of the Empire in 1803. At the peace in 1815, however, only four were spared, namely, See also: Frankfort, Bremen, See also:Hamburg and See also:Lubeck, these being practically the only ones still in a sufficiently flourishing and economically independent position to See also:warrant such preferential treatment. But finally Frankfort, having chosen the wrong See also:side in the war of 1866, was annexed by See also:Prussia, and only the three seaboard towns remain as full members of the new confederate Empire under the See also:style of Freie and Hansestadte. But until modern times most of the larger Landstddte or See also:mesne-towns for all intents and purposes were as independent under their lords as the imperial cities were under the emperor. They even followed a foreign policy of their own, concluded See also:treaties with foreign powers or made war upon them. Nearly all the Hanseatic towns belonged to this See also:category. With others like Bremen, Hamburg and See also:Magdeburg, it was long in the See also:balance which class they be-longed to. All towns of any importance, however, were for a considerable time far ahead of the principalities in administration. 2 J. See also:Weizsacker, Der rheinische Bund (See also:Tubingen, 1879). It was largely this fact that gave them power. When, therefore, from about the 15th century the princely territories came to be better organized, much of the raison d'etre for the exceptional position held by the towns disappeared.The towns from an early date made it their policy to suppress the exercise of all handicrafts in the open country. On the other hand, they sought an increase of power by extending rights of citizenship to numerous individual inhabitants of the neighbouring villages (Pfalburger, a term not satisfactorily explained). By this and other means, e.g. the See also: purchase of estates by citizens, many towns gradually acquired a considerable territory. These tendencies both princes and lesser nobles naturally tried to thwart, and the mediate towns or Landstddte were finally brought to stricter subjection, at least in the greater principalities such as Austria and See also:Brandenburg. Besides, the less favourably situated towns suffered through the concentration of trade in the hands of their more fortunate sisters. But the economic decay and consequent loss of political influence among both imperial and territorial towns must be chiefly ascribed to inner causes. Certain leading political economists, notably K. See also:Bucher (Die Bevolkerung von Frankfurt a. M. See also:im 14ten and zgten Jahrhundert, i., Tubingen, 1886; Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, 5th ed., Tubingen, 1906), and, in a modified form, W. Sombart (Der moderne Kapitalismus, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1902), have propounded the See also:doctrine of one See also:gradual progression from an agricultural state to modern capitalistic conditions. This theory, however, is nothing less than an See also:outrage on history. As a See also:matter of fact, as far as modern Europe is concerned, there has twice been a progression, separated by a period of retrogression, and it is to the latter that Biicher's picture of the agricultural and strictly protectionist town (the geschlossene Stadtwirtschaft) of the 14th and 15th centuries belongs, while Sombart's notion of an entire See also:absence of a spirit of capitalistic enterprise before the See also:middle of the 15th century in Europe north of the See also:Alps, or the 14th century in See also:Italy, is absolutely fantastic?.The period of the rise of cities till well on in the 13th century was naturally a period of expansion and of a considerable amount of freedom of trade. It was only afterwards that a protectionist spirit gained the upper hand, and each town made it its policy to restrict as far as possible the trade of strangers. In this re-volution the rise of the lower strata of the population to power played an important part. The craft-gilds had remained subordinate to the Rat, but by-and-by they claimed a share in the government of the towns. Originally any inhabitant holding a certain measure of land, See also: freehold or subject to the mere nominal ground-rent above-mentioned, was a full See also:citizen independently of his calling, the See also:clergy and the lord's retainers and servants of whatever rank, who claimed exemption from See also:scot and See also:lot, to use the English See also:formula, alone excepted. The See also:majority of the artisans, however, were not in this happy position. Moreover, the town council, instead of being freely elected, filled up vacancies in its ranks by co-optation, with the result that all power became vested in a limited number of rich families. Against this state of things the crafts rebelled, alleging mismanagement, malversation and the withholding of justice. During the 14th and 15th centuries revolutions and See also:counter-revolutions, sometimes accompanied by considerable slaughter; were frequent, and a great variety of more democratic constitutions were tried. Zurich, however, is the only German place where a See also:kind of tyrannis, so frequent in Italy, came to be for a while established. On the whole it must be said that in those towns where the democratic party gained the upper hand an unruly policy abroad and a narrow-minded protection at See also:home resulted. An inclination to hasty See also:measures of war and an unwillingness to observe treaties among the democratic towns of See also:Swabia were largely responsible for the ' G. v.Below, Der Untergang der mittelalterlichen Stadtwirtschaft; Ober Theorien der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung der Volker; F. Keutgen, " Hansische Handelsgesellschaften, vornehmlich des 14ten Jahrhunderts," in Vierteljahrsschrift fur Sozial- and Wirtschaftsgeschichte, vol. iv. (1906).disasters of the war of the Swabian League in the 14th century. At home, whereas at first markets had been free and open to any comer, a more and more protective policy set in, traders from other towns being subjected more and more to vexatious restrictions. It was also made increasingly difficult to obtain membership in the craft-gilds, high See also: admission fees and so-called masterpieces being made a See also:condition. Finally, the number of members became fixed, and none but members' sons and sons-in-law, or members' widows' husbands were received. The first result was the formation of a numerous proletariate of life-long assistants and of men and See also:women forcibly excluded from following any honest trade; and the second consequence, the economic ruin of the town to the exclusive See also:advantage of a limited number. From the end of the 15th century population in many towns decreased, and not only most of the smaller ones, but even some once important centres of trade, sank to the level almost of villages. Those cities, on the other hand, where the mercantile community remained in power, like See also:Nuremberg and the seaboard towns, on the whole followed a more enlightened policy, although even they could not quite keep clear of the ever-growing protective tendencies of the time. Many even of the richer towns, notably Nuremberg, ran into See also:debt irretrievably, owing partly to an exorbitant See also:expenditure on magnificent public buildings and extensive fortifications, calculated to resist modern See also:instruments of destruction, partly to a faulty administration of the public debt. From the 13th century the towns had issued (" sold," as it was called) annuities, either for life er for See also:perpetuity in ever-increasing number; until it was at last found impossible to raise the funds necessary to pay them. One of the principal achievements of the towns lay in the See also:
Their law was founded originally on the general See also: national (or provincial) law, on See also:custom, and on special privilege. New See also:foundations were regularly provided by their lord with a See also:charter embodying the most important points of the special law of the town in question. This See also:miniature See also:code would thenceforth be developed by means of statutes passed by the town council. The codification of the law of See also:Augsburg in 1276 already fills a moderate See also:volume in See also:print (ed. by Christian See also:Meyer, Augsburg, 1872). Later foundations were frequently referred by their founders to the nearest existing town of importance, though that might belong to a different lord. Afterwards, if a question in law arose which the court of a younger town found itself unable to See also:answer, the court next See also:senior in See also:affiliation was referred to, which in turn would apply to the court above, until at last that of the See also:original See also:mother town was reached, whose decision was final. This system was chiefly developed in the colonial east, where most towns were affiliated directly or indirectly either to Lubeck or to Magdeburg; but it was by no means unknown in the home country. A number of collections of such judgments (Schoffenspruche) have been published. It is also See also:worth mentioning that it was usual to read the See also:police by-laws of a town at regular intervals to the assembled citizens in a See also:morning-speech (Morgenspraehe)2 To turn to Italy, the country for so many centuries in close political connexion with Germany, the foremost thing to be noted is that here the towns See also:grew to even greater independence, many of them in the end acknowledging no overlord whatever after the yoke of the German kings had been shaken off. On the other hand, nearly all of them in the long run fell under the sway of some local See also:tyrant-See also:dynasty. From Roman times the country had remained thickly studded with towns, each being the seat of a bishop. From this arose their most important peculiarity.For it was largely due to an See also: identification of dioceses and municipal territories that the nobles of the surrounding country took up their headquarters in the cities, either voluntarily or because forced to do so by the citizens, who made it their policy thus to turn possible opponents into partisans and defenders. In Germany, on the other hand, 2 On this whole subject see Richard See also:Schroder, Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (5th ed., Leipzig, 1907), § 56, " Die Stadt rechte." Also See also:
Besides, the more powerful among them would subdue or destroy their weaker neighbours, and two parties were formed, one headed by Milan, the other by Cremona. See also:
In all important matters they asked the See also: advice and support of " See also:wise men," sapientes, discretiores, prudentes, as a body called the credenza, while the popular assembly (parlamentum, concio, consilium generale) was the true See also:sovereign. The consuls with the assistance of judices also presided in the law-courts; but besides the consuls of the commune there were consules de placitis specially appointed for jurisdictional purposes. In spite of these multifarious safeguards, however, See also:family factions early destroyed the fabric of See also:liberty, especially as, just as there was an imperial, or Ghibelline, and a papal, or See also:Guelph party among the cities as a whole, thus also within each town each See also:faction would allege adherence to and claim support by one or other of the great See also:world-powers. To get out of the See also:dilemma of party-government, resort was thereupon had to the See also:appointment as chief See also:magistrate of a podestd from among the nobles or knights of a different part of the country not mixed up with the local feuds. But the end was in most cases the establishment of the despotism of some leading family, such as the See also:Visconti at Milan, the See also:Gonzaga at Mantua, the della Scala in See also:Verona and the See also:Carrara in See also:Padua. In See also:Tuscany, the historic role of the cities, with the exception of See also:Pisa, begins at a later date, largely owing to the overlordship of the powerful margraves of the house of See also:Canossa and their successors, who here represented the emperor. Pisa, however, together with See also:Genoa, all through the iith century distinguished itself by war waged in the western Mediterranean and its isles against the See also:Saracens. Both cities, along with See also:Venice, but especially the Genoese, also did excellent service in reducing the Syrian See also:coast towns still in the hands of the See also:Turks in the reigns of Kings See also:Baldwin I. and Baldwin II. of See also:Jerusalem, while more particularly Pisa with great constancy placed her See also:fleet at the disposal of the Hohenstaufen emperors for Warfare with See also:Sicily. Meanwhile communes with consuls at their head were formed in Tuscany much as elsewhere. On the other hand the Tuscan cities managed to prolong the reign of liberty to a much later See also:epoch, no podestd ever quite succeeding here in his attempts to establish the rule of his dynasty. Even when in the second See also:half of the 15th century the See also:Medici in See also:Florence attained to power, the form at least of a See also:republic was still maintained, and not till 1531 did one of them, supported by Charles V., assume the ducal See also:title. Long before the last See also:stage, the rule of signori, was reached, however, the commune as originally constituted had everywhere undergone radical changes.As early as the 13th century the lower orders among the inhabitants formed an organization under officers of their own, side by side with that of the commune, which was controlled by the great and the rich; e.g. at Florence the people in 1250 rose against the turbulent nobles and See also: chose a capitano del popolo with twelve anziani, two from each of the six city-wards (sestieri), as his council. The popolo itself was divided into twenty armed companies, each under a gonfaloniere. But later the arti (craft-gilds), some of whom, however, can be shown to have existed under consuls of their own as early as 1203, attained supreme importance, and in 1282 the government was placed in the hands of their priori, under the name of the signoria. The Guelph nobles were at first admitted to a share in the government, on condition of their entering a gild, but in 1293 even this privilege was withdrawn. The ordinamenti della giustizia of that year robbed the See also:nobility of all political power. The lesser or lower arti, on the other hand, were conceded a full share in it, and a gonfaloniere della giustizia was placed at the head of the See also:militia. In the 14th century twelve buoni uomini representing the wards (sestieri) were superadded, all these dignitaries holding See also:office for two months only. And besides all these, there existed three competing chief justices and commanders of the forces called in from abroad and holding office for six months, viz, the podestd, the capitano del popolo, and the esecutore della giustizia. In spite of all this complicated machinery of checks and balances, revolution followed upon revolution, nor could an occasional reign of terror be prevented like that of the Signore Gauthier de Brienne, See also:duke of See also:Athens (1342-1343). It was not till after a rising of the lowest order of all, the See also:industrial labourers, had been suppressed in 1378 (tumulto del Ciompi, the See also:wool-combers), that quieter times ensued under the wise leadership, first of the Albizzi and finally of the Medici. The history of the other Tuscan towns was equally tumultuous, all of them See also:save See also:Lucca, after many fitful changes finally passing under the sway of Florence, or the See also:grand-duchy of Tuscany, as the state was now called. Pisa, one time the mightiest, had been crushed between its inland See also:neighbour and its maritime rival Genoa (See also:battle of See also:Meloria, 1282).Apart in its constitutional development from all other towns in Italy, and it might be added, in Europe, stands Venice. Almost alone among See also: Italian cities its origin does not go back to Roman times. It was not till the invasions of Hun and Langobard that fugitives from the Venetian mainland took refuge among the poor fishermen on the small islands in the lagoons and on the lido—the narrow stretch of coast-See also:line which separates the lagoons from the Adriatic—some at See also:Grado, some at Malamocco, others on Rialto. A number of small communities was formed under elected tribunes, acknowledging as their sovereign the emperor at See also:Constantinople. Treaties of See also:commerce were concluded with the Langobard kings, thus assuring a market for the sale of imports from the East and for the purchase of agricultural produce. Just before or after A.D. 700 the See also:young republic seems to have thrown off the rule of the See also:Byzantine See also:dux Histriae et Venetiae and elected a duke (See also:doge) of its own, in whom was vested the executive power, the right to convoke the popular assembly (concio) and appoint tribunes and justices. Political unity was thus established, but it was not till after another century of See also:civil war that Rialto was definitely chosen the seat of government and thus the See also:foundation of the present city laid. After a number of attempts to establish a hereditary dukedom, Duke Domenico Flabianico in 1032 passed a law providing that no duke was to appoint his successor or procure him to be elected during his own lifetime. Besides this two See also:councils were appointed without whose consent nothing of importance was to be done. After the See also:murder by the people of Duke Vitale Michiel in 1172, who had suffered See also:naval defeat, it was deemed necessary to introduce a stricter constitutional order. According to the orthodox account, some details of which have, however, recently been impugned,' the irregular popular See also:meeting was replaced by a great council of from 450 to 480 members elected annually by special appointed electors in equal proportion from each of the six wards.One of the functions of this body was to appoint most of the state officials or their electors. There was also an executive council of six, one from each See also:
Too much stability, however, finally changed into stagnation, and decay followed. The foreign policy of Venice was likewise mainly dictated by commercial motives, the chief objectives being commercial privilege in the Byzantine empire and in the Frankish states in the East, domination of the Adriatic, ' H. Kretschmayr, Geschichte von Venedig, vol. i. (See also: Gotha, 1905). occupation of a sufficient See also:hinterland on the terra firma, non-sufferance of the rivalry of Genoa, and, finally, See also:maintenance of trade-supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean through a series of alternating wars and treaties with See also:Turkey, the lasting See also:monument of which was the destruction of the See also:Parthenon in 1685 by a Venetian See also:bomb. At last the proud republic surrendered to See also:Napoleon without a stroke. The cities of See also:southern Italy do not here See also:call for special See also:attention. Several of them developed a certain amount of independence and free institutions, and took an important part in trade with the East, notably so See also:Amalfi. But after See also:incorporation in the See also:Norman kingdom all individual history for them came to an end. See also:Rome, finally, derived its importance from being the See also:capital of the popes and from its proud past. From time to time spasmodic attempts were made to revive the forms of the See also:ancient republic, as under See also:Arnold of See also:Brescia in the 12th and by Niccold di Rienzo in the 14th century; but there was no body of stalwart, self-reliant citizens to support such measures: nothing but turbulent nobles on the one hand and a See also:rabble on the other. In no country is there such a clear grouping of the towns on See also:geographical lines as in See also:France, these geographical lines, of course, having in the first instance been See also:drawn by See also:historical causes Another feature is' the extent to which, in the unruly times preceding the civic See also:movement, serfdom had spread among the inhabitants even of the towns throughout the greater part of the country, and the application of feudal ideas to town government.In some other respects the constitution of the cities in the south of France, as will be seen, has more in common with that of the Italian communes, and that of the See also: northern See also:French towns with those of Germany, than the constitutions of the various See also:groups of French towns have among each other. In the group of the villes consulaires, comprising all important towns in the south, the executive was, as in Italy, in the hands of a body of consules, whose number in most cases rose to twelve. They were elected for the term of one year and re-eligible only after an See also:interval, and they were supported by a municipal council (commune consilium, consilium magnum or secretum or generale, or colloquium) and a general assembly ( parlamentum, concio, commune consilium, commune, universitas civium), which, however, as a rule was far from comprising the whole body of citizens. Another feature which these southern towns had in common with their Italian neighbours was the prominent part played by the native nobility. The relations with the clergy were generally of a more friendly See also:character than in the north, and in some cases the bishop or See also:archbishop even retained a considerable influence in the management of the town's affairs. Dissensions among the citizens, or between the nobles and the See also:bourgeois, frequently ended in the See also:adoption of a podestat. And in several cities of the See also:Languedoc, each of the two classes composing the population retained its separate laws and customs. It is matter of dispute whether vestiges of Roman institutions had survived in these parts down to the time when the new constitutions sprang into being; but all investigators are See also:pretty well agreed that in no case did such remnants prove of any See also:practical importance. Roman law, however, was never quite superseded by Germanic law, as appears from the statuts municipaux. In the improvement and expansion of these statutes a remarkable activity was displayed by means of an annual correctio statutorum carried out by specially appointed statutores. In the north, on the other hand, the carta communiae, forming as it were the basis of the commune's existence, seems to have been considered almost as something sacred and unchangeable. The constitutional history of the communes in northern France in a number of points widely differed from that of these villes consulaires.First of all the movement for their establishment in most cases was to a far greater degree of a revolutionary character. These revolutions were in the first place directed against the bishops; but the position both of the higher clergy and of the nobility was here of a nature distinctly more hostile to the aspirations of the citizens than it was in the south. As a result the clergy and the nobles were excluded from all membership of the commune, except inasmuch as that those residing in the town might be required to swear not to conspire against it. The commune (communia, communa, communio, communitas, conjuratio, confoederatio) was formed by an See also: oath of mutual help (sacramentum, juramentum communiae). The members were described as jurati (also burgenses, vicini, See also:amici), although in some communes that term was reserved for the members of the governing body. None but men of free and legitimate See also:birth, and free from debt and contagious or incurable disease were received. The members of the governing body were styled jures (jurati), pairs (pares) or echevins (scabini). The last was, however, as in Germany, more properly the title of the jurors in the court of justice, which in many cases remained in the hands of the lord. In some cases the town council developed out of this body; but in the larger cities, like See also:Rouen, several councils worked and all these names were employed side by side. The number of the members of the governing body proper varies from twelve to a hundred, and its functions were both judicial and administrative. There was also known an arrangement corresponding to the German alte and sitzende Rat, viz. of retired members who could be called in to lend assistance on important occasions. The most striking distinction, however, as against the villes consulaires was the See also:elevation of the president of the body to the position of maire or mayeur (sometimes also called prevet, praepositus).As else-where, at first none but the civic aristocracy were admitted to take part in the management of the town's affairs; but from the end of the 13th century a share had to be conceded to representatives of the crafts. Dissatisfaction, however, was not easily allayed; the lower orders applied for the intervention of the king; and that effectively put an end to political freedom. This tendency of calling in state help marks a most striking difference as against the policy followed by the German towns, where all classes appear to have been always far too jealous of local independence. The result for the nation was in the one case despotism, equality and order, in the other individual liberty and an inability to move as a whole. At an earlier stage the king had frequently come to the assistance of the communes in their struggle with their lords. By and-by the king's See also: confirmation came to be considered necessary for their lawful existence. This proved a powerful See also:lever for the See also:extension of the king's authority. It may seem See also:strange that in France the towns never had recourse to those interurban leagues which played so important a part in Italian and in German history. These two varieties, the communes and the villes consulaires together form the group of villes libres. As opposed to these stand the vines franches, also called vales prevotales after the chief officer, villes de bourgeoisie or villes soumises. They make up by far the majority of French towns, comprising all those situated in the centre of the kingdom, and also a large number in the north and the south. They are called villes franches on account of their possessing a See also:franchise, a charter limiting the services due by the citizens to their lord, but political status they had little or none.According to the varying extent of the liberties conceded them, there may be distinguished towns governed by an elective body and more or less fully authorized to exercise jurisdiction; towns possessing some sort of municipal organization, but no rights of jurisdiction, except that of See also: simple police; and, thirdly, those governed entirely by seignorial officers. To this last class belong some of the most important cities in France, wherever the king had power enough to withhold liberties deemed dangerous and unnecessary. On the other hand, towns of the first category often come close to the villes libres. A strict line of demarcation, however, remains in the mutual oath which forms the basis of the civic community in both varieties of the latter, and in the fact that the ville libre stands to its lord in the relation of See also:vassal and not in that of an immediate See also:possession. But however completement assujettie See also:Paris might be, its organization, naturally, was immensely more complex than that of hundreds of smaller places which, formally, might stand in an identical relationship to their lords. Like other vines franches under the king, Paris was governed by a prevot (See also:provost), but certain functions of self-government forthe city were delegated to the See also:company of the marchands de l'eau, mercatores See also:aquae, also called mercatores ansati, that is, the gild of merchants whose business lay down the See also:river See also:Seine, in other words, a body naturally exclusive, not, however, to the citizens as such. At their head stood a prevet des marchands and four eschevins de la marchandise. Other prud'hommes were occasionally called in, and from 1296 prevet and echevins appointed twenty-four councillors to form with themselves a parloir aux bourgeois.. The crafts of Paris were organized in metiers, whose masters were appointed, some by the prevOt de Paris, and some by certain great officers of the court. In the tax rolls of A.D. 1292 to 1300 no fewer than 448 names of crafts occur, while the Livre des metiers written in 1268 by See also:Etienne de Boileau, then prevet de Paris, enumerates for organized bodies of tradesmen or women and artisans. Among the duties of these bodies, as elsewhere, was the guet or See also:night-See also:watch, which necessitated a military organization under quartiniers, cinquantainiers and dixainiers.This gave them a certain power. But both their revolutions, under the prevet des marchands, Etienne See also: Marcel, after the battle of See also:Maupertuis, and again in 1382, were extremely short-lived, and the only tangible result was a stricter subjection to the king and his officers. An exceptional position among the cities of France is taken up by those of See also:Flanders, more particularly the three " Great Towns," See also:Bruges, See also:Ghent and See also:Ypres, whose population was Flemish, i.e. German. They sprang up at the See also:foot of the See also:count's castles and rose in close See also:conjunction with his power. On the See also:accession of a new house they made their power See also:felt as early as 1128. Afterwards the See also:counts of the house of Dampierre fell into See also:financial dependence on the burghers, and therefore allied themselves with the rising artisans, led by the weavers. These, however, proved far more unruly, bloody conflicts ensued, and for a considerable period the three great cities ruled the whole of Flanders with a high hand. Their influence in the foreign relations of the country was likewise great, it being in their See also:interest to keep up friendly relations with See also:England, on whose wool the flourishing state of the See also:staple See also:industry of Flanders depended. It is a remarkable fact that the historical position taken up by these cities, which politically belonged to France, is much more akin to the part played by the German towns, whereas See also:Cambrai, whose population was French, is the only city politically situated in Germany, where a commune came to be established. In the See also:Spanish See also:peninsula, the chief importance of the numerous small towns lay in the part they played as fortresses during the unceasing wars with the See also:Moors. The kings therefore extended special privileges (fueros) to the inhabitants, and they.were even at an early date admitted to See also:representation in the See also:Cortes (See also:parliament).Of greater individual importance than all the rest was See also: Barcelona. Already in vo68 Count See also:Berengarius gave the city a special law (usatici) based on its ancient usages, and from the 14th century its commercial code (libro del consolat del See also:mar) became influential all over southern Europe. The constitutions of the Scandinavian towns were largely modelled on those of Germany, but the towns never attained anything like the same independence. Their dependence on the royal government most strongly conies out in the fact of their being uniformly regulated by royal law in each of the three kingdoms. In See also:Sweden particularly, German merchants by law took an equal share in the government of the towns. In See also:Denmark their influence was also great, and only in See also:Norway did they remain in the position of foreigners in spite of their famous settlement at See also:Bergen. The details, as well as those of the German settlement at Wisby and on the east coast of the Baltic, belong rather to the history of the Hanseatic League (q.v.). Denmark appears to be the only one of the three kingdoms where gilds at an early date played a part of importance. aspects of the question, and of See also:works on the history of individual towns. The latter alone covers two large See also:octavo pages of small print. As a sort of See also:complement to Schroder's chapters may be considered, F. Keutgen, Urkunden zur stddtischen Verfassungsgeschichte (Berlin, 1901 Ausgewahlte Urkunden zur deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte, by G. von Below and F.Keutgen, vol. i.), a collection of 437 select charters and other documents, with a very full See also: index. The great See also:work of G. L. von See also:Maurer, Geschichte der Stdidteverfassung von Deutschland (4 thick vols., See also:Erlangen, 1869–1871), contains an enormous See also:mass of See also:information not always treated quite so critically as the present See also:age requires. There is an excellent succinct account for general readers by Georg von Below," Das altere deutsche Stadtewesen und Biirgertum," Monographiien zur Weltgeschichte, vol. vi. (See also:Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1898, illustrated). A number of the most important See also:recent monographs have been mentioned above. As for Italy, the most valuable general work for the early times is still Carl See also:Hegel, Geschichte der Stadteverfassung von Italien seit der Zeit der romischen Herrschaft bis zum Ausgang des zwolften Jahrhunderts (2 small vols., Leipzig, 1847, See also:price second-hand, M. 40), in which it was for the first time fully proved that there is no connexion between Roman and modern municipal constitutions. For the period from the r3th century it will perhaps be best to consult W. Assmann, Geschichte des Mittelalters, 3rd ed., by L. Viereck, dritte Abteilung, Die letzten beiden Jahrhunderts des Mittelalters: Deutschland, die Schweiz, und Italien, by R. See also:Fischer, R.Scheppig and L. Viereck (See also: Brunswick, 1906). In this volume, pp. 679-943 contain an excellent account of the various Italian states and cities during that period, with a full bibliography for each. Among recent See also:critical contributions to the history of individual towns, the following works deserve to be specially mentioned: See also:Robert Davidsohn, Geschichte von Florenz (Berlin, 1896–190:8) ; down to the beginning of the 14th century) ; the same, Forschungen zur Geschichte von Florenz (vols. i.-iv., Berlin, 1896–1908) ; Heinrich Kretschmayr, Geschichte von Venedig (vol. i., Gotha, 1905, to 1205). For France, there are the works by Achille See also:Luchaire, See also:Les Communes francaises a l'epoque des Capetiens directs (Paris, 1890), and See also:Paul See also:Viollet, " Les Communes francaises au moyen age," Memoires de l'Academie des See also:Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, tome See also:xxxvi. (Paris, 1900). There are, of course, also accounts in the great works on French institutions by See also:Flach, Glasson, Viollet, Luchaire, but perhaps the one in Luchaire's See also:Manuel des institutions francaises, periode des Capetiens directs (Paris, 1892) deserves special recommendation. Another valuable account for France north of the See also:Loire is that contained in the great work by Karl Hegel, Steidle und Gilden der germanischen Volker im Mittelalter (2 vols., Leipzig, 1891; see English Historical See also:Review, viii. 120-127). Of course, there are also numerous monographs, among which the following may be mentioned: Edouard Bonvalot, Le Tiers Etat d'apris la charte de See also:Beaumont et ses filiales (Paris, 1884) ; and A. See also:Giry, Les Etablissements de Rouen (2 vols., Paris, 1883–1885) ; also a collection of documents by Gustave See also:Fagniez, Documents relatifs a l'histoire de l'industrie et du commerce en France (2 vols., Paris, 1898, 1900).Some valuable works on the commercial history of southern Europe should still be mentioned, such as W. Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels im Mittelalter (2 vols., See also: Stuttgart, 1879; French edition by Furey Raynaud, 2 vols., Paris, 1885 seq., improved by the author), recognized as a See also:standard work; Adolf Schaube, Handelsgeschichte der romanischen Volker des Mittelmeergebietes bis zum Ende der Kreuzzage (See also:Munich and Berlin, 1906); Aloys Schulte, Geschichte des mittelalterlichen Handels und Verkehrs zwischen Westdeutschland und Italien mit Ausschluss Venedigs (2 vols., Leipzig, 1900) ; L. See also:Goldschmidt, Universalgeschichte des Handelsrechts (vol. i., Stuttgart, 1891). As for the Scandinavian towns, the best See also:guide is perhaps the book by K. Hegel, Stadte und Gilden der germanischen Volker, already mentioned; but see also See also:Dietrich Schafer, " Der Stand der Geschichtswissenschaft im skandinavischen See also:Norden," Internationale Wochenschrift, See also:November 16, 1907. 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