OF MODERN CORPORATIONS. 57 
sover of old, or the assembling of the pilgrims 
at Mecca, religion and traffic were closely con- 
nected. The wares of the merchants were ex- 
posed to sale on the outside of the church,* or 
even within its walls, and while the services of 
devotion were celebrated in the choir, Jew and 
Christian chaffered in the nave. Hence so 
many fairs were held and are still held on Saint's 
days; hence the very general custom of Sunday 
markets, which the Capitularies of Charlemagne 
ineffectually proscribed, while in Hungary this 
day was expressly appointed for them by law, in 
order to facilitate commerce. Nuremburg owed 
its rapid increase to the concourse of devotees 
to the shrine of Saint Sebaldus; Durham and 
Winchester prospered from a similar cause. St. 
Denis near Paris, Corvey, Gendersheim and 
Quedlinburg in Lower Germany, are examples of 
abbies, the establishment of which was followed 
by the holding of markets and fairs, to which 
merchants from distant parts of Europe resorted. 
The increase of luxury and splendour in the 
habits of the great, the costly dresses and finish- 
ed armour of the knights, not only employed 
the industry of the domestic manufacturer, but 
excited the merchant to fetch rare and costly 
* Decem mercatores ante portam ecclesia manentes, reddunt 
xl. denarios. Domesday, Berkshire. Abingdone. 
