OF MODERN CORPORATIONS. 6I 
tenure in the neighbourhood, on condition of 
serving for the defence of the city, and the whole 
domain. Such were the ‘ burgenses honorabiles 
qui ut milites vivere consueverunt’ mentioned 
in the statutes of Avignon. After the fortifica- 
tion of the cities with walls, however, the citi- 
zens began to find that service on horseback 
was unnecessary for their own defence, and 
either evaded the obligation, or purchased an 
exemption from it. The constables, constaffler, 
who are mentioned in some of the German cities, 
can from their name have been no other than 
citizens serving on horseback, not however from 
any feudal obligation, but as belonging to the 
wealthier classes as distinguished from the arti- 
zans. In Lombardy great numbers of the no- 
bility of the districts around the cities, especially 
the poorer, obtained the rights of citizenship, 
and by this alliance with tie rising power regain- 
ed some of that importance which they had lost. 
Besides being entrusted with civil offices, they 
had generally the command of the military force 
of the cities, particularly of the gates, and availed 
themselves of this power to oppress the rest of 
the inhabitants, till after long struggles and 
many reverses they were expelled. In some of 
the German cities, as in Cologne and Erfurt, 
we find the command of the gates held as an 
