OF MODERN CORPORATIONS. Fi | 
Noyon was fortunate in a bishop who took the 
lead in erecting a commune there, and invited 
Louis VI. to join in confirming it; and the citi- 
zens of Beauvais and St. Quentin obtained char- 
ters without much difficulty from their bishop 
and their count. Flanders had been earlier 
than Picardy the scene of these attempts of the 
towns to render themselves independent.* In 
Mons the people had risen as early as the year 
1070, and six years later those of Cambrai ex- 
pelled their bishop from the city. He was re- 
instated by the aid of the emperor, and again 
expelled ; and for nearly four hundred years the 
predecessors of Fenelon lived in a state of per- 
petual warfare with their spiritual charge. 
These northern cities had greater difficulty in 
maintaining their liberties against their lords, 
as their population was chiefly composed of men 
hiherto unaccustomed to the use of arms, while 
in those of the South an order of milites and 
persone miltares was generally found. The 
burghers were compelled therefore by turns to 
handle the shuttle and the spear, and at the 
sound of the alarm bell, pealing from the bel- 
* Bruges and Ghent probably both obtained the right of 
chusing their echevins, an important part of a municipal con- 
stitution, from Baldwin V., who lived between 1034 and 
1067. Hallm. 3. 42. 
