THE NEW EEA 109 



had some tradition of the old Roman " colleges " and 

 formed Guilds. The Church found them saturated 

 with Paganism, and at first tried to suppress them. 

 But Churchmen became rich, very rich, and in turn 

 employed artists and artisans and merchants. The 

 jolly type of abbot or bishop — the common type — 

 employed them as the barons did. The pious type 

 employed them for the glory of God. It was all the 

 same to the artists and to art. 



Towns with a strong civic sense multiplied, with 

 workers organized in Guilds and a solid and stubborn 

 bourgeoisie, which began to show a bold face to 

 barons and kings. Here and there a Charlemagne 

 or an Alfred got a dream of civilizing his kingdom. 

 Now and again a good Pope appeared. But the main 

 influence was the growth of towns — market and com- 

 mercial centres. Kings and nobles were chronically 

 athirst for drinking and fighting money; and the 

 bourgeois had the money. Kings and nobles were 

 also constantly at loggerheads, and they bribed towns 

 by giving charters and liberating serfs. Towns grew 

 richer and larger. They wanted fine churches, and 

 after the eleventh century the great architecture of 

 the Middle Ages, with all its subsidiary arts, developed. 

 Art is always the first great development of a new 

 civilization, because it thrives on the imagination, 

 which is still vigorous with youth and not over- 

 shadowed by intellect. 



There was, therefore, a normal native development 

 in Europe. There were also outside influences of 

 great importance. We saw on an earlier page that 

 the Persian civilization was peculiar in the fact that 

 it revived twice after its downfall. The first revival 

 was in the time of the Romans, but the splendid art 



