MIDDLE AGES. 



805 



tions, which had cost mankind ages of toil and labour, 

 were lost in the general wreck, and only regained 

 by the efforts of many successive generations ; the 

 flowers of civilization were trampled under foot by 

 barbarous warriors ; the civil development of society 

 suffered a most severe shock ; those nations to 

 which Roman civilization had extended previous to 

 the great invasion of the Teutonic tribes, were thrown 

 back, in a great measure, to their primeval barbar- 

 ism,* ami the unruly passion for individual indepen- 

 dence in the northern tribes, greatly retarded the 

 development of public and private law, and, in some 

 countries, has entirely prevented a regular civil 

 constitution. Though we admit all this, we ask 

 whether those who deplore the irruption of the bar- 

 barians, are well aware of the enormous degree to 

 which Roman civilization had degenerated ? While, 

 however, the injury which the world suffered from 

 the destruction of Roman civilization has been often 

 over-rated, there is, on the other hand, a class of 

 persons who laud the condition of Europe during the 

 rudeness of the feudal ages, in a spirit of romantic 

 exaggeration, much like that of certain philosophers, 

 who have treated the savage state as that best fitted 

 to nourisli and preserve virtue, the one showing 

 ignorance of history, the other of man. Any one 

 may speculate as he pleases on such subjects, but 

 such speculations are foreign to the spirit of history, 

 whose proper office is to state facts, and show the 

 influence of past ages on the succeeding. The feu- 

 dal system filled Europe with powerful barons, pos- 

 sessing large landed estates, and 'commanding the 

 services of numerous aimed adherents, and with 

 inferior lords, protected by the former. They were 

 all possessors of land, with arms perpetually in their 

 hands, too proud to follow any laws except those of 

 honour, which they had themselves created, and 

 despising all men of peaceful occupations as ignoble, 

 created to obey and to serve. If, therefore, the 

 classes not belonging to the military caste wished to 

 preserve their independence, they could succeed 

 only by union, which would afford them the means 

 of mutual protection, and enable them to exercise 

 their various callings unmolested, and thereby ac- 

 quire wealth in money arid goods, which would serve 

 as a counterpoise to the landed possessions of thsc, 

 feudal aristocracy. 



This necessity gave rise to cities. Small cultiva- 

 tors, at first under the protection and superintendence 

 of the counts, bishops, and abbots, to whom they 

 subsequently became so formidable, arose, and 

 attained (particularly in the eleventh century) 

 through their own industry and skill, to a state of 

 prosperity, which enabled them to purchase their 

 freedom, and soon to obtain it by force. They did not 

 remain stationary; but small states began to grow 

 into great ones; and the most of them became so 

 bold as to acknowledge no superior except the high- 

 est authority of the country to which they belonged. 

 Strong, high walls, impenetrable by the rude military 

 art of the time, secured, in conjunction with the 

 valour of the citizens, the freedom of the cities, and 

 protected them from the tyrants of the land ; well- 

 ordered civil institutions preserved peace and pros- 

 perity within, and were secured by the wealth 

 acquired by trade and manufacturing industry. 

 Many of the nobility themselves, attracted by the 

 good order and prosperity of the cities, established 

 themselves there, and were ambitious of obtaining 

 the offices of government in these commonwealths. 



* These nations, in point of civil institutions, had undoubt- 

 edly advanced muc.i beyond the German tribes, whom the 

 victories of Arminius (which preserved them independent of 

 Home) had, at the same time, prevented from receiving the 

 benefits of the Roman law Riid social organization. 



In fact, they soon usurped the exclusive possession 

 of them, in many of the cities. The looser the social 

 organization in any state, and the more intolerable 

 the pride of the nobility, the greater became the 

 prosperity and power of the cities, which grew, at 

 length, so great that, in Germany and Italy, these 

 republics were formidable even to the emperor. In 

 Arragon, the third estate was fully developed as 

 early as the twelfth century. In England the cities, 

 in conjunction with the barons, obtained the Magna 

 C/iarta, in 1215, and, in France, they increased, in 

 consequence, from the circumstance that Louis the 

 Fat and his successors, particularly Philip the Fair, 

 200 years after him, found it their best policy to pro- 

 tect them against the nobility, and thereby increase 

 their own means of resisting that order. But the 

 cities of these countries never attained the import- 

 ance of those of Germany and Italy. What single 

 cities could not accomplish, was effected by the 

 union of several ; as the league of the Lombard 

 cities in Italy; the Hanseatic, Rhenish, and Suabian 

 leagues in Germany (see Italy, and Hanseatic 

 League), appeared, at the same time, as great and 

 formidable powers . Under the protection of such as- 

 sociations, and sheltered by the walls of the cities, all 

 arts and trades, and every kind of civilization, made 

 rapid progress. Many of the important inventions, 

 which we now prize so highly, originated among the 

 citizens of these small free states, or were suggested 

 by their active commercial and manufacturing spirit. 

 With constitutions similar to those of antiquity, 

 the same spirit appeared to be awakened; all the 

 virtues and vices of Athens, Sparta, and Rome, are 

 found in the free states of Italy, where even the 

 climate resembled that of the republics which had 

 perished 1500 years before. There was the same 

 love of country, strict morals, and valour, the same 

 (but more violent) party contests, the same changes 

 of administration and ambitious intrigues, the same 

 (though differently directed) love of arts and know- 

 ledge. But the communities were not exempt from 

 the influence of the domineering spirit of the times, 

 which they opposed. The overwhelming power of 

 individuals, so dangerous to all free states, became, 

 through this spirit, doubly formidable, and compelled 

 the oppressed portion of the citizens, in the same 

 distress which had given rise to their parent city, 

 to have recourse to the same means of relief. They 

 bound themselves together for the protection of their 

 rights. Such associations, usually formed among peo- 

 ple of the same trade, and having for their object, next 

 to security from external enemies, the maintenance 

 of internal order in these stormy times, were called 

 corporations, or guilds, and were under the direction 

 of a master. The strictest regulations appeared 

 necessary for the attainment of this object. No one, 

 without serving an apprenticeship of years, and 

 advancing through certain degrees, could become a 

 member. At a later period, admission into the cor- 

 poration was purchased by individuals who did not 

 follow the business of the members, but wished to 

 share in the advantages of the associations. For in 

 the fourteenth century, the corporations became so 

 powerful as to obtain almost exclusive possession of 

 the government of the cities, which until this perio 1, 

 the nobility had mostly retained in their own hands. 

 The corporations now taught them that, as they con- 

 tributed not to the prosperity of the city by their 

 industry, it did not become them to govern it. The 

 nobility, so far as they continued in the city after 

 this removal from power, preserved themselves in 

 close connexion, and those who resided in the coun- 

 try formed confederacies against the power of the 

 cities. Associations which, to the best men, appear- 

 ed the only means of security from the disorders of 



