Growth of Towns 263 



of the power of the Catholic Church and the growth of 

 the merchant towns. For both of these things the 

 country is indebted chiefly to foreign influences : to 

 the action of the See of Eome for the one ; for the other 

 to the great league of the trading cities on the Baltic 

 and on the North Sea, which went by the name of 

 ' The League/ the Hansa. 



