337] THE PLEBISCITE IN ANCIENT AND FEUDAL TIMES 39 



attributes this belated and sudden consideration for the 

 Lyonnais on the part of the king to the influence of the 

 church dignitaries of Lyons. The Chapter " knew how to 

 persuade the king that it would be better first to conclude 

 the treaty and then to make it valid by [the consent of] the 

 Lyonnais. "^^ Soliere does not search after the motives for 

 this attempt at persuasion. 



Considering the facts in the case, as presented by Soliere, 

 we may venture to offer the following in explanation : The 

 citizens of Lyons had acclaimed the King of France as their 

 sovereign. In case they had been consulted in the making 

 of the treaty they would, most likely, have agreed to its 

 stipulations. Hence it was unnecessary to consult them. The 

 citizens of the Lyonnais outside of the city, in the villages, 

 had apparently not yet expressed any desire for annexation 

 to France. If consulted during the making of the treaty 

 they, however, might have done so. On the other hand, if 

 afterward confronted with the established fact of transfer 

 without their pre-solicited consent they might, in a mood of 

 resentment, raise those objections which the king, in the 

 treaty, actually promised to respect, or ordered to be re- 

 spected, in case they would be justified. It was this possi- 

 bility which might have given the Chapter a new lease on 

 its escaping prey. As things turned out, " no document 

 relates any refusal of the approbation " of the treaty. An- 

 other reason for the action of the Chapter of Lyons might 

 have been that it wished first to secure the kind of bargain 

 it desired with the king himself, and then afterward would 

 solicit, as a matter of form, the assent of the people con- 

 cerned so as to allay the unrest and strife which had forced 

 the intervention on the part of the king in favor of the 

 Lyonnais against the political assumptions of the Church. 



Soliere refers in this case to the citizens of Lyons, and to 

 the inhabitants and the nobles of the Lyonnais. In the 

 light of the facts given in the exposition of feudal society 

 the citizens of Lyons, or even of the Lyonnais, inchuling the 

 villages and the surrounding country, were the bourgeois. 



"~»» Ibid " 



