40 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [338 



The same can and must be said of the " inhabitants " who, 

 with the nobles, were called together by the ringing of the 

 church bells and the sounding of the rustic horn. Soliere 

 himself admits they were called together to have explained 

 to them that " an agreement had been effected between the 

 Church and the king, but that the approbation of the agree- 

 ment by the Lyonnais was awaited in order to have it ex- 

 ecuted." Serfs and other non-enfranchised inhabitants of 

 the Lyonnais could not give nor would they be asked to 

 give their approbation to an agreement between the Church 

 and the king,^" unless by special privilege granted by the 

 Church or the king. The case as presented by Soliere, 

 however, does not justify the assumption of such privileges. 

 We accept then the term inhabitants, used by Soliere, as 

 equivalent to bourgeois. 



From a Latin letter written to Alphonse de Poitiers et 

 Toulouse, the son of Louis IX, then King of France, by 

 Thibaut d'Etampes. Alphonse's chaplain, we learn that the 

 people of Marseilles, in public gathering (in parlamento 

 vocato), ofifered their city to the House of Toulouse by 

 acclamation of those present. The letter as cited by Soliere 

 reads : 



And so about the affair concerning Marseilles in regard to which 

 you have requested me to talk anew with Rost'ano de Alto Podio 

 and Guilelmo de Castro, I was told by magister P. de Vincenobrio 

 what he had discussed with them in secret; and they told magister 

 P. under oath that they themselves had been present in Marseilles, 

 when in the presence of R., of good memory, the former comes, 

 your predecessor, and the greater part of the magnates and the 

 plebeians of the city \plebciuin civitatis],^'' there arose one from the 

 city and said, in the convention called \in parlamento rwcato^ : " we 

 have given our city of Marseilles for life to the romr^ and the written 

 instruments have thus been made out." And after that there arose 

 another and said, in the presence of the comes and his own and the 

 people \populo]: "the comes has done us the greatest good and 

 honor, let us give to him and to his heirs our city in perpetuity." 

 and then began the people to cry " Sye, Sye, Sye," which, in the 

 vulgar language, means " it be, we wish it, it pleases us." And in 

 such manner was this expression [verbum} divulged and exclaimed 

 that there was no other word heard in public. ^^ 



8«Ibid. 



*^ Civitas, urbs episcopalis (Du Cange, Glossarium mediae et.in- 

 fimae latinitatis, Civitas). 

 '8 Soliere, pp. 13-14. 



