The Communes Of Lombardy From The VI. To The X. Century

The Communes Of Lombardy
From The VI. To The X. Century
- An Investigation Of The Causes
Which Led To The Development
Of Municipal Unity Among The
Lombard Communes.

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Title: The Communes Of Lombardy From The VI. To The X. Century
An Investigation Of The Causes Which Led To The Development Of
Municipal Unity Among The Lombard Communes.
Author: William Klapp Williams
Release Date: April 26, 2004 [EBook #12162]
Language: English
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JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
IN
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History.--Freeman
NINTH SERIES

V-VI
The Communes of Lombardy from the VI. to the X. Century
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPAL UNITY AMONG THE
LOMBARD COMMUNES
BY WILLIAM KLAPP WILLIAMS, PH.D.
NEWBERRY LIBRARY, CHICAGO
May, June, 1891
"Est error spretus, quo Langobarda juventus Errabat, verum loquitur
nunc pagina sensum."
RHOTARI: Legum Prologus.
THE COMMUNES OF LOMBARDY FROM THE VI. TO THE X.
CENTURY.

PART I.
THE LOMBARD CONQUEST AND ITS RESULTS.
Before tracing the beginnings of renewed municipal life in Northern
Italy, we must consider the conditions of land and people, which first
rendered possible and then fostered the spirit of local independence of
which such beginnings were the natural expression. To do this we must
commence our researches with the first domination of the Lombards in
the country.

In detail the story of the conquest of Northern Italy by the Lombards
under Alboin, in 568, hardly differs materially from that of the inroads
of other barbarian tribes of the north on the fertile plains of Italy. The
causes were the same. Where the distinction is to be found from other
such invasions, is in the results of the Lombard occupation, and in the
different methods which the Lombards adopted so as to render their
power and their possessions permanent. Let us look at the character of
this invading host, which sweeps like a tide, at once destroying and
revivifying, over the exhausted though still fertile plains of the Po and
the Adige. Are we to call it a moving people or an advancing army?
Are we to call its leaders (_duces_, from ducere to lead), heads of clans
and families, or captains and generals? Finally, is the land to be
invaded, or is the land to be settled? To all these questions the only
answer is to be found in the conception of the absolute union of both
the kinds of functions described. A people is moving from a home
whose borders have proved too narrow for its increasing numbers; an
army is conquering a new home, where plenty will take the place of
want, and luxury of privation. It is not an army marching at the
command of a strongly centralized power to conquer a rich neighbor,
and force a defeated enemy to pay it service or tribute. It is a body
which, when it has conquered as an army, will occupy as a people;
when it is established as a people, will still remain an army. The sword
was not turned into the ploughshare; but the power to wield the sword
had given the right to till the land, and soon the power to hold the land
was to give the right to wear the sword. It was the conquest of a highly
civilized agricultural people--whose very civilization had reduced them
to a stage of moral weakness which rendered them totally unfit to
defend themselves--by a semi-barbarous people, agricultural also, but
rude, uncivilized, independent, owning no rulers but their family or
military chiefs.
The conquerors took possession of the country simply as they would
take possession of a larger farm than they had before owned. Their
riches were only such as served for the support of men--herds, land,
wine and corn. They needed cultivators for their large farm, so instead
of destroying every one with fire and sword, they spared those of the
weak inhabitants of the land who had survived the first onslaught, in

order that they might make use of farmers to cultivate their new
possessions. In most cases they did not make slaves of them, but
tributaries; and after the land had been portioned evenly among the
soldiers of the invading host, the original holders of the