The Communes Of Lombardy From The VI. To The X. Century | Page 7

though their corporate existence
cannot be claimed, nevertheless cannot be said in any measure to have
ceased to exist; for as collections of individuals and of dwellings they
were there, with an individuality uneffaced though as yet unrecognized.

It was a period of utter stagnation, of suspension of life, but the source
remained intact, from which, by the evolution of events and the
progress of time, seeds were to spring that only needed external
pressure to force them into a growth, slow indeed but certain, and in the
end fruitful. A transition period we might call it. The theory of Roman
universal domination, by relegating to the central power all the political
functions of the municipality and leaving it only its civic ones, and
these in later imperial times grudgingly and with an impaired
independence, had left it simply an administrative instead of a political
division of the state. In the flush of triumph the rough hand of the
barbarian overthrew the framework of administration, and at first failed
to recognize the necessity of replacing it by any other. The passivity of
the conquered inhabitants--the cause of which has already been
explained--was such that a long period elapsed before they realized that
to regain in some measure the position of local independence that they
had lost, and to free themselves from the shackles of dependence on the
rural communities in which they were placed--a dependence forced
upon them by the natural development of the new state system of their
Teutonic conquerors--some common effort at organization was needful,
for purposes at least of self-defense. That this effort came from the
town itself, from the people and not from the external power of the
ruler or overlord, is the fact which first makes the history of these
municipalities interesting.
There are two facts, however, which, even at this early date, begin to
influence the internal history of the communes. These are the influence
which the Church,[7] through its bishops, began to attain in the civil
affairs of the country; and the idea beginning to gain currency that the
locality where a number of individuals, however wretched in state,
were collected together, would afford a safer refuge than the open
country to the oppressed, the homeless and the outcast. I will briefly
consider the latter first, as of less importance, though not unconnected
with the former.
In the period of great confusion in all relations of property which
ensued from the Lombard military system of small independent
landholders and a few great overlords, with a nominal royal ownership

of title, and before the feudal system was established, with its iron rules
in regular working order, constant inequalities of wealth and
consequent changes in the relative positions of individuals were sure to
ensue. In practice if not in theory, might makes right in such a state of
society. The weaker goes to the wall, and the stronger gains in strength
by his downfall. Besides, it was long before the roving and predatory
instinct of the barbarian was moderated; and his weaker neighbor was
the natural prey of the more powerful landholder, an example not
unfrequently set by the king himself. Now, if the weaker party
remained to brave the attack and was conquered, he was reduced to a
state of villeinage or of dependence more or less complete. If on the
other hand he wished to escape this change of condition, where was he
to find refuge? The only safe asylum in those days of rapine and
violence was that offered by the Church and its precincts. The church
of the greatest importance in the district, in this early age when no
walled monasteries existed, would without doubt be that situated within
the limits of the nearest town. To this haven then comes the outcast,
hastily collecting his family and all of his wealth of a portable character;
the country loses a small landed proprietor, but the town gains a citizen,
a freeman, a member of the upper class.
Of course many of the fugitives who sought asylum in the towns were
as low as the great numbers of the semi-servile population, but much
that was new and of a better character and intelligence, and even a large
amount of property, which later gave birth to commercial and other
interests, were introduced by members of the higher classes fleeing
from their more powerful neighbors. Also the human instinct of
seeking fellowship in misfortune probably assisted in increasing the
numbers which in times of trouble flocked towards the towns as a
haven of refuge and a place to seek support. To see how they were in a
measure enabled to attain these results, we must now consider the first
of the two facts mentioned above, that is, the power in civil affairs
gained by the bishops.
When