The transi tional character of the twelfth century CHAPTER VI THE AWAKENING OF CIVIC CONSCIOUSNESS IN ITALY MORE ORE than any other event of the Middle Ages, the contest between the Empire and the Papacy created an agitation of the human mind. For centuries, men had humbly bowed in reverence before the imperial idea, and papal authority had accorded well with the conceptions of the time. The Holy Roman Empire, embodying in one harmonious system of universal authority this twofold claim to obedience, had seemed to admit neither of revolt nor of discussion. But when the rift in that system widened to an open breach, and the Empire and the Papacy were revealed in a relation of hostility, thought was awakened from its mediaeval dream, and each of the great antagonists became the representative of a group of partisans in whose opposition was engendered a conflict of ideas far more general than the interests immediately involved. Not only in law and jurisprudence but in the realm of faith and doctrine, was this awakening felt. The pious scholasticism of Anselm and the staid dialectic of William of Champeaux were superseded by the daring analysis of Roscelin and the keen scepticism of Abelard. But the commotion of ideas was not confined to the schools of law and philosophy. The rationalism of Abelard stirred the mind of the people also, and through the influence of his pupil, Arnold of Brescia, made itself felt in the new conceptions of civic life and even in the field of practical politics. The Church itself was profoundly disturbed, and while Peter de Bruys denounced the sacerdotal system, and Peter Valdez and his "Poor Men of Lyons" spread their heretical doctrines over nearly every part of Western Europe, giving birth to those sects of religious enthusiasts who were to be the precursors of the Protestant Reformation, the faithful rallied to the defence of the papal system, renovating the monasteries, establishing new orders, reforming the clergy, and striving to attain the spiritual ideals which the quickening of thought had generated. All these movements combine to impart to the twelfth century a new human interest; for they mark the re-entrance of human personality, so long repressed, upon the scene of public action. Henceforth, history is no longer confined to the proceedings of the Empire and the Papacy; the thinker, the citizen, the artist, the statesman, and the diplomatist begin to stand out from the uniform mass of voiceless humanity and to take a part in the formation of events. I. THE EMANCIPATION OF THE ITALIAN CITIES Originally a system of city-states, Italy had never been effectively united except under the Roman Republic and Empire. With farsighted wisdom, the Republic did not follow its military conquests with the destruction of the municipal liberties; but, on the contrary, it supplemented the ancient freedom with the advantages of peace and profitable intercourse. But under the later Empire, when the expenses of the state became oppressive, it was the cities which felt the burden and were borne down beneath its weight. Overwhelmed with taxes, the decuriones, or curiales as they were later called, the effective middle class of property holders, were doomed to a bondage from which their nominal liberties afforded them no relief. Below them, were the slaves and the poor plebeians who could not be taxed because they possessed nothing with which to pay. Above them, stood the privileged classes, exempted from taxation by the favor of the state. Upon the curiales, therefore, rested the whole weight of the Empire. Instead of cultivating and encouraging this vital middle class, the imperial policy reduced it to ruin and desperation. Discouraged and oppressed, the members of the municipalities CHAP. VI A. D. 1125-1190 The cities under the Ro man Empire A. D. 1125-1190 CHAP. VI endeavored to escape their burdens by the surrender of their rights; but the stern hand of the imperial government forced them back to their servitude. Membership in the order of citizens (ordo decurionum) at last became so obnoxious that exemption was considered as a privilege; for these unfortunates were held personally responsible for the payment of the taxes assessed by the imperial government. Without the permission of the imperial governor, they could neither sell their properties nor even absent themselves from the city; and thus the class of citizens became veritable prisoners of the state, whose condition was like that of serfs. Citizenship, therefore, became a badge of infamy; and a condition of public affairs was reached in which criminals were punished by being condemned to assume the duties of citizens. The Christian communities To escape these odious obligations, the citizen class resorted to every subterfuge. Many entered the ranks of the clergy, some sought refuge in military service, and others preferred to avert their fate by descending to the class of slaves. But these expedients often proved inefficacious and the refugee was rudely returned to his place. Even the offer to abandon all to the imperial government proved unavailing, for the state could not manage its properties without men to exploit them. Thus, when the barbarian kingdoms rose on the ruins of the Empire, the municipalities had degenerated into mere mechanisms for the replenishment of the public treasury, and political life was absolutely extinct. In the midst of this general extinction of public life, a new form of social existence came into being. Divested of the prerogatives of citizenship here below, men instinctively sought refuge in that "City of God" whose glories were set forth by the fervid imagination of St. Augustine. Side by side with the municipality, and within the same limits of space, grew up the Christian community, or parish of the Church, presided over by pastors and bishops, around whose beneficent leadership were insensibly gathered all the vital forces of the time. The purely political authorities, weakened and disheartened, made no resistance to this inevitable A. D. 1125-1190 transfer of influence and authority. When enemies appeared CHAP. VI at the gate, it was no longer the magistrates, chosen by the class of curiales, but the bishop, elected by the entire community, who became the "Defender of the City" (defensor civitatis). Under the barbarian rulers, - Odoacer, Theodoric, and the Lombard kings, - the municipalities, as political corporations, tended more and more to become effaced, and the bishops alone were left to divide authority with the ducal lords who, as conquerors, took possession of the land. Precisely to what extent the municipal laws ceased to be operative, is a subject of controversy into which we cannot enter here; but the simple fact that during the Lombard occupation the Roman municipalities are not even mentioned, goes far toward refuting the thesis of Savigny, that municipal life and Roman law were absolutely continuous throughout the Middle Ages, and supports the contention of his critics that both were, for a time, entirely extinguished.1 1 In his Geschichte des römischen Rechts im Mittelalter, Savigny attempted to prove the continuity of Roman law in Italy during the Middle Ages, maintaining that the ancient municipal liberties of the Romans were never completely lost. This thesis was soon controverted by Leo, Bethmann-Hollweg, C. Hegel, and others, who claimed that the Italian communes took their rise from an entirely different cause, Germanic rather than Roman. The Italians participated in the controversy and two opposing schools were formed in Italy. The question was soon involved in current politics, one party defending the Lombards, who, it was said, might have united Italy into a great kingdom in the ninth century if it had not been for the Papacy. Another, regarding the Papacy as the saviour of Italy, maintained that, by calling in the Franks, the Pope had rescued Italy from destruction by the barbarians. "Throughout this controversy," says Villari, "learning was always subordinated to political aims, although the disputants may not have been always aware of it; and historic truth and serenity consequently suffered unavoidable hurt." The truth seems to be, that during the Lombard domination the Lombard laws superseded the Roman, except in the few cities that continued to be subject to the Byzantine Empire; and that the ancient Roman laws were revived and became once more operative in the period of local liberty that followed the contest between the Empire and the Papacy. CHAP. VI A. D. 1125-1190 Effects of The Italian cities under the Empire of Charles the Great Not only the life of the municipalities, but even the episcopal authority, received a deadly blow from the Lombard conquest. The most rude and destructive of the Germanic invaders of Italy, the Lombards swept away with a ruthless hand every vestige of the old civilization which Odoacer and Theodoric had wisely spared. Multitudes of inhabitants fled in precipitation from the stricken land, leaving all their possessions behind them, and great numbers of those who remained were mercilessly put to the sword. The cities were plundered and burned, and whole regions were converted into solitudes where wild beasts roamed amid the ruins of human habitations. When the Lombards finally accepted the Catholic faith, many of the cities were rebuilt and repopulated, and the bishops, returning with their flocks, resumed their former leadership in the civil as well as in the spiritual sphere. At the end of the seventh century, Pavia, the Lombard capital, became a seat of intellectual interest and influence; but it was to the Church that this restoration was entirely due, and its representatives were accepted and honored as the intermediaries and guardians of the faith received from Rome. The ancient municipal life had totally vanished, Roman law had been superseded by the Lombard legislation, and even the bishops, so far as they were affected by any civil authority, lived under the laws of the Lombards. Two hundred and fifty years after Charles the Great had extinguished the Lombard monarchy, notwithstanding the fact that he had assimilated the Lombard and the Frankish clergy, the monastery of Tarfa, in the Duchy of Spoleto, at the very gates of Rome, was still governed by the law of the Lombards, under which it had always existed. The Empire of Charles the Great, owing its existence to the union which the diplomacy of Leo III had effected between the military prowess of its head and the defence of the Papacy, was an artificial creation rather than a phase of normal institutional development. Possessing no organic unity, and being, in effect, a merely personal supremacy, the |