of the old castles, where the baron, or knight, during intervals of peace, had no society but his own family, domestic life and the condition of women were in some instances improved, contributing toward the inspiration of that lofty and pure affection which has shed so beautiful an influence over modern civilization. The soft charities of home thus sprung up, like myrtles, among the dark wild rocks of feudal society, relieving and adorning them with its snow-white blossoms.

At the same time, it generated and sustained many unhallowed and anti-social habits and principles, especially war, injustice and revenge. The records of the middle ages contain the expression of sentiments, and the history of deeds of the most unchristian and revolting character. The worst passions of the human mind are seen playing around the system, like lightning around the summit of one of its hoary castles at midnight. If flowers are growing at the base, there are weeds of deadly poison too. It must be allowed, also, that, as a political system, it was most defective; it left almost every thing to the mercy of the ruler, made no provisions for the rights of the governed, supplied no constitutional guarantee for social order, and might easily prove an engine of oppression and cruelty to those who were so disposed to employ it.

It could, of necessity, last but for a season, being a transition state of things. It evidently contained the elements of its own dissolution, and nurtured a

spirit of resistance which was sure at length to destroy it. On the whole, it was a rough process of discipline, tending to social improvement: and the thoughtful and devout mind will recognize in it, a course of things somewhat analogous to what obtains in the government of nature, whereby the tempest purifies the atmosphere, and the snows of winter prepare for the bloom of spring.

CHAPTER V.

THE TOWN.

CITIES and towns are the grand theatres of civilization. Its elements, it is true, have their place and their influence amidst rural scenes, but they commonly appear there as the reflection of what obtains in city life. It is of great importance, then, to take a view of the social condition of the towns and cities of Europe at that period, in order to estimate aright the character of European civilization.

The era of the general enfranchisement of boroughs, when the elements of modern civilization came into vigorous play, is coincident with the close of the period over which the present survey extends -it marks the eleventh and twelfth centuries; and, therefore, the state of towns previous to that grand civic awakening, is what chiefly demands attention in the present chapter.

SECTION I.

ROMAN MUNICIPALITIES.

The remains of the Roman municipalities obviously present themselves, as forming the first divi

sion. Rome herself stands at the head of these. "We find a considerable obscurity spread over the internal history of Rome, during the long period from the recovery of Italy by Belisarius, to the end of the eleventh century. The popes appear to have possessed some measure of temporal power, even while the city was professedly governed by the exarchs of Ravenna, in the name of the eastern empire. This power became more extensive after her separation from Constantinople. It was, however, subordinate to the undeniable sovereignty of the new imperial family, who were supposed to enter upon all the rights of their predecessors. There was always an imperial officer, or prefect, in that city, to render criminal justice; an oath of allegiance to the emperor was taken by the people; and upon an irregular election of a pope, a circumstance by no means unusual, the emperors held themselves entitled to interpose. But the spirit and even the institutions of Rome were republican. Amidst the darkness of the tenth century, which no contemporary historian dissipates, we faintly distinguish the awful names of senate, consuls, and tribunes, the domestic magistracy of Rome. These shadows of past glory strike us at first with surprise; but there is no improbability in the supposition that a city so renowned and populous and so happily sheltered from the usurpation of the Lombards, might have preserved, or might afterwards establish a kind of municipal government which it would be natu

ral to dignify with those august titles of antiquity."* There can be no doubt that through the whole period of the dark ages a lingering attachment was felt by the citizens of Rome to their ancient institutions-an attachment which local traditions of bygone glory, historical associations connected with the very soil on which they trod, and the mutilated yet magnificent remains of the ancient structures which graced the forum, could not but keep alive.

Some considerable degree of architectural splendour must have distinguished the papal city, at least from the time of Charlemagne. It is described by Eginhard, in a letter to Alcuin, the emperor's friend, as surrounded by walls, defended by three hundred and eighty-seven towers, and as presenting a very imposing appearance from the lofty castles erected by the nobles upon the hills, and along the Tiber. He especially dwells upon the ecclesiastical structures which adorned the city, consisting of colleges, monasteries, and churches; the latter of which, according to his account, were enriched with a variety of most costly ornaments, which must have made a very glittering and attractive show to the citizens and the pilgrims who frequented the various shrines. The architecture of the period was of the Roman kind, and the churches were formed upon the model of the ancient basilicæ, or

Hallam, Middle Ages, chap. iii. 1.