By X - XI centuries. important changes took place in the economic life of Western Europe. The growth of productive forces, associated with the establishment of the feudal mode of production, in the early Middle Ages proceeded most rapidly in handicrafts. It was expressed there in the gradual change and development of technology and, mainly, the skills of crafts and trades, in their expansion, differentiation, and improvement. Handicraft activity required more and more specialization, no longer compatible with the labor of the peasant. At the same time, the sphere of exchange improved: fairs spread, markets developed, coinage and the sphere of circulation of coins expanded, means and means of communication developed. The moment came when the separation of handicraft from agriculture became inevitable: the transformation of handicraft into an independent branch of production, the concentration of handicraft and trade in special centers. Another prerequisite for the separation of handicrafts and trade from agriculture was the progress in the development of the latter. The sowing of grain and industrial crops expanded: horticulture, horticulture, viticulture, and wine-making, butter-making, and milling, closely related to agriculture, developed and improved. Increased the number and improved the breed of livestock. The use of horses brought important improvements in horse-drawn transport and warfare, in large-scale construction and tillage. The increase in agricultural productivity made it possible to exchange part of its products, including those suitable as handicraft raw materials, for finished handicraft products, which relieved the peasant of the need to produce them himself.

Along with these economic prerequisites, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millenniums, important social and political prerequisites for the formation of a specialized craft and medieval cities as a whole appeared. The process of feudalization was completed. The state and the church saw cities as their strongholds and sources of cash receipts, and in their own way contributed to their development. A dominant stratum stood out, whose need for luxury weapons and special living conditions contributed to an increase in the number of professional artisans. And the growth of state taxes and seignioral rents until a certain time stimulated the market relations of the peasants, who more and more often had to endure not only the surplus, but also part of the products necessary for their life. On the other hand, the peasants, who were subjected to more and more oppression, began to flee to the cities, this was a form of their resistance to feudal oppression.

In the countryside, handicrafts were very limited, since the market for handicraft products there is narrow, and the power of the feudal lord deprived the artisan of the independence he needed. Therefore, artisans fled the village and settled where there were the most favorable conditions for independent work, marketing of their products, obtaining raw materials. The resettlement of artisans to market centers and cities was part of the general movement of rural residents there. As a result of the separation of craft from agriculture and the development of exchange, as a result of the flight of peasants, including those who knew any craft, in the 10th - 13th centuries. (and in Italy from the 9th century), cities of a new, feudal type rapidly grew throughout Western Europe. They were centers of crafts and trade, differed in the composition and main occupations of the population, its social structure and political organization. The formation of cities in this way

not only reflected the social division of labor and the social evolution of the early Middle Ages, but was also their result.

Medieval cities had a significant impact on the feudal society of Western Europe and played an important role in its socio-political, economic and spiritual life. In particular, the emergence of a medieval city was the beginning of a stage of developed feudalism with a new economic structure, represented by small-scale crafts. The city significantly changed the structure of medieval society, giving birth to a new social force - the class of citizens. Within its walls, a special social psychology, culture and ideology was formed, which had a great influence on the social and spiritual life of society. In addition, the development of urban production was one of the factors contributing to the disintegration of feudalism and the emergence of early capitalist relations.

Having arisen on the land of a feudal lord, the city turned out to be completely dependent on its lord. This situation hindered its further development. Thus, starting from the 10th century, a communal movement unfolded in Western Europe. The degree of city freedoms and privileges, the economic development of the city, as well as the political structure of the city community depended on the outcome of this struggle.

One of the main goals of the anti-seigneurial movement was to obtain the rights of self-government for the city. However, the results of this struggle in different regions and countries were different.

The degree of independence of the city depended on the freedoms and privileges laid down in the city charter, which determined its economic and political growth. Therefore, the study of the features and forms of the communal movement of the medieval cities of Western Europe is relevant.

The purpose of this work is: to reveal the essence and main forms of the communal movement of the medieval cities of Western Europe.

1) reveal the essence of the main theories of the origin of medieval cities; show the ways of their occurrence, identify the peculiarities of the position of cities in relation to seniors;

2) to show the main forms of the communal movement of medieval cities;

3) identify the main results of the communal movement.

The political and socio-economic history of the medieval cities of Western Europe has been the subject of many studies, which also reflect some of the problems of communal traffic. The issues of the development of medieval cities of Western Europe, their struggle for communal freedoms are presented in the works of such recognized medievalists as A.A. Svanidze, S.M. Stam, Stoklitskaya - Tereshkovich V.V. and etc.

Of the latest studies, the most generalizing is the collection of works of domestic urbanists "City medieval civilization Western Europe". The publication covers the period from the emergence of medieval cities to the end of the 15th century and covers various aspects.

L.A. Kotelnikova (city of Italy), Ya.A. Levitsky (city of England), G.M. Tushina (cities of France), A.L. Rogachevsky (city of Germany), etc.

There are very few special studies devoted to the communal movement of cities. Among them is the article by M.E. Karpacheva "Early stage of the communal movement in the medieval Carcasse", article by T.M. Negulyaeva, dedicated to the results of the struggle against the seigneurs and the formation of an urban patriciate in medieval Strasbourg.1

In addition to research, various sources were used in the work. Among them are narrative ones, such as a passage from the autobiography of Guibert of Nozhansky, in which he talks about the uprising of the townspeople of the Lana commune.

The rise of cities, the formation of urban self-government required legal regulation of both urban life and relations with feudal lords. On the basis of agreements with the latter, local customs and the reception of Roman law, city law itself is formed, reflected in city charters and statutes.

In this work, excerpts were used from the city law of Strasbourg, from the charter of the city of Saint-Omer (1168), from the city law of the city of Goslar, From the decree of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa on the approval of rights outside the city of Bremen.

Chapter I: The emergence of medieval cities. Cities under the rule of seniors

§1. Theories on the origin of medieval cities

Trying to answer the question about the causes and circumstances of the emergence of medieval cities, scientists of the XIX and XX centuries. put forward various theories. A significant part of them is characterized by an institutional-legal approach to the problem. The greatest attention was paid to the origin and development of specific city institutions, city law, and not to the socio-economic foundations of the process. With this approach, it is impossible to explain the root causes of the origin of cities.1

19th century historians was primarily concerned with the question of what form of settlement the medieval city originated from and how the institutions of this previous form were transformed into cities. The "romanistic" theory (F. Savigny, O. Thierry, F. Guizot, F. Renoir), which was based mainly on the material of the Romanized regions of Europe, considered medieval cities and their institutions a direct continuation of the late ancient cities. Historians, who relied mainly on the material of Northern, Western, Central Europe (primarily German and English), saw the origins of medieval cities in the phenomena of a new, feudal society, primarily legal and institutional. According to the "patrimonial" theory (K. Eighhorn, K. Nitsch), the city and its institutions developed from the feudal estate, its management and law. The "Markov" theory (G. Maurer, O. Gierke, G. von Belov) brought out the city institutions and the law of the free rural community-mark. The "bourgeois" theory (F. Keitgen, F. Matland) saw the grain of the city in the fortress-burg and in burg law. The "market" theory (R. Zohm, Schroeder, Schulte) deduced city law from the market law that was in force in places where trade was conducted.

All these theories were distinguished by one-sidedness, each putting forward a single path or factor in the emergence of the city and considering it mainly from formal positions. In addition, they never explained why most of the patrimonial centers, communities, castles, and even market places did not turn into cities.

German historian Ritschel late XIX V. tried to combine the "burg" and "market" theories, seeing in the early cities settlements of merchants around a fortified point - the burg. The Belgian historian A. Pirenne, unlike most of his predecessors, assigned a decisive role in the emergence of cities to the economic factor - intercontinental and interregional transit trade and its carrier - the merchants. According to this "commercial" theory, cities in Western Europe arose initially around merchant trading posts. Pirenne also ignores the role of the separation of craft from agriculture in the emergence of cities, and does not explain the origins, patterns and specifics of the city as a feudal structure. Pirenne's thesis of a purely commercial origin for the city was not accepted by many medievalists.

In modern foreign historiography, much has been done to study the geological data, topography, and plans of medieval cities (F.L. Ganshof, V. Ebel, E. Ennen). These materials explain a lot about the prehistory and initial history of cities, which is almost not illuminated by written monuments. The question of the role of political, administrative, military, and religious factors in the formation of medieval cities is being seriously developed. All these factors and materials require, of course, taking into account the socio-economic aspects of the emergence of the city and its character as a feudal culture.

Many modern foreign historians, in an effort to understand the general patterns of the genesis of medieval cities, share and develop the concept of the emergence of a feudal city precisely as a consequence of the social division of labor, the development of commodity relations, and the social and political evolution of society.

Serious research has been carried out in domestic medieval studies on the history of cities in almost all countries of Western Europe. But for a long time it focused mainly on the social = economic role of cities, with less attention to their other functions. Recently, the whole variety of social characteristics of the medieval city has been considered. The city is defined as "Not only the most dynamic structure of medieval civilization, but also as an organic component of the entire feudal system"

§2. The emergence of European medieval cities

The specific historical paths of the emergence of cities are very diverse. The peasants and artisans who left the villages settled in different places, depending on the availability of favorable conditions for engaging in "urban affairs", i.e. market-related business. Sometimes, especially in Italy and southern France, these were administrative, military and church centers, often located on the territory of old Roman cities that were reborn to a new life - already as feudal-type cities. The fortifications of these points provided the residents with the necessary security.

The concentration of the population in such centers, including feudal lords with their servants and retinue, clergy, representatives of the royal and local administration, created favorable conditions for the sale of their products by artisans. But more often, especially in Northwestern and Central Europe, artisans and merchants settled near large estates, estates, castles and monasteries, the inhabitants of which purchased their goods. They settled at the intersection of important roads, at river crossings and bridges, on the shores of bays, bays, etc., convenient for parking ships, where traditional markets have long operated. Such "market towns", with a significant increase in their population, the presence of favorable conditions for handicraft production and market activity, also turned into cities.1

Urban growth in certain areas Western Europe proceeded at different rates. First of all, in the VIII - IX centuries. feudal cities, primarily as centers of crafts and trade, were formed in Italy (Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Bari, Naples, Amalfi); in the tenth century - in the south of France (Marseille, Arles, Narbonne, Montpellier, Toulouse, etc.). In these and other areas, with rich ancient traditions, handicrafts specialized faster than in others, a feudal state was formed with its reliance on cities.

The early emergence and growth of Italian and southern French cities was also facilitated by the trade relations of these regions with Byzantium and the countries of the East, which were more developed at that time. Of course, the preservation of the remains of numerous ancient cities and fortresses there also played a certain role, where it was easier to find shelter, protection, traditional markets, rudiments of craft organizations and Roman municipal law.

In the X - XI centuries. feudal cities began to appear in Northern France, in the Netherlands, in England and Germany - along the Rhine and the upper Danube, the Flanders cities of Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, Lille, Douai, Arras and others were famous for fine cloth, which was supplied to many European countries. There were no longer many Roman settlements in these areas, most of the cities arose anew.

Later, in the XII - XII centuries, feudal cities grew on the northern outskirts and in the interior regions of Zareinskaya Germany, in Scandinavian countries ah, in Ireland, Hungary, the Danubian principalities, i.e. where the development of feudal relations was slower. Here, all cities grew, as a rule, from market towns, as well as regional (former tribal) centers.

The distribution of cities across Europe was uneven. There were especially many of them in Northern and Central Italy, in Flanders and Brabant, along the Rhine.

“For all the difference in place, time, specific conditions for the emergence of a particular city, it has always been the result of a social division of labor common to all of Europe. In the socio-economic sphere, it was expressed in the separation of craft from agriculture, the development of commodity production and exchange between different spheres of the economy and different territories; in the political sphere - in the development of statehood structures.

§3. City under the rule of a lord

Whatever the origin of the city, it was a feudal city. It was headed by a feudal lord, on whose land it was located, so the city had to obey the lord. Most of the townspeople were originally non-free ministerials (serving people of the lord), peasants who had lived in this place for a long time, sometimes fleeing from their former masters, or released by them for quitrent. At the same time, they often found themselves in personal dependence on the lord of the city. All city power was concentrated in the hands of the lord, the city became, as it were, his collective vassal. The feudal lord was interested in the emergence of a city on his land, since urban crafts and trade gave him a considerable income.

Former peasants brought with them to the cities the customs of communal organization, which had a noticeable influence on the organization of urban government. Over time, it increasingly took on forms that corresponded to the characteristics and needs of urban life.

In the early era, the urban population was still very poorly organized. The city still had a semi-agrarian character. Its inhabitants carried duties of an agrarian nature in favor of the lord. The city had no special city government. He is under the authority of a seigneur or seigneurial clerk, who judged the urban population, collected various fines and fees from him. At the same time, the city often did not represent a unity even in the sense of seigneurial management. As a feudal property, the lord could bequeath the city by inheritance in the same way as a village. He could divide it among his heirs, could sell or mortgage it in whole or in part.1

Here is an excerpt from a document from the end of the 12th century. The document refers to the time when the city of Strasbourg was under the authority of the spiritual lord - the bishop:

"1. Strasbourg was founded on the model of other cities, with such a privilege that every person, both a stranger and a local native, always and from everyone enjoyed peace in it.

5. All the officials of the city go under the authority of the bishop, so that they are appointed either by himself or by those whom he appoints; the elders define the younger as if they were subordinate to them.

6. And a bishop should not give public office except to persons from the world of the local church.

7. The bishop invests the four officials in charge of the city with his power, namely: Schultgeis, burggrave, collector and head of the coin.

93. Individual townspeople are also required to serve annually a five-day corvee, with the exception of

coiners...tanners...saddlers, four glovemakers, four bakers and eight shoemakers, all blacksmiths and carpenters, butchers and wine barrel makers...

102. Among the tanners, twelve men are obliged, at the expense of the bishop, to prepare hides and skins, as the bishop needs...

103. The duty of the blacksmiths is as follows: when the bishop goes on an imperial campaign, each blacksmith will give four horseshoes with his nails; of these, the burggrave will give the bishop horseshoes for 24 horses, the rest he will keep for himself ...

105. In addition, blacksmiths are obliged to do everything that the bishop needs in his palace, namely, regarding doors, windows and various things that are made of iron: at the same time, material is given to them and food is released for all the time ...

108. Among shoemakers, eight people are obliged to give to the bishop, when he is sent to the court on the campaign of sovereigns, covers for candlesticks, basins and dishes ...

115. Millers and fishermen are obliged to carry the bishop on the water wherever he wishes ...

116. Anglers are obliged to fish for ... the bishop ... annually for three days and three nights with all their tackle ...

118. Carpenters are obliged every Monday to go to work to the bishop at his expense ... "

As we see from this document, the safety and peace of the townspeople was provided by his lord, who "invested with his power" the officials of the city (that is, instructed them to lead the city government). The townspeople, for their part, were obliged to bear corvee in favor of the lord and render him all kinds of services. These duties differed little from the duties of the peasants. It is clear that as the city grows stronger, it begins to be more and more burdened by dependence on the lord and seeks to free itself from it.

The organization of the city arose in the process of struggle with the lord, a struggle that necessitated the unification of various elements that were part of the urban population. At the same time, the class struggle in the countryside intensified and intensified. On this basis, since the XI century. the desire of the feudal lords to strengthen their class rule by strengthening the feudal organization of the state is noticed. "The process of political fragmentation has been replaced by a tendency towards the unification of small feudal units and the rallying of the feudal world."

The struggle of cities with feudal lords begins from the very first steps of urban development. In this struggle, an urban structure is formed; those disparate elements of which the city consisted at the beginning of its existence are organized and united. The outcome of this struggle depends on political structure received by the city.

The development of commodity-money relations in the cities intensifies the struggle between the city and the feudal lord, who sought to expropriate the growing urban accumulation by increasing feudal rent. The requirements of the lord in relation to the city were increasing. The lord resorted to methods of direct violence against the townspeople, seeking to increase his income from the city. On this basis, clashes arose between the city and the lord, which forced the townspeople to create a certain organization to win their independence, an organization that was at the same time the basis for city self-government.

Thus, the formation of cities was the result of the social division of labor and the social evolution of the early medieval period. The emergence of cities was accompanied by the separation of handicrafts from agriculture, the development of commodity production and exchange, and the development of the attributes of statehood.

The medieval city arose on the land of the lord and was in his power. The desire of the lords to extract as much income as possible from the city inevitably led to a communal movement.

Chapter II. Forms and features of the liberation movement of cities

§1. Communal movement of medieval cities and its forms

Communal movement (from late Latin communa - community) - in Western Europe in the 10th - 13th centuries. - the movement of citizens against seniors for self-government and independence.1

Cities that arose in the Middle Ages on the land of the feudal lords found themselves under their rule. Often several lords owned the city at the same time (for example, Amiens - 4, Marseille, Beauvais - 3, Soissons, Arles - 2, etc.). corvee duties, etc.), judicial and administrative arbitrariness. At the same time, the real economic grounds for maintaining the seigneurial movement were very shaky. The artisan, in contrast to the feudal-dependent peasant, was the owner of the means of production and the finished product, and did not depend on the lord in the production process (or almost did not depend on it). This almost complete economic independence of urban commodity production and circulation from the lord-landowner was in sharp contradiction to the regime of lord exploitation, which hampered the economic development of the city.

In Western Europe from the end of the X - XI centuries. the struggle of cities for liberation from the power of the lords was widely developed. At first, the demands of the townspeople were limited to limiting feudal oppression and reducing requisitions. Then political tasks arose - the acquisition of city self-government and rights. The struggle was not against the feudal system, but against the lords of certain cities.

The forms of communal movement were different.

Sometimes cities managed to get certain liberties and privileges from the feudal lord for money, fixed in city charters; in other cases, these privileges, especially the right to self-government, were achieved as a result of a long, sometimes armed, struggle.

Very often, the communal movement took on the character of open armed uprisings of citizens under the slogan of a commune - urban independence (Milan - 980, Cambrai - 957, 1024, 1064, 1076, 1107, 1127, Beauvais - 1099, Lahn - 1112, 1191, Worms - 1071, Cologne - 1072, etc.).

The commune is both an alliance directed against the lord and an organization of urban government.

Quite often kings, emperors, large feudal lords intervened in the struggle of cities. "The communal struggle merged with other conflicts - in a given area, country, international - and was an important part of the political life of medieval Europe" .

§2. Peculiarities of communal traffic in various cities of medieval Europe

Communal movements took place in different countries in different ways, depending on the conditions of historical development. , and led to different results.

In southern France, the townspeople achieved independence without bloodshed (IX - XIII centuries). The counts of Toulouse, Marseille, Montpellier and other cities of southern France, as well as Flanders, were not only city lords, but sovereigns of entire regions. They were interested in the prosperity of local cities, gave them municipal liberties, and did not interfere with relative independence. However, they did not want the communes to become too powerful, to gain complete independence. This happened, for example, with Marseille, which for centuries was an independent aristocratic republic. But at the end of the thirteenth century after an 8-month siege, Count of Provence, Charles of Anjou, took the city, put his governor at the head of it, began to appropriate city revenues, dosing funds to support city crafts and trade that were beneficial to him.1

The cities of northern France (Amiens, Laon, Beauvais, Soissons, etc.) and Flanders (Ghent, Bruges, Lille) became self-governing commune cities as a result of a stubborn, mostly armed, struggle. The townspeople chose from their midst the council, its head - the mayor and other officials, had their own court, military militia, finances, independently established taxes. These cities were freed from rent and senior duties. In return, they paid the lord a certain small monetary rent, in case of war they put up a small military detachment, often themselves acted as a collective lord in relation to the peasants of the surrounding territories.

The cities of Northern and Central Italy (Venice, Genoa, Siena, Florence, Lucca, Ravenna, Bologna, etc.) became communes in the 9th - 12th centuries. One of the bright and typical pages of the communal struggle in Italy was the history of Milan - the center of crafts and trade, an important staging post on the way to Germany. In the XI century. the power of the count there was replaced by the power of the archbishop, who ruled with the help of representatives of aristocratic and clerical circles. Throughout the eleventh century the townspeople were fighting with the seigneur. She rallied all urban strata. Since the 1950s, the urban movement has resulted in civil war against the bishop. It was intertwined with the powerful heretical movement that then swept through Italy - with the performances of the Waldensians and especially the Cathars. The rebels-citizens attacked the clerics, destroyed their houses. Sovereigns were drawn into the events. Finally, at the end of the XI century. the city received the status of a commune. It was headed by a council of consuls from privileged citizens - representatives of merchant-feudal circles. The aristocratic system of the Milan commune, of course, did not satisfy the mass of the townspeople, their struggle continued in subsequent times.1

In Germany in the XII - XIII centuries. the so-called imperial cities appeared - they were formally subordinate to the emperor, but in fact they were independent city republics (Lubeck, Frankfurt - on the Main, etc.). They were governed by city councils, had the right to independently declare war, conclude peace and alliances, mint coins, etc.

But sometimes the liberation struggle of the cities was very long. For more than 200 years, the struggle for the independence of the northern French city of Lana lasted. His lord (since 1106), Bishop Godri, a lover of war and hunting, established a particularly difficult regime in the city, up to the murder of citizens. The inhabitants of Lan managed to buy from the bishop a charter granting them certain rights (a fixed tax, the destruction of the right of the "dead hand"), paying the king for its approval. But the bishop soon found the charter unprofitable for himself and, having given a bribe to the king, obtained its cancellation. The townspeople rebelled, plundered the courts of aristocrats and the episcopal palace, and Gaudry himself, who hid in an empty barrel, was killed.

In one of the first memoirs of medieval literature, the autobiography of Guibert Nozhansky "The Story of His Own Life", vivid evidence of the uprising of the townspeople of the Lansk commune is given.

Guibert of Nozhansky (lived in the 11th - 12th centuries) was born into a French knightly family, became a monk, received an excellent literary (partially philosophical) and theological education in the monastery for that time. Known as a theologian and historian. His historical works are especially interesting. Possessing the talent of a writer, Guibert describes events vividly and colorfully.

Protecting the interests of the church and standing guard over the feudal system as a whole, Guibert was hostile to the rebellious townspeople. But at the same time, he openly exposes the vices and crimes of individual representatives of the ruling class, speaks with indignation about the greed of the feudal lords and their excesses.

Guibert Nozhansky writes: “This city has long been burdened by such misfortune that no one in it was afraid of either God or the authorities, and everyone, in accordance only with their own strengths and desires, carried out robberies and murders in the city.

... But what can I say about the situation of the common people? ... Seniors and their servants openly committed robberies and robberies; at night the passer-by did not enjoy security; to be detained, captured or killed - that's the only thing that awaited him.

The clergy, archdeacons and lords... seeking all sorts of ways to extort money from the common people, entered into negotiations through their intermediaries, offering to grant the right, if they paid a sufficient amount, to form a commune.

... Having become more accommodating from the golden rain that fell on them, they made a promise to the people, having sealed it with an oath, to strictly observe the concluded agreement.

... Inclined by the generous gifts of commoners, the king agreed to approve this agreement and secure it with an oath. My God! Who could tell about the struggle that flared up when, after the gifts were accepted from the people, and so many oaths were given, these same people began to try to destroy what they swore to support, and tried to return the slaves to their former state, once liberated and delivered from all the burden of the yoke? Unbridled envy of the townspeople, in fact, consumed the bishop and the lords ...

... Violation of the treaties that created the Lansk commune filled the hearts of the townspeople with anger and amazement: all the persons who held positions ceased to perform their duties ...

... not anger, but the fury of a wild beast seized the people of the lower class; they formed a conspiracy, sealed by mutual oath, to kill the bishop and his like-minded people ...

... Numerous crowds of citizens, armed with swords, double-edged axes, bows, axes, clubs and spears, filled the temple of the Blessed Virgin and rushed into the bishop's courtyard ...

... Not being able, in the end, to repel the bold attacks of the people, the bishop dressed in the dress of one of his servants, fled to the cellar under the church, locked himself there and hid in a wine barrel, the hole in which was plugged by one faithful servant. Gaudry thought he was well hidden.

... the townspeople managed to find their victim. Godri, although a sinner, but God's anointed, was pulled out of a barrel by the hair, showered with many blows and dragged, in broad daylight, into a narrow monastery lane ... The unfortunate man prayed in the most miserable terms for mercy, promised to take an oath that he would will be their bishop, offered them large sums of money and undertook to leave the fatherland, but all with bitterness answered him only with insults; one of them, Bernard, raising his double-edged ax, fiercely cut this albeit sinful, but sacred ... man.

The above document paints a vivid picture of the struggle of the citizens of the city of Lana with the lord-bishop Gaudry, a typical representative of his class. It follows from the document that the townspeople of Lan, already possessing some material strength, legally remained in the same dependence on their feudal lord as before. The senor still could

rob and oppress them, mock their dignity. Therefore, an uprising breaks out in the city, as a result of which the Lana commune was destroyed. The king of France, Louis VI, who recognized the commune, treacherously broke his promise.

The king, with an armed hand, restored the old order in Lahn, but in 1129 the townspeople raised a new uprising. For many years there was then a struggle for a communal charter with varying success: now in favor of the city, then in favor of the king. Only in 1331 did the king, with the help of many local feudal lords, win the final victory. Its judges and officials began to manage the city.

Cities located on royal land, in countries with a relatively strong central government, could not achieve full self-government. This was almost a general rule for cities on royal soil, in countries with a relatively strong central authority. True, they enjoyed a number of privileges and liberties, including the right to elect self-government bodies. However, these institutions usually operated under the control of an official of the king or other lord. So it was in many cities of France (Paris, Orleans, Bourges, Lorris, Nantes, Chartres, etc.) and England (London, Lincoln, Oxford, Cambridge, Gloucester, etc.). Limited municipal freedoms of cities were characteristic of the Scandinavian countries, many cities of Germany, Hungary, and they did not exist at all in Byzantium.

Thus, communal movements in different countries took place in different forms, depending on specific historical conditions.

Some cities managed to get liberties and privileges for money. Others won these liberties in a long armed struggle.

Some cities became self-governing cities - communes, but many cities either failed to achieve full self-government, or remained entirely under the authority of the seigneurial administration.

Chapter 3 The results of the liberation struggle of cities. City law "liberties"

§1. Socio-economic and political results of the liberation struggle of cities

In the process of urban development, the struggle of townspeople with seniors in the urban environment in feudal Europe, a special medieval estate of townspeople took shape.

In economic terms, the new estate was most of all associated with trade and craft activities, and with property based not only on production, but also on exchange. In political and legal terms, all members of this estate enjoyed a number of specific privileges and liberties (personal freedom, jurisdiction of the city court, participation in the city militia, in the formation of the municipality, etc.), which constitute the status of a full citizen. Usually the urban estate is identified with the concept of "burghers".

The word "burgher" in a number of European countries originally denoted all city dwellers (from the German Burg - a city, from which the medieval Latin burgensis and the French term bourgeoisie, which also originally denoted townspeople, came from). Later, the term “burgher” began to be used only to refer to full-fledged citizens, who could not include representatives of the lower classes who were excluded from city government.1

The struggle of cities with seniors in the overwhelming majority of cases led to the transition, to one degree or another, of urban management into the hands of the townspeople. But in their midst by that time there was already a noticeable social stratification. Therefore, although the struggle against the seigneurs was fought by all the townspeople, only the top of the urban population made full use of its results: homeowners, including those of the feudal type, usurers and, of course, wholesale merchants engaged in transit trade.

This upper, privileged stratum was a narrow, closed group (the patriciate), which hardly allowed new members into its environment. The city council, the mayor (burgomaster), the judicial board (sheffens, eschevens, scabins) of the city were chosen only from among the patricians and their proteges. City administration, courts and finances, including taxation, construction - everything was in the hands of the city elite, used in its interests and at the expense of the wide trade and craft population of the city, not to mention the poor.

But as the craft developed and the significance of the workshops grew stronger, artisans and small merchants entered into a struggle with the patriciate for power in the city. Usually hired workers, poor people also joined them. In the XIII - XVI centuries. this struggle, the so-called guild revolutions, unfolded in almost all countries of medieval Europe and often took on a very sharp, even armed character.

“We see many cities where poor and middle people do not have a share in government, but the rich have it all, because the people of the commune are afraid of them either because of their wealth or because of their relationship. It happens that one of them, having spent a year as mayor, juror or treasurer, next year make their brothers, nephews, or other close relatives such, so that for ten or twelve years the rich have all the government in good cities. When the people of the commune want an account from them, they cover themselves by pointing out that they allegedly accounted one to the other; but in such cases this cannot be tolerated, because in the affairs of the commune, reports should not be accepted by those who themselves must report, ”says the Augsburg Chronicle (1357). 1

In some cities where handicraft production has been greatly developed, the guilds have won (Cologne, Basel, Florence, and others). In others, where large-scale trade and merchants played the leading role, the urban elite (Hamburg, Lübeck, Rostock and other cities of the Hanseatic League) emerged victorious from the struggle. But even where the guilds won, the management of the city did not become truly democratic, since the top of the most influential guilds united after their victory with part of the patriciate and established a new oligarchic administration that acted in the interests of the richest citizens (Augsburg and others).

§2. City law "liberties"

The most important result of the struggle of cities with seniors is the liberation of the majority of residents from personal dependence. A rule was also established, according to which a dependent peasant who fled to the city, having lived there "for a year and one day", became free. It was not in vain that a medieval proverb said that "city air makes you free."

Let us give examples from the documents of city law, in which this rule is fixed.

In the Charter of the City of St. - Omer (1168) recorded:

"32. If the serf of any lord becomes a citizen, he cannot be captured in the city, and if any lord would like to take him to himself as his own serf, then let him bring his closest heirs, his uncles and maternal aunts for examination of this case; if he does not do this, he must set him free.

Articles 1 and 2 of the City Law, granted by Emperor Frederick the Second to the city of Goslar on July 13, 1219, read:

"1. If someone lived in the city of Goslar and during his lifetime was not caught by anyone in a slave state, then after his death no one will dare to call him a slave or reduce him to a slave state.

2. If any stranger came to live in the named city and so remained for a year and a day, and he was never put on the appearance of a slave state, they did not catch him in this and he himself did not admit it, then let him use common freedom with other citizens; and after his death, no one will dare to declare him his slave.

"If any man or woman stays unhindered in the city of Bremen within what is commonly called Weichbild (city limits) for a year and a day, and if anyone after that takes it into his head to challenge his freedom, then, by imposing silence on the complainant , let it be presented to him to prove his freedom by reference for the above term".

The city thus became a symbol of independence in the Middle Ages, and thousands of serfs rushed here, fleeing feudal oppression. Not a single feudal lord had the right to seize his former serf in the city, now a free citizen, and again turn him into a slave.

The rights and liberties received by medieval townspeople were in many ways similar to immunity privileges and were of a feudal nature.

Thus, as a result of the struggle for liberation, the population of the cities occupied a special place in the life of feudal society and began to play a prominent role in class-representative assemblies.

Without constituting a socially monolithic layer, the inhabitants of medieval cities were constituted as a special estate. Their disunity was reinforced by the dominance of the corporate system within the cities.

The most important result of the struggle of cities with seniors was the liberation of citizens from personal dependence, enshrined in city law.

Conclusion

Having considered the theories of the origin of medieval cities, the ways of their emergence, the peculiarities of the relationship between the townspeople and the lords, which led to communal movements, the features, forms and results of the liberation struggle of medieval cities, we came to the following conclusions.

Cities of a new, feudal type grew rapidly in Western Europe in the 10th and 13th centuries. as a result of the separation of handicrafts from agriculture and the development of exchange, as a result of the flight of the peasants. They were the center of crafts and trade, differed in the composition and main occupations of the population, its social structure and political organization. The specific historical paths of the emergence of cities were diverse. With all the difference in place, time, specific conditions for the emergence of a particular city, it has always been the result of a social division of labor common to all of Europe.

The medieval city arose on the land of the feudal lord and had to obey him. The desire of the feudal lords to extract as much income from the city as possible inevitably led to a communal movement - a struggle between cities and lords. At first, the townspeople fought for liberation from the most severe forms of feudal oppression, for a reduction in the requisitions of the lord, for trade privileges. Then political tasks arose: the acquisition of city self-government and rights. The outcome of this struggle determined the degree of independence of the city in relation to the lord, its economic prosperity and political system. The struggle of the cities was by no means against the lords, for ensuring the existence and development of cities within the framework of this system.

The forms of communal movement were different. Some cities managed to get liberties and privileges from the lord for money. Others of these rights, especially the right to self-government, were won as a result of a long armed struggle.

Communal movements took place in different countries in different ways, depending on the conditions of historical development, and led to different results. Many cities became self-governing city-communes. But many could not achieve full self-government. Many cities, especially small ones that belonged to spiritual lords, remained entirely under the authority of the lord.

The most important result of the struggle of cities with seniors was the liberation from personal dependence of the majority of the citizens of Western Europe.

List of sources and literature

Sources;

1. City law of the city of Goslar // Medieval city law of the XII - XIII centuries. / Under the editorship of S.M. Stam. Saratov, 1989. S.154-157.

2 . City law of the city of Strasbourg // History of the Middle Ages. Reader. In 2 hours. Part 1 M., 1988. S.173-174.

3 . Nozhansky Guibert. A story about one's own life // History of the Middle Ages. Reader. In 2 hours. Ch.1.M., 1988. S.176-179.

4. Charter of the city of Saint-Omer // Medieval city law XII - XIII centuries. / Under the editorship of S.M. Stam. Saratov, 1989. S.146-148.

Literature;

1 . The city of the medieval civilization of Western Europe / Ed.A. A. Svanidze M., 1999-2000. T.1-4.

2 . Karpacheva E.S. Early stage of communal traffic in medieval Carcasse // Medieval city. Issue 4 1978 S.3-20.

3 . Kotelnikova L.A. Feudalism and cities in Italy in the VIII - XV centuries. M., 1987.

4 . Levitsky Ya.A. City and feudalism in England. M., 1987

5. Negulyaeva T.M. Formation of urban patriciate in medieval Strasbourg // Medieval city. Issue 4 1978. P 81-110.

6. Rogachevsky A.L. German burghers in the XII - XV centuries. SPb., 1995.

7 . Svanidze A.A. The Genesis of the Feudal City in Early Medieval Europe: Problems and Typology // City Life in Medieval Europe. M., 1987.

8. Stam S.M. Economic and social development early city. (Toulouse XI - XIII centuries) Saratov, 1969.

9. Stoklitskaya-Tereshkovich V.V. The main problems of the history of the medieval city X - XV centuries. M., 1960.

10. Tushina G.M. Cities in the Feudal Society of Southern France. M., 1985.

Svanidze A. A. Genesis of the feudal city in early medieval Europe: problems and typology//City life in medieval Europe. M., 1987.

Stam SM Economic and social development of the early city. (Toulouse XI - XIII centuries) Saratov, 1969.

Stoklitskaya-Tereshkovich V.V. The main problems of the history of the medieval city of the X-XV centuries. M., 1960.

The City of the Medieval Civilization of Western Europe / Ed. A.A. Svanidze M., 1999-2000.T. 1-4.

Kotelnikova L. A. Feudalism and cities in Italy in the VIII - XV centuries. M., 1987.

Levitsky Ya. A. City and feudalism in England. M., 1987.

Tutoring

Need help learning a topic?

Our experts will advise or provide tutoring services on topics of interest to you.
Submit an application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.

communal revolutions. As a rule, cities were built on territories that belonged to secular or spiritual feudal lords, so the townspeople depended on them. Initially, the feudal lords patronized the emerging cities. But over time, the townspeople began to be weighed down by this dependence and led a long and stubborn struggle to get out of the jurisdiction of the feudal lords, who received considerable income from crafts and trade. In the 11th-13th centuries, in many cities of Western Europe, a communal movement (communal

revolution). At first, these were anti-feudal uprisings of the townspeople, who opposed the heavy oppression of taxes and duties in favor of the lord, for obtaining trade privileges, etc. During the uprisings, the townspeople expelled the lord and his knights, or even killed them.

Later, the townspeople began to put forward political demands and as a result achieved full or partial self-government, which determined the degree of independence of the city. But in order to finalize the Liberty Charters, the townspeople often had to pay the lords large sums in the form of a ransom.

The communal movement in different countries had different forms. It took place most calmly in southern France, where everything went off basically without bloodshed, since the local counts were interested in the prosperity of their cities. In Northern Italy, by contrast, the struggle took on fierce forms. So, for example, in Milan throughout the entire 11th century, there was essentially a civil war. In France, the city of Lan fought for a very long time. Here, the townspeople first bought the charter from the lord, who then canceled it (with the help of a bribe to the king). This led to an uprising, robberies, and murders of the nobility. The king intervened in the events, but the struggle flared up with renewed vigor, and this continued for two centuries. In many states (in Byzantium, the Scandinavian countries), the struggle of the townspeople was of a limited nature, and many small and medium-sized European cities could not get freedom (especially from spiritual lords).

On the wave of communal revolutions, urban law triumphed (as opposed to feudal law), which gave guarantees for merchant and usury activities. In accordance with city law, a peasant who lived in the city for one year and a day was no longer a serf, since there was a rule according to which "city air makes a person free." The townspeople, freed from feudal dependence, received a higher social status than the peasants.

As a result of communal movements in various European countries, a category of cities has been established that has achieved a very high level of independence and power over all nearby lands. In France and Flanders, commune cities appeared: Saint-Quentin, Soissons, Laon, Amiens, Douai, Marseille, Bruges, Ghent, Ypres, etc. They managed to completely free themselves from feudal duties, get the right to create city governments headed by a mayor ( burgomaster), form the city court, financial and tax

system, military militia, etc. Communal cities independently regulated foreign trade relations, navigation conditions, craft and credit policies, they could make peace and go to war, establish diplomatic relations.

The so-called free cities grew up in Germany - Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck. Later, in terms of the level of self-government, the imperial cities - Nuremberg, Augsburg, etc., were equal to them, which only formally submitted to royal authority, but in fact were independent subjects that received sovereignty and were considered "states within a state."

A special place among European cities was occupied by the city-republics of Northern Italy: Venice, Genoa, Florence, Siena, Lucca, Ravenna, Bologna, etc., which were rightfully considered the economic centers of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. There, the early signs of market relations were very clearly manifested, serving as a model for other countries and cities.

Thus, Venice, being a seaport with a population of 200,000, occupied a dominant position in the Mediterranean basin in the 14th century, since it had the most powerful merchant fleet. The owners of the ships carried out profitable intermediary operations in the resale of goods from the Middle East to European countries. Far beyond Venice, its builders and architects were famous. Venetian craftsmen produced unique goods: glass, mirrors, silk fabrics, jewelry from amber, precious metals and stones, which were in high demand throughout Europe.

Venice waged a continuous struggle for dominance in the Mediterranean Sea with a constant rival - Genoa, which was also a port city, had a powerful fleet, which allowed it to carry out colonial expansion in various regions, in particular on the Black Sea coast (there are still remnants of the Genoese fortresses in Feodosia and Sudak). But in the second half of the XIV century, the economic and military rivalry between these cities ended in the final victory of Venice.

The economy of Florence differed markedly from the Genoese and Venetian. Since Florence was far from the sea, industry, especially cloth production, was predominantly developed in it. In addition, Florentine bankers were famous throughout Europe, who gave loans to many European monarchs, feudal lords, the Pope.

During the XIV-XV centuries, the urban population experienced a period of rapid social stratification. The burghers emerged from the wealthy elite. And if earlier this term simply meant "citizens of the city" (from German word"burg" - city), who had the right to reside and acquire real estate in this city, now, in order to become a burgher, several conditions had to be met. Thus, only personally free people, who, moreover, had certain means necessary to pay a fairly high entry fee, and then regularly pay city and state taxes, could enter the ranks of the burghers. Thus, a wealthy urban class was formed from among the burghers, which later became the basis of the European bourgeoisie.

Communal movement (from late Latin communa - community) - in Western Europe in the 10th - 13th centuries. - the movement of citizens against seniors for self-government and independence.1

Cities that arose in the Middle Ages on the land of the feudal lords found themselves under their rule. Often several lords owned the city at the same time (for example, Amiens - 4, Marseille, Beauvais - 3, Soissons, Arles - 2, etc.). corvee duties, etc.), judicial and administrative arbitrariness. At the same time, the real economic grounds for maintaining the seigneurial movement were very shaky. The artisan, in contrast to the feudal-dependent peasant, was the owner of the means of production and the finished product, and did not depend on the lord in the production process (or almost did not depend on it). This almost complete economic independence of urban commodity production and circulation from the lord-landowner was in sharp contradiction to the regime of lord exploitation, which hampered the economic development of the city.

In Western Europe from the end of the X - XI centuries. the struggle of cities for liberation from the power of the lords was widely developed. At first, the demands of the townspeople were limited to limiting feudal oppression and reducing requisitions. Then political tasks arose - the acquisition of city self-government and rights. The struggle was not against the feudal system, but against the lords of certain cities.

The forms of communal movement were different.

Sometimes cities managed to get certain liberties and privileges from the feudal lord for money, fixed in city charters; in other cases, these privileges, especially the right to self-government, were achieved as a result of a long, sometimes armed, struggle.

Very often, the communal movement took on the character of open armed uprisings of citizens under the slogan of a commune - urban independence (Milan - 980, Cambrai - 957, 1024, 1064, 1076, 1107, 1127, Beauvais - 1099, Lahn - 1112, 1191, Worms - 1071, Cologne - 1072, etc.).

The commune is both an alliance directed against the lord and an organization of urban government.

Quite often kings, emperors, large feudal lords intervened in the struggle of cities. "Communal struggle merged with other conflicts - in a given area, country, international - and was an important part of the political life of medieval Europe"1.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev
Great was the surprise and admiration of the guests who were present at the air parade in Tushino in 1961, when the M-50 supersonic strategic aircraft, created by a design bureau led by Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev, appeared high in the sky. ...

Leeds Castle
The castle is considered as being the most beautiful and most former castle in England. In the 9th century, it was the site of a small Saxon castle. It was offered to Edward I in 1278. Henry VIII also lived there for many years, as did six kings of England. ...

The death of the Dzungar Khanate
13 years separate the death of Galdan-Tseren from the death of the Dzungar Khanate. This period is characterized by continuous, more and more accelerated in 1758 by its destruction. The struggle of the Qing Empire and the Dzungar Khanate, which lasted almost a whole century, ended in the victory of the Qing, whose army not only wiped the Oirat state from the face of the earth, ...

Nevertheless, it was the city that was the cradle of freedom and "equal" rights in the medieval world. For the most part, these rights were won back by the burghers in the course of the so-called communal revolutions, when the burgher class managed to challenge part of the rights from the feudal lords as rulers of the city's lands.

In German cities, where the lord of the city was the archbishop, communal movements assumed a particularly acute character. The citizens of Cologne were among the first to achieve communal freedoms. The lord of the city, who concentrated all the power in his hands, was the archbishop. It was he who ruled the court here, and any city dweller, be it a poor man or a rich merchant, was completely dependent on the sovereign's autocracy.

The "Annals" of Lambert of Gersfeld tells how for the first time (in 1074) the townspeople opposed the archbishop's arbitrariness. The order of the archbishop to get a suitable ship for his guest turned into a trading disaster for one of the local merchants. The archbishop's servants, who had seized the ship, threw all her goods overboard. A fight broke out between the merchant's son, his comrades, and the archbishop's men.

Soon the burghers who joined the victim merchant, among whom were “the first, most venerable”, as the chronicler writes, the townspeople, surrounded the archbishop's palace and began to throw stones at it, threatening the opposing side with weapons. The case took on such a scale that the archbishop was initially forced to hide in the Cathedral of St. Peter and then run.

At the initial stage of the struggle for their rights, the Colognes were defeated. The ruling archbishops plundered the city, punished the rebelling burghers, destroyed their houses, subjected them to corporal punishment, blinded them, imposed huge fines on them, etc.

However, as E. Ennen rightly noted, the wealth of the Cologne townspeople became a political factor. It was it that prompted the burghers to unite into a new community - an urban community, or a commune, whose formation falls on the XII-XIII centuries. It was it that gave the means to resist the power of the seigneur.

So, in 1106, against the will of the archbishop, the burghers surrounded the city with new fortifications, which meant a violation of one of the seigneur's privileges - the right to erect city walls, strengthen and expand the city's territory.

Already in the middle of the XII century. in Cologne, such a corporation appears as Richertzehe - the "Workshop of the rich", which gradually begins to acquire more and more powers in managing the city. One of the first guilds in Germany - the Cologne guild for weaving bedspreads - was established without any consent from the archbishop and his officials.

In the suburb, a trade and craft suburb of Cologne, the burghers erected the famous "House of the Citizens", which later became known as the town hall. It was here, away from the archiepiscopal oversight, that the most important affairs of the Cologne city community were decided, the burgomasters were elected, who represented the executive power in the city along with the seigneurial administration.

Cologne residents had to overcome many obstacles in the way of gaining communal liberties. The need for money forced the archbishops to make certain concessions, to transfer part of the privileges to the city commune. With the help of money, it was possible to attract political allies.

In 1288, the long struggle of Cologne with the archbishop lords ended after the battle of Worringen with the defeat and capture of another lord. The Duke of Brabant and the Count of Berg fought on the side of the Cologne people. After these events, Cologne actually became a free imperial city, only the highest court remained with the archbishop.

The history of the struggle of Cologne for their freedoms - the right to freely dispose of income from crafts and trade, to independently manage the city - is the most striking example of the struggle of German cities with seniors. Not everywhere the burghers managed to achieve such impressive results. The burghers had to repeatedly confirm every most modest achievement, redeeming or winning back certain rights and privileges from seniors.

Quite often communal movements resulted in the defeat of the townspeople, the strengthening of the seigneurial regime. However, the general trends in the development of the new urban way of life were such that in most cities the burghers managed to squeeze out the lord and secure some vital rights and privileges.

What were these rights? The picture of what the burghers achieved in the course of the communal movements is extremely varied. Nevertheless, a number of more or less general provisions of the charters and decrees can be distinguished, which secured their rights for the burghers.

The most important achievement of the burgher "revolutions" is the personal freedom guaranteed to the inhabitants of the city. So, in the imperial privilege to Bremen, it was said that every person who lived in it “a year and a day” gained freedom. "The air of the city makes free" - this legal formula opened up fundamentally new opportunities for the townspeople both for handicraft and trade activities, and for choosing life path in a variety of fields. Characteristically, this rule applied not only to the urban population itself, but also to newcomers, including dependent peasants.

The basis of the foundations of city liberties is its own, not seigneurial court. So, the inhabitants of Strasbourg were granted by the emperor the right, according to which none of the townspeople, "whatever his condition," could be summoned to "a judicial assembly established outside their city." Even the lord of the city or the emperor himself did not have the right to summon a citizen to court outside the city territory.

The meaning of the privilege is clear enough. It was much more difficult to achieve justice in a seigneurial court, and even more so in a foreign curia. It was not suddenly and not immediately that the city court became a sovereign authority. At first, the townspeople, as a rule, reprimanded or bargained for the opportunity to introduce their representatives to the seigneurial court. Not always the townspeople achieved the fullness of the judicial power, as can be seen from the example of Cologne. In cities where the seigneur was a clergyman, the process of gaining judicial independence proceeded with greater obstacles than where the seigneurial power was secular. However, by and large, the exclusion of the people of the seigneur from the judiciary ended in success for most cities.

Pages: 1 2

Communal movements took place in different countries in different ways, depending on the conditions of historical development, and led to different results.

In southern France, the townspeople achieved independence without bloodshed (IX - XIII centuries). The counts of Toulouse, Marseille, Montpellier and other cities of southern France, as well as Flanders, were not only city lords, but sovereigns of entire regions. They were interested in the prosperity of local cities, gave them municipal liberties, and did not interfere with relative independence. However, they did not want the communes to become too powerful, to gain complete independence. This happened, for example, with Marseille, which for centuries was an independent aristocratic republic. But at the end of the thirteenth century after an 8-month siege, Count of Provence, Charles of Anjou, took the city, put his governor at the head of it, began to appropriate city revenues, dosing funds to support city crafts and trade that were beneficial to him.1

The cities of northern France (Amiens, Laon, Beauvais, Soissons, etc.) and Flanders (Ghent, Bruges, Lille) became self-governing commune cities as a result of a stubborn, mostly armed, struggle. The townspeople chose from their midst the council, its head - the mayor and other officials, had their own court, military militia, finances, independently established taxes. These cities were freed from rent and senior duties. In return, they paid the lord a certain small monetary rent, in case of war they put up a small military detachment, often themselves acted as a collective lord in relation to the peasants of the surrounding territories.

The cities of Northern and Central Italy (Venice, Genoa, Siena, Florence, Lucca, Ravenna, Bologna, etc.) became communes in the 9th - 12th centuries. One of the bright and typical pages of the communal struggle in Italy was the history of Milan - the center of crafts and trade, an important staging post on the way to Germany. In the XI century. the power of the count there was replaced by the power of the archbishop, who ruled with the help of representatives of aristocratic and clerical circles. Throughout the eleventh century the townspeople were fighting with the seigneur. She rallied all urban strata. Since the 1950s, the movement of the townspeople has resulted in a civil war against the bishop. It was intertwined with the powerful heretical movement that then swept through Italy - with the performances of the Waldensians and especially the Cathars. The rebels-citizens attacked the clerics, destroyed their houses. Sovereigns were drawn into the events. Finally, at the end of the XI century. the city received the status of a commune. It was headed by a council of consuls from privileged citizens - representatives of merchant-feudal circles. The aristocratic system of the Milan commune, of course, did not satisfy the mass of the townspeople, their struggle continued in the subsequent time.

In Germany in the XII - XIII centuries. the so-called imperial cities appeared - they were formally subordinate to the emperor, but in fact they were independent city republics (Lubeck, Frankfurt - on the Main, etc.). They were governed by city councils, had the right to independently declare war, conclude peace and alliances, mint coins, etc.

But sometimes the liberation struggle of the cities was very long. For more than 200 years, the struggle for the independence of the northern French city of Lana lasted. His lord (since 1106), Bishop Godri, a lover of war and hunting, established a particularly difficult regime in the city, up to the murder of citizens. The inhabitants of Lan managed to buy from the bishop a charter granting them certain rights (a fixed tax, the destruction of the right of the "dead hand"), paying the king for its approval. But the bishop soon found the charter unprofitable for himself and, having given a bribe to the king, obtained its cancellation. The townspeople rebelled, plundered the courts of aristocrats and the episcopal palace, and Gaudry himself, who hid in an empty barrel, was killed.

In one of the first memoirs of medieval literature, the autobiography of Guibert Nozhansky "The Story of His Own Life", vivid evidence of the uprising of the townspeople of the Lansk commune is given.

Guibert of Nozhansky (lived in the 11th - 12th centuries) was born into a French knightly family, became a monk, received an excellent literary (partially philosophical) and theological education in the monastery for that time. Known as a theologian and historian. His historical works are especially interesting. Possessing the talent of a writer, Guibert describes events vividly and colorfully.

Protecting the interests of the church and standing guard over the feudal system as a whole, Guibert was hostile to the rebellious townspeople. But at the same time, he openly exposes the vices and crimes of individual representatives of the ruling class, speaks with indignation about the greed of the feudal lords and their excesses.

Guibert Nozhansky writes: “This city has long been burdened by such misfortune that no one in it was afraid of either God or the authorities, and everyone, in accordance only with their own strengths and desires, carried out robberies and murders in the city.

... But what can I say about the situation of the common people? ... Seniors and their servants openly committed robberies and robberies; at night the passer-by did not enjoy security; to be detained, captured or killed - that's the only thing that awaited him.

The clergy, archdeacons and lords... seeking all sorts of ways to extort money from the common people, entered into negotiations through their intermediaries, offering to grant the right, if they paid a sufficient amount, to form a commune.

... Having become more accommodating from the golden rain that fell on them, they made a promise to the people, having sealed it with an oath, to strictly observe the concluded agreement.

... Inclined by the generous gifts of commoners, the king agreed to approve this agreement and secure it with an oath. My God! Who could tell about the struggle that flared up when, after the gifts were accepted from the people, and so many oaths were given, these same people began to try to destroy what they swore to support, and tried to return the slaves to their former state, once liberated and delivered from all the burden of the yoke? Unbridled envy of the townspeople, in fact, consumed the bishop and the lords ...

... Violation of the treaties that created the Lansk commune filled the hearts of the townspeople with anger and amazement: all the persons who held positions ceased to perform their duties ...

... not anger, but the fury of a wild beast seized the people of the lower class; they formed a conspiracy, sealed by mutual oath, to kill the bishop and his like-minded people ...

... Numerous crowds of citizens, armed with swords, double-edged axes, bows, axes, clubs and spears, filled the temple of the Blessed Virgin and rushed into the bishop's courtyard ...

... Not being able, in the end, to repel the bold attacks of the people, the bishop dressed in the dress of one of his servants, fled to the cellar under the church, locked himself there and hid in a wine barrel, the hole in which was plugged by one faithful servant. Gaudry thought he was well hidden.

... the townspeople managed to find their victim. Godri, although a sinner, but God's anointed, was pulled out of a barrel by the hair, showered with many blows and dragged, in broad daylight, into a narrow monastery lane ... The unfortunate man prayed in the most miserable terms for mercy, promised to take an oath that he would will be their bishop, offered them large sums of money and undertook to leave the fatherland, but all with bitterness answered him only with insults; one of them, Bernard, raising his double-edged ax, fiercely cut this albeit sinful, but sacred ... man.

The above document paints a vivid picture of the struggle of the citizens of the city of Lana with the lord-bishop Gaudry, a typical representative of his class. It follows from the document that the townspeople of Lan, already possessing some material strength, legally remained in the same dependence on their feudal lord as before. The senor still could

rob and oppress them, mock their dignity. Therefore, an uprising breaks out in the city, as a result of which the Lana commune was destroyed. The king of France, Louis VI, who recognized the commune, treacherously broke his promise.

The king, with an armed hand, restored the old order in Lahn, but in 1129 the townspeople raised a new uprising. For many years there was then a struggle for a communal charter with varying success: now in favor of the city, then in favor of the king. Only in 1331 did the king, with the help of many local feudal lords, win the final victory. Its judges and officials began to manage the city.

Cities located on royal land, in countries with a relatively strong central government, could not achieve full self-government. This was almost a general rule for cities on royal soil, in countries with a relatively strong central authority. True, they enjoyed a number of privileges and liberties, including the right to elect self-government bodies. However, these institutions usually operated under the control of an official of the king or other lord. So it was in many cities of France (Paris, Orleans, Bourges, Lorris, Nantes, Chartres, etc.) and England (London, Lincoln, Oxford, Cambridge, Gloucester, etc.). Limited municipal freedoms of cities were characteristic of the Scandinavian countries, many cities of Germany, Hungary, and they did not exist at all in Byzantium.

Most of the small towns, which did not have the necessary forces and funds to fight their lords, remained under the authority of the lords; this was especially characteristic of the cities belonging to the spiritual lords.

Thus, communal movements in different countries took place in different forms, depending on specific historical conditions.

Some cities managed to get liberties and privileges for money. Others won these liberties in a long armed struggle.

Some cities became self-governing cities - communes, but many cities either failed to achieve full self-government, or remained entirely under the authority of the seigneurial administration.

1. The social structure of a medieval city.

When studying a medieval city, the problem of the social structure of its population inevitably arises. There are many aspects to this problem. Chief among them: who are they, medieval townspeople, where did the urban population come from, what are its economic and social specifics? Other issues are also touched upon: property and social differentiation among the townspeople and at the same time the integration of various elements and groups into the class of townspeople, full rights and lack of rights within the urban masses, etc. Who was the urban population? From heterogeneous elements: from merchants who originally lived in isolated settlements, which in Germany were called "wik"; from artisans free and not free, dependent on the feudal lord, the lord of the city; from the vassals of the city lord, from his servants who performed various administrative duties - they ruled the court, collected taxes from the population, they were called ministerials. Most of the townspeople were originally not free peasants, artisans, fugitive rural people (who fled from their former masters). Most of the land on which the peasants worked, by the XI century. belonged to the feudal lords. The peasants, whose life was especially hard, were called in France -serves, and in England - villans. During the continuous internecine wars, the peasants sought protection from a neighboring lord or monastery. Having found a powerful patron, the peasant was forced to admit his dependence on him, to transfer his land allotment to him. The dependent peasant continued to farm on his former allotment, but for the use of it, the master demanded the execution of corvée and the payment of dues. The power of the feudal lord over the peasant was manifested not only in the fact that he worked on the corvee and paid dues, he was personally subject to the feudal lord, the landowner judged him in his court, the peasant did not have the right to move to another area without the permission of his master. However, despite the land and personal dependence on the feudal lord, the peasant was not completely powerless. The lord could not execute him, drive him off his allotment (if he performed his duties), sell or exchange him without land and separately from his family. A huge role in the life of medieval people was played by the custom, which was observed by both peasants and seigneurs. The amount of dues, types and duration of corvée work did not change from generation to generation. What was established once and for all was considered reasonable and just. The lords could not voluntarily increase peasant duties. Seigneurs and peasants needed each other: some were the "universal breadwinners", the working people expected protection and patronage from others.

In the Middle Ages, the entire population of Europe was divided into three groups - three estates (people included in the three estates had different rights and obligations). The ministers of the church (priests and monks) constituted a special layer of the population - the clergy, it was believed that it leads the spiritual life of people - it takes care of the salvation of the souls of Christians; knights protect the country from foreigners; peasants and townspeople are engaged in agriculture and handicrafts.

The fact that the clergy was in the first place is not at all accidental, because the main thing for a medieval European was his relationship with God, the need to save his soul after the end of earthly life. The clergy had their own ecclesiastical hierarchy and discipline, as well as a set of privileges that sharply separated them from the secular world. The ministers of the church as a whole were more educated than the knights and, especially, the peasants. Almost all scientists, writers and poets, artists and musicians of that era were clerics; they often occupied the highest government positions, influencing their kings. The clergy was divided into white and black, or monasticism. The first monasteries - communities of monks - appeared in Europe after the fall of the Western Empire. Mostly deeply believing Christians who wanted to devote their lives exclusively to the service of God became monks. They made vows (promises): to give up the family, not to marry and not to marry; give up property, live in poverty; unquestioningly obey the abbot of the monastery (in women's monasteries - the abbess), pray and work. Many monasteries owned vast lands, which were cultivated by dependent peasants. Schools, workshops for copying books, and libraries often arose at monasteries; monks created historical chronicles (chronicles). In the Middle Ages, monasteries were centers of education and culture.

The second estate was made up of secular feudal lords, or chivalry. The most important occupations of the knights were war and participation in military competitions - tournaments; The knights spent their leisure time hunting and feasting. Teaching writing, reading and mathematics was not compulsory. IN medieval literature the rules of worthy behavior that each knight had to follow are described: to be selflessly devoted to God, to faithfully serve his lord, to take care of the weak and defenseless; keep all obligations and oaths. In fact, the knights did not always follow the rules of honor. During the wars, they often did all sorts of atrocities. The feudal lords lived in strong stone castles (there were about 40 thousand of them in France alone). The castle was surrounded by a deep moat, it was possible to get inside only with the drawbridge lowered. Defensive towers rose above the walls of the castle, the main one, the donjon, consisted of several floors. In the donjon there was a feudal lord's dwelling, a banquet hall, a kitchen, a room where supplies were stored in case of a long siege. In addition to the feudal lord, his family, warriors and servants lived in the castle.

The bulk of the population of Europe in the Middle Ages was the peasantry, who lived in small villages of 10-15 households each. The peasants tried to free themselves from the oppression of the feudal lords by participating in the crusades, pilgrimages, fled to the forests, to the cities that were being revived and were being born. They could really free themselves only by fleeing to the cities. Thus, most of them were freed from personal dependence. We can verify this by reading article 2 of the city law of the city of Goslar, granted by Emperor Frederick II in 1219: he will not convict him in a servile state, may he rejoice in freedom, which is the common property of other citizens, and after death, no one will dare to make claims against him as against his serf. A city man, a craftsman or a merchant, ceased to be a serf if he managed to live in the city for a certain period. He no longer felt the oppression of the landlord regime over him. The city air became magical, and made the serf free. Only in the city, independently engaged in crafts or trade, did the peasant get the opportunity to develop his activities. But this freedom was not absolute freedom. This was freedom from feudal-local oppression. The city seigneur nevertheless taxed the townspeople, but this taxation could no longer absorb the entire mass of the surplus labor of artisans and the entire trade profit of merchants.

On the economic basis, a new social stratum, previously unknown to feudalism, was formed and rallied - the townspeople. Within the framework of the ruling class - the feudal estates, in turn, there were more or less large estates, belonging to which ensured a certain social status.

CM. Stam points out that the townspeople were a very heterogeneous layer. But they were united by a common interest in the greatest freedom for the development of urban commodity production and exchange. The objectivity of this social community was realized in the communal struggle, in the development of city law. City law is recorded in the sources as a privilege. But how could it be otherwise in a society where law was the monopoly of the feudal class, and all others were deprived of rights? Citizens, of course, had to win back their rights and fix them, so to speak, as an exception. But these were not the privileges of the masters, but the conquest of the oppressed. For the first time in a feudal society, urban law violated the legal monopoly of the feudal lords and protected the interests of the common people, giving them full civil rights.

ON THE. Khachaturian draws attention to urban corporations and notes that in order to realize his ability to work, an artisan had to be part of a guild organization that unites artisans of a given specialty and strives for a monopoly on production. Inside the guild, he was forced to obey the guild regulations with their characteristic egalitarian tendencies, which can be seen as a kind of non-economic coercion of the guild organization in relation to its members.

The workshop is not the only type of community organization in the city. The form closest in nature to it was the merchant guild - an association of merchants with a certain discipline, common capital and common property in the form of an insurance fund and storage facilities. Even the unions of apprentices - organizations already associated with the category of medieval labor, with a common mutual benefit fund, control over working conditions and discipline - paid tribute to medieval corporatism. Finally, the urban community itself should be mentioned as a whole, within which the unity of small professional corporations (workshops, guilds) or larger social groups (patriciates, burghers) was realized and a social community of citizens was formed.

The history of the city community itself, finally, which can be observed in the change of the leading forces of the city community and forms of government, as well as changes in the status of full rights, which gradually became the property of a very narrow circle of people who not only own real estate, but also have access to city government, will reflect deep shifts in the social structure of the urban estate, which became more complex as feudalism developed.

The urban community appears more united and cohesive when it comes to its vital economic, social and political interests. The main enemy, the main danger was the lord, everything else receded into the shadows and was rarely found. In economic terms, the new estate was most connected with trade and craft activities. Usually the urban estate is identified with the concept of "burghers". The word "burgher" in some European countries originally denoted all city dwellers. Later, the "burgher" began to be used only for full-fledged citizens.

Nowhere did cities play such an enormous political role in the Middle Ages as in Italy, and nowhere was the scope of their commercial relations as great as in this country. In addition, not only the emergence, but also the heyday of Italian cities belonged to an earlier time than in other Western European countries. However, the various Italian cities differed greatly from each other both in their economy and in their social structure.

Some of these cities (Venice, Genoa, Pisa) during the entire Middle Ages played mainly the role of the largest trading centers and were mainly engaged in foreign trade. At the same time, the growth of handicraft production in the cities of Central and Northern Italy increased the need for workers employed in urban crafts, and, consequently, in the influx of people from the countryside to the city. But this could only be possible by breaking the feudal fetters of the peasants' personal dependence on the feudal lords. Meanwhile, although in the XII - the first half of the XIII century. among the peasantry of Northern and Central Italy there were a large number of personally free holders - libellarii, a significant part of the peasants continued to remain not free (serves, masnaderii).

The liberation of the peasants, which took place on a large scale in the second half of the 13th century. in Central Italy, expressed in the personal liberation of the peasants for ransom, without land. From the end of the XI century. groups of personally free peasants began to create so-called rural communes, which had self-government and their own elected officials. These rural communes arose at a time when the cities, in their struggle against the lords, supported the peasants' desire for independence from the feudal lords. But after the victory over their own lords, the cities began to subjugate the rural communes and cancel their self-government. They seized the communal lands of rural communes, and wealthy townspeople bought up peasant allotments. By the end of the XIII century. in Florence, various sections of the townspeople with directly opposite interests were already sharply identified. Merchants, money changers and moneylenders, united in seven "senior workshops" - were called "fat people". Members of the junior workshops, their apprentices and the urban plebeians made up the majority of the population of Florence, they were called - "skinny people".

Problem social structure cities of southern Italy is quite complex. The social and economic appearance of cities was determined by many closely related factors, both pan-European and specific to the region. The patriciate of the large cities of the Adriatic coast - Bari, Brindisi, Trani - received even in the XII - early XIII centuries. active participation in trade with Byzantium and other Mediterranean countries. Another area of ​​activity that gave the patriciate a large profit was the credit business. It was not uncommon for individuals or companies to combine maritime trade with ship operations. The other part of the patriciate was more closely connected with the royal power than the trade and usury: from these families came officials who played a leading role in the internal political life of the city - bayuls, catepans and numerous judges. There were knights only in individual patrician families, and this did not change the social appearance of the upper stratum. The Normans settled in the cities in small numbers; meanwhile, it was they who, before the Angevin conquest, constituted the main backbone of chivalry. The urban chivalry was distinguished by its originality not only in its occupations.

The social structure of the large cities located on the Tyrrhenian coast was somewhat different. If we exclude Amalfi (whose merchants settled in other cities, forming entire colonies there), the merchants of the ports of Salerno, Naples, Gaeta in the XII century. little involvement in foreign trade. Partly for this reason, the nobility was more reserved here. In the XIII century. members of noble cities begin to use relatively widely typically urban sources of income: they own shops and warehouses, sometimes rent out houses and commercial premises. Profits received by a noble person from shops and houses sometimes serve as an object of donation to the church. Artisans made up the bulk of the middle stratum of the urban population. The growing lag of the craft of the South from Northern and Central Italy at that time is primarily due to the economic policy of the Norman kings, and especially Frederick II, who provided patronage to the Venetian, Genoese and Pisan merchants who delivered handicrafts here and exported grain and other agricultural products. In the cities of Campania - Naples, Salerno - artisans often passed on the profession by inheritance and were closely connected with each other, settling on

Literature one street or around one church. Even in large cities, there were many small owners who cultivated their lands, which were located not far from the city. Many of these proprietors, as the city economy weakened and the fiscal oppression increased, became poorer and joined the heterogeneous motley mass of the urban plebs - laborers, loaders, day laborers. As you can see, they were people of different social status. But over time, these differences are smoothed out, and a diverse, but in its own way, united population is created, bound by common rights and the duty of mutual assistance, just as it was in a rural peasant community.

Finally, the townspeople used the labor of dependent people, as well as slaves, mainly for domestic work. Even in the thirteenth century there were quite a few of them, especially in Bari - the main market for slaves captured on the Balkan Peninsula. Slaves were included in the dowry, bequeathed to heirs, pledged upon receipt of a loan. In the 13th century, when the opportunity to engage in a craft in the city or find a profitable occupation narrowed, the influx of rural residents to a large city decreased. The exception was Naples, turned by Charles I into the capital of the kingdom. After the Angevin conquest, many small and medium-sized cities were distributed as fiefs to the associates of Charles I, which significantly influenced their future fate. But the character of the big city, the position of certain sections of its population, underwent a noticeable transformation. The agrarianization of the city began, associated with the entry of the economy of southern Italy into a long period of decline.

1. Outcasts in a medieval city

The concept of marginality serves to denote borderline, peripheral or intermediate in relation to any social communities (national, class, cultural).

Marginal person (from lat. Margo - edge) - a person who is on the border of various social groups, systems, cultures and is influenced by their conflicting norms, values, etc. .

The marginal, simply put, is an "in-between" person. The main sign of marginalization is the rupture of social ties, and in the "classic" case, economic, social and spiritual ties are consistently torn.

There are individual and group marginality:

Individual marginality is characterized by the incomplete entry of the individual into a group that does not fully accept him, and his alienation from the group of origin, which rejects him as an apostate. The individual turns out to be a "cultural hybrid", sharing the life and traditions of two or more different groups.

Group marginality arises as a result of changes in the social structure of society, the formation of new functional groups in the economy and politics, displacing old groups, destabilizing their social position.

Speaking about the medieval city, it should be noted that not every inhabitant of the city was a burgher. In order to become a full-fledged citizen of the city, it was necessary to initially own a land allotment, later - at least part of the house. Finally, a special fee had to be paid.
Outside the burghers were the poor and the beggars who lived on alms. The non-burghers also included persons who were in the service of the burghers, as well as apprentices, clerks, persons who were in the city service and day laborers.
Poverty was a transient condition that was sought to be overcome, and begging was a profession. She has been doing it for a long time. Local beggars were firmly integrated into the structure of urban society.

Wandering artists. One of the marginal layers were itinerant artists. Among them and their ancestors were bankrupt peasants, artisans who traded their instruments for the viol and harp, jobless clerics, wandering students, and even impoverished people from well-born families. On foot or in the saddle, they wandered around the world: in winter they spent the night in roadside taverns and on farms, paying with songs for shelter and meager food, and in the warm season they settled wherever they could: on the edge of the forest, near the village outskirts or on the market square of the city.
The nomadic entertainers were despised as degenerate vagabonds, roaming day and night and not particularly picky about their means of subsistence. Preachers smashed the vagrant motley people for immorality and threatened with excommunication from the church; repentant histrions were not allowed to take communion, they were refused to be buried in consecrated ground.
Monuments of German legislation declared the actors incompetent, although they did not equate them with thieves or robbers ("Saxon Mirror" (XIII century). Violence could be inflicted on them without any compensation. The "Saxon Mirror" indicates a fine for ridicule: and to all those who transfer themselves to the property of another, the shadow of a person serves as compensation, "in other words, they can only punish the shadow of the offender. A disdainful attitude did not exclude envy of those who, with all the misery and disorder of their being, with all their dependence on generosity of spectators or a noble patron had "carnival" rights and liberties.
Jews. The problem of Jews in medieval Europe is, first of all, the problem of strangers. Their residence in Christian countries in the eyes of the indigenous population was not something that was taken for granted. The few Jewish communities lived off trade, which was assigned to them as the most striking distinguishing feature. The Jewish usurer was needed by society as a creditor - hated, but useful and irreplaceable. Jews and Christians especially often argued over the Bible. Between priests and rabbis did not stop public and private meetings. At the end of the XI century. Gilbert Crispy, Abbot of Westminster, recounted the success of his theological dispute with a Jew from Mainz. Andrew of Saint Victor, in the middle of the XII century. set out to restore biblical exegesis, consulted rabbis
Executioners. It was a large family that carried out the justice of the law in all its simplicity, power and greatness. Elders, wise men, clergy gathered, judged, awarded, and the whole people carried out the sentence that they passed. Since the concept of justice was connected with the name of God (Gods), then in their concept - to punish the guilty - is to glorify the Creator. To refuse to participate in the punishment was not only shameful, but even considered sacrilege. The executioner's house is painted red and stands apart from the others. They very often add their pious admonitions to those of the priest, and when the execution of the unfortunate is over, they plead for heavenly forgiveness for forcibly separating a person from this light. The income of the executioners was very significant. In every market they had the right to demand from each seller a game or living creature worth two sols. Previously, they had the right to receive tribute in eggs from the sellers of this product. In Spain, the executioner wore a brown cloth jacket with red lapels (trimmings), a yellow belt, and a wide-brimmed hat on which a ladder was woven in silver or gold.

Midwives. Childbirth has been a predominantly female activity for centuries. Before the modern period, it was almost impossible to imagine that male doctors assisted in childbirth. Nevertheless, already in the Middle Ages, the institutions of the patriarchal society, through regulation, began to influence the field of obstetrics. Birth was considered within the framework of the religious picture of the world late medieval as one of the fateful, existential events in which the divine and the human were especially closely intertwined. It was not only a purely medical process that needed skilled handicraft support, but was viewed as a divinely determined event, as an act of creation, and therefore was covered with an aura of fear and taboo.
In this sphere, between the divine and the mundane beginnings of human existence, there was a midwife. Using various herbs, spells, prayers and ritual actions, midwives could perform an easy birth and receive a healthy baby, or, conversely, they could curse him and dedicate him to demons or the devil. In those days, it was widely believed that midwives practice protective and protective witchcraft, designed to protect the mother and child from demonic influence, from the evil eye and other harm to the child. It was this goal that was pursued by such ritual actions as, for example, untying the ribbons at the apron, stockings and shoes, as well as unlocking the locks throughout the house. Church catalogs of confessions confirm that these magical rituals, rooted in pre-Christian times, were still used quite often in the late Middle Ages.

Jesters. The psychological phenomenon of medieval culture is the "wisely mad" jester, an integral character of the holiday, its buffoon accompaniment. The figure of a professional wit and foul language is inseparable from the areal spectacular elements. Jesters and fools were "permanent, fixed in ordinary (i.e., non-carnival) life, carriers of the carnival beginning." They completely got used to their comedic "mask"; the role and existence of the buffoon coincided. The type of jester contains a universal comic that extends to the asociality and intemperance of the rogue himself (self-parody), to his fooled victims, high rituals, etc. The appearance of a city or court jester aroused conflicting feelings, vacillating between lively joy and holy fools (blessed, obsessed with madness) were endowed with the gift of clairvoyance and witchcraft.
For people of the Middle Ages, the jester (fool) is not just a comic figure, but also the bearer of a prophetic gift, for example, in courtly romance. Alien to the world of people, he comes into contact with the invisible world, with higher powers (madness is a sign of divine obsession).

Prostitutes. The religious element had a decisive influence on the development of the sexual ethics of the Middle Ages, and at the same time on the attitude of the state and individuals towards prostitution and its organization. For the subjugation of religion and church, both in the East and in the West, was in general at that time tantamount to the development of life in accordance with the requirements of reason. But life developed in a certain social environment, and East and West reveal in this respect both similarities and distinctive differences. These latter determined the different conditions of origin and different forms of manifestation of medieval prostitution, as well as its different attitudes to the so-called "social question", that is, to economic and social life (in the broadest sense of the word). Paris, Padua, Salamanca, Cologne, Leipzig and Vienna were considered the most discredited due to drunkenness and depraved life of students. Celibacy, as a favorable moment for the development of prostitution in the Middle Ages, is inferior in its significance to the outrages of the so-called “harmful” people, which were very common then in all countries, that is, people without certain means of subsistence, whose existence was possible only thanks to begging, all kinds of not permissive tricks, theft and other criminal acts, as well as through prostitution.

1. Early urban culture. Universities. Pierre Abelard.

The philistines, who in their lives differed significantly from other strata of medieval society, also created their own culture. Urban culture had a secular character and was closely connected with folk art. Among the inhabitants of the cities, poetic fables were popular, jokes that tell about the resourceful inhabitants of the cities, found a way out of any difficult situations.

Urban culture had a vivid manifestation in the development of literature. The most famous and favorite work of the inhabitants of the cities was the French "Romance of the Fox", in which, under the guise of animals, all layers of medieval society are represented - feudal lords, kings, priests, and bourgeois. Main character- Fox Renard, quick-witted, cheerful, able to find a way out of any situation. Renard is the personification of a wealthy burgher. He constantly leads the Wolf Isegrin and his brother Primo (they personified the images of knights) by the nose: either he will force Isegrinal to catch fish with his tail and the peasants will beat him, or he will convince Primo to serve in the church and he will barely escape from the angry peasants. November deceives the Lion (king), taunts the Ass (priest) in no way. Like a real Fox, he chases hares, chickens (Ordinary people), but nothing comes of it. The novel made everyone laugh. One abbot complained that his monks read the novel more readily than the Bible.

No less popular was the "Romance of the Rose", in which nature and the human mind are sung, and the equality of people is affirmed. Urban literature fostered a sense of humanity. It reflected the self-consciousness of the townspeople, who valued their freedom and independence.

An integral part of urban culture was the work of itinerant actors, musicians, singers, dancers and acrobats, magicians, who were called jugglers. They were the favorites of the city dwellers. Traveling from city to city, they showed their performances in the city squares under the open sky.

There were relatively few educated people in the Middle Ages. In the early Middle Ages, as you know, educated people lived mainly in monasteries.

The rise of Europe, which began in the 10th century, aroused the desire for knowledge and the need for educated people. Education began to go beyond the monasteries.

In medieval Europe, three levels of schools can be distinguished. Lower schools existed at churches, monasteries, giving elementary knowledge to those who wished to devote themselves to serving God. Here they studied the Latin language, which was used for worship, prayers and the very order of worship. Secondary schools were often formed at the residences of bishops. They studied families of free sciences "- grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry. The latter contained geography, astrology, music. The first three sciences were" trivium ", the next four -" quadrivium".

Starting from the XI century. in Europe, higher schools were born, which were later called universities (from the Latin universitas - a set). This name comes from the fact that the first universities were communities that united teachers and students (students called the university "alma mater" - Affectionate mother.) Such associations had their own clear rules of conduct, their own structure and claimed their independence from the city authorities, in where they were located.

The first such associations arose in the Italian cities of Salerno and Bologna, where they studied medicine and Roman law. During the XII - XIII centuries. The number of universities has steadily increased. The most famous were Paris (Sorbonne), Oxford and Cambridge (in England), Salamanca (in Spain), etc. In 1500 there were 65 universities in Europe.

The University of Paris has become a model for European universities. It originated in the first half of the 12th century. and existed as a "free school". In 1200, King Philip II Augustus of France granted special rights to the "school". The university had four faculties: artistic (preparatory, which studied the "seven free sciences"), medical, legal, theological (philosophical).

Teaching at universities was conducted in Latin. This made it possible for students to start their studies in one and finish in another. There was no clear term of study at universities, and therefore some students studied for quite a long time. Students who traveled from one university to another were called vagantami(Vagabonds). The main forms of education were lectures and debates between professors.

Abelard Pierre Palais - French philosopher, theologian, poet. He developed the doctrine, later called conceptualism. Developed scholastic dialectics (composition "Yes and no"). The rationalistic orientation of Abelard ("I understand in order to believe") provoked a protest from orthodox church circles: Abelard's teaching was condemned by the councils of 1121 and 1140. The tragic love story of Abelard for Eloise is described in the autobiography "The Story of My Disasters".

Born in the vicinity of Nantes in a noble family. Having chosen a career as a scientist, he renounced the birthright in favor of his younger brother.

Abelard reached Paris and became a student of the Catholic theologian and philosopher Guillaume of Champeau. Abelard began to openly and boldly oppose the philosophical concept of his teacher and caused great discontent on his part. Abelard not only left the cathedral school, but also decided to open his own.

The school was opened, and the lectures of the new master immediately attracted many students. In Paris, as in other cities of northeastern France, there was a stubborn struggle between representatives of various philosophical schools. In medieval philosophy, there were two main trends - realism and nominalism. The ancestor of medieval nominalism was Roscelin, Abelard's teacher, and modern Roscelin realism was represented by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, the learned mentor of the theologian Anselm of Lansky, whose closest student was Abelard's philosophical enemy, Guillaume of Champeaux.

By proving the "reality" of the existence of objects of faith, medieval realism met the interests of the Catholic Church and found its full support.

The nominalists opposed the doctrine of the realists with the doctrine that all general concepts and ideas (universals) are only names ("nomia" - "names") of things that really exist and precede concepts. The denial by nominalists of the independent existence of general concepts undoubtedly cleared the way for the pursuit of empirical knowledge.

The church immediately saw a danger in the teachings of nominalists and at one of the church councils (in Soissons, in 1092) anathematized their views.

Returning in 1113 from Lan to Paris, Abelard resumed lecturing on philosophy.

In 1118 he was invited as a teacher to a private home, where he became the lover of his student Heloise. Abelard moved Heloise to Brittany, where she gave birth to a son. She then returned to Paris and married Abelard. This event was supposed to remain a secret. Fulber, the guardian of the girl, began to talk everywhere about the marriage, and Abelard again took Eloise to the convent of Argenteuil. Fulber decided that Abelard forcibly tonsured Heloise as a nun and, having bribed hired people, ordered Abelard to be castrated.

The philosopher entered the monastery of Saint-Denis and resumed teaching.

A church council convened in 1121 at Soissons condemned Abelard's views as heretical and forced him to publicly burn his theological treatise. Returning to the monastery of Saint-Denis, Abelard immersed himself in reading the monastery's manuscripts and spent several months doing this. In 1126, he received word from Brittany that he had been elected abbot of the monastery of St. Gildasius. Completely unprepared for the role of leader, he quickly spoiled relations with the monks and fled from the monastery of St. Gildasius.

Returning from Brittany to Paris, Abelard again settled on the hill of St. Genevieve. As before, Abelard's lectures were attended by a large number of students, and his school again became the center of public discussion of theological problems.

A significant role in the special popularity of Abelard was played by the book "The History of My Disasters". The most famous among scholars and masters of the "liberal arts" at that time were such works by Abelard as "Dialectics", "Introduction to Theology", the treatise "Know thyself" and "Yes and No".

The main principle of Abelard's ethical concept is the assertion of a person's full moral responsibility for his actions - both virtuous and sinful. Man's activity is determined by his intentions. In and of itself, no action is either good or bad. Everything depends on intentions. In accordance with this, Abelard believed that the pagans who persecuted Christ did not commit any sinful actions, since these actions were not in conflict with their beliefs. were not sinful and ancient philosophers, although they were not supporters of Christianity, but acted in accordance with their high moral

principles. The general spirit of Abelard's teaching made him, in the eyes of the church, the worst of the heretics.

The initiator of the new church cathedral in 1140 was Bernard of Clairvaux. Along with representatives of the higher clergy, King Louis VII of France also arrived at the Sens Cathedral.

The participants in the council condemned the writings of Abelard. They asked Pope Innocent II to condemn the heretical teachings of Abelard, ruthlessly punish his followers, prohibit Abelard from writing, teaching, and the widespread destruction of Abelard's books.

Sick and broken, the philosopher retires to the monastery of Cluny.

In 1141-1142 Abelard wrote "Dialogue between Philosopher, Jew and Christian". Abelard preaches the idea of ​​religious tolerance. Every religion contains a grain of truth, so Christianity cannot be considered to be the only true religion.

Abelard died on April 21, 1142. Eloise brought the ashes of Abelard to the Paraclete and buried them there.

1. Creativity vagantov.

Vagantes (from Latin clerici vagantes - wandering clerics) - "wandering people" in the Middle Ages (XI-XIV centuries) in Western Europe, capable of writing and performing songs or, less often, prose works.

In wide use of the word, the concept of vagant will include such socially heterogeneous and indefinite groups as French jugglers (jongleur, jogleor - from the Latin joculator - “joker”), German spielmans (Spielman), English minstrels (minstral - from the Latin ministerialis - “servant” ), etc. However, usually the word vaganta is used in a narrower sense to refer to wandering poets who used in their work exclusively, or at least predominantly, Latin, the international class language of the clergy. The first vagants were clerics who lived outside their parish or did not occupy a specific church position at all; over time, the vagantas began to replenish with school student associations that moved from one university to another. Only later - already in the era of the weakening of the actual poetry of the Vagantes - did representatives of other classes, in particular, the urban ones, begin to join this group.

The social composition of this group determines both the forms and content of the poetry of the Vagants. In the forms of their lyrical and didactic poetry, the vagantes are closely connected with the learned Latin poetry of the Carolingian era, in which all the elements of the vagant form (tonic versification, rhymes, vocabulary, images and stylistic ornaments) are presented in a fragmented form, and through it - with the Latin poetry of early Christianity. and the ancient world. For the love lyrics of the Vagantes, the importance of Ovid (“The Science of Love” and other works) is especially great.

The influence of ancient poetry is reflected not only in the mythological accessories (Venus, Cupid, Cupids, sometimes even nymphs and satyrs), with which the Vagantes liked to decorate their works, and in the names of the characters (Flora, Phyllis, etc.), but also in the concept love and the image of a beloved, completely devoid of reminiscences of feudal relations so typical for courtly lyrics (courtly service to a lady) and imbued with a purely earthly joy of carnal pleasure; it is characteristic that the description of a naked body (the motivation in one of the songs is interesting - a peeped bathing) is more characteristic of vagant poetry than the lyrics of troubadours and minnesingers (see "Walter von der Vogelweide"). An echo of learned poetry is the tendency of the Vagantes to forms of dialogical discussion of the casuistry of love (conflictus, certamen).

It is possible to establish reminiscences of ancient poetry in the descriptions and symbolism of nature among the vagantes, who often surpass in the brightness of colors the spring beginnings of courtly lyrics; on the other hand, in the symbolism of nature, the Vagantes have many coincidences with the folk song, which undoubtedly influenced their poetry. With the motives of love in the lyrics of the Vagantes, the motive of wine and drunkenness comes into contact; Numerous student songs subsequently developed from the genre of drinking songs of the Vagantes: “Meum est propositum” (op. “Archipiites” of the 12th century), “Gaudeamus igitur”, and others.

Formally, the vagantes use elements of religious literature in their satire - they parody its main forms (vision, hymn, sequence, etc.), go as far as parodying the liturgy (“Missa gulonis”) and the Gospel (“Evangelium secundum Marcam argentis”).

In their connection with ancient poetry, the vagantes are the harbingers of the Renaissance. The work of the Vagantes is anonymous, but some authors are still known: Gauthier from Lille - aka Walter of Chatillon (second half of the 12th century), who wrote "Contra ecclesiasticos juxta visionem apocalypsis"; Primate of Orleans (early 12th century); a German vagant, known by his nickname "Archipoeta" (Archipoeta, second half of the 12th century), and a few others.

Vagants all the time of their existence are persecuted by church and state; in the 16th century, they, approaching itinerant professional jugglers - "joculatores", are completely identified with the so-called "vagabundi" (rabble). In the south (except Italy, where the vagantes are attested) and in the east of Europe, there were only belated beginnings of the vagant movement.

HUGH OF ORLEANS Primate (1093? - 1160)

ARCHIITE OF COLOGNE (1130-1140 - after 1165) a knight of a low family, a connoisseur of antiquity, a certain secular gloss in his lyrics

WALTER OF CHATILLON (mid 12th - early 13th centuries)

FOMA BENET

Two themes of the lyrics of the Vagants: love, satirical

Genres: love songs, pastoral, satirical denunciation, laments and eulogies (often to order), lamentations, verse novels or ballads.

1. Decomposition of the guild and the rise of free craft in the countries of Western Europe.

Craft - small-scale manual production of products - arose long before the Middle Ages and persists to this day. The Middle Ages, however, is the era of its heyday. Professional craftsmen coexisted with all classes of medieval society. As a rule, there were rural artisans in every village; specialists - gunsmiths, bakers, saddlers, etc. - served knightly castles and could even be low-ranking low-ranking vassals, having received a smithy or a bakery as a fief; monasteries, as more or less closed economic organisms, could, like secular estates, flourish only with a sufficient supply of handicrafts, hence the highly developed monastic craft of the Middle Ages. However, the main place for the development of the craft was the city. In the village, the blacksmith was the only professional master; in the castle and monastery, artisans were usually a small part of the servants or brethren; in the cities, they formed a considerable (if not the main) share of the members of the commune. It was in the cities that the question arose of organizing them into self-governing collectives - workshops, which, however, did not take shape everywhere: in many cities of Western Europe, artisans reported directly to the city authorities.

Medieval workshops - associations of urban artisans of one or similar specialties - appear, apparently, in the 10th-11th centuries, the fixation of their statutes dates back to the 12th - early 14th centuries. Actually, the production team itself was small: due to the low level of division of labor, the product did not pass from hand to hand, and one master, albeit with several assistants - family members, apprentices, students - did the whole thing. But in the traditional, estate, corporate society of the Middle Ages, the constitution of any activity most successfully occurred through the unification of those involved in this activity into a collective recognized by society. Therefore, in most urban crafts in Western Europe, the heads of production teams sought to unite in workshops. The workshops were divided according to professions, and the dividing signs were based not on the nature of production, but on manufactured products, distinguished by function. So, for example, household knives and combat daggers produced in the same technological way were made by members of different workshops: cutlers and gunsmiths, respectively. The unit of the workshop was its full member - the master who owned the workshop. Ideally (and if this did not contradict the technological possibilities), within the framework of one workshop, the product should have been manufactured completely: from the preparation of the material to the decoration of the finished item. The master was assisted in his work by his subordinate workers: apprentices and apprentices. The student worked for a table and shelter, and often he (or his relatives) paid for the education. Apprenticeship usually lasted from two to seven years, and in some cases even 10-12 years. The one who graduated from the teaching became an apprentice who received payment for his work. However, he was not so much a hired worker on the model of workers of the new time, but an assistant to the master, who usually lived with him under the same roof. An apprentice could already become a master himself, but for this it was necessary to have a certain income, often a family, in some places - to travel around the world first, improving his skills. In addition, it was necessary to make an exemplary product - a masterpiece, which was evaluated by the council of shop foremen. If the product complied with the established rules, then the apprentice - after treating the members of the workshop - became a full-fledged master and could participate in the life of the corporation, in the election of its leadership, in making intra-shop decisions, etc. (however, sometimes apprentices had a limited right to vote in the affairs of the workshop).

The people of the Middle Ages did not know the division of their lives and activities into production, public, private, etc. Medieval guild is not a community of producers, but people with their own thoughts, feelings, values, beliefs, united by a common view production activities. Therefore, the main task of the workshop is the regulation of not production, but human relations. The word "workshop" comes from the German "Zeche" - a feast, i.e. derived from the concept of "feast"; this is also the origin of the word "guild", which united both communities of merchants and, often, communities of artisans. In the medieval sense of the word "feast" is not a private entertainment, but a special form of interpersonal communication, an act of social communication, and even a kind of element of the control and self-government system. Workshops - not everywhere, but where they achieved an official position in the communes - were units of urban self-government, the city militia was organized according to the workshops. But the central function of the guild is to ensure a decent life for its members, decent not only in the economic sense, but even in the everyday sense: the guild management monitored the well-being of its members, especially apprentices, demanded a spotless reputation, watched the marriage relations, entertainment, clothes and jewelry of the masters , their wives and henchmen. The workshop strictly regulated production: the quality and quantity of products produced by each master. Bad, low-quality products stained the good name of the workshop, therefore, those who produced such products were punished with fines, exclusion from the corporation, and even disgraceful punishments. Quality was meant not only in the material sense familiar to us. There is a known ban on the purchase of raw silk from Jews, i.e. The quality factor of the material also included the quality factor of religion and other personal properties of the manufacturer of this material.

The production was suppressed not only of bad or insufficiently produced goods, but also of too good or in a very large number of made ones, because differences in the volume and quality of manufactured goods could lead to the fact that someone would buy more, someone would lower cost of production and, therefore, he will be richer than the other, and this will cause stratification and conflicts in the community. Therefore, the number of auxiliary workers was limited, i.e. apprentices and apprentices, working hours, etc. The guild cash desk, to which artisans contributed a share of their income, was intended to help impoverished guild members, their widows and orphans.

Forced equality within the workshop was combined with the inequality of different workshops. The point is not only that some workshops - for example, jewelers - were richer than others, say, porters, or from some, for example, carvers of sculptures, more skill was required than from others, for example, furriers. The nature and field of activity, the "honor" of both played a role: for example, doctors who gave life to people were revered more than butchers who took life from animals.

Almost any phenomenon of the Middle Ages - the state and estates, diseases and natural disasters, sins and virtues - had their saints, "responsible" for these phenomena, guarding them, or averting them. Each craft and each workshop had its own heavenly patron. Admirers of this saint united in near-shop organizations - brotherhoods. The duties of the latter included charity in relation to the members, including their worthy burial and funeral services, and the creation of churches and chapels in honor of their saint, and the organization of workshop festivals dedicated to the patron saint of the craft. The whole life of a medieval guild craftsman - social, economic, industrial, religious, everyday, festive - passed within the framework of the guild brotherhood.

Special mention is made of the technical achievements of medieval crafts and the positive knowledge accumulated by medieval artisans. Actually scientific knowledge was not widespread in the craft environment. From this, however, it does not follow that there was no some kind of "quasi-theory" that explained handicraft activities and knowledge. Studies of prescription collections that have come down to us, however, in a small number, show that the craft was closely connected with magic. The most exotic agents have been used, such as basilisk ash, dragon blood, hawk bile, or red-haired boy urine, and the use of only a few of these ingredients has a rational technical justification. The analysis of the recipes shows that a mythical and magical picture of the world stands behind the handicraft activity. The production act of an artisan could be regarded as a fragment of some kind of magical ritual that reproduces a myth, in particular, a snake-fighting one. The master artisan, as it were, repeated in his actions the initial struggle of cosmic forces, the creation of the Cosmos and things useful to man, elevated himself to the demiurge and cultural hero.

The widespread use of magic, not approved by the church, traditionally present in a number of crafts, led to conflicts with orthodox religious beliefs. In theological writings, including those that relate to "popular theology", to the religion of the masses, and not of the intellectual elite (see, for example, The Candlestick of Honorius of Augustodunus), they speak of the "deceit" of the work of the masters. i.e. texts that more or less reflect the knowledge that the local clergy conveyed to their parishioners, allows us to conclude that certain ancient Christian ideas reached the latter: that the world was created by God, consists of matter and form But created by God, that everything that comes from God is beautiful, etc. In the eyes of a craftsman, the creation of things, thus, was comprehended in the forms not only of an archaic myth, but also of ancient Christian ideas.

The description of any product begins with an indication of the origin of the source material. For example, with the thesis "crystal is water hardened into ice, and ice turns into stone over time," the recipe for making a crystal pommel for a bishop's crook begins. Information about the decoration of the product ("decorate it with a notch of flowers, and let the golden flower be sure to be replaced by a silver one") completes the group of recipes for smelting iron. Reasoning about the decoration of objects is connected in the mind of the craftsman (according to the prologue to one of the prescription collections of the 12th century) with the idea that the form of the product comes from God; and the proof that the master faithfully reproduced it, seen with spiritual eyes, or, in the words of Thomas Aquinas, "conceived in the bowels of his mind," is the beauty of the product. That is why, among other things, medieval craft is inextricably linked with art. The Latin "ars", from which the words of modern European languages ​​\u200b\u200bmeaning art come from, in the Middle Ages meant rather "skill". And if "artes" were divided into "free" (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, the latter meaning the doctrine of harmony, and not performing arts) and "mechanical" (from blacksmithing or carpentry to healing and acting), then this was not a division into "low craft" and "High Art", but a distinction between the ability to think and the ability to do; the first, however, was more prestigious than the second.

Handicraft knowledge, therefore, was a special knowledge-skill, knowledge that made it possible to understand the essence of things. This knowledge is secret, kept secret, and not only because the possession of it allows the guild master to rise above the ignorant, or to make much better products, but also because this knowledge is too strong to fall into the wrong hands - and this is another an argument in favor of the obligatory "benevolence" for those entering the guild. At the same time, knowledge should be open to all "kind" people, i.e. to all members of a given guild, because within it no one can and should not hide anything from others: craft knowledge should be common to all members of the guild.

The craftsman felt himself a part of a certain whole - a community, a corporation, uniting with it not so much in the process of everyday work as in life, through social ties, and not narrowly industrial ones. Medieval cities were relatively small, and the number of guild members was limited. All this - the size of the workshop, workshop, city - contributed to the personal contacts of the masters, the development of informal ties between them. Constant personal contact was expressed even in the fact that the boundaries of a person's personality and even the boundaries of "bodily" did not pass where we draw them now. The guild of Cologne barbers forbade their members to undergo surgical operations without the consent of the foremen of the guild, i.e. the bodies of the masters, as it were, did not completely belong to them.

The artisans' knowledge was empirical, acquired by the labor of many generations, and therefore, as it were, independent of a particular person, but belonging to the working community as a whole. And since in the activities of an artisan the personal and the production were not separated, then in his knowledge, in his everyday behavior, technological skills and moral and ethical properties merged together. His knowledge was not a science, but a skill and a gift from above. This lay on top of the specific information recorded in the recipe, and could only be transmitted through personal communication, which again strengthened informal ties, and also led to the fact that this skill, inseparable from a person, was transmitted along with his other personal properties, and mentor and student, as it were, were united by personalities, i.e. had, so to speak, common personal qualities. But not only these two were united, but also all previous mentors, so that in each person the whole workshop, as it were, was concentrated, including the masters of the past. This "continuity of personality" greatly contributed to the continuity of knowledge, but at the same time, its conservatism.

The master was related not only to his brothers in the workshop, but also to the manufactured products. They were not a faceless commodity, but, as it were, a part of it. The products imprint the personality of the master in all its integrity, with all its vital qualities. So it's like a bad person