THE CRAFT GUILDS OF FRANCE.
iSi
The German conquerors avoided the towns. Even Paris, which
was seldom inhabited by
evident from a perusal of the monkish chronicles of the time, so ably repro-
be some Teutonic
dialect.
became the
capital of the Merovingian (and all succeeding) kings,
them, which
is
duced by Aug. Thierry.^ These chronicles contain the account of the kings and nobles of the
first race, their wives and concubines, their wars and treaties
and the kings are constantly
;
represented as living on their large farms.
The cities thus left to themselves appear, on the departure of their Eoman governors, to
have immediately formed a species of republican government.
The materials were all there,
and only required re-arrangement.
A large part of the police of the provinces had always
been entrusted by the Eomans to the citizens, although everything remained subservient to
the governor.
On his disappearance, it was simply necessary to place the executive authority
in the hands of those who already exercised it as his lieutenants.
The priests and bishops
naturally took a prominent part in this new system, which was probably based upon the
trade organisation of the Eomans.
appear to
have
split
up
Those
into their several
colleges,
which consisted of more than one
component
parts,
and their elected
trade,
have
officers to
formed, together with the heads of the clergy, a municipal council. As they already exercised
the petty police of the towns, they now added to their duties magisterial functions, and the imperial prerogative of levying taxes.
from
It is evident,
all
documents that have come down
time of Charlemagne, were veritable republics and
up
also that the divisions into craft guilds existed from very early times.
To reproduce all the
on this point woidd be an endless labour a few quotations from careful writers and
testimony
authentic documents must therefore sufiice.
to us, that the cities of France,
to the
;
:
"In 406 the Alans, Suevians, Vandals, and Burgundians overran Gaul from north
437 Amiens had quite recovered, and was a considerable town." -
to
south, yet in
"
was more especially in the south and in the cities that the traditions of the past
were perpetuated.
The country districts had been invaded by the men and usages of
It
a sojourn in which was avoided by the barbarians, preserved their
and even a portion of their ancient civil and political institutions. In
populations,
462 the games in the circus were stUl celebrated at Aries." ^
Germany, but the
cities,
Eoman
"
In the fifth century the history of the holy hermit Ampelius, who lived at Cimeez,
mentions the consul or chief of the locksmiths." *
"Alaric
II.,
Gallo-Eoman subjects of Aquitain and
in 506, gave a code of laws for his
^
Narbonne (Breviarum Alaricianum)."
"
In the year 585 Gontran visited Orleans
bearing their flags
and banners."
"In 629 Dagobert
;
all
came out
the inhabitants
established a fair in Paris for the
'
"
^
It took place yearly
Aug. Tliierry, Eecits des Temps jrerovingiens, 1840.
Aug. Thierry, Kecueil des Monuments inedits de I'Histoire du Tiers
M.
meet him,
merchants, foreigners as well as
on the 9th October, and lasted four weeks."
The bakers are mentioned in the ordinances of Dagobert, 630." ^
natives.
"
to
"
E. Levasseur, Histoire des Classes Ouvrieres en France, vol.
i.,
fitat,
'
iii.
1850, p.
p. 122.
*
Lacroix et Sere, Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance, vol. iii., Article "A. A. Monteil, Corporation des Metiers," p. 4.
A. Thierry, Ei'cits des Merovingi 6