THE CRAFT GUILDS OF FRANCE.
i82
"In
sixty-five years Treves
besieged eight times."
"A
was sacked
and testament
last will
five
and from 447
times,
to
752 Orleans was
^
(Testamentum Erminethendis) date
exists in Paris
c^ 700,
-
drawn up according to the pure Eoman law."
"
The title of Patrician existed in Burgundy
till
the close of the
^
first
dynasty (752)."
"
decrees that the corporation of bakers shall be maintained
A capitulary of Charlemagne
*
in fuU efficiency in the provinces, and an edict of 864 mentions the gild of goldsmiths."
"
Under the two Prank dynasties, Eoman life and barbarian Life, distinct, but on the same
^
merge into each other."
"
In the ninth century a distinction was habitually made between the districts where
judgment was given according to the Eoman law, and the districts where a cause was judged
exist side
soil,
by some
by
side,
and
so to speak,
^
otlier law."
"
A
"
The inhabitants
legal distinction existed till the tenth century
of
Eheims preserved in the twelfth century the recollection of the Eoman
Metz prided themselves on having exercised
they used to say, Lorraine is young and
The citizens of
origin of their municipal council.
before the duchy of Lorraine existed
civil rights
Metz
old.'
between the Franks and the Eomans." '
'
;
At Lyons, Bourges, and Boulogne the
citizens
maintained that there had existed
a right of free justice and administration before Prance became a kingdom.
Aries, Marseilles, Perigeux, Angouleme, and even smaller cities in the south that had been
mere castles under the Eoman Empire believed their semi-republican organisation to be
for those cities
anterior to
the Prankish conquest, and to all the
feudal
holdings of the Middle Ages.
Toulouse gave itself a capitol after the model of Eome." ^
"
In the fourteenth century Charles the Bald decreed that false coiners should be punished
"
according to the Eoman law in all such places where this law was still in force."
"The GaUo-Eoman
tion of the barbarians."
"
The working
cities
had preserved
their municipal
government under the domina-
i"
classes
owe
to the
Eoman
to speak, their very existence." ^^
"
The true origin of the corporation is
institutions not only their development, but, so
found in the social
life
of the Eomans, and amongst
who always formed the principal population in the cities, and faithunder their new masters the remembrance and traces of their ancient
fully preserved
the vanquished Gauls,
^^
organisation."
"
In the majority of
cities the organisation
of
the
craft
g-uilds
preceded that of the
tlie proof of it is, that in almost all the communes the political system and
the election of magistrates were based on the division of the citizens into trade corpora-
commune:
tions."
"
13
In the south the trade guilds followed the same development as the communes
feudally in the twelfth
only recognised
Survivals of the old
immemorial.
'
Levasseai, vol.
i.,
and thirteenth
Eoman
organisation,
=
p. 108.
A. Thierry,
'
A. Thierry, Recits des Mcrovingiens,
'
Ibid., p. 11.
11
Levasseur, vol.
i.,
*
i=
Ibid.,
y).
104.
Hid.,
p. 218.
2.
Ibid., p. 224.
Levasseur, Histoire des Classes Ourrieres en France, vol.
p. 95.
'
p. 310.
Chs. Ouiu-Lacroix, Histoire des Anciennes Corporations d'Arts et Mt-tiers, p.
p. 313.
although
the corporations sought refuge in
*
'
;
centuries, they existed from time
''
i.,
p. 122.
'"
"
Ibid,., p. 05.
A. ThieiTy,
p.
Ibid., p. 193.
19.