Siena, the story of a mediaeval commune . ince the new city-stateleaned in its infancy so largely on the older and firmerecclesiastical organization, we ought not to be surprisedto discover that this early dependence left its mark inthe form of an enduring intimacy between the oldassociates. Here is the feature of the mediaeval periodthat more than any other remains incomprehensibleto the modern mind. Church and state, far from hold-ing aloof from each other and drawing a definitetrench between their activities, were fused to such anextent that the state concerned itself without contradic-tion
Siena, the story of a mediaeval commune . ince the new city-stateleaned in its infancy so largely on the older and firmerecclesiastical organization, we ought not to be surprisedto discover that this early dependence left its mark inthe form of an enduring intimacy between the oldassociates. Here is the feature of the mediaeval periodthat more than any other remains incomprehensibleto the modern mind. Church and state, far from hold-ing aloof from each other and drawing a definitetrench between their activities, were fused to such anextent that the state concerned itself without contradic-tion with certain affairs of the church, and the churchwithout contradiction with certain affairs of the fact it never occurred to any one that the functionsof church and state could be entirely separated, sincethe cooperation of both was necessary for the preserva-tion of society. Nevertheless, as the democratic princi-ples gathered vigor and the views of men concerning thefunction of the civil power were enlarged and clarified, we. The House of Saint Catherine THE SIENESE CHURCH 75 may notice a tendency to reduce the share of the clergyin the business of society, and to emphasize the suprem-acy of the state over all the affairs of its members. These views of a modified clerical domination werereflected in all the constitutions of the young Italianrepublics, and with no little force in the earliest draftof the Sienese constitution which has come down to us,belonging to the year 1262. As this document affordsa very clear picture of the relations of church and statewithin the frame of the commune, we cannot do betterthan to take our stand upon the information which itsupplies. If some reader is tempted to object that theyear 1262 is a relatively advanced period in the evolutionof the commune, he may rest assured that the conditionof the church in that year was not substantially differentfrom what it had been during the previous century, forsince 1186 at the latest—the yea
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