. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. ys so highly exalted the sentimentof local patriotism, the struggle of the villains against the nobles, whether layor ecclesiastic, differed but little from the struggle of the towns in the northof France against the seigniors, but it assumed larger proportions in accordancewith the immense resources of every kind which they had at their feudal lord had his drawbridge, his battlements, and his men-at-arms D t8 FEUDALISM. cased in iron; but his rebellious vassal could boast on bis side, besidesth
. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. ys so highly exalted the sentimentof local patriotism, the struggle of the villains against the nobles, whether layor ecclesiastic, differed but little from the struggle of the towns in the northof France against the seigniors, but it assumed larger proportions in accordancewith the immense resources of every kind which they had at their feudal lord had his drawbridge, his battlements, and his men-at-arms D t8 FEUDALISM. cased in iron; but his rebellious vassal could boast on bis side, besidesthe narrow and winding streets of bis strongbold and the number ofbis fellow-combatants, many warlike engines and well-made weaponswhich he himself had manufactured. When feudalism, in order tocrush what it then termed the populace, summoned to its banner hordesof adventurers recruited from all parts of the world, it was encounteredby undisciplined levies of armed mechanics and artisans, who issued forthfrom Ghent, from Bruges, and from Liege, and not unfrequently Fig. 20.—Fortified Bridge, from Valentre Fig. 21. —Plan of the Fortified City of Carcas- to Cahors (1308). SOnne (Thirteenth Century). Beyond the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Rhine, feudalism fortresses, surrounded with a triple moat, everywhere cast theirshadows athwart the land, though the towns enjoyed a full share ofmunicipal liberty, and were not unfrequently the disinterested spectatorsof the terrible struggles that the feudal nobility carried on between them-selves. Nowhere did feudalism display more arrogance or more barbaritythan in Germany, which resembled some vast camp to which the noblesflocked to meet face to face in desperate combat. When it came to pass that the industrial and populous towns of Germany FEUDALISM. 19 cried out for municipal liberties similar to those enjoyed by the towns ofFrance, Italy, and the Low Countries, the emperor hastened to grant andconfi
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