Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1853 Excerpt: ...dynasty. The bishops were a link, or rather a shield, between the barbarians who respected them, and the people whom they 1 Rot. Vase. 22 Edward in., 1848. trandi de Durefort Bastidas et loca de "De concessione facta rege Gaillardo Montepaziero et de Villafranca in eodem de Durefort de Moleriis et de Bellemonte dicecesi cum alto et basso jurisdictu." i;.is Sarlatensis, et Raymond Ber protected, and to whose race they, for a long time, commonly belonged. But the bishop was legally, and sometimes actually elected, as the defensor had been, by the people at large. This indeed ceased to be the case before the reign of Charlemagne; and the crown, or in the progress of the feudal system its chief vassals, usurped the power of nomination, though the formality of election was not abolished. Certain it is that from the analogy to the defensor, and from the still closer analogy to the feudal vassal, after royal grants of jurisdiction and immunity became usual, not less than by the respect due to his station, the bishop became as much the civil governor of his city as the count was of the rural district. This was a great revolution in the internal history of cities, and one which generally led to the discontinuance of their popular institutions; so that after the reign of Charlemagne, if not earlier, we may perhaps consider a municipality choosing its own officers as an exception, though not a very unfrequent one, to the general usage. But instances of this are more commonly found to the south of the Loire, where Roman laws prevailed, and the feudal spirit was less vigorous than in the northern provinces. It is evident that if extensive privileges of internal government had been preserved in the north of France, there could have been no need for that great ...