in the West Europe X-XIII centuries. movement of townspeople against lords for self-government and independence. At first, the demands of the townspeople boiled down to limiting feuds, oppression and reducing taxes. Then political tasks arose - finding mountains. self-government and rights. The struggle was not against the feudal system, but against the lords of certain cities.

In South In France, the townspeople achieved independence without bloodshed (IX-XII centuries). Cities of the North France (Amiens, Laon, Beauvais, Soissons, etc.) and Flanders (Ghent, Bruges, Lille) became self-governing as a result of persistent, mostly armed, struggle. The townspeople elected a council from among themselves, its head - the mayor and other officials, had their own court, military. militia, finance, independently established taxes. These cities were freed from rent and seigneurial duties. In return, they paid the lord a certain small monetary annuity, and in case of war, they posted a small military. detachment, often themselves acted as a collective lord in relation to the peasants of the surrounding territories. The communal struggle could be long-term (for example, the northern French city of Lahn fought for its independence from the lord for more than 200 years).

Cities of the North and Avg. Italy (Venice, Genoa, Siena, Florence, Lucca, Ravenna, Bologna, etc.) became communes in the 9th-12th centuries; in Germany in the XII-XIII centuries. the so-called imperial cities - they were formally subordinate to the emperor, but in fact they were independent mountains. republics (Lübeck, Nuremberg, Frankfurt am Main, etc.).

Cities located on royal lands, in countries with a relatively strong center, power, could not achieve complete self-government; Most of the small towns, especially those belonging to spiritual lords, remained under the rule of the lords. The most important result of the cities’ struggle with the lords is the liberation of the majority of their inhabitants from personal dependence. A rule was also established according to which a dependent peasant who fled to the city, after living there for “a year and one day,” became free. It was not for nothing that the medieval proverb said that “city air makes you free.”

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COMMUNAL MOVEMENT

from late lat. communa, communia - community) - in West. Europe in the 10th-13th centuries. will release. movement of townspeople against the seigneurial regime, first stage class. struggle in the Middle Ages. city. Under the dominance of large landownership, cities arose on the land of feudal lords and therefore came under their power. Often the city was owned by several people at the same time. seniors, for example: Amiens - 4, Marseille, Beauvais - 3, Soissons, Arles, Narbonne, Montpellier - 2, etc. From the moment of their inception, cities became objects of exploitation by feudal lords. owners. Initially, it was carried out through the collection of quitrents and corvee duties from the townspeople, that is. some of them still remained in the position of serfs. As cities developed as centers of crafts and trade in the most important feudal implements. exploitation began to be introduced by the lords of all kinds of duties: freight, passage, entry, exit, ship, bridge, road, market, trade (from the seller and buyer for each transaction), coastal law, the right of arbitrary requisition, etc., duties on salt, wine, etc. The consolidation of this exploitative system, which was the core of the seigneurial regime in the city, was served by the seignorial system of weights and measures, the seignorial coin, the police-adm. the lord's apparatus, his court, military. and political power. The support of the seigneurial regime was the feudal lords' ownership of the land, on which the city, the houses of the townspeople, as well as their auxiliary holding lands were located. plots, their communal grazing areas, etc. Interested in extracting mountains. income, feudal lords often founded cities themselves, trying to attract the population to them by providing them with various benefits: personal freedom, abolition of corvée, replacement of all kinds of land. fixed fees den. chinshem (urban free holding), etc. At the same time, the townspeople were increasingly exploited precisely as commodity producers and commodity owners. But as crafts and trade developed, the real soil increasingly slipped away from under the seigneurial regime in the city. The development of commodity production and circulation required freedom of personality and property of the artisan and merchant. Operating in the industrial sector. labor mountains the artisan, unlike the feudal-dependent peasant, was the owner of the means of production and the finished product and in the process of production did not depend (or almost did not depend) on the lord - the landowner. This economical independence (or almost complete economic independence) of the mountains. commodity production and circulation from feudal large landownership was in sharp contradiction with the regime of seigneurial exploitation in the city, which hampered the economic economy. the development of the latter and becoming intolerant for the townspeople, was the real basis of the K. d., as a result of which the mountains were acquired. municipal independence. This was also the root cause of the fact that it was in medieval cities that the largest antifeudal societies arose. heretical movements, advanced political ideas, opposition mountains Liter. The KD was called upon to resolve, in essence, not the constitution. and legal, and economic. and social tasks: to eliminate the feudal system. exploitation of crafts and trade, to ensure conditions for the free functioning of commodity production and circulation. Introduction of mountains right, mountains troops, courts, and finally, city government had to legally and politically ensure the economic and social gains of the townspeople. The forms of K. d. were different depending on local conditions and the specific ratio of classes. strength The feudal lords never voluntarily renounced their privileges; they “granted” liberties to the townspeople, or suffered open war. or political defeat, or being forced to it economically. necessity; abandoning old methods, the seigneur sought to find new ways to exploit the townspeople. Very often, combat took on the character of open weapons. uprisings of townspeople against the lords under the slogan of the commune - the mountains. independence (Milan - 980, Cambrai - 957, 1024, 1064, 1076, 1107, 1127, Beauvais - 1099, Laon - 1109, 1128, 1191, Worms - 1071, Cologne - 1074, etc.). Often (especially in Northern France and Northern Italy) the core of the uprising was a secret union (conjuratio, conspiratio) of the townspeople - the “commune”. The communes aroused the fierce hatred of the feudal lords, who saw in them a rebellion of rebellious serfs. Money served as an important weapon for the townspeople in the fight against the lords. Open struggle almost everywhere was combined with the ransom of individual duties, rights and municipal independence in general from the lords. In some cities, for example. in southern France, ransom was the predominant means of liberating cities, although here too it was combined with more or less sharp open clashes. Citizens everywhere took advantage of politics. difficulties and struggles within the feudal class (for example, the Flanders cities of Ghent, Bruges, Saint-Omer, etc.), the struggle between several. lords of the city (Amiens, Arles, Marseille, etc.), rivalry between kings (Rouen) or the king and his vassals (including the cities of Northern France), long. fight between german emperors and the papacy (cities of northern and middle Italy). The forms and degrees of municipal freedom of cities also varied depending on the degree of economics. development of the city, the balance of power between townspeople and lords, general politics. conditions in the country, ranging from relatively limited “liberties” while maintaining dependence on the lord (French so-called “new cities” and “cities of the bourgeoisie”) to more or less complete self-government (northern French and Flemish communes, southern -French consulates and German so-called “free cities”, which still retained some dependence on the king (and sometimes on the lord)). Only the most developed cities of the North. and Wed. Italy (for example, Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Siena, Lucca, Milan, Bologna, Perugia, etc.) were able to become completely independent city-republics. Urban independence usually took on forms that had already been developed by previous cultural movements, hence the spread of the definition. types of municipal organization (commune, consulate) and mountains. charters (Rouen, Loris, Beaumont, etc.). In connection with the development of commodity-den. relations in the countryside and under the influence of K. d. in cities in the 12th-13th centuries. communes also arose in villages (mainly in Italy, also in France), but the degree of their independence in most cases was much lower, and quite soon they again fell under the authority of either lords or neighboring large cities. K. d. had enormous progressive significance. It opened up broad opportunities for the development of crafts and trade, ensured personal freedom for townspeople and serfs who fled to the city, and helped undermine the economic monopoly. and political the power of the feudal lords, contributed to the growth of self-awareness of the townspeople. The successes of K.D. served as one of the main. prerequisites for the transformation of cities into the most important centers of economic, ideological and cultural progress. In the most advanced Italian. cities, whose development Marx considered an exceptional phenomenon, their complete political. independence and end of feud. exploitation contributed to the unusually intensive accumulation of wealth and the transformation of these cities in the 14th and 15th centuries. to the hearths of early capitalism. development. Undermining the power of the largest fiefdoms. lords, K. d. where an alliance of cities with royal power was taking shape, it was the most important political factor. unification of the country. It contributed to the formation of a class of townspeople, which, under favorable conditions, led to the emergence of a class monarchy as a more progressive form of feud. state Antifeud. struggle middle-century The townspeople usually did not go beyond the city walls and, as a rule, did not encroach on the feudal serfdom. building a village. The limitations of the capitalist movement (as well as of the middle-century burghers themselves) were rooted in the limitations of its economics. fundamentals - free simple commodity production (craft), which covered only industrial. , i.e. under feudalism - a non-main, subordinate sphere of labor, and although it was in contradiction to the natural-economic feudal-exploitative system, at the same time it was not absolutely antagonistic to it, since it did not require the separation of the producer from the means of production. K.D. was not uniform. Ch. The working masses played a role in the communist movement, but power in the commune was seized by the richest and most influential. townspeople: mountains landowners and homeowners, moneylenders, and partly the richest merchants (the so-called patriciate). They adopted many of the extortions of the previous lord, introduced all kinds of monopolies in their favor, and selfishly took advantage of the mountains. income and semi-feud. methods exploited not only the peasants of the area, but also the mass of townspeople. This caused in the 13-15th centuries. uprising of guild artisans against the rule of the patriciate, which meant a new stage of class. struggle in the city. In the 14th-15th centuries. In the cities of France, the patriciate tried to turn the communes into a stronghold of resistance to unite. the policy of the kings, under such circumstances, the elimination of outdated communal independence was a necessary step, dictated by the interests of the national. development. IN in some cases (for example, in Italy) the hypertrophy of municipal independence of cities (along with the separatism of small feudal sovereigns) turned into a serious obstacle to political. centralization. The study of K. d. was started by the French. historian O. Thierry. Refuting the legend of noble historians about communal liberties as a gracious gift from kings, he proved that these liberties were won by the townspeople themselves in a stubborn struggle against the feudal lords (the “communal revolution”). Although Thierry did not disclose the economics. conditionality of K. d. and could not see inside the mountains. contradictions, his view of K. d. is the most daring and profound in the bourgeoisie. historiography. Thierry had a huge influence on subsequent bourgeois. researchers K.D. In the 2nd half. 19th century liberal-bourgeois historiography retreats from the bold disclosure of class. struggle and increasingly portrays the process of liberation of the communes as a gradual and peaceful evolution of the mountains. institutions. K. d. as ch. political core and social development of the Middle Ages. the city is increasingly relegated to the background (for example, among the French historians A. Giry and A. Luscher). Burzh. Historians are beginning to pay more and more attention to legal matters. the problem of mountain filiation. constitutions and rights (especially German historians K. Nitsch, R. Som, G. Belov, F. Keutgen, Ritschel, etc.). Liberal-positivist historiography con. 19 - beginning 20th centuries (Belgian history A. Pirenne and his school), remaining generally idealistic. positions, sought to get closer to understanding socio-economic. conditionality of the Middle Ages. urban freedom (the well-known influence of Marxism was also felt here). But even in works imbued with bourgeois-objectivist methodology, K. d. was overshadowed by the evolution of political politics. and legal institutions and forms. In the bourgeoisie historiography of the 20th century. purely legal ones have become widespread. interpretation of K. d. (French historian C. Petit-Dutailly) and denial of K. d. (Russian scientist emigrant N. P. Ottokar, Danish scientist I. Plesner, French scientist J. Letauqua). Historians of the latter trend deny the existence of k.-l. contradictions between the city and the feud. system and is credited with a decisive role in the rise and liberation of feudal cities and landowners. elements, patriciates; they resolutely reject the story. regularity of K. d. and the determining value of class. struggle in the development of the Middle Ages. cities in general. Sov. The historiography of the Caucasian movement is based on the ideas of K. Marx and F. Engels about the Middle Ages. the city as a center of crafts and trade, about the mountains. craft as self-sustainers. small-scale commodity production, which stood in contradiction to the feudal-manorial system of exploitation, about the progressive role of the Middle Ages. cities, O revolutionary. character of K. d. Sov. made a great contribution to the study of K. d. historian V.V. Stoklitskaya-Tereshkovich. The first works of Marxist historians in other socialist countries also appeared. countries (for example, in the GDR - E. Engelman). Lit.: Marx K., Letter to F. Engels. July 27, 1854, K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., vol. 22, M.-L., 1931; Marx K. and Engels F., German Ideology, Works, 2nd ed., vol. 3; Engels F., On the decomposition of feudalism and the emergence of nationalism. state-va, ibid., vol. 21; Marx K., Chronological. extracts, in the book: Archive of Marx and Engels, vol. 5, (M.), 1938; Engels F., About France in the era of feudalism, ibid., vol. 10, (M.), 1948; Smirnov A., The Commune of Medieval France, Kaz., 1873; Dzhivelegov A.K., City community in Wed. century, M., 1901; his, Medieval cities in the West. Europe, St. Petersburg, 1902; Thierry O., Urban communes in France on Wed. century, trans. from French, St. Petersburg, 1901; his, Experience of the history of the origins and successes of the third estate, Izbr. cit., trans. from French, M., 1937; Pirenne A., Medieval cities of Belgium, trans. from French, M., 1937; his, Medieval cities and the revival of trade, Gorky, 1941; Stoklitskaya-Tereshkovich V.V., Class struggle in Milan in the 11th century. and the origins of the Milan Commune, in: Wed. century, century 5, M., 1954; her, The main problems of history medieval city X-XV centuries, M., 1960; Bragina L.M., Rural communes of the North-East. Italy and their subordination to the city in the XIII-XIV centuries, in the collection: Wed. century, century 7, M., 1955; Kotelnikova L. A., The policy of cities in relation to rural communes of the North. and Wed. Italy in the 12th century, in: Wed. century, century 16, M., 1959; Thierry Aug., Lettres sur l'histoire de France, P., 1827; Hegel K., Geschichte der St?dteverfassung von Italien seit der Zeit der r?mischen Herrschaft bis zum Ausgang des zw?lften Jahrhunderts, Bd 1-2, Lpz., 1847; his, Die Entstehung des deutschen St?dtewesens, Lpz., 1898; Haulleville P. de, Histoire des communes lombardes depuis leur origine Jusqu´a la fin du XIII siècle, v. 1-2, P., 1857-58; Giry A., Histoire de la ville de Saint-Omer et de ses institutions.... P., 1877; Pirenne H., Origine des constitutions urbaines au moyen ?ge, "RH", v. 53, 1893, v. 57, 1895; Viollet P., Les communes fran?aises au moyen?ge, P., 1900; Kiener F., Verfassungsgeschichte der Provence seit der Ostgothenherrschaft bis zur Errichtung der Konsulate (510-1200), Lpz., 1900; Caggese R., Classi e comuni rurali nel medio evo italiano, v. 1-2, Firenze, 1907-09; Luchaire A., Les communes fran?aises? l´?poque des Cap?tien directs, P., 1890, nouv. ?d., P., 1911; Luchaire J., Les d'mocraties italiennes, P., 1915; Retit-Dutaillis Ch., Les communes fran?aises, P., 1947; Engelmann E., Zur st?dtischen Volksbewegung in S?dfrankreich. Kommunefreiheit und Gesellschaft, V., 1959. S. M. Stam. Saratov.

Communal revolutions. As a rule, cities were built on territories that belonged to secular or spiritual feudal lords, so the townspeople depended on them. Initially, feudal lords patronized the emerging cities. But over time, the townspeople began to be burdened by this dependence and waged a long and persistent struggle to escape from the jurisdiction of the feudal lords, who received considerable income from crafts and trade. IN XI-XIII centuries in many cities of Western Europe, a communal movement (municipal

revolution). At first these were anti-feudal uprisings of townspeople who opposed the heavy oppression of taxes and duties in favor of the lord, for receiving trade privileges, etc. During the uprisings, the townspeople expelled the lord and his knights, or even killed them.

Later, the townspeople began to put forward political demands and, as a result, achieved full or partial self-government, which determined the degree of independence of the city. But in order to finalize the charters, townspeople often had to pay large sums of ransom to the lords.

Communal movement in different countries had different forms. It took place most calmly in Southern France, where everything went largely without bloodshed, since the local counts were interested in the prosperity of their cities. In Northern Italy, on the contrary, the struggle took on fierce forms. For example, in Milan throughout the 11th century there was essentially a civil war. In France, the city of Laon fought for a very long time. Here the townspeople first bought the charter from the lord, who then canceled it (with the help of a bribe to the king). This led to an uprising, robberies, and murders of the nobility. The king intervened in the events, but the struggle flared up with renewed vigor, and this continued for two centuries. In many states (Byzantium, Scandinavian countries), the struggle of the townspeople was limited, and many small and medium-sized European cities were never able to gain freedom (especially from spiritual lords).

In the wake of communal revolutions, urban law triumphed (as opposed to feudal law), which provided guarantees for merchant and usurious activities. In accordance with city law, a peasant who lived in the city for one year and a day was no longer a serf, since there was a rule according to which “city air makes a person free.” City dwellers, freed from feudal dependence, received a higher social status than peasants.

As a result of communal movements in various European countries, a category of cities was established that achieved a very high level of independence and power over all nearby lands. In France and Flanders, city-communes appeared: Saint-Quentin, Soissons, Laon, Amiens, Douai, Marseille, Bruges, Ghent, Ypres, etc. They managed to completely free themselves from feudal duties and received the right to create city governments headed by a mayor ( burgomaster), form a city court, financial and tax

system, military militia, etc. Cities-communes independently regulated foreign trade relations, shipping conditions, shop and credit policies; they could make peace and go to war, and establish diplomatic relations.

The so-called free cities grew up in Germany - Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck. Later, in terms of the level of self-government, imperial cities equaled them - Nuremberg, Augsburg, etc., which were only formally subordinate to royal authority, but in fact were independent entities that received sovereignty and were considered “states within a state.”

A special place among European cities was occupied by the city-republics of Northern Italy: Venice, Genoa, Florence, Siena, Lucca, Ravenna, Bologna, etc., which were rightfully considered the economic centers of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. The early signs of market relations were very clearly evident there, serving as a model for other countries and cities.

Thus, Venice, being a seaport with a population of 200 thousand, took a dominant position in the Mediterranean basin in the 14th century, since it had the most powerful merchant fleet. Ship owners carried out profitable intermediary operations in the resale of goods from the Middle East to European countries. Far beyond the borders of Venice, its builders and architects were famous. Venetian craftsmen produced unique goods: glass, mirrors, silk fabrics, jewelry made of amber, precious metals and stones, which were in high demand throughout Europe.

Venice waged a continuous struggle for dominance in the Mediterranean Sea with a constant rival - Genoa, which was also a port city and had a powerful fleet, which allowed it to carry out colonial expansion in various regions, in particular on the Black Sea coast (remnants of the Genoese are still preserved in Crimea fortresses in Feodosia and Sudak). But in the second half of the 14th century, the economic and military rivalry between these cities ended in the final victory of Venice.

The economy of Florence was noticeably different from the Genoese and Venetian ones. Since Florence was far from the sea, industry, especially cloth production, developed primarily there. In addition, Florentine bankers were famous throughout Europe, who gave loans to many European monarchs, feudal lords, and the Pope.

During the XIV-XV centuries, the urban population experienced a period of rapid social stratification. The burghers emerged from the wealthy elite. And if earlier this term simply meant “citizens of the city” (from the German word “burg” - city), who had the right to reside and purchase real estate in a given city, now, in order to become a burgher, several conditions had to be met. Thus, only personally free people who also possessed certain funds necessary to pay a sufficiently high entrance fee, and then regularly pay city and state taxes, could enter the ranks of burghers. Thus, a wealthy urban class was formed from among the burghers, which later became the basis of the European bourgeoisie.

1. Prerequisites and mechanisms for the emergence of a medieval city.

2. Seignorial regime in the city.

3. Reasons and goals of the anti-seniorial struggle of the townspeople. The attitude of royal power to the communal movement. Results of the communal movement. Organization of the system of power in city-communes.

4. Social and economic life of a medieval city. Urban population groups, their professional and social status. The nature and role of trade in a medieval city, types of trading communities. Economic foundations of urban crafts. Construction of medieval craft workshops.

№1 The medieval city arises during the feudalization processes of the period from early to developed feudalism. Even in the early Middle Ages, urban-type settlements existed, primarily on the sites of former ancient cities. In Italy such cities were Milan, Florence, Venice, Bologna, etc. In France - Paris, Lyon. In the German states - Vienna, Strasbourg, Mainz. In England - London, Gloucester, Chester, etc.

In the 11th century these cities were primarily administrative centers, fortified points or religious centers. The number of cities in Western Europe was uneven. The population of the cities was quite significant. Each of them traditionally specialized in one type of craft. Intra-city and foreign trade developed in cities. However, these cities did not become catalysts for new feudal processes and did not have a serious impact on feudalism. To accomplish this task, an entirely new type of city had to emerge, or the ancient cities had to be reborn on a completely different basis.

The significance of the urban institution begins to change noticeably during the further evolution of classical feudalism. The growth of labor productivity at this time leads to the process of division of social production. And this, in turn, led to even greater isolation of the craft as an absolutely independent production, i.e. to an even higher level of its development. A high level and independence of handicraft production is achieved primarily by blacksmithing and weaponry, textile weaving, and construction. At the same time, industries begin to develop: mining of metals, salt, procurement of fish, furs, forests, etc. Crafts become the leading industry in the city. This does not happen right away. The evolution of crafts, handicraft production, knew its stages.

The first form of craft was custom craft production.

The second stage in the development of handicraft production is its connection with the market. Having connected with the market, the artisan already becomes a commodity producer. From now on, the fate of handicraft production and each individual artisan turns out to be firmly connected with the city and the market. In the 10th-13th centuries, Western Europe began to be intensively covered with cities of a new type - feudal.

The phenomenon of the medieval city, first of all, should be considered as a consequence of the isolation and independence of the craft.

History of the formation of European cities . Craftsmen leaving the villages settled in places favorable for practicing their craft. In Italy and Southern France, they settled in cities of ancient origin, which then played the role of administrative, church and military centers. After artisans began to come to these cities, they received a kind of rebirth. In cities with high population density and developed trade, artisans found sales for their products. In the North-West and in the central regions, artisans chose as their places of settlement territories that were located near large feudal estates, hoping to find consumers for their products among the feudal lords. They also settled at the intersection of trade and military routes or at ship anchorages, where they found demand and buyers for their products. Over time, population density is concentrated in these places - initially small market places. And gradually, very slowly, these territories of initial settlement of artisans begin to turn into medieval cities.

The growth of cities was high, first of all, where ancient cities were preserved, with their experience of urban life, urban production, trade relations with Byzantium and the countries of the East. The further north you go, the lower the growth rate of cities. In the X-XI centuries. medieval cities appeared in the Netherlands, England, and Germany. And only in the XII-XIII centuries. cities appear in the Scandinavian countries, in Ireland, as well as in Hungary, in the Danube principalities, i.e. on the outskirts of Europe.

The process of the emergence and development of the medieval city led to a very important qualitative shift in the evolution of the entire feudal society. Simple commodity production began to play a significant role in medieval cities.

Urban population groups, their professional and social status.

City population from the very beginning it was extremely colorful. The main, first most important categories of the population in the city are artisans and merchants. New layers of the population are emerging. There is an ever-growing category of people working in the service sector. Secular and spiritual feudal lords, representatives of seigniorial and royal administration lived in large cities. One more category of the population should be highlighted, which can be conditionally called the emerging intelligentsia. First of all, these are doctors, teachers, teachers of schools and universities, as well as lawyers, jurists, and notaries. With the birth of the city, the figure of the moneylender appears in it.

From the very beginning, the distinctive feature of the city was the property and social inequality of the population. Very early, already in the XII-XIII centuries. As a result of such differentiation, two poles arise in the city - rich and poor. There were significantly more poor people in the city than rich and wealthy ones.

Population. Medieval cities varied in size - small, medium and large. In small towns the population was small - about 1 thousand people. In medium-sized cities - from 2 to 5 thousand people. In the XIV-XV centuries. With the growth of urban production and the strengthening of trade, the city's population increased. The city also grew at the expense of the village - it seemed to attract population from the villages, increasingly attracting peasants to itself. In the XIV-XV centuries. the city with a population of 20-30 thousand people was a typical city of the period of developed and late feudalism. And only in a few cities (such as Paris, Venice, Milan, Florence, Cordoba, Seville) the population ranged from 80 to 100 thousand people. These were a kind of medieval megacities, some of them took shape as city-states (Italy)

The structure of the city. The city was necessarily surrounded by walls on which watchtowers were built. The walls had entry and exit gates. These gates were guarded and closed at certain times of the day. Often the city was protected by ditches. The city resembled a feudal castle, which, apparently, was its architectural prototype.

In the XII-XIII centuries. and especially in the XIV century. Suburbs begin to emerge around the city walls. The first suburbs were artisanal in nature. They consisted of various craft settlements in which they practiced one type of craft or another. A second wall was gradually built around these suburbs or settlements in order to protect the city and its production, to protect the wealth accumulated in it.

In Western Europe, the center of a medieval city was, as a rule, a market square, not far from which the cathedral was located, and in cities with self-government, the square on which the town hall was located.

Medieval city until the 14th century. kept close connection with the village, i.e. with the places from which many of its inhabitants came. Outside the walls of the city, and then beyond the wall of the suburbs, there were fields, pastures, and vegetable gardens that belonged to the townspeople and were a significant help in their existence.

The streets of the medieval city were so narrow that only one carriage could pass through them. In the first period of developed feudalism (IX-XI centuries) there was a rule - a city street should not be wider than the length of a spear. The architecture of the houses depended on the width of the street. The houses were two-story (rarely three-story), and when built, the second floor, as a rule, hung over the first and over the street. The city did not grow wider, but upward, so the streets of medieval cities were not only narrow, but also very dark. Initially, houses were wooden and fires often occurred in cities. Towards the end of developed feudalism they switched to stone construction.

The streets were not only not paved, but were gradually covered with waste that was thrown directly from the windows of houses . Sanitary condition of cities not only interfered with movement on their streets, but also led to serious consequences. Streets littered with food waste contributed to the proliferation of rats that carried various diseases. And plague epidemics became a constant phenomenon in the medieval city. During an epidemic, the population of a small town could die out almost completely.

The cities were dependent on the king or on the secular or spiritual lord. At the very beginning of developed feudalism (IX-XI centuries), power in the city belonged to the lord or representative of the royal administration. Of course, both the king and the feudal lords were extremely interested in the prosperity of the city, in the development of its production (the city is a source of income). There is a discrepancy between the interests of the townspeople and the lord (feudal lord or king) - a discrepancy between the desire for freedom and the desire for profit.

Throughout Western Europe in the X-XIII centuries. a political struggle begins - the struggle between the city and the lord, the city and the king, which in historical science is called communal movement .

« Commune -everyone who is obliged to pay a general tax to the masters as an ordinary servile duty pays it once a year, and those who have committed any offense pay a fine. All other censorship taxes imposed on the serfs are completely abolished.” In different regions of Western Europe, the communal movement had its own character. In Northern and Central Italy and Southern France, cities already in the X-XII centuries. achieved independence. In Italy, large northern and middle cities received the status of city-states. Many cities in the German states also gained independence. Some received the status of city-republics. They were governed by a city council headed by a burgomaster. These cities lived under Magdeburg Law, developed specifically for the city of Magdeburg, hence its name. Magdeburg law, which provided the city with the highest and broadest form of self-government, is a classic law of urban independence. As a result of the communal movement, the German lands received independence and the status of cities-republics of Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, etc. Many cities of Northern France, practically not Romanized, such as Soissons, Amiens, etc., as well as the cities of Flanders - Bruges, Ghent, etc. - as a result of the communal movement, became city-comunes , with their own self-government, free from seigneurial dependence. The fate of the city was much more difficult and completely different. Dovs who were on royal lands. The king looked at the city as his own treasury. In this regard, the fate of the French city of Lana is indicative. About the communal movement in Lane, Amiens and Soissons (Lane was a rich trading center of North-Eastern France, which was among the first to join the struggle for communal freedoms at the beginning of the 12th century. The apotheosis of this struggle was the uprising of 1112). Even those cities that gained independence or had it before were under the watchful eye of central government officials. This form of self-government, when a seemingly independent city is constantly monitored by a representative of the central government, is typical for the northern regions of Western Europe. Most, especially small, cities, as a result of the communal movement, remained dependent on the lords. Despite all the differences in the results of the communal movement for the cities of Western Europe, they were united by one common achievement - the residents of the cities of Western Europe were freed from serfdom, they became free.

It was after the communal movement that a tradition arose according to which, after living in the city for a year and one day, a person became free. The catchphrase “city air makes a person free” was, as it were, a metaphorical expression, the result of the communal movement.

Workshops

Forms of craft production - workshops, or craft guilds. In Byzantium, craft associations - corporations or kinonias - differed significantly from Western European ones. Kinonia was a weak, small, unstable craft organization. A workshop or guild was at first an organization of small urban artisans, and the guild was more often a merchant organization. There was strict control over workshop production, as well as over the sale of handicraft products. At the head of the workshop was a master. As a rule, this master craftsman worked in his workshop. He was assisted by one or two apprentices and several apprentices. In the first period of the existence of the guilds, the journeyman and apprentice had the prospect of eventually becoming a master, having studied for the required period and acquired a certain qualification. This organization of crafts was characteristic of almost all countries of Western Europe and was of a forced and obligatory nature. In science there is a special concept of “guild coercion.” It was a strict workshop regulation of production. The master could never act at his own discretion - he was threatened with either the closure of the workshop or a huge fine. Therefore, he was forced to submit to strict regulations. At first, guild regulation had certain positive aspects, providing almost every artisan with a sale of his goods. Having justified itself until the 14th century, strict workshop regulation later became a serious obstacle to the development of production. The workshop was given the most important importance in all spheres of life of artisans. Each workshop had its own holidays, its own paraphernalia, clothes, hat styles, etc. The workshops had their own patron saint, whose day was necessarily celebrated. The workshops built churches or chapels. The workshop was also a military structure that supplied warrior-artisans to the king or seigneur.

In the XIV-XV centuries. there is a process of “transformation of workshops”, or “shop transformation”, which leads to the emergence of rich, or senior workshops, and poor, or junior workshops. The junior workshops, as a result of competition with the rich senior workshops, are gradually going bankrupt, and the members of the junior workshops are gradually turning into hired workers - the prototype of the future pre-proletariat and proletariat that will emerge two centuries later. During this historical period, the situation in the workshop itself changed. Previously, a student or journeyman could hope to eventually become a master. In the XIV-XV centuries. apprentices and apprentices have lost such hope. At this time, either a relative of the master or an apprentice could become a master at the cost of considerable effort (gifts to the master, etc.), but this was also a rare occurrence. Working day for an apprentice in the 14th century. was long - from 14 to 18 hours. The master became, as it were, the embodiment of the workshop, and it was during this period that a process began, which in historical science was called the “closure of the workshops”: students and journeymen finally lost the opportunity to improve their professional and social status and more and more turned into hired workers.

The communal movement caused another phenomenon - folding of the urban patriciate, which did not exist at the early stage of development of the medieval city. The court, finances, and city administration begin to gradually concentrate in the hands of the patriciate. As a result, in the XIII-XV centuries. In almost all countries of Western Europe, a struggle is unfolding within the city - the struggle of the townspeople against the patriciate. The struggle ends with the victory of the rich artisans and trading strata of the city, who establish a city oligarchic government that practically merges with the city patriciate. The oligarchic government acts in the interests of wealthy citizens.

Soon the urban population moved from strikes to uprisings against the city oligarchs. Social struggle , which unfolded in the city, went through three stages.

The first stage is the communal movement,

the second stage is the fight against the patriciate,

the third is the struggle of the urban craft plebeians against the rich craftsmen and merchants who merged with the patriciate, and against the urban oligarchy.

During the XI-XV centuries. in the cities of Western Europe a new class is emerging: medieval class of townspeople. It was associated with trade and craft production, with property. In political and legal terms, this class enjoyed unconditional privileges and liberties, which constituted the status of a full-fledged citizen. In the XIV-XV centuries. The inhabitants of the city began to be called burghers. From this word, in the future, part of the urban population who succeeded in commodity production will receive the name “bourgeoisie.”

Already in the XIII-XV centuries. two largest ones add up international trade center. The first center, the Mediterranean, with which the merchants of the Romanized regions of Europe were connected, provided access to Byzantium and further to the East. The second center of international and especially general Western European trade developed in the north - the regions of the Baltic and North Seas. Northwestern Rus' also adjoined this trading region: Novgorod, Pskov, Polotsk and other cities. Northern trade followed the famous “Amber Route”,

Simultaneously with the formation of commercial capital, elements of capitalist production arise - various shapes and types of manufactures.

№2 Seignorial regime

The seigneurial regime (from the word seigneury - large feudal land ownership) became widespread in most Western European countries, but was most characteristic of France, although it was only partially widespread there1.

It was in the seigneury that servage was used. The serfs were limited in a number of rights: the right of inheritance (the right of the “dead hand”), the choice of a marriage partner (“formariage”), the right of transition, and carried out useful and personal duties in favor of the lord. However, even here the influence of the brand community was strong: the principle of “open fields” also spread, lords were forbidden to harvest their crops with a scythe, etc.

The rise and fall of the seigneurial regime occurs quite quickly. One of the main reasons for the decline was the extensive economic system, which means the need to develop new lands, and therefore the need to attract workers to it - peasants, who could only be attracted by more and more benefits of freedom.

The exploitation of the peasantry was carried out within the framework of the feudal estate (French seigneury, English manor), which became the basis for the collection of feudal rent.

Communal movements took place in different countries in different ways, depending on the conditions of historical development, and led to different results.

In Southern France, townspeople achieved independence without bloodshed (IX - XIII centuries). The counts of Toulouse, Marseille, Montpellier and other cities of Southern France, as well as Flanders, were not only city lords, but sovereigns of entire regions. They were interested in the prosperity of local cities, distributed municipal liberties to them, and did not interfere with relative independence. However, they did not want the communes to become too powerful and gain complete independence. This happened, for example, with Marseille, which for centuries was an independent aristocratic republic. But at the end of the 13th century. after an 8-month siege, the Count of Provence, Charles of Anjou, took the city, placed his governor at its head, and began to appropriate city revenues, dispensing funds to support the city’s crafts and trade that were beneficial to him.1

The cities of Northern France (Amiens, Laon, Beauvais, Soissons, etc.) and Flanders (Ghent, Bruges Lille) became self-governing city-communes as a result of persistent, mostly armed, struggle. The townspeople elected from among themselves a council, its head - the mayor and other officials, had their own court, military militia, finances, and independently set taxes. These cities were freed from rent and seigneurial duties. In return, they paid the lord a certain small monetary annuity, in case of war they deployed a small military detachment, and often themselves acted as a collective lord in relation to the peasants of the surrounding territories.

The cities of Northern and Central Italy (Venice, Genoa, Siena, Florence, Lucca, Ravenna, Bologna, etc.) became communes in the 9th - 12th centuries. One of the brightest and typical pages of the communal struggle in Italy was the history of Milan - the center of crafts and trade, an important transit point on the routes to Germany. In the 11th century The power of the count there was replaced by the power of the archbishop, who ruled with the help of representatives of aristocratic and clerical circles. Throughout the XI century. the townspeople fought with the lord. She united all the city strata. Since the 50s, the urban movement has resulted in civil war against the bishop. It was intertwined with the powerful heretical movement that then swept Italy - with the speeches of the Waldenses and especially the Cathars. The rebel townspeople attacked the clergy and destroyed their houses. The sovereigns were drawn into the events. Finally, at the end of the 11th century. the city received the status of a commune. It was headed by a council of consuls made up of privileged citizens - representatives of merchant-feudal circles. The aristocratic system of the Milan commune, of course, did not satisfy the masses of the townspeople; their struggle continued in subsequent times.

In Germany in the XII - XIII centuries. so-called imperial cities appeared - they were formally subordinate to the emperor, but in reality they were independent city republics (Lübeck, Frankfurt - on the Main, etc.). They were governed by city councils, had the right to independently declare war, conclude peace and alliances, mint coins, etc.

But sometimes the liberation struggle of cities was very long. The struggle for independence of the northern French city of Lana lasted for more than 200 years. His lord (from 1106) Bishop Gaudry, a lover of war and hunting, established a particularly harsh regime in the city, even to the point of killing the townspeople. The inhabitants of Laon managed to buy from the bishop a charter granting them certain rights (a fixed tax, the abolition of the right of the “dead hand”), paying the king for its approval. But the bishop soon found the charter unprofitable for himself and, by bribing the king, achieved its cancellation. The townspeople rebelled, plundered the courtyards of the aristocrats and the bishop's palace, and killed Gaudry himself, hiding in an empty barrel.

One of the first memoir works of medieval literature, the autobiography of Guibert of Nozhansky, “The Story of My Own Life,” provides vivid evidence of the uprising of the townspeople of the Lanskaya commune.

Guibert of Nogent (lived in the 11th - 12th centuries) was born into a French knightly family, became a monk, and received an excellent literary (partially philosophical) and theological education in the monastery. Known as a theologian and historian. His historical works are especially interesting. Possessing the talent of a writer, Guibert describes events vividly and colorfully.

Defending the interests of the church and standing guard over the feudal system as a whole, Guibert was hostile to the rebel townspeople. But at the same time, he openly exposes the vices and crimes of individual representatives of the ruling class, and speaks with indignation about the greed of the feudal lords and their atrocities.

Guibert of Nozhansky writes: “This city has long been burdened with such misfortune that no one in it feared either God or the authorities, and everyone, in accordance only with their own strengths and their desires, carried out robberies and murders in the city.

...But what can I say about the situation of the common people? ...The lords and their servants openly committed robberies and robberies; the passerby had no security at night; to be detained, captured or killed was the only thing that awaited him.

The clergy, archdeacons and lords... looking for every possible way to extract money from the common people, entered into negotiations through their intermediaries, offering to grant the right, if they paid a sufficient amount, to form a commune.

...Having become more accommodating from the golden rain that fell on them, they made a promise to the people, sealing it with an oath, to strictly observe the concluded agreement.

... Inclined by the generous gifts of the commoners, the king agreed to approve this agreement and seal it with an oath. My God! Who could tell of the struggle that broke out when, after the gifts had been accepted from the people, and so many vows had been made, these same people began to try to destroy what they had sworn to support, and tried to restore the slaves to their former state, once freed and delivered from all the burden of the yoke? Unbridled envy of the townspeople actually consumed the bishop and lords...

...The violation of the agreements that created the Lanskaya commune filled the hearts of the townspeople with anger and amazement: all persons holding positions stopped performing their duties...

...it was not anger, but the rage of a wild beast that gripped the people of the lower class; they formed a conspiracy, sealed by a mutual oath, to kill the bishop and his associates...

...Numerous crowds of townspeople, armed with swords, double-edged axes, bows, axes, clubs and spears, filled the temple of the Blessed Virgin and rushed into the bishop's courtyard...

...Finally unable to repel the bold attacks of the people, the bishop dressed himself in the dress of one of his servants, fled to the basement under the church, locked himself there and hid in a wine barrel, the hole in which was plugged by one faithful servant. Gaudry thought he was well hidden.

...the townspeople managed to find their victim. Gaudry, although a sinner, was nevertheless God's anointed one, was pulled out of the barrel by the hair, showered with many blows and dragged, in broad daylight, into a narrow monastery alley... The unfortunate man begged in the most pitiful terms for mercy, promised to take an oath that he would never would be their bishop, offered them large sums of money and pledged to leave the fatherland, but everyone responded with bitterness only with insults; one of them, Bernard, raising his double-edged axe, fiercely cut this, although sinful, but sacred... man.”

The above document paints a vivid picture of the struggle of the townspeople of the city of Lana with the lord-bishop Gaudry, a typical representative of his class. From the document it follows that the townspeople of Lan, already possessing some material power, legally remained in the same dependence on their feudal lord as before. The senor could still

rob and oppress them, mock their dignity. Therefore, an uprising breaks out in the city, as a result of which the Lanskaya commune was destroyed. The King of France, Louis VI, who recognized the commune, treacherously broke his promise.

The king, with his armed hand, restored the old order in Lahn, but in 1129 the townspeople raised a new uprising. Long years Then there was a struggle for a communal charter with varying success: sometimes in favor of the city, sometimes in favor of the king. Only in 1331 did the king, with the help of many local feudal lords, achieve a final victory. Its judges and officials began to govern the city.

Cities located on royal land, in countries with a relatively strong central government, could not achieve complete self-government. It was almost general rule for cities on royal land, in countries with a relatively strong central government. They enjoyed, however, a number of privileges and liberties, including the right to elect self-government bodies. However, these institutions usually operated under the control of an official of the king or another lord. This was the case in many cities in France (Paris, Orleans, Bourges, Lorris, Nantes, Chartres, etc.) and England (London, Lincoln, Oxford, Cambridge, Gloucester, etc.). Limited municipal freedoms of cities were typical for the Scandinavian countries, many cities in Germany, Hungary, and they did not exist at all in Byzantium.

Most of the small towns, which did not have the necessary forces and in cash to fight against their lords; This was especially true for cities that belonged to spiritual lords.

Thus, communal movements in different countries took place in different forms, depending on specific historical conditions.

Some cities managed to obtain liberties and privileges for money. Others won these liberties in a long armed struggle.

Some cities became self-governing cities - communes, but many cities either could not achieve full self-government or remained entirely under the authority of seigneurial administration.

1. Social structure of a medieval city.

When studying a medieval city, the problem of the social structure of its population inevitably arises. There are many aspects to this problem. The main one is: who are they, medieval townspeople, where did the urban population come from, what are its economic and social specifics? Other issues are also touched upon: property and social differentiation among townspeople and at the same time the integration of various elements and groups into the class of townspeople, full rights and lack of rights within the urban masses, etc. Who did the urban population consist of? From heterogeneous elements: from merchants who initially lived in isolated settlements, which in Germany were called “Wick”; from free and unfree artisans, dependent on the feudal lord, lord of the city; from the vassals of the city lord, from his servants who performed various administrative duties - they administered court, collected taxes from the population, they were called ministerials. The majority of the townspeople were originally unfree peasants, artisans, and fugitive rural people (who fled from their former masters). Most of the lands on which peasants worked, by the 11th century. belonged to the feudal lords. Peasants whose life was especially difficult were called servas in France, and villans in England. During continuous internecine wars, peasants sought protection from a neighboring lord or monastery. Having found a powerful patron, the peasant was forced to admit his dependence on him and transfer his land plot to him. The dependent peasant continued to farm on his previous plot, but for the use of it the master demanded the fulfillment of corvee labor and the payment of dues. The power of the feudal lord over the peasant was manifested not only in the fact that he worked as a corvee and paid quitrent, he was personally subordinate to the feudal lord, the landowner tried him in his court, the peasant did not have the right to move to another area without the permission of his master. However, despite the land and personal dependence on the feudal lord, the peasant was not completely powerless. The lord could not execute him, drive him away from his allotment (if he fulfilled his duties), sell or exchange him without land and separately from his family. A huge role in the life of medieval people was played by custom, which was observed by both peasants and lords. The size of the quitrent, the types and duration of corvee work did not change from generation to generation. What was established once and for all was considered reasonable and fair. The lords could not voluntarily increase peasant duties. The lords and peasants needed each other: some were “universal breadwinners”; from others, working people expected protection and patronage.

In the Middle Ages, the entire population of Europe was divided into three groups - three estates (people included in the three estates had different rights and responsibilities). The ministers of the church (priests and monks) constituted a special layer of the population - the clergy, who were believed to guide the spiritual life of people - to take care of the salvation of the souls of Christians; knights protect the country from foreigners; Peasants and townspeople are engaged in agriculture and crafts.

The fact that the clergy came first is not at all accidental, because the main thing for a medieval European was his relationship with God, the need to save his soul after the end of earthly life. The clergy had their own ecclesiastical hierarchy and discipline, as well as a sum of privileges that sharply separated them from the secular world. Church servants in general were more educated than knights and, especially, peasants. Almost all scientists, writers and poets, artists and musicians of that era were clergy; they often occupied the highest government positions, influencing their kings. The clergy was divided into white and black, or monasticism. The first monasteries - communities of monks - appeared in Europe after the fall of the Western Empire. Monks were mostly deeply religious Christians who wanted to devote their lives exclusively to serving God. They made vows (promises): to renounce the family, not to get married; give up property, live in poverty; unquestioningly obey the abbot of the monastery (in women's monasteries - the abbess), pray and work. Many monasteries owned vast lands, which were cultivated by dependent peasants. Schools, book copying workshops, and libraries often appeared at monasteries; monks created historical chronicles (chronicles). In the Middle Ages, monasteries were centers of education and culture.

The second estate consisted of secular feudal lords, or knighthood. The most important activities of knights were war and participation in military competitions - tournaments; The knights spent their leisure time hunting and at feasts. Teaching writing, reading and mathematics was not compulsory. Medieval literature describes the rules of worthy behavior that every knight had to follow: to be selflessly devoted to God, to faithfully serve his lord, to take care of the weak and defenseless; comply with all obligations and oaths. In reality, knights did not always follow the rules of honor. During wars, they often committed all sorts of outrages. The feudal lords lived in strong stone castles (there were about 40 thousand of them in France alone). The castle was surrounded by a deep moat; it was possible to get inside only with the drawbridge lowered. Defensive towers rose above the castle walls; the main one, the donjon, consisted of several floors. The donjon contained the feudal lord's dwelling, a feast hall, a kitchen, and a room where supplies were stored in case of a long siege. In addition to the feudal lord, his family, warriors and servants lived in the castle.

The bulk of the population of Europe in the Middle Ages was the peasantry, living in small villages of 10-15 households each. The peasants tried to free themselves from the oppression of the feudal lords by participating in the crusades, pilgrimages, and fled to the forests and to the reviving and emerging cities. They could only really free themselves by escaping to the cities. Thus, most of them were freed from personal dependence. We can be convinced of this by reading article 2 of the city law of the city of Goslar, granted by Emperor Frederick II in 1219: “If any stranger enters this city to live and stays in it for a year and a day so that no one accuses and will not catch him in a state of servility, may he rejoice in freedom, which is the common property of other townspeople, and after death no one will dare to make claims against him as his own servant.” A city man, an artisan or merchant, ceased to be a serf if he managed to live in the city for a certain period of time. He no longer felt the oppression of the landowner regime over him. The city air became magical and made the serf free. Only in the city, independently engaged in craft or trade, did the peasant have the opportunity to develop his activities. But this freedom was not absolute freedom. This was freedom from feudal-manorial oppression. The city lord still taxed the townspeople, but this taxation could no longer absorb the entire mass of surplus labor of artisans and all the trade profits of merchants.

On economic grounds, a new social layer, previously unknown to feudalism, was formed and united - the townspeople. Within the framework of the ruling class - the estate of feudal lords, more or less large estates operated, belonging to which provided a certain social status.

CM. Stam points out that the townspeople were a very heterogeneous group. But they were united by a common interest in the greatest freedom of development of urban commodity production and exchange. The objectivity of this social community was realized in the communal struggle, in the development of city law. City law is recorded in sources as a privilege. But how could it be otherwise in a society where law was a monopoly of the feudal class, and everyone else had no rights? The townspeople, naturally, had to win their rights and fix them, so to speak, as an exception. But these were not the privileges of the masters, but the conquest of the oppressed. For the first time in feudal society, city law violated the legal monopoly of the feudal lords and protected the interests of commoners, giving them full civil rights.

ON THE. Khachaturian draws attention to city corporations and notes that in order to realize his ability to work, an artisan had to become part of a guild organization that unites artisans of a given specialty and strives for a monopoly on production. Inside the workshop, he was forced to submit to the workshop regulations with their characteristic egalitarian tendencies, which can be considered as a peculiar manifestation of the non-economic coercion of the workshop organization in relation to its members.

The workshop is not the only type of community organization in the city. The form closest in nature to it was the merchant guild - an association of merchants with a certain discipline, common capital and common property in the form of an insurance fund and warehouse space. Even apprentices' unions - organizations already associated with the category of medieval labor, with a general mutual aid fund, control over working conditions and discipline - paid tribute to medieval corporatism. Finally, we should mention the city community itself as a whole, within which the unity of small professional corporations (guilds, guilds) or larger social groups (patriciate, burghers) was realized and a social community of city residents was formed.

The history of the city community itself, finally, which can be observed in the changes in the leading forces of the city community and forms of government, as well as changes in the status of full rights, which gradually became the property of a very narrow circle of people who not only own real estate, but also have access to city government, will reflect the deep shifts in the social structure of the urban class, which became more complex as feudalism developed.

The urban community is more likely to appear united and cohesive when it comes to its pressing economic, social and political interests. The main enemy, the main danger, was the lord; everything else retreated into the shadows and was rarely discovered. Economically, the new class was most associated with trade and craft activities. Usually the urban class is identified with the concept of “burghers”. The word “burgher” in some European countries originally meant all urban residents. Later, “burger” began to be used only for full-fledged citizens.

Cities nowhere played such a huge political role in the Middle Ages as in Italy, and nowhere was the scope of their trade relations as great as in this country. In addition, not only the emergence, but also the flourishing of Italian cities belonged to an earlier time than in other Western European countries. However, the various Italian cities differed greatly from each other in both their economies and their social structures.

Some of these cities (Venice, Genoa, Pisa) throughout the Middle Ages played mainly the role of the largest trading centers and were mainly engaged in foreign trade. At the same time, the growth of handicraft production in the cities of Central and Northern Italy increased the need for workers employed in urban crafts, and consequently, the influx of population from the countryside to the city. But this could only become possible by breaking the feudal shackles of the personal dependence of the peasants on the feudal lords. Meanwhile, although in the XII - first half of the XIII century. Among the peasantry of Northern and Central Italy there were a large number of personally free holders - libellarii; a significant part of the peasants continued to remain unfree (servi, masnaderii).

The liberation of the peasants, which occurred on a large scale in the second half of the 13th century. in Central Italy, was expressed in the personal liberation of peasants for ransom, without land. From the end of the 11th century. groups of personally free peasants began to create so-called rural communes, which had self-government and their own elected officials. These rural communes arose during a period when the cities, in their struggle against the lords, supported the peasants' desire for independence from the feudal lords. But after the victory over their own lords, the cities began to subjugate rural communes and abolish their self-government. They seized the communal lands of rural communes, and rich townspeople bought up peasant plots. By the end of the 13th century. in Florence, different layers of citizens with directly opposing interests have already sharply emerged. Merchants, money changers and moneylenders, united in seven “senior workshops”, were called “fat people”. Members of the junior guilds, their apprentices and the urban plebeians made up the majority of the population of Florence; they were called “the skinny people.”

The problem of the social structure of the city of Southern Italy is very complex. The social and economic appearance of cities was determined by many closely related factors, both pan-European and specific to a given region. The patriciate of the large cities of the Adriatic coast - Bari, Brindisi, Trani - accepted even in the 12th - early 13th centuries. active participation in trade with Byzantium and other Mediterranean countries. Another area of ​​activity that gave the patriciate great profits was the credit business. It was not uncommon for individuals or companies to combine maritime trade with shipping operations. Another part of the patriciate was more closely connected with the royal power than the trade and usury: from these families came officials who played a leading role in the internal political life of the city - baiuls, katepans and numerous judges. There were knights only in certain patrician families, and this did not change the social appearance of the upper stratum. The Normans settled in the cities in small numbers; Meanwhile, it was they who constituted the main backbone of chivalry before the Angevin conquest. Urban knighthood was distinguished by its originality not only in its activities.

The social structure of large cities located on the Tyrrhenian coast was somewhat different. If we exclude Amalfi (whose merchants settled in other cities, forming entire colonies there), the merchants of the ports of Salerno, Naples, and Gaeta in the 12th century. participated little in foreign trade. Partly for this reason, the nobility here was more closed. In the 13th century members of noble cities begin to make relatively widespread use of typically urban sources of income: they own shops and warehouses, and sometimes rent out houses and commercial premises. The profit received by a noble person from shops and houses is sometimes the object of a donation to the church. The bulk of the middle layer of the urban population were craftsmen. The increasing lag of the crafts of the South from Northern and Central Italy at this time is primarily explained by the economic policy of the Norman kings, and especially Frederick II, who provided patronage to the Venetian, Genoese and Pisan merchants, who delivered handicrafts here and exported grain and other agricultural products. In the cities of Campania - Naples, Salerno - artisans often passed on their profession by inheritance and were closely connected with each other, settling on

Literature on one street or around one church. Even in large cities there lived many small owners who were engaged in cultivating their lands, which were located not far from the city. Many of these owners, as the city economy weakened and fiscal oppression increased, became poorer and joined the heterogeneous motley mass of the urban plebs - unskilled laborers, loaders, day laborers. As we see, these were people of different social status. But over time, these differences are smoothed out, and a population, albeit heterogeneous in property terms, is created in its own way, bound by common rights and the obligation of mutual assistance, just as it was in the rural peasant community.

Finally, the townspeople used the labor of dependent people, as well as slaves, mainly for domestic work. Even in the 13th century. there were quite a few of them, especially in Bari, the main market for slaves captured on the Balkan Peninsula. Slaves were included in the dowry, handed over to heirs in a will, and pledged when receiving a loan. In the 13th century, when the opportunity to engage in a craft or find a profitable occupation in the city narrowed, the influx of rural residents into a large city decreased. The exception was Naples, which Charles I turned into the capital of the kingdom. After the Angevin conquest, many small and medium-sized cities were distributed as fiefs to the associates of Charles I, which significantly influenced their future fate. But the character of the big city and the position of individual segments of its population have undergone a noticeable transformation. The agrarianization of the city began, associated with the entry of the economy of Southern Italy into a long period of decline.

1. Marginalized people in a medieval city

The concept of marginality serves to designate borderline, peripheral or intermediate in relation to any social communities (national, class, cultural).

Marginal person (from Latin Margo - edge) – a person who is on the border of different social groups, systems, cultures and is influenced by their contradictory norms, values, etc. .

A marginal person, simply put, is an “in-between” person. The main sign of marginalization is the breakdown of social ties, and in the “classical” case, economic, social and spiritual ties are consistently broken.

There are individual and group marginality:

Individual marginality is characterized by the individual's incomplete inclusion in a group that does not fully accept him, and his alienation from the group of origin that rejects him as an apostate. The individual turns out to be a “cultural hybrid”, sharing the life and traditions of two or more different groups.

Group marginality arises as a result of changes in the social structure of society, the formation of new functional groups in economics and politics, displacing old groups, destabilizing their social position.

Speaking about the medieval city, it should be noted that not every resident of the city was a burgher. To become a full-fledged citizen of the city, one had to initially own a plot of land, and later - at least part of a house. Finally, a special fee had to be paid.
Outside the burghers stood the poor and beggars living on alms. Non-burghers also included people who were in the service of the burghers, as well as apprentices, clerks, people in the city service and day laborers.
Poverty was a temporary condition that people sought to overcome, and begging was a profession. They were doing it for a long time. Local beggars were firmly part of the structure of urban society.

Traveling artists. One of the marginal layers were traveling artists. Among them and their ancestors were ruined peasants, artisans who exchanged their instruments for the viol and harp, homeless clergy, wandering students and even impoverished people from noble families. On foot or in the saddle, they wandered around the world: in winter they spent the night in roadside taverns and on farms, paying with songs for shelter and meager food, and in the warm season they settled wherever necessary: ​​on the edge of the forest, near the village outskirts or on the market square of the city.
Representatives of the tribe of nomadic entertainers were despised as degenerate vagabonds who wandered around day and night and were not particularly picky in their choice of food. The preachers attacked the wandering motley people for immorality and threatened with excommunication; repentant histrions were not allowed to take communion; they were refused to be buried in consecrated ground.
Monuments of German legislation declared actors incompetent, although they did not equate them with thieves or robbers ("Saxon Mirror" (13th century). Violence could be inflicted on them without any compensation. The "Saxon Mirror" indicates a penalty for ridicule: "Actors and to all those who transfer themselves into the property of another, the shadow of a person serves as compensation,” in other words, they can punish only the shadow of the offender. A disdainful attitude did not exclude envy towards those who, despite all the squalor and disorder of their existence, despite all their dependence on the generosity of spectators or a noble patron had “carnival” rights and liberties.
Jews. The problem of the Jews in medieval Europe is, first of all, the problem of strangers. Their residence in Christian countries was not something that was taken for granted in the eyes of the indigenous population. The few Jewish communities lived off trade, which established them as the most vibrant distinguishing feature. The Jewish moneylender was necessary for society as a lender - hated, but useful and irreplaceable. Jews and Christians especially often argued over the Bible. Public and private meetings between priests and rabbis continued. At the end of the 11th century. Gilbert Crispi, Abbot of Westminster, related the success of his theological dispute with a Jew who arrived from Mainz. Andrew of Saint-Victor, in the middle of the 12th century. set out to restore biblical exegesis, consulted rabbis
Executioners. This was a large family that carried out the justice of the law in all its simplicity, power and majesty. The elders, wise men, and priests gathered, judged, made judgments, and the whole people carried out the sentence that they passed. Since the concept of justice was connected with the name of God (Gods), then in their concept - to punish the guilty is to glorify the Creator. Refusing to participate in the punishment was not only shameful, but was even considered sacrilege. The executioner's house is painted red and stands away from the others. They very often add their pious exhortations to those of the priest, and when the execution of the unfortunate man is completed, they beg for heavenly forgiveness for forcibly separating the person from this light. The income of the executioners was very significant. At each market they had the right to demand from each seller game or livestock worth two soles. Previously, they had the right to receive tribute in eggs from sellers of this product. In Spain, the executioner wore a jacket made of brown cloth with red lapels (trimmings), a yellow belt and a wide-brimmed hat on which a ladder was woven in silver or gold.

Midwives. Obstetrics has been a predominantly female activity for centuries. Before the modern period, it was almost impossible to imagine male doctors assisting in childbirth. However, already in the Middle Ages, the institutions of patriarchal society through regulation began to influence the field of obstetrics. Birth was considered within the framework of the religious picture of the world of the late Middle Ages as one of the fateful, existential events in which the divine and human were especially closely intertwined. It was not only a purely medical process that required skilled artisanal support, but was seen as a divinely determined event, as an act of creation, and was therefore shrouded in an aura of fear and taboo.
In this sphere, between the divine and worldly principles of human existence, stood the midwife. Using various herbs, spells, prayers and ritual actions, midwives could perform an easy birth and deliver a healthy child, or, conversely, they could curse him and dedicate him to demons or the devil. In those days, there was a widespread belief that midwives practiced protective and protective witchcraft, designed to protect mother and child from demonic influence, from the evil eye and other harm to the child. It was this goal that was pursued by such ritual actions as, for example, untying ribbons from an apron, stockings and shoes, as well as unlocking locks throughout the house. Church catalogs of confessions confirm that these magical rituals, dating back to pre-Christian times, were still used quite often in the late Middle Ages.

Jesters. The psychological phenomenon of medieval culture is the “wisely mad” jester, an integral character of the holiday, his buffoonish accompaniment. The figure of a professional wit and foul-mouthed man is inseparable from the element of public entertainment. Jesters and fools were “permanent, fixed in ordinary (i.e., non-carnival) life, bearers of the carnival principle.” They completely got used to their comedic “mask”; the role and existence of the buffoon coincided. The type of jester contains a universal comedy, extending to the asociality and intemperance of the trickster himself (self-parody), to his fooled victims, high rituals, etc. The appearance of a city or court jester aroused contradictory feelings, oscillating between lively joy and reverent fear: after all, fools and holy fools (blessed ones possessed by madness) were endowed with the gift of clairvoyance and witchcraft.
For people of the Middle Ages, the jester (fool) was not just a comic figure, but also a bearer of the prophetic gift, for example, in courtly romance. Alien to the world of people, he comes into contact with invisible world, with higher powers (madness is a sign of divine possession).

Prostitutes. The religious element had a decisive influence on the development of sexual ethics in the Middle Ages, and at the same time on the attitude of the state and individuals towards prostitution and its organization. For the subordination of religion and the church, both in the East and in the West, was generally equivalent at that time to the development of life in accordance with the demands of reason. But life developed in a certain social environment, and the East and the West reveal both similar features and peculiar differences in this regard. These latter determined the different conditions of origin and various forms of manifestation of medieval prostitution, as well as its different relationships to the so-called “social question,” that is, to economic and social life (in the broadest sense of the word). Paris, Padua, Salamanca, Cologne, Leipzig and Vienna were considered the most disgraced due to the drunkenness and debauched life of students. Celibacy, as a favorable moment for the development of prostitution in the Middle Ages, is inferior in its significance to the then very widespread in all countries of the atrocities of the so-called “harmful” people, that is, people without certain means of living, whose existence was possible only thanks to beggary, all kinds of permissible tricks, theft and other criminal acts, as well as through prostitution.

1. Early urban culture. Universities. Pierre Abelard.

The burghers, who in their lives differed significantly from other segments of medieval society, also created their own culture. Urban culture was secular in nature and was closely connected with folk art. Poetic fables and jokes were popular among city residents, telling stories about resourceful city residents who found a way out of any difficult situations.

Urban culture had a striking manifestation in the development of literature. The most famous and beloved work of city residents was the French “Roman of the Fox,” in which, under the guise of animals, all layers of medieval society are represented - feudal lords, kings, priests, and townspeople. The main character is Renard the Fox, smart, cheerful, able to find a way out of any situation. Renard is the personification of a rich burgher. He constantly leads the Wolf Isegrin and his brother Primo by the nose (Primo personified by the images of knights): either he will force Isegrin to catch fish with his tail and he will be beaten by the peasants, or he will convince Primo to serve in the church and he will barely escape from the angry peasants. November deceives Leo (king), mocks the Donkey (priest). Like a real Fox, he chases hares and chickens (Ordinary people), but nothing comes of it. The novel amused everyone. One abbot complained that his monks were more willing to read a novel than the Bible.

No less popular was “The Romance of the Rose,” which glorifies nature and human reason and affirms the equality of people. Urban literature fostered a sense of humanity. It reflected the self-awareness of townspeople who valued their freedom and independence.

An integral part of the city culture was the work of traveling actors, musicians, singers, dancers and acrobats, magicians, who were called jugglers. They were favorites of city dwellers. Traveling from city to city, they showed their performances in open-air city squares.

There were relatively few educated people in the Middle Ages. In the early Middle Ages, as you know, educated people lived mainly in monasteries.

The rise of Europe, which began in the 10th century, created a desire for knowledge and a need for educated people. Education began to expand beyond the monasteries.

In medieval Europe, three levels of schools can be distinguished. Lower schools existed in churches and monasteries, providing basic knowledge to those wishing to devote themselves to serving God. Here they studied the Latin language, which was used for worship, prayers and the order of worship itself. Secondary schools were often established at the residences of bishops. They studied the families of the liberal sciences - grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry. The latter contained geography, astrology, music. The first three sciences constituted the “trivium”, the next four - the “quadrivium”.

Since the 11th century. Higher schools arose in Europe, which were later called universities (from the Latin universitas - a totality). This name comes from the fact that the first universities were communities that united teachers and students (the students called the university “alma mater” - Affectionate Mother.) Such associations had their own clear rules of behavior, their own structure and claimed their independence from the city authorities, in where they were located.

The first such associations arose in the Italian cities of Salerno and Bologna, where they studied medicine and Roman law. During the XII - XIII centuries. the number of universities has increased steadily. The most famous were Paris (Sorbonne), Oxford and Cambridge (in England), Salamanca (in Spain), etc. In 1500 there were 65 universities in Europe.

The University of Paris became a model for European universities. It arose in the first half of the 12th century. and existed as a "free school". In 1200, King Philip II Augustus of France granted the “school” special rights. The university had four faculties: artistic (Preparatory, which studied the “seven free sciences”), medical, legal, and theological (philosophical).

Teaching at universities was conducted in Latin. This made it possible for students to begin their studies in one and finish in another. There was no clear duration of study at universities, and therefore some students studied for quite a long time. Students who traveled from one university to another were called vagantas(Vagabonds). The main forms of teaching were lectures and debates between professors.

Abelard Pierre Palais - French philosopher, theologian, poet. He developed a doctrine later called conceptualism. He developed scholastic dialectics (the essay “Yes and No”). Abelard's rationalistic orientation (“I understand in order to believe”) caused protest from orthodox church circles: Abelard's teaching was condemned by the councils of 1121 and 1140. Tragic story Abelard's love for Heloise is described in his autobiography, "The History of My Disasters."

Born in the vicinity of Nantes into a noble family. Having chosen a career as a scientist, he renounced his birthright in favor of his younger brother.

Abelard reached Paris and became a student there of the Catholic theologian and philosopher Guillaume of Champeaux. Abelard began to openly and boldly oppose the philosophical concept of his teacher and this caused great dissatisfaction on his part. Abelard not only left the cathedral school, but also decided to open his own.

The school was opened, and the lectures of the new master immediately attracted many students. In Paris, as in other cities of North-Eastern France, there was a stubborn struggle between representatives of various philosophical schools. In medieval philosophy, two main directions emerged - realism and nominalism. The founder of medieval nominalism was Roscelin, Abelard's teacher, and contemporary realism was represented by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, the learned mentor of the theologian Anselm of Lansky, whose closest student was Abelard's philosophical enemy, Guillaume of Champeaux.

Proving the “reality” of the existence of objects of faith, medieval realism met the interests of the Catholic Church and found full support on its part.

The nominalists contrasted the teaching of the realists with the doctrine that all general concepts and ideas (universals) are only names (“nomia” - “names”) of things that actually exist and precede concepts. Nominalist Denial of Independent Existence general concepts certainly cleared the way for the pursuit of empirical knowledge.

The Church immediately saw danger in the teachings of the nominalists and at one of the church councils (in Soissons, in 1092) anathematized their views.

Returning from Laon to Paris in 1113, Abelard resumed lecturing on philosophy.

In 1118 he was invited as a teacher to a private house, where he became the lover of his student Eloise. Abelard transported Heloise to Brittany, where she gave birth to a son. She then returned to Paris and married Abelard. This event was supposed to remain secret. Fulbert, the guardian of the girl, began to talk everywhere about the marriage and Abelard again took Heloise to the Argenteuil convent. Fulbert decided that Abelard forcibly tonsured Heloise a nun and, having bribed hired people, ordered Abelard to be castrated.

The philosopher entered the monastery of Saint-Denis and resumed teaching.

A church council convened in 1121 in Soissons condemned Abelard's views as heretical and forced him to publicly burn his theological treatise. Returning to the monastery of Saint-Denis, Abelard immersed himself in reading monastic manuscripts and spent several months doing this. In 1126, he received news from Brittany that he had been elected abbot of the monastery of St. Gildasius. Completely unprepared for the role of leader, he quickly spoiled relations with the monks and fled from the monastery of St. Gildasius.

Returning from Brittany to Paris, Abelard again settled on the hill of St. Genevieve. As before, Abelard's lectures were well attended, and his school once again became a center for public discussion of theological problems.

The book “The History of My Disasters” played a significant role in Abelard’s special popularity. The most famous among students and masters of the “liberal arts” at this time were such works of Abelard as “Dialectics”, “Introduction to Theology”, the treatise “Know Thyself” and “Yes and No”.

The basic principle of Abelard's ethical concept is the affirmation of a person's full moral responsibility for his actions - both virtuous and sinful. A person's activities are determined by his intentions. In itself, no action is either good or evil. It all depends on intentions. In accordance with this, Abelard believed that the pagans who persecuted Christ did not commit any sinful actions, since these actions were not in conflict with their beliefs. The ancient philosophers were not sinful either, although they were not supporters of Christianity, but acted in accordance with their high moral values.

these principles. The general spirit of Abelard's teaching made him, in the eyes of the church, the worst of heretics.

The initiator of a new church council in 1140 was Bernard of Clairvaux. Along with representatives of the highest clergy, King Louis VII of France also arrived at the Sens Cathedral.

The council participants condemned Abelard's writings. They asked Pope Innocent II to condemn the heretical teachings of Abelard, merciless reprisals against his followers, prohibiting Abelard from writing, teaching, and the widespread destruction of Abelard’s books.

Sick and broken, the philosopher retires to the Cluny monastery.

In 1141-1142, Abelard wrote "Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew and a Christian." Abelard preaches the idea of ​​religious tolerance. Every religion contains a grain of truth, so Christianity cannot claim that it is the only true religion.

Abelard died on April 21, 1142. Heloise transported Abelard's ashes to the Paraclete and buried him there.

1. Creativity of vagants.

Vagants (from the Latin clerici vagantes - wandering clerics) - “wandering people” in the Middle Ages (XI-XIV centuries) in Western Europe, capable of writing and performing songs or, less often, prose works.

In the wide use of the word, the concept of vagants will include such socially heterogeneous and undefined groups as French jugglers (jongleur, jogleor - from the Latin joculator - “joker”), German spielmans (Spielman), English minstrels (minstral - from the Latin ministerialis - “servant” ) etc. However, usually the word vaganta is used in a narrower sense to designate wandering poets who used in their work exclusively, or at least predominantly, the Latin language - the international class language of the clergy. The first vagants were clergy who lived outside their parish or did not hold a specific church position at all; Over time, the vagantas began to be replenished by school student associations, moving from one university to another. Only later - already in the era of weakening of the poetry of the vagantes - representatives of other classes, in particular the urban one, began to join this group.

The social composition of this group determines both the forms and content of the poetry of the vagants. In the forms of their lyrical and didactic poetry, the Vagantes are closely connected with the learned Latin poetry of the Carolingian era, in which all the elements of the Vagant form (tonic versification, rhymes, vocabulary, images and stylistic decorations) are presented in a separate form, and through it - with the Latin poetry of early Christianity and the ancient world. For the love lyrics of the Vagants, the importance of Ovid (“The Science of Love” and other works) is especially great.

The influence of ancient poetry is reflected not only in the mythological accessories (Venus, Cupid, Cupids, sometimes even nymphs and satyrs) with which the vagantes loved to decorate their works, and in the names of the characters (Flora, Phyllida, etc.), but also in the concept love and the image of the beloved, completely devoid of reminiscences of feudal relations (courtly service to a lady) so typical of courtly lyrics and imbued with the purely earthly joy of carnal pleasure; It is characteristic that the description of a naked body (an interesting motivation in one of the songs is a spied bath) is more typical of vagant poetry than the lyrics of troubadours and minnesingers (see “Walter von der Vogelweide”). An echo of learned poetry is the penchant of vagantes for forms of dialogical discussion of the casuistry of love (conflictus, certamen).

One can establish reminiscences of ancient poetry in the descriptions and symbolism of nature in the vagants, which in the brightness of their colors often surpass the spring beginnings of courtly lyrics; on the other hand, in the symbolism of nature, the Vagants have many similarities with folk songs, which undoubtedly influenced their poetry. The motifs of wine and drunkenness come into contact with the motives of love in the lyrics of the vagants; Numerous student songs were subsequently developed from the genre of drinking songs of the vagants: “Meum est propositum” (op. “Archipiites”, 12th century), “Gaudeamus igitur”, and others.

Formally, the vagantes use elements of religious literature in their satire - they parody its main forms (vision, hymn, sequence, etc.), going so far as to parody the liturgy (“Missa gulonis”) and the Gospel (“Evangelium secundum Marcam argentis”).

In their connection with ancient poetry, vagantes are the harbingers of the Renaissance. The work of the vagants is anonymous, but some authors are still known: Gautier from Lille - aka Walter of Chatillon (second half of the 12th century), who wrote “Contra ecclesiasticos juxta visionem apocalypsis”; Primate of Orleans (early 12th century); a German vagant, known by his nickname “Archipoeta” (second half of the 12th century), and a few others.

The Vagantas have been persecuted by the church and the state throughout their existence; in the 16th century, they, drawing closer to the wandering professional jugglers - "joculatores", - were completely identified with the so-called "vagabundi" (rabble). In the south (except Italy, where the vagantes are attested) and in the east of Europe, only the belated beginnings of the vagante movement took place.

HUGO OF ORLEANS Primate (1093? - 1160)

ARCHITHE OF COLOGNE (1130-1140 - after 1165) a knight of low birth, an expert in antiquity, a certain secular gloss in his lyrics

WALTER OF CHATILLION (mid 12th - early 13th centuries)

THOMAS BENET

Two themes of the vagants’ lyrics: love, satirical

Genres: love songs, pastoral, satirical denunciation, laments and panigyrics (often custom-made), complaints, poetic short stories or ballads.

1. The disintegration of the guild and the rise of free craft in the countries of Western Europe.

Craft - small handmade production of products - arose long before the Middle Ages and continues to this day. The Middle Ages, however, are the era of its heyday. Professional artisans coexisted with all classes of medieval society. As a rule, there were rural artisans in every village; specialists - gunsmiths, bakers, saddlers, etc. - served knightly castles and could even be ignoble vassals of the lowest rank, having received a forge or bakery as fief; monasteries, as more or less closed economic organisms, could, like secular estates, flourish only with a sufficient supply of handicrafts, hence the highly developed monastic craft of the Middle Ages. However, the main place for the development of crafts was the city. In the village, the blacksmith was the only professional craftsman; in the castle and monastery, artisans were usually a small part of the servants or brethren; in the cities, they formed a considerable (if not the main) share of the members of the commune. It was in the cities that the question arose about organizing them into self-governing collectives - guilds, which, however, did not take shape everywhere: in many cities of Western Europe, artisans reported directly to city authorities.

Medieval guilds - associations of urban artisans of the same or similar specialties - appear, apparently, in the 10th-11th centuries, the fixation of their statutes dates back to the 12th - early 14th centuries. Actually, the production team itself was small: due to the low level of division of labor, the product did not change hands, and one master, albeit with several assistants - family members, apprentices, students - made the entire thing. But in the traditional, class-based, corporate society of the Middle Ages, the constitution of any activity most successfully occurred through the unification of those involved in this activity into a collective recognized by society. Therefore, in most urban crafts in Western Europe, the heads of production teams sought to unite into workshops. The workshops were divided by profession, and the dividing criteria were based not on the nature of production, but on the products produced, distinguished by function. For example, technologically identical household knives and combat daggers were made by members of different workshops: cutlers and gunsmiths, respectively. The unit of the workshop was its full member - the foreman who owned the workshop. Ideally (and if this did not contradict technological capabilities), the product should have been manufactured completely within one workshop: from preparing the material to decorating the finished item. The master was assisted in his activities by workers subordinate to him: journeymen and apprentices. The student worked for board and shelter and often paid for his education himself (or his relatives). The apprenticeship usually lasted from two to seven years, and in some cases even 10-12 years. Having completed the apprenticeship, he became an apprentice who received payment for his work. However, he was not so much a hired worker on the model of modern workers, but rather an assistant to the master, who usually lived with him under the same roof. An apprentice could already become a master himself, but for this it was necessary to have a certain income, often a family, and in some places - to first travel around the world, improving his skills. In addition, an exemplary product had to be produced - a masterpiece, which was evaluated by a council of shop foremen. If the product complies established rules, then the apprentice - after treating the workshop members - became a full-fledged master and could participate in the life of the corporation, in the election of its leadership, in making internal shop decisions, etc. (however, sometimes apprentices also had a limited right to vote in the affairs of the workshop).

People of the Middle Ages did not know the division of their life and activities into industrial, public, private, etc. A medieval workshop is a community not of producers, but of people, with their own thoughts, feelings, values, beliefs, united by a common type of production activity. Therefore, the main task of the workshop is to regulate not production, but human relations. The word "shop" comes from the German "Zeche" - feast, i.e. derived from the concept of "feast"; This is also the origin of the word “guild”, which united both communities of traders and, often, communities of artisans. In the medieval sense of the word, “feast” is not private entertainment, but a special form of interpersonal communication, an act of social communication, and even a type of element of a system of management and self-government. The workshops - not everywhere, but where they achieved an official position in the communes - were units of city self-government, and the city militia was organized in the workshops. But the central function of the guild is to ensure a decent life for its members, decent not only in the economic, but even in the everyday sense: the leadership of the guild monitored the good behavior of its members, especially apprentices, demanded an unblemished reputation, and monitored marriage ties, entertainment, clothing and jewelry of the masters , their wives and henchmen. The workshop strictly regulated production: the quality and quantity of products produced by each master. Bad, low-quality products tarnished the good name of the workshop, therefore those who produced such products were punished with fines, exclusion from the corporation, and even disgraceful punishments. Quality was meant not only in the material sense we are familiar with. There is a known ban on purchasing raw silk from Jews, i.e. The quality of the material also included the quality of religion and other personal characteristics of the manufacturer of this material.

The production of not only bad goods or those produced in insufficient quantities was suppressed, but also those that were too good or made in too many quantities, because differences in the volume and quality of goods produced could lead to the fact that someone would buy more from someone, someone would buy more from someone else. the cost of production is lower and, therefore, he will be richer than the other, and this will cause stratification and conflicts in the community. Therefore, the number of auxiliary workers was limited, i.e. journeymen and apprentices, length of working day, etc. The guild cash register, to which the artisans contributed a share of their income, was intended to help the impoverished members of the guild, their widows and orphans.

Forced equality within the workshop was combined with inequality between different workshops. The point is not only that some workshops - for example, jewelers - were richer than others, say, porters, or that some, for example, sculpture carvers, required more skill than others, for example, furriers. The character and area of ​​activity, the “honor” of both played a role: for example, doctors, who gave life to people, were revered more than butchers, who took life from animals.

Almost any phenomenon of the Middle Ages - the state and classes, diseases and natural disasters, sins and virtues - had their own saints, “responsible” for these phenomena, caring for them, or turning them away from them. Every craft and every workshop had its heavenly patron. Admirers of this saint united in local organizations - brotherhoods. The duties of the latter included charity towards their fellow members, including their worthy burial and funeral services, and the creation of churches and chapels in honor of their saint, and the organization of guild festivities dedicated to the saint - the patron saint of the craft. The entire life of a medieval guild artisan - social, economic, industrial, religious, everyday, festive - took place within the framework of the guild brotherhood.

The technical achievements of medieval crafts and the positive knowledge accumulated by medieval artisans are especially mentioned. Actually, scientific knowledge was not widespread in the craft environment. It does not follow from this, however, that there was no “quasi-theory” that explained craft actions and knowledge. Studies of recipe collections that have come down to us, albeit in a small number, show that the craft was closely connected with magic. The most exotic means were used, such as basilisk ash, dragon blood, hawk bile or red-haired boy urine, and the use of only some of these ingredients has a rational technical basis. Analysis of recipes shows that behind craft activities there is a mythical and magical picture of the world. The production act of a craftsman could be considered as a fragment of some magical ritual, reproducing a myth, in particular, a snake-wrestling myth. The master craftsman, as it were, repeated in his actions the initial struggle of cosmic forces, the creation of the Cosmos and things useful to man, and elevated himself to a demiurge and cultural hero.

The widespread use of magic not approved by the church, traditionally present in a number of crafts, led to conflicts with orthodox religious views. Theological works, including those that relate to “popular theology”, to the religion of the masses, and not the intellectual elite (see, for example, “The Lamp of Honorius of Augustodunus”) speak of the “deceptiveness” of the creativity of the masters. Studying manuals for preachers, i.e. texts, mostly or to a lesser extent reflecting the knowledge that the local clergy conveyed to their parishioners, allows us to conclude that certain ancient Christian ideas reached the latter: that the world was created by God, consists of matter and form created by God, that everything that comes from God, great, etc. In the eyes of the artisan, the creation of things was thus interpreted in the forms of not only archaic myth, but also ancient Christian ideas.

The description of any product begins with an indication of the origin of the source material. For example, with the thesis “crystal is water solidified into ice, and ice turns into stone over time,” the recipe for making a crystal top for a bishop’s crozier begins. Information about decorating the product (“decorate it with a notch of flowers, and let the golden flower certainly be replaced by a silver one”) completes the group of recipes for melting iron. Discussions about decorating objects are connected in the mind of the artisan (if you believe the prologue to one of the recipe collections of the 12th century) with the idea that the form of the product comes from God; and the proof that the master has faithfully reproduced it, seen with spiritual eyes, or, in the words of Thomas Aquinas, “conceived in the depths of his mind,” is the beauty of the product. This is why, among other things, medieval crafts are inextricably linked with art. The Latin "ars", from which the modern European words for art are derived, in the Middle Ages meant rather "skill". And if the “artes” were divided into “free” (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, the latter meaning the doctrine of harmony, and not the performing arts) and “mechanical” (from blacksmithing or carpentry to healing and acting), then this was not a division into “low craft” and “High Art”, but a distinction between the ability to think and the ability to do; the first, however, was more prestigious than the second.

Craft knowledge, thus, was a special knowledge-skill, knowledge that made it possible to understand the essence of things. This knowledge is secret, kept secret, and not only because its possession allows the craftsman to rise above the ignorant, or to make much better products, but also because this knowledge is too strong to fall into the wrong hands - and this is another an argument in favor of mandatory “good behavior” for those entering the guild. At the same time, knowledge should be open to all “good” people, i.e. to all members of a given workshop, because within it no one can or should hide anything from others: craft knowledge must be common to all members of the workshop.

The craftsman felt himself to be part of a certain whole - a community, a corporation, uniting with it not so much in the process of everyday work, but in life, through social connections, and not narrow production ones. Medieval cities were relatively small, and the number of guild members was limited. All this - the size of the workshop, workshop, city - contributed to personal contacts between the craftsmen and the development of informal connections between them. Constant personal contact was even expressed in the fact that the boundaries of a person’s personality and even “physical” boundaries did not pass where we draw them today. The guild of Cologne barbers forbade its fellow members to undergo surgical operations without the consent of the guild elders, i.e. the bodies of the masters seemed to not completely belong to them.

The knowledge of artisans was empirical, acquired by the labor of many generations, and therefore, as it were, independent of a specific person, but belonging to the working community as a whole. And since in the activities of a craftsman personal and production were not separated, then in his knowledge, in his everyday behavior, technological skills and moral and ethical properties merged together. His knowledge was not science, but a skill and a gift from above. This lay on top of the specific information recorded in the recipe and could only be transmitted through personal communication, which again strengthened informal connections, and also led to the fact that this skill, inseparable from a person, was transmitted along with his other personal properties, and the mentor and the student seemed to be united by personalities, i.e. had, so to speak, common personal qualities. But not only these two united, but also all the previous mentors, so that in each person the entire workshop, including the masters of the past, seemed to be concentrated. This “continuity of personality” greatly contributed to the continuity of knowledge, but at the same time, its conservatism.

The master became close not only with his fellow workers, but also with the products he produced. They were not faceless goods, but, as it were, part of himself. The products imprint the personality of the master in all his integrity, with all his life qualities. So it's like a bad person

The "communal revolution" in the Middle Ages is:

1. The process of forming workshops

2. Transformation of cities belonging to feudal lords into independent communes

3. Transition to rental relations in agriculture

The formation of medieval cities was greatly influenced by communal revolutions - the liberation movement of townspeople against the seigneurial regime.

Magdeburg law, which provided the city with the highest and broadest form of self-government, is a classic law of urban independence. As a result of the communal movement in the German lands, the following cities received independence and the status of city-republics: Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfurt on the Main, etc. Many cities of Northern France, practically not Romanized, such as Soissons, Amiens, etc., as well as the cities of Flanders - Bruges, Ghent and others - as a result of the communal movement, became commune cities, with their own self-government, free from seigneurial dependence.

The fate of the cities that were located on royal lands was much more difficult and completely different. The kings (as well as the secular and spiritual feudal lords) did not want to grant cities the status of self-governing communes. The king looked at the city as his own treasury. Almost no city that was located on the territory of the royal lands received full self-government.

But even those cities that gained independence or had it before, such as Paris, London, Oxford, Cambridge, were under the watchful eye of central government officials. This form of self-government, when a seemingly independent city is constantly monitored by a representative of the central government, is typical for the northern regions of Western Europe (Scandinavian countries, Ireland, many cities in the German states, Hungary). Most, especially small, cities, as a result of the communal movement, remained dependent on the lords.

Despite all the differences in the results of the communal movement for the cities of Western Europe, they were united by one common achievement - the inhabitants of the cities of Western Europe were freed from serfdom, they became free. It was after the communal movement that a tradition developed, according to which, after living in the city for a year and one day, a person became free. The catchphrase “city air makes a person free” was, as it were, a metaphorical expression, the result of the communal movement.

The communal movement, which led to urban independence, caused another phenomenon - the formation of an urban patriciate, which did not exist at the early stage of development of the medieval city. The court, finances, and city administration begin to gradually concentrate in the hands of the patriciate. As a result, in the XIII-XV centuries. In almost all countries of Western Europe, the struggle is already unfolding within the city - the struggle of the townspeople against the patriciate. Despite some peculiarities in different cities of Western Europe, this struggle ends with the victory of the rich artisans and trading strata of the city, who establish urban oligarchic government, practically merging with the urban patriciate.

During the XI-XV centuries. In the cities of Western Europe, a new class is emerging: the medieval class of townspeople. It was associated with trade and craft production, with property. In political and legal terms, this class enjoyed unconditional privileges and liberties, which constituted the status of a full-fledged citizen. In the XIV-XV centuries. The inhabitants of the city began to be called burghers. From this word, in the future, part of the urban population who succeeded in commodity production will receive the name “bourgeoisie”.

With the growth of cities, handicraft production increases, and trade also grows. The city and the market that has arisen around it become the basis for the formation of a single internal market. Already in the XIII-XV centuries. two major centers of international trade are emerging. The first center - the Mediterranean, with which the merchants of the Romanized regions of Europe were connected, provided access to Byzantium and further to the East. The second center of international and especially general Western European trade developed in the north - the regions of the Baltic and North Seas. Northwestern Rus' also adjoined this trading region: Novgorod, Pskov, Polotsk and other cities. Northern trade followed the famous “Amber Route,” which took its name from the amber of the Baltic Sea. This route becomes the main trade nerve of Western Europe.

In the XIV-XV centuries. the city begins to have an increasingly significant influence on all areas of development of the feudal state. The city firmly became not only the center of production, but also the center of culture of the Middle Ages. It is here that, along with powerful production potential and material wealth, cultural potential accumulates.

In general, the communal movement had enormous progressive significance. The successes of the communal movement served as one of the main prerequisites for the transformation of cities into the most important centers of economic, ideological and cultural progress. In the most advanced Italian cities, whose development K. Marx considered an exceptional phenomenon, whose complete political independence and the end of their feudal exploitation contributed to the unusually intensive accumulation of wealth and the transformation of these cities in the XIV-XV centuries. to the centers of early capitalist development. Undermining the power of the largest feudal lords, the communal movement was the most important factor in the political unification of the country. It contributed to the formation of a class of townspeople, which, under favorable conditions, led to the emergence of a class monarchy - a more progressive form of the feudal state.