_A French Town_

Lapis de pariete clamabit, et lignum, quod inter juncturas
aedificiorum est, respondebit.

[Illustration: THE ARMS OF FRANCE]

If the Norman capital that Philip Augustus added to the royal domain
of France was not particularly rich, as I have shown, in architectural
beauty, it possessed something more enduring even than stone, more
vital than any school of architecture, something also far more
precious as an indication of coming prosperity and strength; and this
was the beginning of the independence and wealth of the citizens of
Rouen, as symbolised by the beginning of their Commune. This spirit of
independence, and bold assertion of consecrated privilege, was not
limited to the laymen. Perhaps its most unexpected expansion is to be
found in that Privilege de St. Romain exercised by the Cathedral
Chapterhouse, whose beginning has been already mentioned in the fables
of the Church (see pp. 38 to 41). To appreciate the state of things in
this connection, which Philip Augustus found in Rouen, you must recall
two facts that I stated in earlier pages. They are, first, the
institution of the Foire du Pardon by the Conqueror (see p. 69), and,
second, the opportunity offered for experiments in independence
whether civic or ecclesiastical, by the years of Stephen's anarchy in
England, and of Henry Plantagenet's minority in France (see p. 84)
between the years 1135 and 1145.

I am enabled to limit the date of the beginning of the Privilege de
St. Romain to this particular interval, because a formal inquiry in
1210 established the facts, on sworn testimony, that there had been no
objection made to the privilege in the reigns of Richard Coeur de
Lion or of Henry II., and the details given of the procession to the
Norman castle and the visit of the canons to the dungeons show that
the machinery of ceremonial had already advanced to a certain degree
of age and elaboration. In the first of these reigns there is indeed
definite reference to the fact that no prisoner was released in 1193,
because the Lion-hearted Duke was himself a captive; and as a graceful
recognition of this courtesy the Chapter were permitted to release two
prisoners in 1194 to compensate for the voluntary lapse of one year.
This again would show that the privilege was already known and
recognised as traditional and proper. We can go still further back in
the process of limitation; for Orderic Vital, who died in 1141,
describes the