eudalism had prevailed
over the entire country, there was a continual growth {339} of local
self-government at the time when feudalism was gradually passing into
monarchial power. It was to the interest of the kings to favor
somewhat the development of local self-government, especially the
development of the cities while the struggle for dominion over
feudalism was going on; but when the kings had once obtained power they
found themselves confronted with the uprising spirit of local
government. The struggle between king and people went on for some
centuries, until the time when everything ran to monarchy and all the
rights of the people were wrested from them; indeed, the perfection of
the centralized government of the French monarch left no opportunity
for the voice of the people to be heard.

The rural communes existed by rights obtained from feudal lords who had
granted them charters and given them self-government over a certain
territory. These charters allowed the inhabitants of a commune to
regulate citizenship and the administration of property, and to define
feudal rights and duties. Their organ of government was a general
assembly of all the inhabitants, which either regulated the affairs of
a commune directly or else delegated especial functions to communal
officers who had power to execute laws already passed or to convoke the
general assembly of the people on new affairs. The collection of taxes
for both the central and the local government, the management of the
property of the commune, and the direction of the police system
represented the chief powers of the commune. The exercise of these
privileges led into insistence upon the right of every man, whether
peasant, freeman, or noble, to be tried by his peers.

_The Municipalities of France_.--As elsewhere related, the barbarians
found the cities and towns of France well advanced in their own
municipal system. This system they modified but little, only giving
somewhat of the spirit of political freedom. In the struggle waged
later against the feudal nobility these towns gradually obtained their
rights, by purchase or agreement, and became self-governing. In this
struggle we find the Christian church, represented by the bishop,
always arraying itself on the side of the commons against the nobility,
{340} and thus establishing democracy. Among the municipal privileges
which were wrested from the nobility was included the right to make all
laws tha