a certain number of shots.

After the time of that archery court of the Magdeburgers, mutual
shooting festivals are mentioned by the chronicles of other cities.
They were quite common, at least in southern Germany, about 1400; for
example, Munich sent its archers almost every second year to contend in
the neighbouring cities, and the "customs" of the public shootings were
already at that period firmly established. Thenceforward they spread
over the whole of Germany, increasing in magnitude and splendour. They,
as well as the German burgher-class, were at their highest acme about
1500; in the century of the Reformation they became more extensive and
costly, and more diversified in customs and characteristics, but
shortly before the Thirty Years' War they showed many symptoms of
decline. The increasing power of the princes, and the commencement of
modern court splendour, were mixed up with the old customs--the
festivals became very costly, and a refined love of pleasure began to
appear.

Prize-meetings were not only established in the cities, they were held
sometimes by the princes and wealthy nobles, as early as the fifteenth
century, and still more frequently when in the century of the
Reformation armour and lances declined in importance. The great landed
proprietors of the neighbourhood, or the princes of the country, were
received as honoured guests at these meetings of the cities. Still the
archers were for the most part citizens, and the occasional princes and
nobles were placed under their banners. At an early period even free
peasants were allowed to enter the lists, but this became rare in
Germany after the Peasant War, though they continued to do so in
Switzerland, where a powerful peasantry have never ceased to exist. The
equal right of all, without distinction of ranks, both as to prizes and
penalties, is a citizen characteristic, and by far the greatest number
of associations, as well as the most important, came from the cities.

During so long a period many of their usages altered, and others were
developed in different provinces, but yet the unity of their
proceedings from the Oder to the Rhine, from the Alps to the Vistula,
is very striking. They represent during this whole period a brilliant
phase of German life, the noble hospitality exercised by martial city
communities towards other friendly cities. The self-respect of the
citizen found in them its most powerful expression. Many characteristic
quali