Note 1 — Chapter III · ToC

"Brunswick succeeded more thoroughly than any other German town in reaching the goal of the whole development of mediæval civic life—that is the emancipation and elevation of the working class....

"The Guilds developed unusually early in Brunswick those activities which rendered them everywhere schools of political education and centres of revolution. In Brunswick first of all did the workmen make head against the Burghers. And if old records can be trusted what immoderate ambitions appear even in their first rising in 1292. They were not merely in revolt against abuses or for some moderate participation in government, but proposed nothing less than the suppression of the old Constitution and to make themselves absolute masters of the town." Chroniken der Deutschen Städte. Braunschweig. Vol. I., p. xxvi.