Note 809 — Chapter VII · THE TOWNS.

History furnishes notable instances of what has been put here merely hypothetically. The earls of Flanders were honourably distinguished among all the European potentates by the liberal manner in which they treated their subjects. The appendix to this chapter contains some of the earliest charters which they granted to their towns, and these fully explain the wealth, power and happiness of Flanders in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. And notwithstanding what I have said in the text, and which is justified by the conduct of the bishops in some parts of Europe, it must be admitted that the clergy were generally just and merciful lords, as far as the material well-being of their dependents was concerned. The German proverb says: “’Tis good to live under the crozier.”