At Perigueux, the young couples had to give the consuls a pincushion of embossed leather or cloth of different colours; a woman marrying a second time was required to present them with an earthen pot containing twelve sticks of different woods; a woman marrying for the third time, a barrel of cinders passed thirteen times through the sieve, and thirteen spoons made of wood of fruit-trees; and, lastly, one coming to the altar for the fifth time was obliged to bring with her a small tub containing the excrement of a white hen!

“The people of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period were literally tied down with taxes and dues of all sorts,” says M. Mary-Lafon.  “If a few gleams of liberty reached them, it was only from a distance, and more in the hope of the future than as regarded the present.  As an example of the way people were treated, a certain Lord of Laguene, spoken of in the old chronicles of the south, may be mentioned.  Every year, this cunning baron assembled his tenants in the village square.  A large maypole was planted, and on the top was attached a wren.  The lord, pointing to the little bird, declared solemnly, that if any ‘vilain’ succeeded in piercing him with an arrow he should be exempt from that year’s dues.  The vilains shot away, but, to the great merriment of their lord, never hit, and so had to continue paying the dues.”

[Illustration:  Fig. 33.—­Ramparts of the Town of Aigues-Mortes, one of the Municipalities of Languedoc.]

One can easily understand how such a system, legalised by law, hampered the efforts for freedom, which a sense of human dignity was constantly raising in the bosoms of the oppressed.  The struggle was long, often bloody, and at times it seemed almost hopeless, for on both sides it was felt that the contest was between two principles which were incompatible, and one of which must necessarily end by annihilating the other.  Any compromise between the complete slavery and the personal freedom of the lower orders, could only be a respite to enable these implacable adversaries to reinforce themselves, so as to resume with more vigour than ever this desperate combat, the issue of which was so long to remain doubtful.

[Illustration:  Louis IV Leaving Alexandria on the 24th of April 1507 To chastise the city of Genoa.

From a miniature by Jean Marot.  No 5091, Bibl. nat’le de Paris.]

These efforts to obtain individual liberty displayed themselves more particularly in towns; but although they became almost universal in the west, they had not the same importance or character everywhere.  The feudal system had not everywhere produced the same consequences.  Thus, whilst in ancient Gaul it had absorbed all social vitality, we find that in Germany, the place of its origin, the Teutonic institutions of older date gave a comparative freedom to the labourers.  In southern countries again we find the same beneficial effect from the Roman rule.