never absent from a northern feast.  Nearly all the cities from Livonia to the mouth of the Weser were surrounded by gardens of hops, and Hamburg especially owed its rapid rise during the fourteenth century chiefly to its brewers, at times five hundred or more in number, one hundred and twenty-six of whom supplied the market of Amsterdam alone.  Not only representatives of the higher industrial arts, such as goldsmiths, metal workers, picture carvers, paternoster makers, and altar makers, but shoemakers and other handicraftsmen were to be found in the Far North, which, at that time, was still somewhat deficient in these matters.  There is report of a worthy shoemaker, who, after sojourning in Russia, repaired to Stockholm, where he entered the service of a knight, and thence to Santiago di Compostela, where he wrought for pilgrims.

All these trades were divided into guilds and sequestered in certain streets or localities; and it was long before they were permitted to participate in the city government, which rested solely in the hands of the great landlords and merchant princes.  In the fourteenth century, however, following the example of the South German communities, the “Rebellious Guilds” arose also in the Hanse towns and inaugurated that far-reaching democratic movement akin to the War of the Classes in ancient Rome.  The guilds demanded a seat and a voice in the municipal councils, and made the payment of their quota dependent upon this concession.  Most of the Northern cities experienced bloody insurrections at this time, and the hangman was very busy.  Now the victory was with the patricians, and anon with the plebeians; and the contest was continually renewed with changing fortune.  After holding aloof for some time the Hanseatic League finally took part in this purely internal affair of the several cities, and always in favor of the patrician party; in this way assuming a function originally foreign to its purpose.

The movement was a perfectly natural and justifiable one.  Though originally subject to service and tribute on the part of bishop, cloister, or prince, the condition of the tradesman changed with the establishment of the principle that long unchallenged residence in a city insured personal freedom to the individual—­a privilege which in those days of marked class discrimination was shared only by the burgher and the monk.  Among the two last-mentioned classes even the low-born individual could rise by his own efforts:  here neither prejudice nor privilege interfered with the free exercise of native talent.  Many a poor apprentice in the bureau of Bergen eventually became the progenitor of a long race of distinguished merchants; and some of these families are flourishing in Europe to-day.  It is but natural that the handicraftsman, once released from his bonds, should have desired to share these privileges, more particularly as the old aristocratic regime constantly became more assertive and presumptuous.  It is necessary also to consider