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