FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   >>  
s. So in the contest between the counts and the bishops we find the latter only victorious in certain cases, and consequently having only certain of the cities under their jurisdiction; a fact which is illustrated as late as the Peace of Constance, where in the ninth article the cities are still divided into episcopal and non-episcopal cities.[88] In the second place we must keep clearly before us an important fact, the truth of which any chronological account of the development of the principle of immunity would easily demonstrate, namely, that with the advance of time and with the growth of that principle, the changes which took place in the different sorts of immunities were not simply those of degree, but essentially and principally those of _kind_. A descendant of Charlemagne may have granted to some monastery or bishopric a greater alleviation of some of the fiscal burdens borne by it under his immediate predecessor, but a successor of Berenger when he granted a _privilegium_ did not simply perform the negative benefit of alleviating burdens; he endowed the head of the bishopric--probably in return for some service he had received at his hands or expected to receive--with the positive benefit of the political headship and possession of some city or district of a former count. I mean by this that the earlier immunities--and in these are included all given during the period we are discussing--were all of them what are termed simple or ordinary immunities; that is, those which deal with exemption--whether from burdens for which the receivers would otherwise be liable, or from jurisdiction to which they would otherwise have been subjected--of what may properly be called the private possessions of the churches concerned. They had nothing to do with the privileges of a later time, by which a power to exact burdens was granted and a positive jurisdiction over others allowed: that is, public functions bestowed rather than private rights conceded. That a distinction of such a character was a difference of kind and not of degree is so plainly apparent that it is unnecessary to dwell longer upon it, and it only remains for us to consider briefly the chronology of some of the changes that took place. If we adhere strictly to the proper signification of the terms used, the development can be somewhat succinctly described by the simple enumeration of the three characteristic features of its progress, viz. _protection, exemp
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   >>  



Top keywords:

burdens

 

immunities

 

granted

 
jurisdiction
 
cities
 

degree

 
simply
 

principle

 

positive

 

development


benefit
 

private

 

bishopric

 

simple

 

episcopal

 
subjected
 

enumeration

 

liable

 

succinctly

 
concerned

churches

 
possessions
 

called

 

receivers

 

properly

 

characteristic

 

period

 
discussing
 

earlier

 

included


protection

 

exemption

 

features

 

termed

 

progress

 

ordinary

 

functions

 

plainly

 

public

 

apparent


allowed

 

unnecessary

 

bestowed

 

conceded

 

distinction

 

character

 
difference
 

rights

 

longer

 

proper