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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 314.: The Decision of a Diet about the Establishment of City Councils in Cathedral Towns, 1218. - A Source Book for Mediaeval History. Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age

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Collection: Primary Sources
Subject Area: History

314.: The Decision of a Diet about the Establishment of City Councils in Cathedral Towns, 1218. - Oliver J. Thatcher, A Source Book for Mediaeval History. Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age [1905]

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A Source Book for Mediaeval History. Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age, ed. Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar Holmes McNeal (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905).

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314.

The Decision of a Diet about the Establishment of City Councils in Cathedral Towns, 1218.

The lords of the towns were generally unwilling to surrender their authority without a struggle. They appealed to the king and to the diet against their rebellious subjects. The decisions were almost always in their favor, but they found it difficult to enforce them. Neither the king nor the diet assisted them. In the struggle which ensued between the lord and the rebellious town, the town was generally successful. It may be said that the kings seldom followed a wise policy in this matter, but permitted themselves to be influenced by the complaints of the lords. The German kings generally did not understand the movement or see its importance. They did not perceive that a new order of things was arising in the cities which was rapidly replacing the feudal system.

In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Frederick II, by the favor of God king of the Romans, Augustus, and king of Sicily. . . . Our beloved prince, Henry, bishop of Basel, came into the presence of us and of many princes, barons, and nobles of the empire and demanded a decision about the following matter, namely: Whether we or anyone else had the right to establish a council in a city [that is, to give a city municipal freedom] which was subject to a bishop, without the bishop’s consent and permission. We first asked our beloved prince, Theodoric, the venerable archbishop of Trier, about this, and he, after some deliberation, declared that we neither could nor should grant or establish a council in the city of the aforesaid bishop of Basel without the consent of him or of his successors. The question was then asked in due form of all who were present, both princes, nobles, and barons, and they confirmed the decision of the archbishop of Trier. We also, as a just judge, approve this decision, and declare it to be right. We therefore remove and depose the council which is now in Basel, and we annul the charter which we granted the people of Basel authorizing the establishment of this council, and they shall never make any further use of it. As a greater evidence of our favor and love for the aforesaid bishop of Basel, we forbid, under the threat of the loss of our favor, the people of Basel to make or set up a council or any constitution, by whatever name it may be called, without the consent and permission of their bishop. . . .