Medieval commune

Medieval townspeople in western Europe during the period of the High Middle Ages needed protection from lawless nobles and bandits. The walled city represented protection from direct assault, but once a townsperson left the city walls, he or she was at the mercy of often violent and lawless nobles in the countryside. Because much of medieval Europe lacked central authority to provide protection, such as a police force (to use a modern analogy), each city had to provide its own protection for citizens both inside the city walls, and outside. In order to do this, towns formed what are called communes.

Every town had its own commune and no two communes were alike, but at their heart, communes were sworn allegiances of mutual defense. When a commune was formed, all participating members gathered and swore an oath in a public ceremony, promising to defend each other in times of trouble, and to maintain the peace within the city proper.

What did it mean for a commune member to defend another? Obviously if a commune member was attacked outside the city, it was too late to call for help, as it would be unlikely anyone would be around in time. Instead, the commune would promise to exact revenge on the attacker, the threat of revenge being a form of defense. However, if the attacker was a noble, safely ensconced in a castle (as was often the case), the town commune could not muster the forces to attack him directly; instead they might attack the noble's family, burn his crops, kill his serfs, or destroy his orchards in retribution.

The commune movement started in the 11th Century in northern Italy which had the most urbanized population of Europe at the time, and in what is now Belgium which was also relatively urban. It then spread in the early 12th Century to France, Germany and Spain and elsewhere. England never saw much of the commune movement because it was by comparison a pretty well run kingdom and did not need local protection forces. Although in most cases the development of communes was connected with that of the cities, there were rural communes, notably in France and England, that were formed to protect the common interests of villagers.

The Church and King both had mixed reactions to communes. On the one hand, they agreed safety and protection from lawless nobles was in everyone's best interest. The commune's intention was to keep the peace through the threat of revenge, and the Church was sympathetic to the end result of peace. However, the Church had their own ways to enforce peace, such as the Peace and Truce of God movement, for example. On the other hand, communes disrupted the order of medieval society; the methods the commune used, eye for an eye, violence begets violence, were generally not acceptable to Church or King. Furthermore, there was a sense that communes threatened the medieval 3-tiered social order: Those who work, those who pray, those who fight. Only the noble lords were allowed by custom to fight, and ostensibly the merchant townspeople were workers, not warriors. As such, the nobility and the clergy sometimes accepted communes, but other times did not. One of the most famous cases of a commune being suppressed and the resulting defiant urban revolt occurred in the French town of Laon in 1112.

Reference

• Sella, Pietro, "The Statutes of the Commune of Bugelle (Biella)" (http://vialardi.org/VdSF/Statuti.Biella-1.html) 1904. 14th century statutes of a Piedmontese commune (Latin and English translations), express the nature of the commune in vivid detail, productions of medieval society and the medieval personality.