Birth and origin were without influence, unless combined with
leisure and inherited wealth. Yet this assertion must not be taken in
an absolute and unqualified sense, since medieval distinctions still
sometimes made themselves felt to a greater or less degree, if only as
a means of maintaining equality with the aristocratic pretensions of
the less advanced countries of Europe. But the main current of the time
went steadily towards the fusion of classes in the modern sense of the
phrase.
The fact was of vital importance that, from certainly the twelfth
century onwards, the nobles and the burghers dwelt together within the
walls of the cities. The interests and pleasures of both classes were
thus identified, and the feudal lord learned to look at society from
another point of view than that of his mountain castle. The Church,
too, in Italy never suffered itself, as in northern countries, to be
used as a means of providing for the younger sons of noble families.
Bishoprics, abbacies, and canonries were often given from the most
unworthy motives, but still not according to the pedigrees of the
applicants; and if the bishops in Italy were more numerous, poorer,
and, as a rule, destitute of all sovereign rights, they still lived in
the cities where their cathedrals stood, and formed, together with
their chapters, an important element in the cultivated society of the
place.
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