[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Jean Jouvenel des Ursins, Provost of the Merchants of Paris, and Michelle de Vitry, his Wife, in the Reign of Charles VI.--Fragment of a Picture of the Period, which was in the Chapel of the Ursinus, and is now in the Versailles Museum.] This worthy noble gathered in besides all this, during the religious festivals of the year, certain tributes in money on the estate of Montignac alone, amounting to as much as 20,000 pounds tournois. One can judge by this rough sketch, of the income he must have had, both in good and bad years, from his other domains in the rich county of Perigord. It must not be imagined that this was an exceptional case; all over the feudal territory the same state of things existed, and each lord farmed both his lands and the persons whom feudal right had placed under his dependence. [Illustration: Fig. 29.--Dues on Wines, granted to the Chapter of Tournai by King Chilperic.--From the Windows of the Cathedral of Tournai, Fifteenth Century.] To add to these already excessive rates and taxes, there were endless dues, under all shapes and names, claimed by the ecclesiastical lords (Figs. 29 and 30). And not only did the nobility make without scruple these enormous exactions, but the Crown supported them in avenging any act, however opposed to all sense of justice; so that the nobles were really placed above the great law of equality, without which the continuance of social order seemed normally impossible. The history of the city of Toulouse gives us a significant example on this subject. [Illustration: Fig. 30.--The Bishop of Tournai receiving the Tithe of Beer granted by King Chilpéric.--From the Windows of the Cathedral of Tournai, Fifteenth Century.] On Easter Day, 1335, some students of the university, who had passed the night of the anniversary of the resurrection of our Saviour in drinking, left the table half intoxicated, and ran about the town during the hours of service, beating pans and cauldrons, and making such a noise and disturbance, that the indignant preachers were obliged to stop in the middle of their discourses, and claimed the intervention of the municipal authorities of Toulouse. One of these, the lord of Gaure, went out of church with five sergeants, and tried himself to arrest the most turbulent of the band. But as he was seizing him by the body, one of his comrades gave the lord a blow with a dagger, which cut off his nose, lips, and part of his chin. This occurrence aroused the whole town. Toulouse had been insulted in the person of its first magistrate, and claimed vengeance. The author of the deed, named Aimeri de Bérenger, was seized, judged, condemned, and beheaded, and his body was suspended on the _spikes_ of the Château Narbonnais. [Illustration: Fig. 31.--Fellows of the University of Paris haranguing the Emperor Charles IV. in 1377.--From a Miniature of the Manuscript of the "Chroniques de St. Denis," No. 8395 (National Library of Paris).]