In 1228, Archbishop Henri-de-Braine, not feeling himself safe in the city, built the fortified castle of Mars-Gate (or old castle of the archbishops) outside the walls, but looking towards the city (_photo, p. 6_). During the serious riots of 1235, the burgesses besieged the archbishop's castle, for which act they were excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX., and rebuked by St. Louis. In 1257, St. Louis intervened once more, to put an end to the fighting between the free Companies of the Burghers and the soldiers of the archbishop. In the 14th century the two adversaries frequently came to blows, until the king, in 1362, put an end to their quarrels by taking into his own hands the care and military government of Rheims. In spite of these local struggles the city developed in the course of the Middle Ages. With Chartres it had a well-attended episcopal school, long before Paris. Among the masters of this school were _Gerbert_, one of the most learned men of the Middle Ages, who became Pope under the name of Sylvester II., and _St. Bruno_, founder of the Carthusian Order. Among the pupils were _Fulbert_ (afterwards Bishop of Chartres), the historian _Richer_, _Guillaume de Champeaux_, and _Abélard_ (adversary of St. Bernard). During the Hundred Years' War (_see military section_) the Town Council of Rheims, which the Treaty of Troyes in 1420 had placed under the domination of the English, declared in favour of Charles VII., in spite of the Duke of Burgundy, who was residing at Laon, and notwithstanding the intrigues of the Bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon, who, profiting by the absence of the archbishop, went so far as to have a _Corpus Christi_ procession in the city, to call down the blessing of Heaven upon the English. On July 17th, 1429, Joan-of-Arc handed over the keys of the city to the king, and was present at the consecration, standing near the altar with her standard which, "after having been through much tribulation, was accounted worthy of a place of honour." Since the return of Charles VII. to Rheims, the city had never ceased to be French. After the departure of the king and Joan-of-Arc, a friend of Pierre Cauchon plotted to deliver the town into the hands of the Duke of Burgundy, to whom the English promised it, provided he could take it. The plot was discovered and failed. Under Louis XI. a serious revolt, known as the Micquemaque, broke out in the town. Louis, well received at the time of his consecration, had promised the people of Rheims (or so they believed) the abolition of the tax known as the "_taille._" When, therefore, in the following year, the collectors demanded payment, the people rose in revolt and drove them out. [Illustration: THE OLD CASTLE OF THE ARCHBISHOPS OF RHEIMS, RAZED TO THE GROUND BY HENRI IV. _The Archbishops of Rheims were formerly powerful temporal lords (see page 4)._]