[171] Thus De Caumont unfortunately spoke of the fortress built by Nicetus, Bishop of Treves, in the 6th century, as a _château_ (_Abécédaire_, ii., 382); but Venantius Fortunatus, in his descriptive poem, tells us that it was a vast enclosure with no less than thirty towers, built by the good pastor for the protection of his flock. It even contained fields and vineyards, and altogether was as different from a private castle as anything can well be. Similarly the _castrum_ of Merliac, spoken of by Enlart (_Architecture Militaire_, p. 492) as a "veritable château," is described as containing cultivated lands and sheets of water! (Cited from Gregory of Tours, _Hist. Francorum_, liii., 13.) De Caumont himself says: "Les grandes exploitations rurales que possédaient les rois de France et les principaux du royaume du V^ième au X^ième siècle ne furent pas des forteresses et ne doivent point être confondues avec les chateaux." _Abécédaire_, ii., 62. [172] See Appendix D. [173] "Volumus et expresse mandamus, ut quicunque istis temporibus castella et firmitates et haias sine nostro verbo fecerint, Kalendis Augusti omnes tales firmitates disfactas habeant; quia vicini et circummanentes exinde multas depredationes et impedimenta sustinent." _Capitularia Regum Francorum_, Boretius, ii., 328. [174] These instances are as follows:--868, A certain Acfrid shut himself up in a _casa firmissima_ in the _villa_ of Bellus Pauliacus on the Loire, and it was burnt over his head (_Annales Bertinianorum_, pp. Migne, 125, 1237); 878, The sons of Goisfrid attack the _castellum_ and lands of the son of Odo (_ibid._, p. 1286); 879, Louis the Germanic besieges some men of Hugh, son of Lothaire, _in quodam castello juxta Viridunum_: he takes and destroys the castellum (_Annals of Fulda_, Pertz, i., 393); 906, Gerard and Matfrid fortify themselves in a certain _castrum_, in a private war (_Regino_, Pertz, i., 611). Sismondi states that the great nobles wrested from Louis-le-Bégue (877-879) the right of building private castles. So far, we have been unable to find any original authority for this statement. [175] See Guizot, _Histoire de la Civilisation_, iii., 309. "On voit les _villæ_ s'entourer peu à peu de fossés, de remparts de terre, de quelques apparences de fortifications." [176] We hear of monasteries being fortified in this way; in 869 Charles the Bald drew a bank of wood and stone round the monastery of St Denis; "castellum in gyro ipsius monasterii ex ligno et lapide conficere coepit." _Ann. Bertinian_, Migne, pp. 125, 1244. In 889 the Bishop of Nantes made a _castrum_ of his church by enclosing it with a wall, and this wall appears to have had a tower. _Chron. Namnetense_, p. 45, in _Lobineau's Bretagne_, vol. ii. In 924 Archbishop Hervey made a _castellum_ of the monastery of St Remi by enclosing it with a wall. _Flodoard_, p. 294 (Migne). But the fortification of monasteries was a very different thing from the fortification of private castles.