THE RISE OF A CITY CLASS. As the mediaeval towns increased in size and importance the inhabitants, being human, demanded rights. Between 1100 and 1200 there were frequent revolts of the people of the mediaeval towns against their feudal overlord, and frequent demands were made for charters granting privileges to the towns. Sometimes these insurrections were put down with a bloody hand. Sometimes, on the contrary, the overlord granted a charter of rights, willingly or unwillingly, and freed the people from obligation to labor on the lands in return for a fixed money payment. Sometimes the king himself granted the inhabitants a charter by way of curbing the power of the local feudal lord or bishop. The towns became exceedingly skillful in playing off lord against bishop, and the king against both. In England, Flanders, France, and Germany some of the towns had become wealthy enough to purchase their freedom and a charter at some time when their feudal overlord was particularly in need of money. These charters, or birth certificates for the towns, were carefully drawn and officially sealed documents of great value, and were highly prized as evidences of local liberty. The document created a "free town," and gave to the inhabitants certain specified rights as to self-government, the election of magistrates--aldermen, mayor, burgomaster--the levying and payment of taxes, and the military service to be rendered. Before the evolution of strong national governments these charters created hundreds of what were virtually little City-States throughout Europe (R. 95). In these towns a new estate or class of people was now created (R. 96), in between the ruling bishops and lords on the one hand and the peasants tilling the land on the other. These were the citizens--freemen, bourgeoisie, burghers. Out of this new class of city dwellers new social orders--merchants, bankers, tradesmen, artisans, and craftsmen--in time arose, and these new orders soon demanded rights and obtained some form of education for their children. The guild or apprenticeship education which early developed in the cities to meet the needs of artisans and craftsmen (R. 99), and the burgh or city schools of Europe, which began to develop in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, were the educational results of the rise of cities and the evolution of these new social classes. The time would soon be ripe for the mysteries of learning to be passed somewhat farther down the educational pyramid, and new classes in society would begin the mastery of its symbols. [Illustration: FIG. 59. THE EDUCATIONAL PYRAMID (From Smith, W. R., _Educational Sociology_, p. 176) The concave pyramid suggests comparative numbers. Formal education began at the top, and has slowly worked downward.]