ABSTRACT
Government at every level, from that of kingdoms down to villages or estates, depended on a great deal of collective activity. Any unit of government that had become established in custom was assumed to be the kind of natural community of both descent and custom that had characterised human society since the tribes descended from the sons of Noah had spread over the earth. The mark of a commune is sometimes thought to have been the collective oath taken by its members, which turned a local community (communitas) into something closer, more united, and therefore more revolutionary – a commune. The great men who from time to time met together to take counsel with rulers as representatives of the whole community were supposed to be bound together by the affective bonds of mutual loyalty. The real change achieved in the twelfth century was not that towns gained a new unity or new capacity for collective activity.
