ABSTRACT
The Middle Ages began in a world where town life seemed to be in terminal decline and ended in a renaissance where urban centres again celebrated their communal life in art and learning. The re-birth of towns stemmed, like the manor and the village, from defensive considerations which soon gave way to, or were complemented by, trade and industry. Small towns are difficult to distinguish from villages or even from manors but the growth of self-government, the emergence of a community of a distinctly urban kind often associated with markets and fairs (although these were not necessarily urban phenomena) was characteristic of medieval Christendom. An example, typical as in all towns chiefly of itself, might be Wells in Somerset where a prosperous town developed alongside an independent ecclesiastical corporation of a cathedral. This could be a contentious juxtaposition, because although a royal borough in England (like Wells) could manage its own affairs through a mayor and council, the proximity of a great lord (like the Bishop of Bath and Wells) could sometimes lead townspeople to think that their political privileges did not match their economic status.
