from their more powerful neighbors. Also the human instinct of seeking
fellowship in misfortune probably assisted in increasing the numbers
which in times of trouble flocked towards the towns as a haven of
refuge and a place to seek support. To see how they were in a measure
enabled to attain these results, we must now consider the first of the
two facts mentioned above, that is, the power in civil affairs gained
by the bishops.

When the Lombards of the conquest, in their hatred of everything which
savored of the old Roman civilization, overthrew all the established
offices of city government to replace them with others of barbarian
name and origin, or to leave them unfilled altogether, among the
time-honored officers of the Roman rule was one whose powers were
everywhere recognized, even if at present it is a little difficult to
define with precision his duties. I refer to the _defensor urbis_.
This office came into prominence when Roman despotism found that it
was overreaching itself by grinding down the defenseless _curiae_
below the margin of productiveness. The duties of the _defensor_ were,
as his name implies, to protect the powerless inhabitants of the
cities against the exactions of the imperial ministers. He enjoyed
many important privileges of jurisdiction, and these were materially
increased by the legislation of Justinian; and soon the _defensor_
became an important officer of the municipality.[8] What particularly
concerns us is that he was the only municipal officer who was elected
not by the votes of the _curia_ alone, but by those of the whole
people forming the _municipium_, including the bishop and his clergy.
Now in the period just preceding the invasion of the barbarians, the
clergy alone possessed any energy and influence; so into their hands
fell the control of this new institution, and consequently all that
remained of life in the municipal system.