Roman Baths.
The city of Trèves and surrounding country fell under the sway of the Archbishops of the diocese, who were usually more warriors than priests, if we may judge by their acts. Here is a picture of a brother-Archbishop, who flourished in 1169:—“Christian of Mayence is said to have spoken six languages, and was celebrated for his knightly feats of arms. He was daily to be seen with a golden helmet on his head, armed cap-à-pié, and mounted on his war-horse, the archiepiscopal mantle floating from his shoulders, and in his hand a heavy club, with which he had brained thirty-eight of his enemies.”
There were at this time four orders of nobility:—the Ecclesiastical, comprising Bishops, Abbots, and other Church dignitaries. The remaining three orders may be classed as follows:—
First, the old and proud families who still retained their free grants of lands; these despised alike Princes and Bishops, Court and Ecclesiastical dignitaries.
The second order was formed of the nobles belonging to the different orders of knighthood; these collectively enjoyed the power of individual princes.
The remaining order consisted of the feudal aristocracy; these were the court nobility, who filled all the offices of state, and although bound by oath to support their princes, they were often leagued together in arms against them.
These four powers were in constant hostility, and from the skirts of the second and last crept forth a fifth disturbing force; this was made up of what are ordinarily termed the Robber-Knights, the ruins of whose castles are frequent on the Moselle and Rhine. In consequence of their depredations, the princes and nobles were forced to erect strongholds to protect their towns and villages; hence arose the numerous towers whose ruins adorn the banks of the Moselle and other rivers.
Most of the later legends are connected with these Robber-Knights; and the history of their petty wars with the Archbishops of Trèves and the Counts of Sponheim (the latter being lords of a large tract of country), is the history of the Moselle during the middle ages.
The Counts of Sponheim, too, were generally at variance with the Archbishops of Trèves, and both these powers with the Archbishops of Cologne; so we plainly see the necessity of the walls, which still exist in fragments round the old towns and villages; and while we quietly sketch the picturesque gate and water-towers, our minds revert to the days when the poor burghers guarded them with jealousy.
The burghers eventually, however, carried the day; and as they increased in power the Robber-Knights were gradually swept away, leaving only the blackened walls of their old keeps to mark where they had plied their trade of robbery. See in the following story how the citizens of Trèves paid off a certain Robber-Knight, named Adalbert, whose castle was situated near their town, meeting violence with fraud.