Just as the village community was a somewhat extended family organization, so was, _mutatis mutandis_, the larger unit, the township or city.

Each member of the town organization owed allegiance and distinct duties primarily to his guild, or immediate social group, and through this to the larger social group which constituted the civic society.

Consequently, every townsman felt a kind of _esprit de corps_ with his fellow-citizens, akin to that, say, which is alleged of the soldiers of the old French "foreign legion" who, being brothers-in-arms, were brothers also in all other relations.

But if every citizen owed duty and allegiance to the town in its corporate capacity, the town no less owed protection and assistance, in every department of life, to its individual members.
As in ancient Rome in its earlier history, and as in all other early urban communities, agriculture necessarily played a considerable part in the life of most mediaeval towns.

Like the villages, they possessed each its own mark, with its common fields, pastures, and woods.