No More Learning

But the general result was that when the flush of conquest had passed
and the danger of further invasions seemed remote, all the springs and
ties which hold and move society gave way. Men ceased to care for
the Commonwealth, everyone was intent on his private lust and lucre.
These appalling results are ascribed in as many words by Frankish
chiefs to this same King Guntram, who swore to exterminate rebels
and all their kith and kin. "What shall we do,11 they said, "when the
whole people is affected by vice and everyone finds delectation in iniquity?
No one fears the King, no one has any reverence for a duke or a count,
and should this state of things displease some of the rulers—seditions
rise at once, disturbances begin. '"
However great the disorder of these lawless times, certain institu-
tional features stand out as the principal means of government. The
comitatus described above on the strength of the narrative of Tacitus,
did not disappear but rather grew in importance after the Conquest.
To begin with it encountered on Roman soil a relation which had most
probably sprung from the same Germanic root, but had acquired new
strength under Imperial rule. I mean the so-called buccllarii which
appear definitely in the Roman Empire from 395, but are connected with
the older practice of employing Germans and other barbarians as guards-
men of the Emperors and of generals. The bucellarius was a soldier who
1 Vita Desiderii Caturcentis, c. 5, quoted by Waitz, Deutsche Verfansungsgesckichte,
ii. p. 195.
C. MED. H. VOL. D. CB. XX. 41


## p. 642 (#674) ############################################

642 Comites
had taken service by private agreement with a military chief. The term
is derived from bucella, a roll or biscuit of better quality than the
ordinary bread provided for the use of soldiers. Thus the very name of
these hired warriors implied a privileged treatment. They received their
military outfit from their chiefs and on their death this outfit was
returned to the commander. Troops of men enlisted on such lines came to
play a great part in the wars of the fifth and sixth centuries. Belisarius'
best soldiers were private followers of this kind gathered from among
warlike barbarian tribes: among others Huns were greatly appreciated
as light cavalry. The Visigothic kings also kept troops of bucellarii as
a regular part of their army. In other Germanic kingdoms we find the
followers (comiies) under different names, but always in similar employ-
ment. In fact the different terms afford some indication in regard to
what was expected from the follower. They were gasindi, gesith
(Gesinde) of their chiefs, that is, servants. The same notion of service
was expressed by the German degen, the Anglo-Saxon thegen (minister),
while hiredma (A. S. ), hirdr (Norse), hzidian (Russian) point to the fact
that the follower was a member of the household of his chief. An
expression derived from the tie of mutual fidelity is antrustio (Frank,
from trust—fidelity, protection and troop of confederates). The Danish
sources use vederlag (Society) while the German lay more stress on the
fact that the members of the association are followers (Gefolge, cf. A. S.
folgere, folgod).
The relation is generally initiated by two acts: firstly, the submission
of the follower to his chief as symbolised by the former stretching out his
folded hands which the latter receives in his own; secondly, fin oath
of fidelity by which the follower promised to support his lord and to
be true and faithful to him in every respect The corresponding duties
of the lord were to afford protection to his followers and to keep them
well. The Beowulf poem presents a vivid description of the life of
a following, a camitatus, of this kind—the communion in peace and
war, the common feasting in the hall, the moral obligations incurred
by the parties to the agreement. It shews also that the hird or gesith
was differentiated into two halves—the elder councillors and the younger
fighters (duguth and gogoth—excellence and youth), exactly in the same
way as the " friends" of a Russian chief (drujina) were distinguished as
the seniors and the juniors. The chief provided the outfit for his
followers—horses, swords, coats of mail, shields—but this outfit went
back to him on the death of the follower. This is the origin of the
heregeatu (heriot) of the English followers, so well illustrated by many
charters {e. g. Earle, Land Charters, 223, Will of Abp Aelfric) and by
the legislation of Canute. There was no obstacle to the collection of
a following by any free warrior; followings are distinctly admitted by
Franks, Lombards, Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons to all who can
attract them, and this is characteristic of the rudimentary state of


## p. 643 (#675) ############################################

Sajones. Huskarls 643
public law in those times, inasmuch as the holding of armed retainers
who have sworn fidelity to their chief does not agree well with any
properly organised government. As a matter of fact, the keeping of a
following was mostly restricted by economic considerations to powerful
magnates, chieftains and kings. Under ordinary circumstances the
outlay was too great for common free men. But, of course, if there
appeared a prospect of looting or of starting on adventures there was
nothing to prevent famous warriors from collecting a hird of their own,
and the Viking raids were to a great extent the results of such private
enterprise.
When tribes settled down and territorial governments were put into
shape, the following became an instrumentum regni and the King's
following, his trustes or gesith, assumed an exceptional importance.
With the Goths of Theodoric and Athalaric the Sajones became a body
of officials. The Ostrogothic kings employed them not only as a body-
guard, but as messengers, as revising officers, as commissioners provided
with special powers and not only exempt from ordinary jurisdiction but
sent to control the regular members of the administration. In the same
way the King's thegns of later Anglo-Saxon history become a privileged
official class, without whom no government can be carried on and
who lead in the host, in the Witenagemot and in the moots of the
shires and hundreds. The huskarls of the Danish period were in
a similar position. Their service as a fighting body-guard is well ex-
emplified by the battle of Hastings and other events of the eleventh
century; but let us also remember that they were used, among other
things, to collect the geld, as may be seen from the story of the two
huskarls of Harthacnut who were killed at Worcester. In England as
well as in France or Italy the situation was much complicated by the
fact that a great number of the followers were settled by their chiefs
on separate estates and thus ceased to be ordinary members of the
chiefs' households. Still a seat in the King's hall along with an estate
of five hides was deemed one of the distinctive privileges of a King's
thegn.
This point raises the question: What means had a government of
those times to carry on its work? In every political organisation there
must be some sources of income to defray expenses, or else the popula-
tion must be made to provide for necessary contingencies by compulsory
services of different kinds. Where did the governments of Italy, of
France, of England get their money and how were the contributions of
the people towards political organisation collected and administered?
Nowadays these questions would present no difficulties. We are
taught by bitter experience that any effort in the preparation for
war, or in judicial organisation, or in improvement of roads and
sanitary conditions has to be paid for by an increase of taxes and
rates. Therefore it will be rather difficult for us to realise that early
ch. xx. 41—2


## p. 644 (#676) ############################################

644 Taxation
medieval governments had no taxes or rates to speak of at their
disposal. The complex and oppressive system of Roman taxation
could not be kept up: already in the late years of the Empire its
overburdened subjects sought refuge with the barbarians in order to
escape from tax collectors. After the downfall of Imperial rule, all
the efforts of barbarian kings to maintain systematic taxation were
in vain. They called forth insurrections, and even more powerful was
a passive resistance in which all persons concerned joined more or
less. Taxes broke up into customary payments, and were mixed up in
an inextricable manner with rents and profits originating in private
ownership.
Here are extracts from two Lombard grants illustrating the con-
fusion between public and private payments and rents. King Aistulf
gave some land to the monastery of St Lawrence in Bergamo (a. d. 755)
and added the following exemptions from tribute and dues: "Donamus
in suprascripta ecclesia omnes scuvias (excubias—repairs of roads and
bridges) et utilitates quas homines exinde in puplico habuerunt ad
consuetudinem faciendum excepto quando utilitas fuerit ce(n)sus facien-
dum ubi consuetudinem habuerint, nam ab aliis scuviis et utilitatibus
puplicis quieti permaneant1. " The peasantry on the estates of the said
monastery are thus freed from road-making, bridge-making and other
public work, although the right to levy a tax {census) where it is
customary is reserved. And here is a fragment from a donation of a
certain deacon Gallus: "Ipsa suprascripta casa cum suprascriptis massariis
(colonis) ividem resedentem aliut redditum non facias, nee angarias,
nee nulla scufias ad ipsa suprascripta Dei Ecclesia, nisi tantum per
singulos annos quattuor modia grano, uno animale quale abuerit; pro
jamissia tremisse uno, una libra cera, uno sistario mel et amplius nulla
dationem aut scufia perexsolvant, quia mihi sic actum est'. " The donor
fixed the amount of dues in favour of the monastery according to the
custom followed in his own time and exempts expressly the coLmi of
the estate he is granting from all payments and services, except some
specified customary rents in kind. The occasional datkmes and collectae
which were still levied did not constitute a regular fiscal system, and
it may be said that the principal traces of such a system in the earlier
Middle Ages are connected with progresses of the King and of Royal
officers, who had to be fed and provided with the necessities of life
according to a certain customary scale. This is the origin of the
so-called J'eorms of rights, of which we hear a good deal in Domesday
and in Anglo-Saxon sources. Corresponding arrangements of compulsory
hospitality are reported from other places and these could easily be
turned into a regular system of provender rents to be levied in the
domanial courts of the King.
1 Monumenta historian patriae, xm. p. 33, 15.
4 Troya, Codice diplomatico Langohardo, iv. pp. 331, 620, a. d. 748.


## p. 645 (#677) ############################################

New forms of Taxation 645
In the laws of King Ine of Wessex we find the following curious
account of the provender rents due from 10 hides of land: 10 casks
honey, 800 loaves of bread, 12 buckets of Welsh ale, 30 of clear ale,
2 full grown oxen or 10 wethers, 10 geese, 20 chickens, 10 pieces of cheese,
one bucketful of butter, 5 salmon, 20 pounds of fodder and 100 eels
(Ine, 70, 1).
The Carlovingian restoration and especially the desperate struggles
against the Norsemen compelled the populations of Western Europe to
submit to new forms of direct taxation. Of these the most formidable
and the best known is the Danegeld; but a detailed account of it must
be given elsewhere. But even the Danegeld and the continental impo-
sitions corresponding to it were never meant to cover the entire cost of
administration. They were chiefly designed to meet extraordinary
expenditure, to pay off pirates, to raise heavy contributions of war, etc.
In this way the question as to the ordinary means of meeting the
requirements of administration has still to be answered. And the
answer is clear. The-jegujar administration of medieval States was
kept_J^^frpm_Jthe_proceeds of crown domains. This point of view is
clearly expressed, for instance, in a letter of Bede to Archbishop Ecgbert
of York in which the famous historian complains of the reckless squan-
dering of the Kings' estates, while their property should be con-
sidered as a fund for the outfit of soldiers and officials. The connexion
between landholding and public service was underlined almost to a
fault by historical writers until a German scholar, Paul Roth, argued
that the Merovingian land charters do not shew any special obligation
on the part of the donees and are, in fact, one-sided grants in full
property without any agreement as to service attached to them and
without any reserved right of confirmation or resumption in favour of
the donor. From a technical point of view Roth was quite right:
a Merovingian grant does not disclose on the face of it the implied
connexion between tenure and service. But the mere fact that such
grants of property in land became the regular means of recompensing
services to the State is in itself of the greatest consequence. Indeed it
may be said that such unconditional grants were more dangerous for
the sovereign power in the State than actual beneficia with a clearly
expressed condition attached to them, because it was impossible to go
on remunerating services by grants of estates in full ownership without
exhausting the stock in land.
A government proceeding on such lines was sure to be soon con-
fronted by an empty exchequer and no legal means to refill it. But
though no juridical condition was formulated, the Frankish or Lombard
government never lost sight of the beneficia and their holders. The
notion that men who had received such beneficia were expected to be
especially eager in their service to the kings was not only a precept of
morals, but led to practical consequences. Officials who had called
CH. XX.


## p. 646 (#678) ############################################

646 Carlovingian Taxation
forth the displeasure of their masters would very likely see their
beneficia confiscated. In England the confiscation of book-land in
case of treason or neglect of military duty was recognised by law.
Lombard practice shews another curious expedient for asserting the
superior right of the Sovereign in regard to estates granted to followers.
They were often given in usufruct without charter so that the donee
enjoyed only a matter of fact possession without any legal right and
could be ousted at pleasure. As a higher degree of favour this precari-
ous tenure of the estate was exchanged for a regular title to it. Thus
the earlier period of medieval life may be characterised by the words—
a regime based on grants of usufruct and of ownership in land. This
fund was nearly exhausted in France towards the end of the first dynasty,
and in consequence the monarchy itself was weakened in every respect
and the Merovingian rulers had sunk into the state of rois Jainicmts—
good-for-nothing kings, while real authority rested with the managers
of the privy purse and palace stewards—the majores dornus.
The national revival occasioned by the necessity to defend Christian
Society against the Arabs on one side, and heathen Germans on the other,
took the shape of a concentration of power in the hands of the Carlovin-
gian dynasty. And the first thing the new rulers had to do was to
replenish the domanial fund and to reorganise the methods of granting
estates. In order to acquire the necessary land capital nothing was left
but to lay hands on part of the enormous landed property which had
been accumulated by the Church. The earlier Carlovingian rulers, more
especially. Charles. Mart el, simply appropriated ecclesiastical estates to
endow their military retainers. Another device was to quarter soldiers
on monasteries and even to appoint officers lay abbots of wealthy ecclesi-
astical foundations. With Pepin the Short and his brother Carloman
these irregular methods savouring of downright pillage were abandoned
and a kind of compromise between State and Church was arrived at.
We are told that in 751 a " division" of estates took place. Some were
given back to the Church, while other lands were registered as " precari-
ous loans" (precaritu verbo regis) conceded to laymen by ecclesiastical
institutions at the request of the King and on condition of the payment
of a rent of about one-fifth of the income (nonae et decimae) to the
owners of the land.
This system was based on the distinct recognition of the superior
domain of the Church and on a division of the proceeds between two
masters, between the holders of the eminent and of the useful domain,
as we might be tempted to put it in conformity with later terminology,
although from the point of view of eighth century law the estate of the
tenant was not a form of ownership, of dominium, at all, but a pre-
carious tenancy. As a matter of custom, however, these tenancies soon
grew to be recognised as estates of inheritance conditioned by the
performance of certain duties to the King as well as by the payment of


## p. 647 (#679) ############################################

Tenures by Service 647
rents to the Church. The process described exerted a great deal of
influence on the formation of a general doctrine as to beneficia in which
the conditional character of such donations was emphasised and carried
to practical consequences. The Carlovingians worked the administrative
apparatus of their empire, as formerly, by means of land-grants, but
these grants created definitely conditional tenements. Although as a
rule the son succeeded the father as to the "benefice" he was made to
ask for a confirmation of his father's estate and might be obliged to pay
something for this confirmation. In case of a change in the person of
the owner, the superior or senior lord, the practice of resuming the
ownership of benefices and of issuing them again under new grants began
also to come in. Thus the technical aspect of the practice of feoffment
was gradually evolved. In England the process is not characterised by
such clearly marked stages, but on the whole the practice of grants of
loan-land and book-land followed in the same direction, the form of
"loans" being used for constituting tenements which it was especially
desirable to retain in the ownership of the lord, while even as to book-
land the special obligations of lay holders in regard to the Crown became
more and more definitely recognised. Still the final constitution of the
doctrine and of the system of fees was effected in England under the
influence of French feudalism, as carried over by the Norman Conquest.
This history of tenements conditioned by service is intimately con-
nected with the spread of the relation between lord and follower on one
side, with the growth of the economic practice of constituting tenancies
on the other. As to followers I shall merely call attention to the con-
venience of renhinerating an armed servant by the grant of a tenement
instead of keeping him as a member of the household or paying him
wages. The other side of the surrounding conditions requires some
further notice. Apart from the incitement towards the creation of
tenements which came from the wish to recompense officials and soldiers,
there were powerful incitements to the formation of tenancies on lands
held by the Church. The teaching of the Church as to good works
and salvation was eagerly taken up by the laity, who tried to make
amends for all shortcomings and sins by showering gifts on ecclesiastical
institutions. It is computed that about one-third of the soil of Gaul
belonged to the Church in the Carlovingian epoch. The monastery of
Fulda, the famous foundation of Boniface, gathered 15,000 mansi in a
short time from pious donors. A considerable part of this property
came from small people, who tried in this way not only to propitiate
God, but also to win protectors in the persons of powerful ecclesiastical
lords. A most common expedient in order to guarantee the ownership
of a plot to a monastery without losing one's own subsistence was to
constitute a so-called precaria oblata, that is to grant the land and to
receive it back at the same time as a dependent tenement, usually under
the condition of paying some nominal rent, for the sake of a recognition


## p. 648 (#680) ############################################

€48 The Beneficium
of ownership. On the other hand ecclesiastical corporations stood in
need of farmers who would undertake the management of scattered
portions of property, and it was a common policy for abbots and clerics
to concede such dispersed smaller estates or plots to trustworthy men
for more or less substantial rents on the strength of so-called precariae
datae. The expression beneficium. was in use for such transactions, but
it became gradually specialised to denote the tenements of vassals, or
higher military retainers. There was thus a characteristic tendency to
organise land-tenures based on a combination between superior lords or
seniors and inferior, dependent tenants.
The same result was reached from yet another point of view, namely
through the working of the system of political obligations laid on the
citizens. As taxation was undeveloped and had to be represented largely
by dues from estates, the demands of the government as expressed in
personal services of the subject were very great. The machinery of
public institutions was based largely on what was afterwards called trinoda
necessitas—attendance at the host, repair of bridges and roads, construc-
tion of fortresses, and also on the attendance of suitors at the different
public courts, more especially at the county and the hundred. Originally
it was reckoned in England that one man should serve for one hide:
in the Frankish territories the unit of assessment was smaller than the
hide, the mansus (Hufe), roughly corresponding to the English virgate in
size, although its value must have been more considerable, at least in
Gaul, on account of the more intensive husbandry of the Southern
countries. Anyhow it was soon found that owners of single Hufen were
not of much use to the army while the army service was a crushing
burden for them, and we see in all the principal countries of Western
Europe attempts to graduate the standards of equipment of the members
of the host by combining the poorer men into larger units. The
principle of graduated general service is well expressed in Lombard
legislation. The second and third clauses of Aistulfs laws subdivide the
host into three classes according to equipment. The poorest freemen,
characteristically called arimanni or exercitales—army-men, are bound
to attend the host with shield, bow and arrows; the owners of forty Juga
(Jugera are meant) of land have to appear with spear, shield and horse;
the wealthiest whose estates are computed at seven tributary holdings
have to attend in a coat of mail, and if they own more landed property
have to muster additional soldiers in proper equipment in proportion to
their wealth; merchants should have their duties apportioned on a similar
scale. A clause of the laws of Liutprand (83) provides that judges and
administrative officials should have leave to exempt a certain number of
the poorer freemen from personal attendance, on condition that they
should help to carry loads for the army with their horses and perform
week-work for the officials during their absence in the host.
In one of several capitularies treating of the obligations of men


## p. 649 (#681) ############################################

Military Service 649
serving in the host Charles the Great lays down the following rules:
Let every free man possessed of four settled mansi of his own or held of
another as a benefice prepare himself and go to the host on his own
account either with his senior or with the count. As to the free man
having three mansi of his own, let one be joined to him who is possessed
of one mansus and let him help the other in order that he may do
service for both. A man having only two mansi of his own should be
joined to another possessed of two, and let one of them go to the host
with the help of the other. Even if a man should only have one mansus
let three others possessed of the same quantity be joined with him and
let them give him help so that he should proceed to the host, while the
three others should remain at home.
Even in this mitigated form compulsory service in the host and at
the courts proved too heavy a burden for the poorer freemen, who, instead
of attending to their own affairs, were driven to serve on protracted
expeditions. This meant sheer ruin for the smaller households, and the
wish to escape from the harassing demands of the military and adminis-
trative machinery led many of these smaller people to surrender their
dangerous independence and to place themselves under the protection of
lay or clerical magnates. This is one of the roots of the commendation in
consequence of which the plots of the lower free class shrink apace in
favour of the neighbouring great estates. Nor was it the only root.
The disruption of the ties of kinship and the insufficiency of ordinary
legal protection in those times of violent social struggles and of weak
government made it necessary for kinless or broken men to look out
for the support of mightier neighbours. And again, all those who
had been weakened in the everyday struggle for existence—widows,
orphans, men stricken by disease or economic mishaps—could not do
better than commend themselves to the strong hand of a magnate,
although such commendation involved a lessening of private independence
and sometimes the loss of land ownership. The various forms of tenant
right cropping up in so profuse a manner afforded convenient stages for
the gradual descent of the poorer freemen into a condition of clientship,
of personal dependence on the "senior. "
In this way the most characteristic phenomenon of medieval Society,
the great estate or the manor, as they said in England, was being
gradually evolved. The most complete instances of such organisations
in the ninth century are presented by documents drawn from among the
records of Royal and of ecclesiastical administration. Charles the Great's
Capitulare de villis presents a comprehensive survey of Royal estates
which is further illustrated by shorter regulations of the same kind—
the breviaria rerum Jiscalium, the capitulare de disciplina palatii Aquensis,
etc. The enormous complex of crown domains is seen to consist of three
different elements—of home-farms worked under the direct control of
stewards (came indominicatae, mansioniles), of tenements held by free


## p. 650 (#682) ############################################

650 Management of Estates
men and half-free men (mansi ingenuiles, lidiles) and of plots occupied
by settled serfs (mansi serviles). For purposes of organisation these
different mansi are sometimes concentrated into beneficia, small estates
of some 4-10 mansi, entrusted to privileged tenants, vassali, to whom
the beneficia have been assigned in remuneration for their services. In
other cases a number of mansi are put under a steward of the King or
Emperor chosen from among his regular servants (miniMeria). The
rents in kind and in money are paid to him from the dependent mansi,
and various services for tillage, reaping, mowing, threshing, carrying the
produce, hedge-making, shearing sheep, and such-like have to be collected
and arranged at the central mansus with which, as a rule, a home-farm
is connected. The minutieria are combined in groups under villae and
these again are congregated around a number of palatia, great manors
in which the head stewards reside, keep accounts and store the various
products of domanial husbandry for direct consumption and for sale.
The Royal master and members of his family move from one of the
palatia to the other with their retinue and consume part of their revenue
on the spot. Although the turnover of this economy appears to be very
considerable, the home-farms with independent cultivation on a large
scale are not common, and there are no latifundia in the sense of great
plantation estates. The type of combined economy based on the mutual
support of a manorial centre and its satellite holdings is the prevalent
one, and some of the estates are broken up into small and scattered
plots. Another interesting feature consists in the fact, that a second
line of subdivisions and groups runs alongside the hierarchy of steward-
ships: the peasantry are grouped into tithings and hundreds and these
subdivisions are apparently connected with the older personal and
territorial arrangement of the population. Altogether the domanial
scheme by no means excludes older popular units and institutions.
The communities of the Marks, for instance, continue to exist for the
purpose of regulating the waste, and in districts with nucleated villages
the customary institutions of the townships also live on under the net
of the manorial administration.
The formation of great estates went on also on the lands of the
Church and the laity: the machinery of their rural administration was
shaped more or less on the pattern of the Royal domains. But generally
in this case the system was not so complete and the history of its forma-
tion is more easy to trace. The possessions of private owners, both
lay and clerical, are generally much scattered, having been collected by
chance. Even in the fields of every single estate the plots of the lord
and of the tenants would lie intermixed. This rendered the growth of
home-farms difficult and favoured the imposition of rents coupled with
occasional services. The peculiar dualism of manorial authority and
township association is especially noticeable on these estates. The
practices of the open-field system with compulsory rotation of crops,


## p. 651 (#683) ############################################

Jurisdictions 661
collective management of pasture and wood, common supervision as of
herds, went on as before, only that the usages and regulations of the
marks and of the villages were strengthened and complicated by seigniorial
authority and perquisites. The Hufen (mansi) also kept their ground
for a long time because, although there was no juridical impediment to
their division, the units were kept up as much as possible for economic
reasons, as representing self-supporting farms provided with all the
necessaries of husbandry in field and wood, in live stock and implements.
When divisions took place care was taken that they should follow certain
natural fractions of the plough teams and superfluous claimants were
either bought out or settled on adjacent cottages. It is impossible to
understand medieval society unless we take account of this double aspect
of its life.
A description of the medieval manor would be incomplete without
a consideration of its bearings in public law.
The medieval view of
government admitted, and indeed required, that wealth and social
influence should be accompanied by political power and public functions.
Every householder had some jurisdiction "under his roof-gutter"
(unter der Dachtraufe) and within the hedge. Personal authority
over domestic servants and slaves took, among other things, the shape
of criminal and police jurisdiction (Dienstrecht). Again the senior as the
centre of a group of vassals claimed the right to preside over a court
composed of these vassals, as his "peers,11 in order to decide civil suits
between them. But the most extensive application of this private view
of jurisdiction is to be found in the growth of franchises {Immunitas,
Freiung, Freibezirk). One of the roots of this system is the condition of
Royal domains. Their inhabitants are naturally exempted from ordinary
jurisdiction and from common fiscal exactions. They are free from toll
and geld or general taxes; in matters of jurisdiction and administration
they look primarily to the Royal stewards and not to the ordinary judges
and officials of the counties. When a portion of the Royal domain is
granted to a subject, its condition is not changed thereby—it keeps its
privileges and stands out as a district separate from the surrounding
territory. In England especially the condition of "ancient demesne'1
begins to form itself already before the Norman Conquest. By the side
of this institutional root we notice another. As in the later Empire,
the government is obliged to have recourse to great landlords in order
to carry out its functions of police, justice, military and fiscal authority.
Great estates become extra-territorial already under Roman rule in the
fourth and fifth centuries, and it would be superfluous to point out how
much more the governments of the barbarians stood in need of the help of
great landowners. As early as the sixth century we find exemptions ab
introitu judicum, that is the privilege of landowners to exclude public
judges and their subordinate officials from their estates. Civil and
afterwards criminal jurisdiction fell necessarily into their hands as a


## p. 652 (#684) ############################################

652 Jurisdictions
consequence of the grant of fines and judicial costs. In the beginning the
concession of profitable rights or perquisites of justice may have been
especially valued, but the duties of jurisdiction could not be separated from
the former: it was out of the question to make one set of people perform
the work of judicial administration while another set reaped its profits.
From such beginnings the franchises or immunities develop rapidly into
a regular and recognised side of landlordship, and with variations in
detail the Anglo-Saxon landrica follows the same track as the contin-
ental Immunitatsherr. The different forms of power implied by the
franchise are sometimes summed up in quaint, proverbial sentences. A
German jingle of this kind speaks of twine unde ban (coercion and com-
mand), glocken Mane unde geschrei (belfry and summoning of the posse
of neighbours), herberge unde atzunge (lodging and meals to be provided
for the representatives of authority), spruch (power of magistrate sitting
on the bench), vrevel (criminal fines), diup (keeping and confiscation of
stolen goods), stoc (prison), stein (block). With this may be compared
the Anglo-Saxon enumeration—sac, soc, toll, theam, infangene theqf,
utfangene theqf.
In one important particular the growth of continental immunity
differed materially from the Anglo-Saxon process. It was usually
deemed necessary on the Continent to separate the actual exercise of
criminal jurisdiction from the right of ecclesiastical estates or districts to
claim the franchise. Thus bishoprics and abbeys were bound to appoint
special advocati (Vogte) to exercise the judicial functions in their tri-
bunals, and these offices tended, as everything else in those times, to
become hereditary and to assume the nature of benefices. The Vogt
was a kind of parasitic magnate reared on the proceeds of ecclesiastical
immunities.
The general results of the social processes described may be summed
up under three heads: (1) a debasement and breaking up of the class of
common free men, (2) the rise of a landed aristocracy, (3) the formation
of a large and varied mass of half-free people. A characteristic expres-
sion of the first of these developments may be noticed in the terms
applied to the common people. The quality of the free man is
graphically described in a Northern Saga as that of a man who yokes
oxen, fits out a plough, constructs a house and builds barns, makes
a cart and guides the plough. But the bonde (Bauer) remained an
independent person, conscious of strength and able to stand on his rights
only in the North—in Norway and Sweden. In Denmark and England
the bonde, though as free in the origin, became not only a " husbandman"
but a bondman. The Anglo-Saxon ceorl, from being the typical free
householder sank into the position of a churl sitting on land burdened
with rent (gqfol). The Frankish villanus, which ought to designate a
member of the township, came to be regarded as a man of vile, low
origin and condition. Even friling and liber occasionally assumed a


## p. 653 (#685) ############################################

Distinctions of Classes 653
shade of meaning pointing to the imperfect status of freed men or of
persons living under Roman law and not entirely exempt from private
authority.
The growth of aristocratic distinctions is reflected during the period
under consideration by the figures of the wergelds. The Alemannic law
already distinguishes between primi, medii and minqfledis; the Lombards
speak of meliorissimi; the Frankish standard consists in the threefold
increase of the wergeld for the antrustiones of the King; although in this
case the privilege was deemed a personal one, the position of the antrus-
tiones or convivae regis was of indirect importance for their families and
its tradition is kept up during Carlovingian times by the Seniores. The
Anglo-Saxon divisions are even more characteristic. In the Kentish
laws the scale of ranks is very gradual—there are subdivisions of eorls,
ceorls and laets. In Wessex society was arranged in three degrees
—the men worth two hundred, six hundred and twelve hundred shillings.
But the middle class disappears in course of time and the sharp contrast
between twelvehyndemen and twyhyndemen is made the basis for the
treaties with the Danes. The wergelds cease to be a trustworthy indica-
tion of status in the tenth and eleventh centuries, but the general tendency
of the social process is sufficiently expressed in them.
The half-free classes are very varied in their origin and social
standing. The number of domestic slaves diminished rapidly, partly in
consequence of manumissions, and partly because there was a greater
need of farmers than of menial servants. Such of the latter as still re-
mained assumed sometimes a privileged position on account of their duties
as military retainers and stewards—they formed the group of minis-
teriales from which a part of the continental knightly order traces its
origin. The settled serfs (servi casati) are assimilated more and more
to the coloni and the liti or aldiones. The essence of the position of all
these groups is to support the household and the home-farms of their
lords by rents and labour services, while at the same time tilling plots of
their own. As Tacitus expressed it long ago, the serf of the Germans is
like the old colonus of Rome; he has his own household and is a tributary
of the master in respect of a certain quantity of corn, clothes and live
stock. Commended free men and free tenants on a lord's land gravitate,
as it were, towards the status of these half-free groups. The mere fact
of paying rent and of being a tenant becomes a badge of inferiority.
The jurisdictional privileges of the great landowners extend not only
over their tenants but also over small neighbours. Altogether, instead
of clear distinctions based on birth and personal status we see a variety
produced by the tenure of land.
There has been a great deal of controversy as to how far Roman and
Germanic influences account for the process described, but it seems
impossible to apportion exactly the share of each. It is evident that
the disruption of public authority and the aristocratic transformation of


## p. 654 (#686) ############################################

654 Relations of Roman and Germanic Influences
Society were prepared on both sides. The general course of development
was especially rapid and complete in those parts of Europe where there
was most intermixture between Romance and Germanic elements,
especially in the Frankish Empire. Yet England and Scandinavian
countries, in spite of their peculiar position, somewhat aside of the main
stream, follow processes of their own which also lead to feudalisation.
This seems to warrant the conclusion that the coming of feudalism was
rather the result of general tendencies than of particular national causes.
After the great effort of conquest and invasion, Western European
society relapsed into political life on a small scale, into aristocratically
constituted local circles.


## p. 655 (#687) ############################################

655
CHAPTER XXI.
LEGISLATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHARLES
THE GREAT.
The State of Charles the Great goes back to the foundation of the
empire of the Merovingians. The four hundred years of Frankish rule
(500-900) comprise radical changes, it is true, but a definite direction
of the development from the first is clearly to be seen. The great
Charles is only to be regarded as finishing what the Merovingian Clovis
introduced, and the coronation of 800 as concluding a process of for-
mation which began with the baptism of Clovis and with the acceptance
of the Catholic Faith on the part of the Frankish people. Always
characteristic was the continued and remarkable combination of Roman
system and Biblical conceptions with the old German ideas, the rise of
ideas of absolute monarchy and the increasing prominence of patriarchal
and theocratic principles which changed the character of the State itself.
Not from the initiative of the Frankish people, nor, properly speaking,
from its need for expansion, did the great Frankish conquest of the fifth
and sixth centuries originate. The people had indeed their share, and
the success of the movement depended on the strength and the political
capacity of the people themselves, but the empire was none the less the
personal foundation of Clovis and the dynasty. Hence we can easily
understand that on the one hand German institutions remained, and
were even transferred to what was once Roman ground, and that on the
other, a powerful influence through Roman systems made itself felt.
And, connected with the last, after the acceptance of the Catholic Faith
by the Franks, was the influence in increasing degree of ideas which were
given through the Bible and the Christian theocratic conception of the
world. The growth of the power of the Frankish monarchy is certainly
not to be ascribed solely to foreign influences. It is certain that the German
monarchy possessed in itself, of its own strength, the capacity for de-
velopment, and that political circumstances necessitated a great growth
of the monarchy in the sixth century. But foreign influences all the
same gave the standard in no slight measure, the king stood apart before
the political mass, he was inviolable, he was irresponsible, to his word
unconditional obedience was due, the idea of high treason finds entrance


## p. 656 (#688) ############################################

656 Theocratic Character of the Prankish State
into the constitution. And these expressly monarchical elements, which
were originally strange to the German conceptions of society, never
disappeared again in spite of all political changes. As the elevation
of the Carlovingians had taken place with the liveliest sympathy of
the people or rather of the leaders of the people, a certain participation
of the people in the government of the empire was revived in the first
half of the eighth century. But no serious deviation of the develop-
ment of the monarchy in the direction of popular or aristocratic
limitation was effected. The characteristic feature of the formation of
the Carlovingian State is rather the greater emphasis of the theocratic
element. That introduced essentially new influences into the common-
wealth, not merely strengthening the power of the kings, but also
turning the whole development into new paths.
A principle that had been active from the time of Clovis became in
the eighth century dominant: the king derives his authority from God,
he appears amid a halo of supernatural glory, but is at the~ sanfiTtime
bound to definite duties. For God has bestowed the authority in order
that the people may be well ruled. An idea of the social body began
to be supreme, far surpassing all aims of purely private rule. If the
king was in no way head of a body which in itself possessed the con-
stitutional authority, yet he was not simply lord for the sake of lordship.
The theocratic element had an ennobling tendency and raised the con-
ception of the commonwealth above the sphere of private rule. Effort
for the well-being of mankind was demanded, and the principle solus
publico supremo, lex began to make itself felt.
Moreover, immediately connected with this was the vast extension
of the duties which were regarded as lying within the province of the
State. Although the idea of the superiority of spiritual power over
secular had long been recognised, and although a universal subjection
of the world to the Church and its hierarchy ought to have resulted
from it, the political development even of the Merovingian period had
brought the Church into dependence upon the State. In the Carlovingian
period that was entirely the case. The Church had the most prominent
place in social life, Church and State ran side by side, the Empire was
weighed down with ecclesiastical burdens, but the Church was in the
position of Church of the Empire, and the head of the State was at the
same time head of the Church. Truly the predominance of the theocratic
point of view gave to the Frankish State a new and wide prospect of its
rights. Not merely was the object of the State the primitive mainten-
ance of peace at home and of authority abroad, but all questions of the
common life were drawn into the domain of the work of the State,
everything that concerned the well-being, in the widest sense, of its
subjects was to be an object of care to the State, their material as well
as their spiritual concerns, questions of this life as well as questions of
the future life.


## p. 657 (#689) ############################################

Administration 657
It is not necessary here to say more than that the task of Charles
extended beyond the preservation of peace and relations to external
powers. In extended degree his care was devoted to economic conditions.
The efforts of his predecessors for the promotion of commerce were
continued. Measures for the maintenance and erection of bridges and
roads were doubtless often undertaken from considerations of national
defence, but they were also eminently calculated to serve the purposes
of trade. Navigation was to be fostered and rendered safer. It is to
be surmised that considerations of intercourse were chiefly taken into
account in the magnificent plan for uniting the river-systems of the
Rhine and the Danube by a canal between the Rednitz and the Altmiihl.
Numerous measures enable us to see how much understanding Charles
brought to bear upon questions of trade. The numerous ordinances
respecting tolls and customs had their origin in the same purpose—fiscal
interests were not to be neglected, but yet they were not to be the main
consideration—tolls were not to restrict trade. The general prosperity,-*
it may even be said, was really taken into account. Business was
indirectly served by manifold regulations for weights and measures,
which were aimed against individual caprice and required uniformity.
In the same direction point the ordinances respecting the coinage.
Coinage was the royal prerogative, and this right was still preserved.
Perfect centralisation, it is true, was not yet aimed at, but for some
time Charles was thinking of restricting the stamping of money to
his places of abode, and although that was not carried out, we find
under Charles considerable limitation of places of mintage. ^_
While all these measures were calculated to promote trade, Charles
issued direct ordinances with regard to the manner of trade by the
restriction of excessive privileges, the prohibition of trade by night, and
by regulations for the trade in horses and cattle. The exportation of
certain articles was entirely forbidden, especially the exportation of corn
in case of failure of the crops. A check was put upon speculation by
the decree that corn might not be sold while still growing, or wine
before the vintage. Steps were taken against excessive raising of prices,
and indeed tariffs of prices were actually issued by the State. All these
measures tended to the general well-being, and care was taken for the
common interSstT'Tlow this care on the part of the State began to
develop was shewn with special clearness in measures devoted to the
relief of the poor. The plague of mendicancy was to be checked, the
poorest were to be protected from want. The support of the poor was
accordingly delegated by the State to individual rulers, and a kind of
-general poor relief was required. A decree was actually made that
on bishops, abbots, and abbesses a sum of one pound of silver, half
a pound, and five solidi respectively, should be levied, and definite sums
similarly on counts and others. It was thus sought to introduce a poor
rate.
<;. . MFD. H. VOL. II. CH. XXI. 42


## p. 658 (#690) ############################################

658 Checks on the Theocratic Ideal
Under Charles the activities of the State were enormously extended.
In this connexion it is only possible to hint how they turned to the
department of intellectual life also, to art and learning, and how Charles
aimed at raising the intellectual plane of the laity. As a matter of fact,
the official activity of Charles only recognised such limits as the economic
ideas of the age laid down.
We observe, under Charles, the first great expansion of the idea of
the State itself in the history of the Christian West. It is connected
with the increasing prominence of theocratic ideas, while the coronation
of 800 was but the visible completion of the long process of development.
The theocratic ideas which dominated the Frankish Empire had sprung
up previous to 800, and had made the Frankish king the absolute
representative of Christian rule in the West. Thus the Empire did
not demand any essential change in the relations of people and ruler,
for substantially it only established the results of the previous political
developments. It is true that special emphasis was laid on duties
towards the Church in the new oath of allegiance, which Charles made
universal in 802, but this enforced no new idea.
The Theocratic Ideal is a great social force, which exerted influence
on the formation of State and society independently of individual cir-
cumstances. Charles the Great made it equally serviceable to the State.
Universal monarchy was founded with the help of theocratic ideas. But
could it endure?
From two sides attempts were necessarily made to break up the
Carlovingian universal Empire. In the first place, the theocratic idea
demanded unity of social organisation of Christendom. But under the
prevalent belief in the superiority of ecclesiastical over secular power,
and under the requirements of the strictly hierarchical and monarchical
organisation of the Papal Church, Christendom was another unity not
under a temporal prince, but under the Pope. Again, opposed to the
universal demands of the theocratic idea there stood the particular
political needs of the different peoples and races—a second great social
force striving for recognition. Before the powerful personality of
Charles, those forces which struggled against the theocratic State ruled
by a secular prince, were not effective. Under Charles all yielded to
the service of the political idea represented by the Frankish monarch.
After the death of Charles, however, these restrained forces burst forth
again: on the one side the particular needs of the different peoples of
the great Empire, on the other that idea of union which desired a
predominant position of the Papacy.
That outburst, however, is not our present object. Here we must
only indicate that even Charles the Great was not successful in once
for all subduing those internal forces hostile to his consolidated State.
Further we have to sh©w how the Carlovingian State sought to solve
its increasingly serious problems.


## p. 659 (#691) ############################################

Unification of the Empire 659
In the centre of the national life stands the king. He represents
the nation. His authority is essentially the national authority. The
fate of that authority involves the fate of the State itself. The Empire
doubtless brought about an increase of the external strength of the
monarchical position, but not any internal change. Charles already
possessed as king all the elements of the power which as emperor he
brought to development. The monarchy was hereditary. All male
members of the royal house had rights of inheritance; the Empire
was to be divided into as many parts as there were claims to satisfy.
That was originally the principle of the Frankish monarchy in the sixth
century. But in the time of the decadence of the power of the Mero-
vingians it was set aside, the aims of the too powerful aristocracy and
the needs of many a district of the Empire for national incorporation
withstood it. A selection was made among the members of the royal
house. Even the powerful Carlovingians did not represent the principle
of chance divisions corresponding to the private circumstances of the
royal house. Charles the Great in the year 806 drew up a scheme
for the division of his Empire, in case of his death, among his three
sons then living, Louis, Pepin, and Charles; but no further division
was contemplated. It was intended that only one son—the one whom
the people elected—should succeed each of these kings of the divided
monarchy. And then the theocratic ideas began to demand a consoli-
dation of political organisation overlooking all individual dynastic claims
to supremacy. The ordinance of 813 is the outcome of these tendencies.
The death of the sons Pepin and Charles made it possible for Louis to
attain the sole monarchy, while Pepin's son Bernard only received Italy
as sub-king. But in 813 an ordinance was made for the Empire which
continued united, and thus comes before us that tendency to unification
which attained supremacy at the very beginning of the reign of Louis
only as a result of the ideas which were coming to the front under
Charles.
Many of the old Germanic customs are no longer met with under
Charles the Great, for instance, the use of the ox-wagon on the occasion
of the visit to the great Annual Assembly, and the elevation on the
shield, which took place in the Merovingian period when the succession
was broken. On the other hand, anointing according to Biblical pre-
cedent had been introduced in the Carlovingian age. Just as Pepin
in 751 had received the solemn anointing at the hands of Boniface and
afterwards of Pope Stephen, so it became afterwards the rule. With
the anointing went, under Charles, the coronation. Before 800 there
is no certain evidence of such a ceremony in the Frankish Empire,
although the Merovingians had already used crown-like diadems as
ornaments. After 800 it established itself, and not only emperors, but
kings too, were crowned. Originally not necessarily an act to be
performed by ecclesiastics, like the anointing, it was soon combined
ch. xxi. 42—2


## p. 660 (#692) ############################################

660 The King
with the anointing and in West Francia, where first a fixed ceremonial
was developed, it became from the time of Charles the Bald an integral
element of the ceremony, whereas in the Eastern Kingdom, where there
is no evidence of a coronation either in the case of Louis the German,
or of his sons and Arnulf, it did not perhaps become permanently the
custom till after 900. As symbols of monarchical rule we find in
addition sceptre and throne, which we may suppose to have first come
into use in the Carlovingian time, together with the lance, attested as a
royal symbol on the ring of Childeric, and the staff, distinguished at
any rate in later times from sceptre and lance.
In the symbols and in the solemnity of the elevation, the change in
the royal power is revealed. The spiritual element was placed in the
foreground, its divine origin emphasised, and the priesthood played a
ruling part. The personality of the monarchy stands forth quite distinct
from the populace. The royal title is but simple, originally a continua-
tion of that of the Merovingians, then, independently but from the very
beginning, with the significant addition "by the grace of God"—a
custom afterwards adopted not merely in the Empire of the Franks
but in the whole of the West. The imperial title was exceedingly
circumstantial: "Most noble Augustus, crowned of God, great and
peace-bringing Emperor, who rules the Roman Empire and who, by
the grace of God, is King of the Franks and of the Lombards. '" Super-
abundant are the epithets of virtue and exaltation which Charles applied
to himself and with which he was saluted. Court ceremonial became
the custom, and Byzantine influences served as the model. Whoever
approached the Emperor for any official purpose was required to pro-
strate himself to the ground and kiss the knee and foot of majesty.
But all that was a veneer of foreign and external splendour. Under-
neath is clearly visible the true Germanic character in the conception
and accomplishment of national undertakings. The king was guardian
of justice and peace. All stood beneath his protection. The king's peace
was the general peace of the State, the king's protection covered every
member of the State. But together with the general protection which
ensured peace for everyone, went a special king's protection which was
bestowed on individuals, placing the object of it in closer relation to
the king and decreeing severer punishment for every injury to his
person.
The subject was bound to unconditional obedience to the king. An
oath of allegiance was exacted, a custom not of Roman but of Mero-
vingian origin, which had fallen into disuse, and was re-introduced by
Charles the Great. Obedience was, however, claimed from every subject
without oath, and disregard of the king's command was severely
punished.
The king had the power to issue coercive ordinances and injunctions,
he had the power to command, he had the power of the ban. This royal


## p. 661 (#693) ############################################

Punishment of disobedience 661
right of the ban is not to be derived from any special priestly or knightly
prerogative, but is to be simply regarded as a natural adjunct of the
supreme position. It lies in the very nature of kingship to issue coercive
commands.
Obedience on the part of the subject flowed from the ordinary obliga-
tions of allegiance. Disobedience was disloyalty. Just as disloyalty was
differently punished according to the enormity of the offence, even with
banishment, confiscation, or death, so, in the same way, disobedience
was differently punished, fixed punishments being appointed by law for
definite offences, or else the sentence was referred to the monarch's
arbitrary power of punishing. The power of the ban possessed by the
Frankish kings was not simply the power to order or to forbid under
threat of the old fine of sixty shillings. It was on the contrary much
further reaching. It demanded obedience on the ground of allegiance,
on the ground of the legal principle that the punishment for disloyalty,
whatever it be, should light on the disobedient, and that—in so far as
special punishments were not already decreed by law—the disobedient
might suffer any punishment from the King's Court up to complete
outlawry.