their resolutions, or to deliberate on their common interests. The sovereign was never present, unless when called to ratify the decrees of the assembly. 5. Charlemagne divided the empire into provinces, and these into districts, each comprehending a certain number of counties. The districts were governed by royal envoys, chosen from the clergy and nobles, and bound to an exact visitation of their territories every three months. These envoys held yearly conventions, at which were present the higher clergy and barons, to discuss the affairs of the district, examine the conduct of its magistrates, and redress the grievances of individuals. At the general assembly, or Champ de Mai, the royal envoys made their report to the sovereign and states; and thus the public attention was constantly directed to all the concerns of the empire. 6. The private character of Charlemagne was most amiable and respectable. His secretary, Eginhart, has painted his domestic life in beautiful and simple colouring. The economy of his family, where the daughters of the emperor were assiduously employed in spinning and housewifery, and the sons trained by their father in the practice of all manly exercises, is characteristic of an age of great simplicity. This illustrious man died A.D. 814, in the 72nd year of his age [and was buried at Aix la Chapelle]. Contemporary with him was Haroun Alraschid, Caliph of the Saracens, equally celebrated for his conquests, excellent policy, and the wisdom and humanity of his government. 7. Of all the lawful sons of Charlemagne, Louis le Débonnaire was the only one who survived him, and who therefore succeeded without dispute to the imperial dominions, excepting Italy, which the emperor had settled on Bernard, his grandson by Pepin, his second son. V. Manners, Government, and Customs of the Age of Charlemagne. 1. In establishing the provincial conventions under the royal envoys, Charlemagne did not entirely abolish the authority of the ancient chief magistrates, the dukes and counts. They continued to command the troops of the province, and to make the levies in stated numbers from each district. Cavalry was not numerous in the imperial armies, 12 farms being taxed to furnish only one horseen, with his armour and accoutrements. The province supplied six months' provisions to its complement of men, and the king maintained them during the rest of the campaign. 2. The engines for the attack and defence of towns were, as in former times, the ram, the balista, catapulta, testudo, &c. Charlemagne had his ships of war stationed in the mouths of all the large rivers. He bestowed great attention on commerce. The merchants of Italy and the south of France traded to the Levant, and exchanged the commodities of Europe and Asia. Venice and Genoa were rising into commercial opulence; and the manufactures of wool, of glass, and iron, were successfully cultivated in many of the principal towns in the south of Europe. 3. The value of money was nearly the same as in the Roman empire in the age of Constantine the Great. The numerary livre, in the age of Charlemagne, was supposed to be a pound of silver, in value about three pounds sterling of English money. At present the livre [tournois] is worth tenpence halfpenny English.* Hence we ought to be cautious in forming our estimate of ancient money from its name; and from the want of this caution have arisen the most erroneous ideas of the commerce, riches, and strength of the ancient kingdoms. 4. The Capitularia of Charlemagne, compiled into a body, A.D. 827, were recovered from oblivion in 1531 and 1545. They present many circumstances illustrative of the manners of the times. Unless in great cities, there were no inns; the laws obliged every man to give accommodation to travellers. The chief towns were built of wood, and even the walls were of that material. The state of the mechanic arts was very low in Europe: the Saracens had brought thein to great perfection. Painting and sculpture were only preserved from absolute extinction by the existing remains of ancient art. Charlemagne appears to have been anxious for the improvement of music; and the Italians are said to have instructed his French performers in the art of playing on the organ. Architecture was studied and successfully cultivated in that style termed the Gothic, which admits of great beauty, elegance, and magnificence. The composition of Mosaic appears to have been an invention of those ages. The livre is at present better known by the donomination of a frune; itsalac is now (1844) tenpence sterling. - ED. 5. The knowledge of letters was extremely low, and confined to a few of the ecclesiastics: but Charlemagne gave the utmost encouragement to literature and the sciences, inviting into his dominions of France, men eminent in those departments from Italy, and from the Britannic isles,* which, in those dark ages, preserved more of the light of learning than any of the western kingdoms. "For neither must the praise of Britain, Scotland, and Ireland be passed over in silence, which at that time excelled the other western nations in the cultivation of the liberal arts; and chiefly by the care of the monks, who, in those countries, carefully revived and fostered the glory of letters, which in other parts were languishing or depressed." Murat. Antiq. Ital. Diss. 48. The scarcity of books in those times, and the nature of their subjects-legends, lives of the saints, &c., evince the narrow diffusion of literature. 6. The pecuniary fines for homicide, the ordeal or judgment of God, and judicial combat, were striking peculiarities in the laws and manners of the northern nations, and particularly of the Franks. With this warlike but barbarous people, revenge was esteemed honourable and meritorious. The high-spirited warrior chastised or vindicated with his own hand the injuries he had received or inflicted. The magistrate interfered, not to punish, but to reconcile, and was satisfied if he could persuade the aggressor to pay, and the injured party to accept the moderate fine which was imposed as the price of blood, and of which the measure was estimated according to the rank, the sex, and the country of the person slain. But increasing civilization abolished those barbarous distinctions. We have remarked the equal severity of the laws of the Visigoths both in the crime of murder and robbery ; and even among the Franks in the age of Charlemagne, deliberate murder was punished with death. 7. By their ancient laws, a party accused of any crime was allowed to produce compurgators, or a certain number of witnesses, according to the measure of the offence; and if these declared upon oath their belief of his innocence, it was held a sufficient exculpation. Seventy-two compurgators were required to acquit a murderer or an incendiary. The flagrant perjuries occasioned by this absurd practice probably gave rise to the trial by ordeal, which * Of these Alcuin was the most celebrated. was termed, as it was believed to be, the judgment of God. The criminal was ordered, at the option of the judge, to prove his innocence or guilt by the ordeal of cold water, of boiling water, or red hot iron. He was tied hand and foot, and thrown into a pool to sink or swim; he was made to fetch a ring from the bottom of a vessel of boiling water, or to walk bare footed over burning plough-shares; and history records examples of those wonderful experiments having been undergone without injury or pain. 8. Another peculiarity of the laws and manners of the northern nations was judicial combat. Both in civil suits and in the trial of crimes, the party destitute of legal proofs, might challenge his antagonist to mortal combat, and rest the cause upon its issue. This sanguinary and most iniquitous custom, which [long existed in England under the name of camp-fight or trial by battle, and] may be traced to this day in the practice of duelling, had the authority of law in the court of the constable and marshal, even in the last century, in France and England. VI.-Retrospective View of the Affairs of the Church preceding the Age of Charlemagne. His 1. The Arian and Pelagian heresies divided the Christian Church for many ages. In the fourth century Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, maintained the separate and inferior nature of the second Person of the Trinity, regarding Christ as the noblest of created beings, through whose agency the Creator had formed the universe. doctrine was condemned in the council of Nice, held by Constantine, A.D. 325, who afterwards became a convert to his opinions. These for many centuries had an extensive influence, and produced the sects of the Eunomians, Semi-Arians, Eusebians, &c. 2. In the beginning of the fifth century, Pelagius and Celestius, the former a native of Britain, the latter of Ireland, denied the doctrine of original sin, and the necessity of divine grace to enlighten the understanding and purify the heart, and maintained the sufficiency of man's natural powers for the attainment of the highest degrees of piety and virtue. These tenets were ably combated by St. Augustine, and condemned by an ecclesiastical council, but have ever continued to find many supporters. 3. The most obstinate source of controversy in those ages was regarding the worship of images; a practice which, though at first opposed by the clergy, was afterwards, from interested motives, countenanced and vindicated by them. It was, however, long a subject of division in the Church. The emperor Leo the Isaurian, A.D. 727, attempted to suppress this idolatry, by the destruction of every statue and picture found in the churches, and by punishment of their worshippers; but this intemperate zeal rather increased than repressed the superstition. His son Constantine Copronymus, with wiser policy, satisfied himself with procuring its condemnation by the Church [in a general council held at Constantinople, A.D. 754, see post, sect. 8, § 2.] arose 4. From the doctrines of the Platonic and Stoic philo sophy, which recommended the purification of the soul by redeeming it from its subjection to the senses, the system of penances, mortification, religious sequestration, and monachism. After Constantine had put an end to the persecution of the Christians, many conceived it a duty to procure for themselves voluntary grievances and sufferings. They retired into caves and hermitages, and there practised the most rigorous mortifications of the flesh, by fasting, scourging, vigils, &c. This frenzy first showed itself in Egypt, in the fourth century, whence it spread all over the East, a great part of Africa, and within the limits of the bishopric of Rome. In the time of Theodosius, these devotees began to form communities or cœnobia, each associate binding himself by oath to observe the rules of his order. St. Benedict introduced monachism into Italy under the reign of Totila, and his order, the Benedictine, soon became extremely numerous, and most opulent, from the many rich donations made by the devout and charitable, who conceived they profited by their prayers. Benedict sent colonies into Sicily and France, whence they soon spread over all Europe. 5. In the East the monachi solitarii were first incorporated into convents by St. Basil, bishop of Cæsaréa, in the middle of the fourth century; and some time before that period, the first monasteries for women were founded in Egypt by the sister of St. Pacomo. From these, in the following age, sprung a variety of orders, under different rules. The rule of the canons regular was framed after the model of the apostolic life. The mendicants, to chastity, obedience, and poverty, added the obligation of |