The kings had no authority; they had only an empty name. The regal title was hereditary, and that of mayor elective. Though it was latterly in the power of the mayors to place any of the Merovingians on the throne, they had not yet taken a king of another family; and the ancient law which fixed the crown in a particular family was not yet erased from the hearts of the Franks. The king's person was almost unknown in the monarchy; but royalty was not. Pepin, son of Charles o See the above constitution, and the also the first Capitulary of Charle- Capitulary of Charles the Bald, in the magne, " incerti anni," arts. 49 and 56- year 846, chap. xx. " in Villa Sparnaco," Baluzius's edition, torn. i. p. 519.
Baluzius's edition, torn. ii. p. 31, and p See the Capitularies, book v. art.
that of the year 853, chaps, lii. and v., 44, and the Edict of Pistes in the year in the Synod of Soissons, Baluzius's 869, arts. 8 and 9, where we find the edition, torn. ii. p. 54; and that of the honorary rights of the lords established, year 854, " apud Attiniacum," chap. x. in the same manner as they are at this Baluzius's edition, tom. ii. p. 70. See very day.
242 MONTESQUIEU Martel, thought it would be proper to confound those two titles, a confusion which would leave it a moot point whether the new royalty was hereditary or not; and this was sufficient for him who to the regal dignity had joined a great power. The mayor's authority was then blended with that of the king. In the mixture of these two authorities a kind of reconciliation was made; the mayor had been elective, and the king hereditary; the crown at the beginning of the second race was elective, because the people chose; it was hereditary, because they al- ways chose in the same family.?
Father le Cointe, in spite of the authority of all ancient rec- ords,** denies that the Pope authorized this great change; and one of his reasons is that he would have committed an injus- tice.5 A fine thing to see a historian judge of that which men have done by that which they ought to have done; by this mode of reasoning we should have no more history.
Be that as it may, it is very certain that immediately after Duke Pepin's victory, the Merovingians ceased to be the reign- ing family. When his grandson, Pepin, was crowned king, it was only one ceremony more, and one phantom less; he acquired nothing thereby but the royal ornaments; there was no change made in the nation.
This I have said in order to fix the moment of the revolution, that we may not be mistaken in looking upon that as a revolu- tion which was only a consequence of it.
When Hugh Capet was crowned king at the beginning of the third race, there was a much greater change, because the kingdom passed from a state of anarchy to some kind of gov- ernment; but when Pepin took the crown there was only a transition from one government to another, which was iden- tical.
When Pepin was crowned king there was only a change of name; but when Hugh Capet was crowned there was a change in the nature of the thing, because by uniting a great fief to the crown the anarchy ceased.
q See the will of Charlemagne, and r The anonymous " Chronicle " in the division which Louis the Debon- the year 752; and " Chronic. Centul." in naire made to his children in the as- the year 754...
sembly of the states held at Quierzy, i " Fabella quae post Pippini mortem related by Goldast, " quern populus excogitata est, aequitati ac sanctitati eligere velit. ut patri suo succedat in Zacharis papae plurimum adversatur.'j regni hsereditate. — " Ecclesiastic Annals of the French, THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 243 When Pepin was crowned the title of king was united to the highest office; when Hugh Capet was crowned it was annexed to the greatest fief.
17. — A particular Circumstance in the Election of the Kings of the Second Race We find by the formulary of Pepin's coronation that Charles and Carloman were also anointed/ and blessed, and that the French nobility bound themselves, on pain of interdiction and excommunication, never to choose a prince of another family."
It appears by the wills of Charlemagne and Louis the De- bonnaire, that the Franks made a choice among the king's children, which agrees with the above-mentioned clause. And when the empire was transferred from Charlemagne's family, the election, which before had been restricted and conditional, became pure and simple, so that the ancient constitution was departed from.
Pepin, perceiving himself near his end, assembled the lords, both temporal and spiritual, at St. Denis, and divided his king- dom between his two sons, Charles and Carloman.?^ We have not the acts of this assembly, but we find what was there trans- acted in the author of the ancient historical collection, pub- Hshed by Canisius, and in the writer of the Annals of Metz,«; according to the observation of Baluzius.-*^ Here I meet with two things in some measure contradictory; that he made this division with the consent of the nobility, and afterwards that he made it by his paternal authority. This proves what I said, that the people's right in the second race was to choose in the same family; it was, properly speaking, rather a right of ex- clusion than that of election.
This kind of elective right is confirmed by the records of the second race. Such is this Capitulary of the division of the empire made by Charlemagne among his three children, in which, after settling their shares, he says,^ " That if one of the three brothers happens to have a son, such as the people shall * Vol. sth of the "Historians of z; In the year 768.
France " by the Benedictins, p. 9. w Tom. ii. " lectionis antiquae."
u " Ut unquam de alterius lumbis x Edition of the Capitularies, torn. t.
regem in aevo praesumant eligere sed ex p. 188.
ipsorum." Vol. sth of the "^Historians y In the ist Capitulary of the year 244 MONTESQUIEU be willing to choose as a fit person to succeed to his father's kingdom, his uncles shall consent to it."
This same regulation is to be met with in the partition which Louis the Debonnaire made among his three children, Pepin, Louis, and Charles, in the year 837, at the assembly of Aix-la- Chapelle; s and likewise in another partition, made twenty years before, by the same Emperor, in favor of Lotharius, Pepin, and Louis.a We may likewise see the oath which Louis the Stammerer took at Compiegne at his coronation: " I, Louis, by the divine mercy, and the people's election, ap- pointed king, do promise..." & What I say is confirmed by the acts of the Council of Valence, held in the year 890, for the election of Louis, son of Boson, to the kingdom of Arles.c Louis was there elected, and the principal reason they gave for choosing him is that he was of the imperial family,d that Charles the Fat had conferred upon him the dignity of king, and that the Emperor Arnold had invested him by the sceptre, and by the ministry of his ambassadors. The kingdom of Aries, like the other dismembered or dependent kingdoms of Charlemagne, was elective and hereditary.
18. — Charlemagne 18. — Charlemagne Charlemagne's intention was to restrain the power of the nobility within proper bounds, and to hinder them from op- pressing the freemen and the clergy. He balanced the several orders of the state, and remained perfect master of them all. The whole was united by the strength of his genius. He led the nobility continually from one expedition to another, giving them no time to form conspiracies, but employing them en- tirely in the execution of his designs. The empire was sup- ported by the greatness of its chief; the prince Avas great, but the man was greater. The kings, his children, were his first subjects, the instruments of his power and patterns of obedi- ence. He made admirable laws; and, what is more, he took care to see them executed. His genius diffused itself through e In Goldast, " Constit. Imperial," senior frater in loco fratris et filii susci- " Si vero aliquis illorum decedens zius's edition, p. 272.
leg'.timos filios reliquerit, non inter cos c In _ Father Labbe's _ " Councils," potestas ipsa dividatur, sed potius torn. ix. col. 424: and in Dumont's populus pariter conveniens, unum ex iis " Corp. Diplomat.' torn. ii. art. 36.
quem dominus voluerit eligat, et hunc d By the mother's side.
THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 245 every part of the empire. We find in this prince's laws a com- prehensive spirit of foresight, and a certain force which carries all before it. All pretexts for evading the duties are removed, neglects are corrected, abuses reformed or prevented.^ He knew how to punish, but he understood much better how to pardon. He was great in his designs, and simple in the execu- tion of them. No prince ever possessed in a higher degree the art of performing the greatest things with ease, and the most difficult with expedition. He was continually visiting the sev- eral parts of his vast empire, and made them feel the weight of his hand wherever it fell. New difficulties sprang up on every side, and on every side he removed them. Never prince had more resolution in facing dangers; never prince knew better how to avoid them. He mocked all manner of perils, and particularly those to which great conquerors are generally subject, namely, conspiracies. This wonderful prince was ex- tremely moderate, of a very mild character, plain and simple in his behavior. He loved to converse freely with the lords of his court. He indulged, perhaps, too much his passion for the fair sex; a failing, however, which in a prince who always gov- erned by himself, and who spent his life in a continual series of toils, may merit some allowance. He was wonderfully exact in his expenses, administering his demesnes with prudence, at- tention, and economy. A father might learn from his laws how to govern his family; and we find in his Capitularies the pure and sacred source whence he derived his riches./^ I shall add only one word more: he gave orders that the eggs in the bar- tons on his demesnes, and the superfluous garden-stufif, should be sold; g he distributed among his people all the riches of the Lombards, and the immense treasures of those Huns that had plundered the whole world.
19. — The same Subject continued Charlemagne and his immediate successors were afraid lest those whom they placed in distant parts should be inclined to revolt, and thought they should find more docility among the e See his 3d Capitulary of the year the year 800; his 2d Capitulary of the 811, p. 486, arts. I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and year 813, arts. 6 and 19; and the sth 8; and the ist Capitulary of the year book of the Capitularies, art. 303.
812, p. 490, art. I; and the Capitulary ^ " Capitul. de Villis," art. 39. See of the year 812, p. 494, arts. 9 and 11, this whole Capitulary, which is a mas- etc. terpiece of prudence, good administra- / See the " Capitulary de Villis " in tion, and economy.
246 MONTESQUIEU clergy. For this reason they erected a great number of bishop- rics in Germany and endowed them with very large fiefs,/» It appears by some charters that the clauses containing the pre- rogatives of those fiefs were not different from such as were commonly inserted in those grants,* though at present we find the principal ecclesiastics of Germany invested with a sovereign power. Be that as it may, these were some of the contrivances they used against the Saxons. That which they could not expect from the indolence or supineness of vassals they thought they ought to expect from the sedulous attention of a bishop. Besides, a vassal of that kind, far from making use of the con- quered people against them, would rather stand in need of their assistance to support themselves against their own people.
20. — Louis the Debonnaire When Augustus Caesar was in Egypt he ordered Alexan- der's tomb to be opened; and upon their asking him whether he was willing they should open the tombs of the Ptolemies, he made answer that he wanted to see the king, and not the dead. Thus, in the history of the second race, we are continually looking for Pepin and Charlemagne; we want to see the kings, and not the dead.
A prince who was the sport of his passions, and a dupe even to his virtues; a prince who never understood rightly either his own strength or weakness; a prince who was incapable of mak- ing himself either feared or beloved; a prince, in fine, who with few vices in his heart had all manner of defects in his under- standing, took the reins of the empire into his hands which had been held by Charlemagne.
At a time when the whole world is in tears for the death of his father, at a time of surprise and alarm, when the subjects of that extensive empire all call upon Charles and find him no more; at a time when he is advancing with all expedition to take posses- sion of his father's throne, he sends some trusty officers before him in order to seize the persons of those who had contributed to the irregular conduct of his sisters. This step was productive h See among others the foundation of i For instance, the prohibition to the the archbishopric of Bremen, in the king's judges against entering upon the Capitulary of the year 789. Baluzius's territory to demand the freda, and edition, p. 245. other duties. I have said a good deal concerning this in the preceding book.
THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 247 of the most terrible catastrophes.;* It was imprudent and pre- cipitate. He began with punishing domestic crimes before he reached the palace; and with alienating the minds of his subjects before he ascended the throne.
His nephew, Bernard, King of Italy, having come to implore his clemency, he ordered his eyes to be put out, which proved the cause of that prince's death a few days after, and created Louis a great many enemies. His apprehension of the conse- quence induced him to shut his brothers up in a monastery; by which means the number of his enemies increased. These two last transactions were afterwards laid to his charge in a judicial manner,^ and his accusers did not fail to tell him that he had violated his oath and the solemn promises which he had made to his father on the day of his coronation,/ After the death of the Empress Hermengarde, by whom he had three children, he married Judith, and had a son by that princess; but soon mixing all the indulgence of an old husband, with all the weakness of an old king, he flung his family into a disorder which was followed by the downfall of the monarchy.
He was continually altering the partitions he had made among his children. And yet these partitions had been confirmed each in their turn by his own oath, and by those of his children and the nobility. This was as if he wanted to try the fidelity of his subjects; it was endeavoring by confusion, scruples, and equivo- cation, to puzzle their obedience; it was confounding the differ- ent rights of those princes, and rendering their titles dubious, especially at a time when there were but few fortresses, and when the principal bulwark of authority was the fealty sworn and ac- cepted.
The Emperor's children, in order to preserve their shares, courted the clergy, and granted them privileges till then unheard. These privileges were specious; and the clergy in return were made to warrant the revolution in favor of those princes. Ago- bard »w represents to Louis the Debonnaire as having sent Lotharius to Rome, in order to have him declared emperor; and that he had made a division of his dominions among his children, ;■ The anonymous author of the " Life / He directed him to show unlimited of Louis the Debonnaire," in Du- clemency (indeficientem misericordiam) chesne's Collection, tom. ii. p. 295. to his sisters, his brothers, and his k See his trial and the circumstances nephews. Tegan in the Collection of of his deposition, in Duchesne's Collec- Duchesne, tom. ii. p. 276.
tion, tom. ii. p. 133. m See his letters.
248 MONTESQUIEU after having consulted heaven by three days' fasting and praying. What defence could such a weak prince make against the attack of superstition? It is easy to perceive the shock which the su- preme authority must have twice received from his imprison- ment, and from his public penance; they would fain degrade the king, and they degraded the regal dignity.
We find difficulty at first in conceiving how a prince who was possessed of several good qualities, who had some knowledge, who had a natural disposition to virtue, and who, in short, was the son of Charlemagne, could have such a number of enemies," so impetuous and implacable as even to insult him in his humili- ation and to be determined upon his ruin; and, indeed, they would have utterly completed it, if his children, who in the main were more honest than they, had been steady in their design, and could have agreed among themselves.
21. — The same Subject continued The strength and solidity for which the kingdom was im- debted to Charlemagne still subsisted under Louis the Debon- naire, in such a degree as enabled the state to support its gran- deur and to command respect from foreign nations. The prince's understanding was weak, but the nation was warlike. His au- thority declined at home, though there seemed to be no diminu- tion of power abroad.
Charles Martel, Pepin, and Charlemagne were in succession rulers of the monarchy. The first flattered the avarice of the soldiers: the other two that of the clergy. Louis the Debon- naire, displeased both.
In the French constitution, the whole power of the state was lodged in the hands of the king, the nobility, and clergy. Charles Martel, Pepin, and Charlemagne joined sometimes their interest with one of those parties to check the other and generally with both; but Louis the Debonnaire could gain the afTection of neither. He disobliged the bishops by publishing regulations which had the air of severity, because he carried things to a greater length than was agreeable to their inclination. Very good laws may be ill-timed. The bishops in those days, being n See his trial and the circumstances laborabat, tJt tsederet eos vita ipsius," of his deposition in Duchesne's Collec- says this anonymous author in Dution, torn. ii. p. 331. See also his life chesne, tom. ii. p. 307. written by Teean: " Tanto enim odio THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 249 accustomed to take the field against the Saracens and the Saxons, had very httle of the spirit of religion.^ On the other hand, as he had no longer any confidence in the nobility, he promoted mean people,/> turning the nobles out of their employments at court to make room for strangers and upstarts.9 By this means the affection of the two great bodies of the nobility and clergy were alienated from their prince, the consequence of which was a total desertion.
22. — The same Subject continued But what chiefly contributed to weaken the monarchy was the extravagance of this prince in alienating the crown demesnes.*' And here it is that we ought to listen to the account of Nitard, one of our most judicious historians, a grandson of Charlemagne, strongly attached to Louis the Debonnaire, and who wrote his history by order of Charles the Bald.
He says, " that one Adelhard for some time gained such an ascendant over the Emperor, that this prince conformed to his will in everything; that at the instigation of this favorite he had granted the crown lands to everybody that asked them,^ by which means the state was ruined." t Thus he did the same mis- chief throughout the empire, as I observed he had done in Aqui- taine; « the former Charlemagne redressed, but the latter was past all remedy.
The state was reduced to the same debility in which Charles Martel found it upon his accession to the mayoralty; and so desperate were its circumstances that no exertion of authority was any longer capable of saving it.
The treasury was so exhausted that in the reign of Charles the Bald, no one could continue in his employment, nor be safe in his person without paying for it.^' When they had it in their power to destroy the Normans, they took money to let them escape: w and the first advice which Hincmar gives to Louis the o The anonymous author of the " Life hoc diu tempore." — Tegan, " de Gestis of Louis the Debonnaire," in Du- Ludovici Pii." chesne's Collection, tom. ii. p. 298. s " Hinc libertates, hinc publica in p Tegan says that what seldom hap- proprits usibus distribuere suasit." — pened under Charlemagne was a com- Nitard, lib. iy. " prop* finem." mon practice under Louis. t " Rempublicam penitus annullavit."
q Being desirous to check the nobility, — Ibid, he promoted one Bernard to the place u See book XXX. chap. 13.
of chamberlain, by which the great v Hincmar, let. i, to Louis the Stamlords were exasperated to the highest merer, pitch. _ w See the fragment of the " Chronicle r " Villas regias quae erant sui et avi of the Monastery of St. Sergius of Anet tritavi, fidelibus suis tradidit eas in gers," in Duchesne, tom. ii. p. 401. possessiones sempitemas; fecit enim 25© MONTESQUIEU Stammerer is to ask of the assembly of the nation a sufficient allowance to defray the expenses of his household.
23. — The same Subject continued The clergy had reason to repent the protection they had granted to the children of Louis the Debonnaire. This prince, as I have already observed, had never given any of the church lands by precepts to the laity; x but it was not long before Lo- tharius in Italy, and Pepin in Aquitaine, quitted Charlemagne's plan, and resumed that of Charles Martel. The clergy had re- course to the Emperor against his children, but they themselves had weakened the authority to which they appealed. In Aqui- taine some condescension was shown, but none in Italy.
The civil wars with which the life of Louis the Debonnaire had been embroiled were the seed of those which followed his death. The three brothers, Lotharius, Louis, and Charles en- deavored each to bring over the nobility to their party and to make them their tools. To such as were willing therefore to fol- low them they granted church lands by precepts; so that to gain the nobility, they sacrificed the clergy.
We find in the Capitularies 3* that those princes were obliged to yield to the importunity of demands, and that what they would not often have freely granted was extorted from them: we find that the clergy thought themselves more oppressed by the nobil- ity than by the kings. It appears that Charles the Bald,-^ became the greatest enemy of the patrimony of the clergy, whether he was most incensed against them for having degraded his father on their account, or whether he was the most timorous. Be that as it may, we meet with continual quarrels in the Capitula- ries,a between the clergy who demanded their estates and the no- X See what the bishops say in the had set the King against the bishops.
Synod of the year 845, " apud Teudonis insomuch that he expelled them from villam," art. 4. _ the Assembly; a few of the canons y See the Synod in the year 845, enacted in council were picked out, and " apud Teudonis villam," arts. 3 and the prelates were told that these were 4, which gives a very exact description the only ones which should be obof things; as also, that of the same served; nothing was granted them that year, held at the palaces of Vernes, art. could be refused. See arts. 20, 21, and 12, and the Synod of Beauvais, also in 22. See also the letter which the bishthe same year, arts. 3, 4, and 6, and ops assembled at Rheims wrote in the the Capitulary in " Villa Sparnaco " in year 858 to Louis, King of Germany, the year 846, art. 20, and the letter which and the Edict of Pistes, in the year the bishops assembled at Rheims wrote 864, art. 5.
in 858, to Louis, King of Germany, a See this very Capitulary in the year art. 8. 846, " in Villa Sparnaco." See also the s See the Capitulary in " Villa Spar- Capitulary of the assembly held " apud naco," in the year 846. The nobility Marsnam " in the year 847, art. 4, THE SPIRIT OF LAWS 251 bility who refused or deferred to restore them; and the kings acting as mediators.
The situation of affairs at that time is a spectacle really de- serving of pity. While Louis the Debonnaire made immense donations out of his demesnes to the clergy, his children dis- tributed the church lands among the laity. The same prince with one hand founded new abbeys and despoiled old ones. The clergy had no fixed state; one moment they were plundered, another they received satisfaction; but the crown was continually losing.
Toward the close of the reign of Charles the Bald, and from that time forward, there was an end of the disputes of the clergy and laity, concerning the restitution of church lands. The bish- ops, indeed, breathed out still a few sighs in their remonstrances to Charles the Bald, which we find in the Capitulary of the year 856, and in the letter they wrote to Louis, King of Germany, in the year 858: b but they proposed things, and challenged prom- ises, so often eluded, that we plainly see they had no longer any hopes of obtaining their desire.
All that could be expected then was to repair in general the injuries done both to church and state.c The kings engaged not to deprive the nobility of their freemen, and not to give away any more church lands by precepts,c? so that the interests of the clergy and nobility seemed then to be united.
The dreadful depredations of the Normans, as I have already observed, contributed greatly to put an end to those quarrels.
The authority of our kings diminishing every day, both for the reasons already given and those which I shall mention here- after, they imagined they had no better resource left, than to resign themselves into the hands of the clergy. But the ecclesias- tics had weakened the power of the kings, and these had dimin- ished the influence of the ecclesiastics.
In vain did Charles the Bald and his successors call in the wherein the clergy reduced themselves the bishops assembled at Rheims wrote to demand only the restitution of what in the year 858, to Louis, King of Gerthey had been possessed of under Louis many, art. 8.
the Debonnaire. See also the Capitu- b Art. 8.
lary of the year 851, " apud Marsnam," c See the Capitulary of the year 852, arts. 6 and 7, which confirms the nobil- arts. 6 and 7.
ity and clergy in their several posses- d Charles the Bald, in the Synod of sions; and that "apud Bonoilum," in Soissons, says, that he "had promised the year 856, which is a remonstrance the bishops not to issue any more preof the bishops to the King, because the cepts relating to church lands." Capitevils, after so many laws, had not been ulary of the year 853, art. 11, Baluzius's redressed; and, in fine, the letter which edition, torn. ii. p. 56.
2^2 MONTESQUIEU Church to support the state, and to prevent its ruin; in vain did they make use of the respect which the commonalty had for that body,*? to maintain that which they should also have for their prince; f in vain did they endeavor to give an authority to their laws by that of the canons; in vain did they join the ecclesiastic with the civil punishments; g in vain to counterbalance the au- thority of the count did they give to each bishop the title of their commissary in the several provinces: h it was impossible to re- pair the mischief they had done; and a terrible misfortune which I shall presently mention proved the ruin of the monarchy.
24. — That the Freemen were rendered capable of holding Fiefs