parent could not disinherit, to the females he was bound to give an adequate dowry. The testimony
of Manicheans, of Samaritans, and Pagans could not be received; apostates to any of these sects
and religions lost all their former privileges, and were liable to all penalties."
§ 90. The Capitularies of Charlemagne.
Steph. Baluzius (Baluze, Prof. of Canon law in Paris, d. 1718): Regum Francorum Capitularia,
1677; new ed. Paris, 1780, 2 vols. Pertz: Monumenta Germaniae historica, Tom. III (improved
ed. of the Capitularia). K. Fr. Eichhorn: Deutsche Staats-und Rechtsgeschichte, Göttingen,
1808, 4 Parts; 5th ed. 1844. J. Grimm: Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, Göttingen 1828. Giesebrecht
(I. 800) calls this an "unusually rich collection with profound glances into the legal life of the
German people." W. Dönniges: Das deutsche Staatsrecht und die deutsche Reichsverfassung,
Berlin 1842. F. Walther: Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte, second ed. Bonn 1857. J. Hillebrand:
Lehrbuch der deutschen Staats-und Rechtsgeschichte, Leipzig 1856. O. Stobbe: Geschichte der
deutschen Rechtsquellen, Braunschweig, 1860 (first Part). W. Giesebrecht: Geschichte der
deutschen Kaiserzeit, third ed. Braunschweig 1863 sqq. Bd I. 106–144.
The first and greatest legislator of the Germanic nations is Charlemagne, the founder of the
Holy Roman Empire (800–814). What Constantine the Great, Theodosius the Great, and Justinian
did for the old Roman empire on the basis of heathen Rome and the ancient Graeco-Latin church,
Charlemagne did for the new Roman Empire in the West on the basis of Germanic customs and
the Latin church centred in the Roman papacy. He was greater, more beneficial and enduring in
his influence as a legislator than as a soldier and conqueror.^412 He proposed to himself the herculean
task to organize, civilize and Christianize the crude barbarian customs of his vast empire, and he
carried it out with astonishing wisdom. His laws are embodied in the Capitularia, i.e. laws divided
into chapters. They are the first great law-book of the French and Germans.^413 They contain his
edicts and ordinances relating to ecclesiastical, political, and civil legislation, judicial decisions
and moral precepts. The influence of the church and the Christian religion is here more direct and
extensive than in the Roman Code, and imparts to it a theocratic element which approaches to the
Mosaic legislation. The Roman Catholic church with her creed, her moral laws, her polity, was the
strongest bond of union which held the Western barbarians together and controlled the views and
aims of the emperor. He appears, indeed, as the supreme ruler clothed with sovereign authority.
But he was surrounded by the clergy which was the most intelligent and influential factor in
legislation both in the synod and in the imperial diet. The emperor and his nobles were under the
power of the bishops, and the bishops were secular lords and politicians as well as ecclesiastics.
The ecclesiastical affairs were controlled by the Apocrisiarius^414 (a sort of minister of worship);
(^412) The same may be said of Napoleon I., whose code has outlived his military conquests.
(^413) Giesebrecht (I. 128): "Ein Riesenschritt in der Entwicklung des deutschen Geistes geschah durch Karls Gesetzgebung
... Mit Ehrfurcht und heiliger Scheu schlägt man die, Capitularien des grossen Kaisers auf, das erste grosse Gesetzbuch der
Germanen, ein Werk, dem mehrere Jahrhunderte vorher und nachher kein Volk ein gleiches an die Seite gesetzt hat. Das Bild
des Karolingischen Staates tritt uns in voller Gegenwärtigkeit hier vor die Seele; wir sehen, wie Grosses erreicht, wie das
Höchste erstrebt wurde."
(^414) Also called Archicapellnus, Archicancellarius