the secular affairs, by the Comes palatii;^415 both were aided in each province by a delegated bishop
and count who were to work in harmony. On important questions the pope was consulted.^416 The
legislation proceeded from the imperial will, from ecclesiastical councils, and from the diet or
imperial assembly. The last consisted of the dignitaries of church and state, the court officials,
bishops, abbots, dukes, counts, etc., and convened every spring. The emperor was surrounded at
his court by the most eminent statesmen, clergymen and scholars, from whom he was anxious to
learn without sacrificing his right to rule. His court was a school of discipline and of that gentlemanly
courtesy and refinement which became a distinguishing feature of chivalry, and Charlemagne shone
in poetry as the first model cavalier.
The legislation of the Carolingian Capitularies is favorable to the clergy, to monasteries, to
the cause of good morals and religion. The marriage tie is protected, even among slaves; the license
of divorce restrained; divorced persons are forbidden to marry again during the life-time of the
other party. The observance of Sunday is enjoined for the special benefit of the laboring classes.
Ecclesiastical discipline is enforced by penal laws in cases of gross sins such as incest. Superstitious
customs, as consulting soothsayers and the Scriptures for oracles, are discouraged, but the ordeal
is enjoined. Wholesome moral lessons are introduced, sometimes in the language of the Scriptures:
the people are warned against perjury, against feud, against shedding Christian blood, against the
oppression of the poor (whose cause should be heard by the judges before the cause of the rich).
They are exhorted to learn the Apostles’ Creed and to pray, to love one another and to live in peace,
"because they have one Father in heaven." Cupidity is called "a root of all evil." Respect for the
dead is encouraged. Hospitality is recommended for the reason that he who receives a little child
in the name of Christ, receives him.
This legislation was much neglected under the weak successors of Charlemagne, but remains
a noble monument of his intentions.
§ 91. English Legislation.
Wilkin: Leges Anglo-Saxonicae (1721). Thorpe: Ancient Laws and Institutes of England (London
1840). Matthew Hale: History of the Common Law (6th ed. by Runnington, 1820). Reeve:
History of the English Law (new ed. by Finalson l869, 3 vols.). Blackstone: Commentaries on
the Laws of England (London 1765, many ed. Engl. and Amer.). Burn: Ecclesiastical Law (9th
ed. by Phillimore, 1842, 4 vols.). Phillimore: Ecclesiastical Law of the Church of England
(Lond. 1873, 2 vols.). Wm. Strong (Justice of the Supreme Court of the U. S.): Two Lectures
upon the Relations of Civil Law to Church Property (N. York 1875).
England never accepted the Roman civil law, and the canon law only in part. The island in its
isolation was protected by the sea against foreign influence, and jealous of it. It built up its own
system of jurisprudence on the basis of Anglo-Saxon habits and customs. The English civil law is
divided into Common Law or lex non scripta (i.e. not written at first), and Statute Law or lex scripta.
(^415) Pfalzgraf.
(^416) Hence many Capitularies are issued "apostolicae sedis hortatu, monente Pontom, ex praecepto Pontificis." At the
Synod of Francfort in 794 two delegates of Pope Hadrian were present, but Charlemagne presided. See Mansi XVIII. 884; Pertz,
Monum. I. 181.