ranged from homicide to a piece of land which someone claimed by
right of succession to his father. And the noticiamight record that one
party ‘kept’ the plea according to law for a day or three whole days or
more, and the other did not come or send an excuse (essonia, ‘essoin’),
so that he lost the case by default; or that the man accused of homicide
cleared himself as the count and rachimburgiiof the civitasof Anjou
adjudged—by the oaths of twelve oath-helpers (who supported his oath
that he was innocent); or that the tenant of the disputed land produced
a writ (breve sacramentorum) showing that he had proved his title by
oath on a previous occasion.^34
Almost all the Merovingian noticiaeconcern the landed interests of a
few great churches. Of the eighteen placitaamongst the charters of the
Merovingian kings and the five amongst the charters of the Arnulfing
(Carolingian) mayors of the palace, no less than thirteen concern the
abbey of the king’s ‘special patron Saint Denis, where that dear lord’s
body lies’. Saint Denis invariably ‘wins’, even against another abbey or
the mayor of the palace himself, and sometimes there is no real contest:
the ‘disputes’ are clearly fictional and contrived in order to get a gift or
sale, perhaps of the vendor’s inherited property or marriage-portion,
confirmed in the most authoritative way. By a judgment in the king’s
court the claims of later generations could be silenced, and the vendor
and his heirs required to warrant (that is, defend) the purchaser’s title
against any future suits for that property in ‘the public courts’.^35
The royal function of arbitrating in disputes about property-rights,
especially those granted to the Church by previous kings, came to be
seen as a responsibility and a power bestowed by God—a jurisdiction
derived from on high, no longer a role growing out of social custom.
One party’s pledging of the other to accept arbitration changed into
finding sureties to appear before the king’s court. The emphasis shifted
to prosecution by the complainant, who did not merely ‘say’ but
‘suggested to the royal clemency’ or ‘accused’ (interpellavit).^36 There
was a shift also to judgment by the king—or by the count of his palace,
who emerged as the first quasi-professional judge, presiding over a
palace-court of assessors drawn from the great men of the land and the
king’s household. The king’s function was to order that sworn inquests
take place, and lend his authority to the execution of the final judgment
Pleas before the king 19(^34) Formulae, 9–10 (no. 16), 20–3 (nos. 45–7, 50, 53), 67 (no. 37), 157, 189 (nos. 40–1); cf.
Diplomata... Merowingica, 53–4 (no. 60).
(^35) Diplomata... Merowingica, nos. 34, 35, 37, 60, 64, 70, 73, 76 (p. 68. 15 ), 77, 78, 79
(p. 71. 1 ), 83, 84, 94 (p. 84. 35 ); of the mayors of the palace, nos. 18, 21, 22; see 68. 30 for an
example of the formula concerning Saint Denis; Classen, ‘Kaiserreskript’, part ii. 70.
(^36) Formulae, 60. 5 and 35 , 67. 5 and 10 , 68 (no. 38), 155. 10 and 15 , 193. 5 , 321–5 (esp. no.
50), 362. 5 , 535. 5 5; Diplomata... Merowingica, 38 (no. 41), 45 (49), 53–4 (60), 57 (64),
58–9 (66), 62. 35 , 64, 69. 45 , 77, 106. 35 ; of the mayors, nos. 10, 21; Classen, ‘Kaiserreskript’,
part ii. 33 (for suggerere).