Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/565

 FEUDAL INSTITUTIONS.] FRANCE 529 influence that the young king married Hlotehild, niece of the Burgundian king, a Christian maiden. In the quiet years which followed, Hlodo wig doubtless became more and more inclined towards his wife s belief; and when, in repelling the invasion of the Allemans in 49G he believed that the &quot;god of Hlotehild&quot; had heard his vow, he at once declared his gratitude and his conversion. Some thousands of his wild warriors followed him to the font, as willingly and with as little thought as they would have followed him to death or victory. From this moment the firm alliance between the church and the Frank began, an alliance which affected both ; the church became more warlike and aggressive, the Frank grew more civilized, and learnt the art of ruling. With their headquarters fixed in northern Gaul, the Franks, under Hlodowig s command, reduced first their cousins the Burgundiaris (500 A.D.) and then (507) the Visigoths under Alaric. All France, with exception of a rich strip of land between the mountains and the Gulf of Lyons, afterwards called Septimania, was overrun and plundered. This done, Hlodowig spent the rest of his days securing his dominion by the destruction of all powerful neighbours or competitors; for the grim Frank, vigorous and ambitious, knew neither scruple nor pity, and the clergy round his throne passed over crimes which they were powerless to prevent. When he died in 511 the settlement of the German on the soil of Gaul had been accomplished, and Hlodowig, who has no claim to honour a3 a man of constructive power, still stands out in history as the founder of a new world in France. To him France owes that feudal relation which has so deeply marked her story ; in him the church first made that connexion with feudalism, which lowered her character, w r hile it strengthened her power and influence. Not without reason does France inscribe on the first page of her history this German con queror, a robber, a liar, a murderer, for it is from him that modern France rightly dates her beginning. The origins of feudalism are simple enough. When the Franks came in under Hlodowig, they were a host of free and equal Germans under the king of their choice. The belief that he brought with him a graduated hierarchy of chieftains, who at once established a complete &quot;feudal system &quot; on the conquered soil is no longer tenable. No doubt the most influential and vigorous of Hlodowig s followers got most in the distribution of lands and spoils ; still, in theory at least, all free Franks were equal, and in the new settlement of the country each man according to his strength took what he could get. The older conditions of the Germanic peoples had died out of the Salian s life; the institutions which appear in an indistinct form in the Germaniaoi Tacitus had already undergone great change; the family of tribes, with common rule of usage and very slight bonds of political union, is, as Professor Stubbs remarks (Constitutional History, i. p. 36), &quot;singularly capable of entering into new combinations; singularly liable to be united and dissolved in short-lived confedera tions.&quot; It was one of their late-formed confederacies over which Hlodowig, with the vigour of barbarous youth, had now come to rule. The Salian law, a collection of the customs of Frankish law in the 5th century, gives us a fairly clear view of the condition of those who streamed over into Gaul at this great chieftain s back. We learn from it that among the Franks the kingly office was fully recognized, and though the form of election by the nation is preserved, the choice is limited to the members of a jingle family, so that hereditary succession partly prevails. The king, once chosen, is the real head of the nation ; he has not as yet run any risk of becoming a faineant ; he Appoints the rulers of provinces, if we may use this ftoman term, that is, the grajfe who are set over certain aggregations of hundreds ; and the graf or reeve, to take the English form of the word, is an administrative officer, who carries out the sentences of the courts of justice. The king also appoints the officers who collect the royal dues in the &quot;vills&quot; which had succeeded in the place of the primitive &quot;marks&quot; of the Germanic peoples. Round the king s per son is his &quot;comitatus,&quot; his aggregate of immediate followers, who form his guard, and are the germ of the later feudal nobility. The nation in arms forms the equal council, in which all men give voice and vote alike; justice is administered by a hundred-court or mall, composed of qualified landowners; if any one is aggrieved by their decision, he can appeal directly to the king. It is round this &quot; hundred &quot; that the Frankish system really moves, for it is out of a group of hundreds that a district with its graf is formed ; and there seems to be no court of law superior to that of the hundred. All political questions are of course the affair of the national council. There is in the Salian law no trace of a primitive nobility ; though the old system of common land has disappeared, giving place to separate ownership, the land does not carry with it any special honour ; the Franks are still very far from any ideas as to a territorial nobility. These were the institutions which Hlodowig transplanted out of the districts of the lower Rhine into Gaul. They came into contact with the tenacious Gallic temper, and the masterful organization of the Romans. The Franks, with singular energy and success, adapted themselves to their new place as conquerors ; and, giving and taking, laid the foundations of modern French life. Their settlement was slow and unsystematic ; the king, receiving a large portion of the soil as his domain, granted out of it benefices for his immediate friends and followers. These gifts were at first held on pleasure, and were liable to be resumed at any time ; after a while this precarious tenure suited neither party ; these fiefs became first life-holdings, and finally hereditary possessions, held on tenure of service of some kind. The greater chiefs, with the king, took their share of conquered lands, asserting their rights to an alodial holding, and, if they chose to do so, granting out benefices from these districts to their followers. The common sort of Franks, who were neither king s friends nor independent chiefs and their friends, took what they could get, their share of the spoil as it fell to them ; and as their strong arms were useful and marketable possessions, we may be sure that many of them grouped themselves round the king, and, if they were for tunate, were rewarded with small benefices. A considerable part of the land was left in the hands of the Gallo-Romans undisturbed, and became tributary the tribute being a kind of rent paid by the old owners to their new masters. Thus the Franks were spread over the whole surface of the soil ; they were at home in the country, and shunned the cities ; civic life was distasteful to them ; the air of the streets too confined for those who loved the forest and tho chase as all Germans did. Consequently, in the towns the Gallo-Roman bishops retained sole authority, ruling by the Roman law, and preserving the last remains of the civiliza tion of the past. The church, however, was far from con fining herself within these civic limits ; though she stood aloof from feudalism at first, deeming her own ways better, she soon showed a consciousness that the centre of power no longer lay in the cities, and that her influence must be felt at the king s court. Consequently, we soon find the bishops grouping themselves round the king, acting as his advisers, modifying the Germanic ideas, and in turn receiv ing new ambitions from their masters. Ere long the bishops will begin to take place in the feudal hierarchy, and will form a recognized part of the new nobility of the realm ; though for a very long time the Franks clearly regarded the clerical life as unsuited to their character, and left the influ- IX. 67