The Census

AFTER the Barbarians had quitted their own country, they wanted to have their deeds written.

But they found a difficulty in writing German words with Roman letters, so they published these laws in Latin.

In the rapidity of the conquest, most things changed their nature. In order to express them, they had to use old Latin words.

Thus whatever was likely to revive the idea of the ancient census = of the Romans, they called by the name of census tributum.

When things had no relation at all to the Roman census, they expressed, as well as they could, the German words by Roman letters:

Thus they formed the word fredum, on which I shal= l have occasion to descant in the following chapters.

The words census and tributum having been employed in an ar= bitrary manner, this has thrown some obscurity on the signification in which these words were used under our princes of the first and second race.

And modern* authors who have adopted particular systems, having found these words in the writings of those days, imagined that what was then called census, was exactly the cen= sus of the Romans; and from thence they inferred this consequence, that our= kings of the two first races had put themselves in the place of the Roman = emperors, and made no change in their administration.

Besides, as particular duties raised under the second race were by change and by certain restrictions converted into others, they inferred from thence that these duties were the census of the Roman’s; and, as since the modern regulations, they found that the crown demesnes= were absolutely unalienable, they pretended that those duties which repres= ented the Roman census, and did not form a part of the demesnes, were mere usurpation. I omit the other consequences.

To apply the ideas of the present time t= o distant ages, is a source of error. To these people who want to modernize= all the ancient ages, I shall say what the Egyptian priests said to Solon,= =E2=80=9CO Athenians, you are mere children!=E2=80=9D

Chapter 15: What they called census was raised only on the bondmen, not freemen.

THE king, the clergy, and the lords rais= ed regular taxes, each on the bondmen of their respective demesnes. I prove= it with respect to the king, by the capitulary de Vil= lis; with regard to the clergy, by the codes of the* laws of the Barbarians; and with rel= ation to the lords, by the regulations which Charlemaign made concerning this subject.

These taxes were called census; they were economical and not fiscal duties, mere p= rivate services and not public obligations.

What they called census at that time, was a tax raised upon the bondmen.= This I prove by a formulary of Marculfus containing a permission from the = king to enter into holy orders, provided the persons be* free-born, and not enrolled in the regis= ter of the census. I prove it also by a commiss= ion from Charlemaign to a count=E2=80=A1, whom he had sent into Saxony; which contains the infran= chisement of the Saxons for having embraced Christianity, and is properly a= charter of freedom=E2=88= =A5. This prince restores them to their former=C2=A7 civil liberty, and exempts them from pay= ing the census. It was therefore the Edition: current; Page: [383<= span class=3D"bracket">] same thing to be a bondman as to pay= the census, to be free as not to pay it.

By a kind of letters patent* of the same prince in favour of t= he Spaniards, who had been received into the monarchy, the counts are forbi= d to demand any census of them, or to deprive them of their lands. That str= angers upon their coming to France were treated as bondmen, is a thing well= known; and Charlemaign being desirous they should be considered as freemen= , since he would have them be proprietors of their lands, forbade the deman= ding any census of them.

A capitulary of Charles the Bald=E2=80=A0, given in favour of= those very Spaniards, orders them to be treated like the other Franks, and= forbids the requiring any census of them: consequently this census was not= paid by freemen.

The thirtieth article of the edict of Pi= stes reforms the abuse, by which several of the husbandmen belonging to the= king or to the church, sold the lands dependent on their manors to ecclesi= astics or to people of their condition, reserving only a small cottage to t= hemselves; by which means they avoided paying the census; and, it ordains, = that things should be restored to their primitive situation: the census was= therefore a tax peculiar to bondmen.

From thence also it follows, that there = was no general census in the monarchy; and this is clear from a great numbe= r of passages.

For what could be the meaning of this=E2=80=A1 capitulary? =E2=80=9CWe ordain that the royal census should be levied in all places, where formerly it was=E2=80=A0 lawfully levie= d.=E2=80=9D What could be the meaning of that in which=E2=80=A1 Charlemaign orders his commissari= es in the provinces to make an exact enquiry into all the census that belonged in former times=E2=88=A5 to the king=E2=80=99s demesne?

And of that=C2=A7 in which he disposes of the cen= sus=E2=80=99s paid by those* of whom they are demanded?

What can that other capitulary=E2=80=A0=E2=80=A0 mean, in which= we read, =E2=80=9CIf any person=E2=80=A1=E2=80=A1 has acquired a tributary land, on which we wer= e accustomed to levy the census?=E2=80=9D And that other in fine=E2=88=A5=E2=88=A5, in which Char= les the Bald makes mention of the lands, whose census had from time immemorial belong= ed to the king.

Observe that there are some passages whi= ch seem at first sight to be contrary to what I have said, and yet confirm = it. We have already seen that the freemen in the monarchy were obliged only= to furnish particular carriages; the capitulary just now cited gives to th= is** the name of censu= s, and opposes it to the census paid by the bondmen.

Besides, the edict=E2=80=A0=E2=80=A0=E2=80=A0 of Pistes takes = notice of those freemen who are obliged to pay the royal census for Edition: current; Page: [385] their= =E2=80=A1 head and for= their cottages, and who had sold themselves during the famine. The king or= ders them to be ransomed. This is=E2=88=A5 because those who were manumitted by the king=E2=80=99= s letters, did not, generally speaking, acquire a full and perfect=C2=A7 liberty, but they paid= censum in capite; and these are the people her= e meant.

We must therefore explode the idea of a = general and universal census, in imitation of that of the Romans, from whic= h census the rights of the lords are also supposed to have been derived by = usurpation. What was called census in the Frenc= h monarchy, independently of the abuse made of that word, was a particular = tax imposed on the bondmen by their masters.

I beg the reader to excuse the trouble I= must give him with such a number of citations. I should be more concise, d= id I not meet with the Abb=C3=A9 du Bos=E2=80=99s book on the establishment= of the French monarchy in Gaul, continually in my way. Nothing is a greate= r obstacle to our progress in knowledge, than a bad performance of a celebr= ated author; because, before we instruct, we must begin with undeceiving.

CHAP. 16: The feudal Lords or Vassals

Those volunteers among the Germans followed their princes in their several expedition= s. The same usage continued after the conquest.

Tacitus mentions them by th= e name of companions*;= the Salic law by that of men who have vowed fealty=E2=80=A0 to the king; the formularies of=E2=80=A1 Marculfus by that= of the king=E2=80=99s Antrustios=E2=88=A5, the earliest French historians by that of Leudes=C2=A7, faithful and loyal;= and those of later date by that of vassals** and lords.

In the Salic and Ripuarian laws we meet = with an infinite number of regulations in regard to the Franks, and only wi= th a few for the Antrustios. The regulations concerning the Antrustios are = different from those which were made for the other Franks; they are full of= what relates to the settling of the property of the Franks, but mention no= t a word concerning that of the Antrustios. This is because the property of= the latter was regulated rather by the political than by the civil law, an= d was the share that fell to an army, and not the patrimony of a family.

The goods reserved for the feudal lords = were called fiscal=E2=80= =A0=E2=80=A0 goods, benefices, honours, and fiefs, by different authors= , and in different times.

The fiefs at first= were at will=E2=80=A1=E2= =80=A1. We find in Gregory of Tours, that Sunegisilus and Gallomanus were d= eprived of all they held of the exchequer, and no more was left them than t= heir real property. When Gontram raised his nephew Childebert to the thr= one, he had a private conference with him, in which he named* the persons who ought to be honoure= d with, and those who ought to be deprived of, the fiefs.

In a formulary=E2=80=A0 of Marculfus, t= he king gives in exchange not only the benefices held by his exchequer, but= likewise those which had been held by another. The law of the Lombards opp= oses=E2=80=A1 the bene= fices to property. In this our historians, the formularies, the codes of th= e different barbarous nations, and all the monuments of those days, are una= nimous. In fine, the writers of the book of fiefs=E2=88=A5 inform us, that at first the lords cou= ld take them back when they pleased, that afterwards they granted them for = the space of a year=C2=A7<= /a>, and that at length they gave them for life.

CHAP. 17: The Military Service of Fre= emen

TWO sorts of people were bound to military service:

1. The vassals

These were obliged because of their fiefs.

2. The freemen, whether Franks, Romans, or Gauls, who served= under the count, and were commanded by him and his officers.

The name of freemen was given to those, who on the one hand had no benefices or fiefs, and on the other were not = subject to the base services of villainage; the lands they possessed were w= hat they called allodial estates.

The counts* assembled the freemen, and led them against the en= emy; they had officers under them who were called=E2=80=A0 vicars; and as all the freemen were di= vided into hundreds, which constituted what they called a borough, the coun= ts had also officers under them, who were denominated = centenarii, and led the freemen=E2=80=A1 of the borough, or their hundreds, to the field.<= /p>

This division into hundreds is posterior to the establishment of the Franks in Gaul.

It was made by Clotharius and = Childebert, with a view of obliging each district to answer for the robberies committed in their division;

This we find in the decrees=E2=88=A5 of those princes. A regulati= on of this kind is to this very day observed in England.

As the counts led the freemen against th= e enemy, the feudal lords commanded also their vassals or rearvassals; and = the bishops, abbots, or their=C2=A7 advocates likewise commanded theirs**.

The bishops were greatly embarrassed, and in consistent with themselves; they requested of Charlemaign not to oblige the= m any longer to a military service; and when he granted their request, they= complained that he had deprived them of the public esteem: so that this pr= ince was obliged to justify his Edition: current; Page: [389] intentions upon this head. Be that as it = may, when they were exempted from marching against the enemy, I do not find= that their vassals were led by the counts; on the contrary, we see* that the kings or the bisho= ps chose one of their feudatories to conduct them.

In a capitulary=E2=80=A0 of Lewis the Debonnaire, this prince = distinguishes three sorts of vassals, those belonging to the king, those to= the bishops, and those to the counts. The=E2=80=A1 vassals of a feudal lord were not led again= st the enemy by the count, except some employment in the king=E2=80=99s hou= shold hindered the lord himself from commanding them.

But who is it that led the feudal lords = into the field? No doubt the king himself, who was always at the head of hi= s faithful vassals. Hence we constantly find in the capitularies a distinct= ion made=E2=88=A5 be= tween the king=E2=80=99s vassals and those of the bishops. Such brave and m= agnanimous princes as our kings, did not take the field to put themselves a= t the head of an ecclesiastic militia; these were not the men they chose to= conquer or to die with.

But these laws carried their vassals and= rear-vassals with them; as we can prove by the capitulary*, in which Charlemaign ordains that = every freeman, who has four manors either in his own property, Edition: current; Page: [390] or as a b= enefice from some body else, should march against the enemy or follow his l= ord. It is evident, that Charlemaign means, that the person who had a manor= of his own should march under the count, and he who held a benefice of a l= ord, should set out along with him.

And yet the Abb=C3=A9 du Bos=E2=80=A0 pretends, that when me= ntion is made in the capitularies, of tenants who depended on a particular = lord, no others are meant than bondmen; and he grounds his opinion on the l= aw of the Visigoths, and the practice of that nation. It is much better to = rely on the capitularies themselves; that which I have just quoted, says ex= pressly the contrary. The treaty between Charles the Bald and his brothers,= takes notice also of freemen, who might chuse to follow either a lord or t= he king; and this regulation is conformable to a great many others.

We may therefore conclude, that there we= re three sorts of military services; that of the king=E2=80=99s vassals, wh= o had no other vassals under them; that of the bishops or of the other cler= gy, and their vassals, and, in fine, that of the count, who commanded the f= reemen.

Not but the vassals might be also subjec= t to the count; as those who have a particular command are subordinate to h= im, who is invested with a more general authority.

We even find that the count and the king= =E2=80=99s commissaries might oblige them to pay the fine, when they had no= t fulfilled the engagements of their fief. In like manner if the king=E2=80= =99s vassals=E2=80=A1 committed any outrage, they were subject to the correction of the count, = unless they chose rather to submit to that of the king.