visible, or often suspended. This matters not: we shall no more encounter those long ages of disorganization, of always increasing intellectual sterility: through a thousand sufferings, a thousand interruptions, we shall see power and life revive in man and in society. Charlemagne marks the limit at which the dissolution of the ancient Roman and barbarian world is consummated, and where really begins the formation of modern Europe, of the new world. It was under his reign, and as it were under his hand, that the shock took place by which European society, turning right round, left the paths of destruction to enter those of creation.

If you would know truly what perished with him, and what, independently of the changes of form and appearance, is the portion of his works which did not survive him, if I mistake not, it is this:

In opening this course, the first fact which presented itself to your eyes, the first spectacle at which we were present, was that of the old Roman empire struggling with the barbarians. The latter triumphed; they destroyed the Empire. In combating it, they respected it; no sooner had they destroyed it, than they aspired to reproduce it. All the great barbaric chiefs, Ataulphe, Theodoric, Euric, Clovis, showed themselves full of the desire of succeeding to the Roman emperors, of adapting their tribes to the frame of that society which they had conquered. None of them succeeded therein; none of them contrived to resuscitate the name and forms of the empire, even for a moment; they were overcome by that torrent of invasion, by that general course of dissolution which carried all things before it; barbarism, incessantly extended and renewed itself, but the Roman empire was still present to all imaginations; it was between barbarism and Roman civilization that, in all minds of any compass at all, the question lay.

It was still in this position when Charlemagne appeared; he also, he especially nursed the hope of resolving it, as all the great barbarians who went before him had wished to resolve it, -that is to say, by reconstituting the empire. What Diocletian, Constantine, Julian, had attempted to maintain with the old wrecks of the Roman legions, that is, the struggle against the invasion, Charlemagne undertook to do with Franks, Goths, and Lombards: he occupied the same territory;

he proposed to himself the same design. Without, and almost always on the same frontiers, he maintained the same struggle; within, he restored its name to the empire, he attempted to bring back the unity of its administration; he placed the imperial crown upon his head. Strange contrast! He dwelt in Germany; in war, in national assemblies, in the interior of his family, he acted as a German; his personal nature, his language, his manners, his external form, his way of living, were German; and not only were they German, but he did not desire to change them. "He always wore," says Eginhard, "the habit of his fathers, the habit of the Franks. . . . Foreign costumes, however rich, he scorned, and suffered no one to be clothed with them. Twice only during the stay which he made at Rome, first at the request of pope Adrian, and then at the solicitation of Leo, the successor of that pontiff, he consented to wear the long tunic, the chlamys, and the Roman sandal." He was, in fact, completely German, with the exception of the ambition of his thought; it was towards the Roman empire, towards Roman civilization that it tended; that was what he desired to establish, with barbarians as his instruments.

This was, in him, the portion of egoism and illusion; and in this it was that he failed. The Roman empire, and its unity, were invincibly repugnant to the new distribution of the population, the new relations, the new moral condition of mankind; Roman civilization could only enter as a transformed element into the new world which was preparing. This idea, this aspiration of Charlemagne, was not a public idea, nor a public want; all that he did for its accomplishment perished with him. Yet even of this vain endeavour something remained. The name of the western empire, revived by him, and the rights which were thought to be attached to the title of emperor, resumed their place among the elements of history, and were for several centuries longer an object of ambition, an influencing principle of events. Even, therefore, in the purely egoistical and ephemeral portion of his operations, it cannot be said that the ideas of Charlemagne were absolutely sterile, nor totally devoid of duration.

Here we must stop; the way is long, and I have proceeded so quickly that I have hardly had time to describe the principal events of the journey. It is difficult, it is fatiguing to

have to compress within a few pages what filled the life of a great man. I have as yet only been able to give you a general idea of the reign of Charlemagne, and of his place in the history of our civilization. I shall probably employ many of the following lectures in making you acquainted with him under certain special relations; though I shall be very far from doing justice to the subject.

TWENTY-FIRST LECTURE.

Object of the lecture Of capitularies in general-Review of the capitularies of the Carlovingian Frank kings-Of the two forms under which the capitularies have descended to us-Scattered capitularies-Collection of Angesise and of the deacon Benedict- Of the edition of the capitularies by Baluze-Erroneous idea generally entertained as to capitularies— They are not invariably laws-Great variety in these acts-Attempt at classification-Table of contents of the capitularies of Charlemagne : 1. Moral legislation-2. Political legislation-3. Penal legislation-4. Civil legislation-5. Religious legislation-6. Canonical legislation7. Domestic legislation—8. Incidental legislation—True character of the capitularies.

I ANNOUNCED to you my intention of laying before you a summary of the reign of Charlemagne, and its results, reviewing his government and his influence upon intellectual development. In the first of these respects, the picture I have placed before you appears to me sufficiently complete; it presents, I think, a clear and precise idea of the part filled by the wars of Charlemagne in the history of civilization in the west; and, moreover, I could not enter more fully into the subject, without going through an absolute and continuous narration of events. As to the government of Charlemagne and its action upon mind, what I have said in the last lecture saltogether incomplete, and I may, without losing myself in details, enter more closely into this part of the subject. I will proceed to do so. The legislation of Charlemagne will now occupy our attention: that which he did in protecting intellectual development, with an account of the distinguished men who lived and laboured under his influence, will be the subject of the following lectures.

It is commonly supposed that the term capitularies applies only to the laws of Charlemagne; this is a mistake. The word capitula, "little chapters," equally applies to all the laws of the Frank kings. I have no remark to make at present respecting the capitularies, in themselves of very slight importance, of the first race; of those of the second race, there have come down to us 152—namely,

5 capitularies of Pepin le Bref, commencing with the year 752, the period of his elevation to the title of king of the Franks.

65 of Charlemagne.

20 of Louis le Debonnaire.

52 of Charles le Chauve,

3 of Louis le Begue.

3 of Carloman.

1 of Eudes.

3 of Charles le Simple.

I reckon here only the acts of such Carlovingians as reigned in France; several descendants of Charlemagne, established in Germany and Italy, also left capitularies, but with these we have nothing to do.

The capitularies enumerated have come down to us in two different forms. We have them, first, in the shape of as many separate acts, scattered through various manuscripts, sometimes with, sometimes without date; and there exists, secondly, a collection of them made in the course of the ninth century, and divided into seven books. The four first of these were compiled by Angesise, abbot of Fontenelle, one of the councillors of Charlemagne, who died in 833. He collected and classified the capitula of that prince, and a portion of those of Louis le Debonnaire. The first book contains 162 capitula of Charlemagne, relative to ecclesiastical affairs.

The second, forty-eight capitula of Louis le Debonnaire, in the same class of subjects.

The third, ninety-one capitula of Charlemagne on temporal affairs.

The fourth, seventy-seven capitula of Louis le Debonnaire on temporal affairs.

1 The table in the twentieth lecture mentions only sixty; but there were besides five private acts, which, upon reflection, I think ought to be inserted among the capitularies.