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LECTURE 26 Central institutions ofthe Visigothic monarchy. ~ True character of the Councils ofToledo. ~ Amount oftheirpoliticalinfluence. ~ The Officium palatinum. ~ Prevalence ofRoman maxims and institutions , among the Goths, over Germanic traditions. ~ Proofofthis in the local and central institutions ofthe Visigoths. ~ Refutation ofthe errors ofSavigny andthe Edinburgh Review on this subject. ~ Conclusion . MYlast lecture, I think, convinced you, gendemen, that the code of the Visigoths, taken in itself, and in its intentions as expressed bywritten laws, gives the idea of a better social state, a juster and more enlightened government, a better regulated country, and, altogether, a more advanced and milder state of civilization, than that which is revealed to us by the laws ofthe other Barbarian peoples. But to this more humane and wise legislation, to the general principles dictated by superior reason, there is wanting, as I have already observed, an actual sanction, an effective guarantee. The laws are good; but the people, for whose benefit they were enacted, have hardly any share in their execution, and the business resulting therefrom. Up to a certain point, the code bears testimony to the wisdom and good intentions ofthe legislature; but it presents no evidence ofthe liberty and political life ofthe subjects. Let us first look at the centre ofthe State. The single fact ofthe political predominance ofthe bishops, the sole name ofthe councils ofToledo, indicate the decay of the old Germanic customs, and the disappearance of national assemblies . The Anglo-Saxons had their Wittenagemot; the Lombards their assembly at Pavia, circumstante immensa multitudine;1 the Franks their Champs de Mars and Champs de Mai, and their placita generalia.2 Doubdess, the existence of these assemblies entailed scarcely any of the consequences which we attach at the present day to the idea ofsuch institutions; and they certainly constituted 1. With a vast crowd surrounding. 2. General assemblies. LECTURE 26 a very slight guarantee ofliberty, which it was then impossible to guarantee. In reality, also, they took a very small part in the government. Nevertheless, the simple fact oftheir existence attests the prevalence ofGermanic customs; arbitrary power, though exercised in fact, was not established in principle; the independence of powerful individuals struggled against the despotism of the kings; and in order to dispose of these isolated independencies, to form them into a national body, it was necessary occasionally to convoke them together in assemblies. These assemblies live in the laws as well as in history; the clergy were received therein, because of their importance and superior knowledge,but they were merely received. Far from being their sole constituents, they did not even form their centre. In Spain, instead ofentering into the national assembly, the clergy opened the assembly to the nation. Is it likely that the name only was changed, and that Gothic warriors came to the council, as formerly to their Germanic assemblies? We have beheld the same name applied to very different things: for example, judicial parliaments have superseded political parliaments; butwe have never seen the same thing represented under different names, especially during the infancy of nations. When existence consists almost solely of traditions and customs, words are the last things to change and perish. The councils ofToledo, then, were actually councils, and not Champs de Mai orplacita. Morally, this fact is probable; historically, it is certain. Their acts have come down to us, and they are acts of an entirely ecclesiastical assembly, specially occupied with the affairs ofthe clergy; and into which laymen entered only occasionally, and in small numbers. The signatures of laymen, affixed to the canons ofthe thirteenth council, only amount to twenty-six; and in no other are they so numerous. These councils were not held, like the Champs de Mars or de Mai and the placita generalia ofthe Carlovingians, at fixed, or at least, frequent periods. Between the third and fourth councils, forty-four years elapsed; between the tenth and eleventh, eighteen years . The king convoked them at his pleasure, or as necessity required. The Visigothic code ordains absolutely nothing in this respect, either on the kings, or on the members ofthe assembly. None ofits enactments have reference, even indirectly, to a national assembly. The nature of these councils ofToledo being thus clearly determined, it remains for us to inquire what influence they exerted in the government. What were they as guarantees ofthe public liberties, and ofthe execution ofthe laws? Before consulting special facts, the very nature of these assemblies may furnish us with some general indications with regard to their political influence. The clergy, taking...

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