t

we may find in the Code of Juftinian, lib. r. /Cod. de comitibus & tribunis Schol. Where 'tis reckoned as a great Honour for them to prefide over the Emperor's Banquets, when they might adore his Purple. Alfo in lib. 3. Cod. Theodof. de annon. & tribut. perpenfa, 29. Cod. Theod. de equorum Collatione, & lib. 1. Cod. Theod, wherein we may find a Power allowed them, of exacting Contributions to a certain Value from the Provincials, who were to furnish War-Horfes for the Emperor's Service.

It now remains that we difcourfe a little of thofe Magiftrates, which were commonly called Peers of France; whereof we can find no Records or Monuments, tho' our Endeavours have not been wanting. For among fo great a Number of Books, as are called Chronicles and Annals of Francogallia, not one affords us any probable Account of this Inftitution. For what Gaguinus, and Paulus Æmilius (who was not so much an Hiftorian of French Affairs, as of the Pope's) and other common Writers do affirm, to wit, That thofe Magiftrates were inftituted by Pipin or Charlemagn, appears plainly to be abfurd; because not one of all the German Hiftorians, who wrote during the Reigns of thofe Kings, or for fome time after, makes the leaft Mention of thofe Magiftrates. Aimoinus himself who wrote a Hiftory of the Military Achievements and Inftitutions of the Franks, down to the Reign of Lewis the Pious, and the Appendix, which reaches as far as the time of Lewis the Younger, being the 37th King, fpeak not one Word of thefe Peers in any place of their Hiftories; fo that till I am better inform'd, I must concur in Opinion with Gervafe of Tilbury, who (as Gaguinus fays in the Book

which he wrote to the Emperor Otho the IVth, de otiis imperialibus) affirms, That this Inftitution is firft owing to King Arthur of Britain, who ruled fome time in part of France.

For I fuppofe the Original of that Inftituon to be this; that as in the Feudal Law fuch are called, Pares curiæ beneficiarii, i. e. Equal Tenants by Homage of the Court, or Clientes submμo, Clients of like holding, or Convaffalli, Fellow Vaffals, who hold their Fiefs and Benefices from one and the fame Lord and Patron; and upon that Account are bound to him in Feality and Obedience : juft fo King Arthur having acquired a new Principality, felected twelve great Men, to whom he diftributed the feveral Parts and Satrapies of his Kingdom, whofe Affiftance and Advice he made use of in the Administration of the Government. For I cannot approve of their Judgment, who write, that they were called Peers, because they were Pares Regi, the King's Equals; fince their Parity has no Relation to the Regal Dignity, but only to that Authority and Dignity they had agreed fhould be common among them. Their Names were these the Dukes of Burgundy, Normandy, and Aquitain; the Counts of Flanders, Tholoufe, and Champagne; the Archbishops of Rheims, Laon, and Langres; the Bishops of Beauvais, Noyon, and Chalons. And as the Pares Curtis, or Curia, in the Fendal Law, can neither be created, but by the Confent of the Fraternity; nor abdicated, but by Tryal before their Colleagues; nor impeach'd before any other Court of Judicature; fo these Peers were not bound by any Judgment or Sentence, but that of the Parliament, that is, of this imaginary Council; nor could be elected in

to the Society, or ejected out of it, but by their Fellows in Collegio.

Now altho this Magiftracy might owe its Original to a Foreign Prince; yet when he was driven out, the fucceeding Kings finding it accommodated to their own Ends and Conveniencies, ('tis moft probable) continued and made use of it. The firft Mention I find made of thefe Peers, was at the Inauguration of Philip the Fair, by whom alfo (as many affirm) the Six Ecclefiaftical Peers were firft created.

But Budaus, an extraordinary learned Man, calls thefe Peers by the Name of Patritians; and is of opinion that they were inftituted by one of our Kings, who was at the fame time Emperor of Germany; becaufe, Juftinian fays, thofe Patres were chofen by the Emperor, quafi Reipub. patronos tutorefque, as it were Patrons and Tutors of the Commonwealth. I do not reject this Opinion of that learned Perfon; fuch a thing being very agreeable to the Dignity of thefe Peers. For in the times of the later Roman Emperors, we find the Patritian dignity not to have been very unlike that of the Peers; becaufe (as Suidas affures us,) they were (partly) the Fathers of the Republick, and were of Council with the Emperor in all weighty concerns, and made ufe of the fame Enfigns of Authority with the Confuls; and had greater honour and power than the Præfectus Prætorio, tho' less than the Conful; as we may learn ex Juftiniani Novellis; from Sidon. Apollin. Claudian; and Caffiadorus efpecially.

But when the Empire was transferr❜d to the Germans, we do not believe this Honour was in ufe among them. Neither is it likely, that none of the German Hiftorians fhould have

made

made the least mention of it, if any Patritians of that kind had been instituted by a German Emperor, who at the fame time was King of Francogallia.

Laftly, The fame Budaus tells us in that place, tho' a little doubtingly, that the like dignity of Peers had been made ufe of in other neighbouring Nations; and that in the Royal Commentaries, Anno 1224, 'tis found written, that a certain Gentleman of Flanders called Joannes Nigellanus, having a Controverfy there, appeal'd from the Countess of Flanders to the Peers of France; having first taken his Oath that he could not expect a fair and equal Tryal before the Peers of Flanders. And when afterwards the Caufe was by the Countess revok'd to the Judgment of the Peers of Flanders, it was at length for certain reafons decreed, that the Peers of France fhould take cognifance of it. What the reafons were of transferring that Tryal, Budaus does not tell us ; us; which one verfed in the Feudal Laws fhould never have omitted. But 'tis time to return to our principal business.

CHA P. XV.

Of the continued Authority and Power of the Sacred Council, during the Reign of the Carlovingian Family.

WE

E have, as we fuppofe, fufficiently explain'd what was the Form and Conftitution of our Commonwealth, and how great the Authority of the Publick Council was during the Reigns of the Kings of the Merovingian Family. We must now proceed to give an Account of it under the Carlovingian Race. And as well all our own as the German Hiftorians, give us reafon to believe that the very fame Power and Authority of the Orders or States of the Kingdom, was kept entire. So that the laft refort and difpofal of all things, was not lodged in Pipin, Charles or Lewis, but in the Regal Majefty. The true and proper Seat of which was (as is above demonftrated) in the Annual general Council. Of this Eguimarthus gives us an account, in that little Book we have already fo much commended. Where, fpeaking of what happen'd after the Death of Pipin, he tells us, "that the Franks having folemnly affembled their general Convention, "did therein conftitute both Pipin's Sons their

Kings, upon this Condition, That they "fhould equally divide the whole Body of "the Kingdom between them; and that "Charles fhould govern that Part of it which