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and electing of another, does not belong to any Bishop or Ecclefiaftick, nor to any Čollege of Clergymen ; but to the whole Body of Citizens ad univerfitatem civium] in"habiting that Region, and to the Nobles of

it, or to the majority of them both. Therefore thofe pretences of the Popes, to a Power of creating or abdicating Kings, are apparently falfe to every body. But befides this fabulous Device, which is a fufficient Inftance of their wickedness and malice, I think it worth my while to add a remarkable Letter of Pope Stephen, adapted to the foregoing Fable; by which we may make a Judgment of the madness and folly of that old crafty Knave. This Letter is extant in Rhegino, a Benedictine Monk, and Abbot of an irrefragable Teftimony in Abbas an Affair of this nature; 'tis in Chron. anni 753. PruniacenStephen the Bishop, Servant of the Ser- fis

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vants of God, &c. As no Man ought to "boaft of his Merits, fo neither ought the "wonderful Works of God which are wrought upon his Saints without their defert, to be buried in filence, but published abroad as the Angel admonifhed Tobias. I being conftrained thro' the Oppreffion of the holy Church, by that moft wicked, blafphemous, and not worthy to be named Wretch, Aistolphus, to fly for Refuge to that excellent and faithful Votary of St. Peter, Lord Pipin, the "moft Chriftian King, took my Journey into France; where I fell into a mortal Diftemper, and remained fome time in the District "of Paris, in the venerable Monastery of St. Denis the Martyr. And being now paft. "hopes of Recovery, methought I was one 66 day at Prayers in the Church of the fame

"bleffed

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blessed Martyr, in a place under the Bells: And that I faw ftanding before the great AlCC tar, our Mafter Peter; and that great Maσε fter of the Gentiles, our Mafter Paul; whom I knew very well by their Veftments. And c a little after, I faw the bleffed Lord Denis, a tall and flender Man, ftanding at the right hand of our Lord Peter. And then that good Paftor the Lord Peter faid This good Brother of ours asks for Health. Then re

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CC ply'd the bleffed Paul He fhall be healed presently. And thereupon approaching to “ our Lord Denis, he amicably put his hand upon his Breast, and look'd back upon our Lord Peter, and Lord Peter with a chearful Countenance faid to our Lord Denis, his Health fhall be your particular Act of Favour. Then prefently Lord Denis taking a Cenfer full of Incenfe, and holding a Branch of Palm-tree in his hand, accompanied with a Presbyter and Deacon, who affifted him, came near to me, and faid, Peace be with thee, Brother, be not afraid, thou shalt not die until thou return in Profperity to thy own See. Rife and be healed, and dedicate this Altar to the Honour of God, and the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, whom thou feeft ftanding before thee, with Maffes of Thanksgiving. Whereupon I was prefently made whole. And being about to accomplish that which I was commanded to do, they that were prefent faid I was mad. So I related all that I had feen to them, to the King, and all his People, and how I had been cured; and I fulfilled all that I was bid to do. These things happen'd in the 753d. Year, from the Incarna

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tion of our Lord on the Ides of August; at "which time being ftrengthned by the Power CC of Chrift, between the Celebration of the "Confecration of the above-mention'd Altar, CC and the Oblation of the Sacrifice, I anointed King Pipin and his Two Sons, Charles and Carloman, Kings of the Franks. Moreover, CC I laid Hands upon, and bleffed Bertranda the King's Wife, cloathed with her Royal Mantle, and the Grace of the Sevenfold c Holy Spirit: And the Nobles of the Franks being fanctified by the Apoftolical Benedi&tion, and the Authority delivered by Chrift to St. Peter, obliged themselves folemnly, and protefted, That neither they, nor any <c of their Pofterity, wou'd at any time hereafter, prefume to conftitute any Perfon, as King over them, but only fuch as were of "the Race of King Pipin.

Сс

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CHA P. XIV.

Of the Conftable, and Peers of France.

BEfides the great Office of Mayor of the Pa

lace before spoken of, there was another which we muft take Notice of; because it feems, in the Memory of our Forefathers, to have fucceeded in place of the former: And that was the Office of Count of the King's Stable; called at firft, Comes ftabuli; and by Corruption at laft, Conneftabuli. Now all thofe who enjoy'd any extraordinary Honours or I Em

Employments in the King's Court, and affifted in the Adminiftration of the Commonwealth, were commonly called Comites, Counts; which was likewise the Cuftom of the Ancients, as I have in fome other of my Works demonftrated. So Cicero, in many places, calls Callifthenes, Comitem Alexandri magni. This Comes ftabuli was in a manner the fame with the Magifter Equitum among the Romans, that is, General of the Horfe; to whom were fubject those Keepers of the Horfes, commonly called Querryes. Greg. Turon. lib. 5. cap. 39. fays, "The Treasurer cr of Clodoveus being taken out of the City of Bourges, by Cuppau, Count of the Stable, was Сс fent in Bonds to the Queen, &c. And again, cap. 48. where he fpeaks of Leudaftes, She took him (fays he) into Favour, "rais'd him, and made him Keeper of the "beft Horfes; which fo filled him with Pride "and Vanity, that he put in for the Conftableકંદ Ship; [Comitatum Stabulorum] and having got "it, began to defpife and undervalue every

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body. From thefe Quotations it appears, that tho' the Cuftody of the Horfes was a very honourable Employment, yet 'twas much inferior to that of Constable. Aimoinus, lib. 3. cap. 43. gives the fame Account of this Leudaftes, - Being grown very intimate with the

Queen, he was firft made Keeper of the "Horfe; and afterwards obtaining the Conftablefhip above the reft of the Keepers, he was (after the Queen's Death) made by King Charibert, Count of Tours. And cap. 70. Leudegefilus, Præfect of the King's Horfes, "whom they commonly call Constable, being "made General of that Expedition by the "King, order'd the Engines to be drawn.

down,

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down, &c. Alfo lib. 4. cap. 95. where he fpeaks of Charles the Great,

The fame ઢ Year (fays he) he fent Burchard, Comitem εσ Stabuli fui, which we corruptly call Conftabucc lum with a Fleet againft Corfica. The Appendix to Gregory calls him, Comeftabulum, lib. 11. Brunechildis (fays he) was brought out of the Village, ab Exporre Comeftabulo.

This being fo, Albertus Krantzius, lib. Suet. 5. cap. 41. ventures to affirm, that this Conftable was the fame with what the Germans call MareSchal. They named (fays he ) a Governor,

one of the belt Soldiers, who might have "the Power of Convocating the Allembly of cc the Kingdom, and of acting in all Matters

like the Prince. Our Countrymen call him a Marefchal, the French call him Conftable, &c. This feems the more probable, becaufe I do not remember any Mention to have been made in ancient Times, of a Marefchal in our Frantogallia; fo that 'tis very likely to have been an Inftitution of our latter Kings, accommodated to the Customs of the Germans.

That this Comitatus Stabulorum, a Conftablefhip, had its Rife from the Inftitution of the Roman Emperors, I do not at all queftion; altho' it grew by Degrees among us from flender Beginnings, to the Heighth of chief Governor of the Palace. In former times that Dignity was a Sort of Tribunatus Militaris. Ammianus, lib. 26. has this Expreffion, where he fpeaks of Valentinian the Emperor, Having fixed his Stages, or Days Journeys, he at laft entred into Nicomedia; and about the Kalends of March, appointed his Brother Valens to be Governor of his Stables, cum tribunatus dignitate, with tribuni“tial Dignity. What Kind of Dignity that was,

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