of the children, the peasant boys were found to have made greater
progress than the noble. The Emperor remarked it to the latter, and
declared with an oath, that "the bishopricks and abbeys should be given
to the diligent poor." "You rely," he said to the patrician youths, "on
the merit of your ancestors; these have already been rewarded. The state
owes them nothing; those only are entitled to favour, who qualify
themselves for serving and illustrating their country by their talents
and their merits."

[Sidenote: 800-911.]

The civil law then consisted of the Theodosian code, the Salic,
Ripuarian, Allemannic, Bavarian, Burgundian, and other _codes_; and of
the _formularies_ of Angesise and Marculfus. To these Charlemagne added
his own _capitularies_. The whole collection, in opposition to the canon
or ecclesiastical law, received the appellation of _Lex Mundana_, or
_worldly law_. The canon law consisted of the code of canons which
Charlemagne brought with him from Rome in 784; a code of the canons of
the church of France; the canons inserted in the collection of Angelram,
bishop of Metz; the apostolic canons, published by St. Martin, bishop of
Braga; the capitularies of Theodulfus, of Orleans; and the penitential
canons, published in the Spicilegium of d'Acheri.[001] To the study,
both of the canon and civil law, schools were appropriated by
Charlemagne: few, except persons intended for the ecclesiastical state,
frequented them. Rabanus Maurus,[002] abbot of Fulda, and afterwards
archbishop of Mentz, has left an interesting account of the studies of
this period; it shews that all were referred to theology, and only
considered to be useful so far as they could be made serviceable to
sacred learning. Such a plan of study could conduce but little to the
advancement of general literature or science. Still, it was productive