Several capitularies were added to
the law of the Lombards, as well as to the Salic and Bavarian laws. The
reason of this has been a matter of inquiry; but it must be sought for
in the thing itself. There were several sorts of capitularies. Some had
relation to political government, others to economical, most of them to
ecclesiastical polity, and some few to civil government. Those of the
last species were added to the civil law, that is, to the personal laws
of each nation; for which reason it is said in the Capitularies that
there is nothing stipulated therein contrary to the Roman law.
[58]
In
effect, those capitularies regarding economical, ecclesiastical, or
political government had no relation to that law; and those concerning
civil government had reference only to the laws of the barbarous people,
which were explained, amended, enlarged, or abridged. But the adding of
these capitularies to the personal laws occasioned, I imagine, the
neglect of the very body of the Capitularies themselves; in times of
ignorance, the abridgment of a work often causes the loss of the work
itself.
