28.11. 11. Other Causes of the Disuse of the Codes of Barbarian Laws, as
well as of the Roman Law, and of the Capitularies.
When the German
nations subdued the Roman empire, they learned the use of writing; and,
in imitation of the Romans, they wrote down their own usages, and
digested them into codes.
[59]
The unhappy reigns which followed that of
Charlemagne, the invasions of the Normans and the civil wars, plunged
the conquering nations again into the darkness out of which they had
emerged, so that reading and writing were quite neglected. Hence it is,
that in France and Germany the written laws of the Barbarians, as well
as the Roman law and the Capitularies fell into oblivion. The use of
writing was better preserved in Italy, where reigned the Popes and the
Greek Emperors, and where there were flourishing cities, which enjoyed
almost the only commerce in those days. To this neighbourhood of Italy
it was owing that the Roman law was preserved in the provinces of Gaul,
formerly subject to the Goths and Burgundians; and so much the more, as
this law was there a territorial institution, and a kind of privilege.
It is probable that the disuse of the Visigoth laws in Spain proceeded
from the want of writing, and by the loss of so many laws, customs were
everywhere established.
Personal laws fell to the ground. Compositions, and what they call
Freda,
[60]
were regulated more by custom than by the text of these laws.
Thus, as in the establishment of the monarchy, they had passed from
German customs to written laws; some ages after, they came back from
written laws to unwritten customs.
Footnotes
[59]
This is expressly set down in some preambles to these codes: we
even find in the laws of the Saxons and Frisians different regulations,
according to the different districts. To these usages were added some
particular regulations suitable to the exigency of circumstances; such
were the severe laws against the Saxons.
[60]
Of this I shall speak elsewhere (Book xxx, chap. 14).
