31.19. 19. The same Subject continued.
Charlemagne and his immediate
successors were afraid lest those whom they placed in distant parts
should be inclined to revolt, and thought they should find more docility
among the clergy. For this reason they erected a great number of
bishoprics in Germany and endowed them with very large fiefs.
[134]
It
appears by some charters that the clauses containing the prerogatives of
those fiefs were not different from such as were commonly inserted in
those grants,
[135]
though at present we find the principal ecclesiastics
of Germany invested with a sovereign power. Be that as it may, these
were some of the contrivances they used against the Saxons. That which
they could not expect from the indolence or supineness of vassals they
thought they ought to expect from the sedulous attention of a bishop.
Besides, a vassal of that kind, far from making use of the conquered
people against them, would rather stand in need of their assistance to
support themselves against their own people.
Footnotes
[134]
See among others the foundation of the Archbishopric of Bremen,
in the Capitulary of the year 789. Baluzius's edition, p. 245.
[135]
For instance, the prohibition of the king's judges against
entering upon the territory to demand the freda, and other duties. I
have said a good deal concerning this in the preceding book, 20, 21, 22.
