CHAP. XI.: 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 learnt the use of writing; and, in imitation of the Romans, they wrote down their own usages 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. ^†583, and digested them into codes. The unhappy reigns which followed that of Charlemaign, 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 better 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

Personal laws fell to the ground. Compositions, and what they call Fredd Of this I shall speak elsewhere. ^†584, 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.