The name is absent

tice, at least in civil causes¹. The law of the Visi-
goths, while it recognizes a separation of the per-
sons, implies a confusion of the jurisdiction : “ Si
iudex vel sacerdos reperti fuerint nequiter iudi-
casse².” The people, it is true, found the judg-
ment or verdict, but the judge declared the law,
pronounced the sentence, and most probably super-
intended the execution : in this he represented at
once the justice of the god, and the collective power
or the state. Thus then we may conclude that at
first in every Mark, and more especially in every
Ga or Scir, when various Marks had coalesced,
there was found at least one man of a privileged
family, who either permanently or for a time con-
ducted the public affairs during peace, and was,
from his functions, not less than his descent, nearly
connected with the religion of the people and the
worship of the gods: whether this man be called
ealdorman, index, rex, satrapa or princeps, seems
of little moment : he is the president of the free-
men in their solemn acts, as long as peace is main-
tained, the original King of the shire or small na-
tion. If he be by birth a priest, and distinguished
by military talents, as well as elected to be a judge,
he unites all the conditions of kingship³: and,
Under such circumstances, he will probably not only
Uxtend his power over neighbouring communities,

¹ If Donniges is right in his view, the Frankish clergy were to ex-
ercise a similar jurisdiction in criminal causes of a grave nature.
Deutsches Staatsrecht. p. 30.

³ Leg. Visig. ii. 1. § 23.

⁸ “ Hic etenim et rex illis et pontifex ob suam peritiaɪn habebatur,
et in sua iustitia populos iudicabat.” Joraandes.

but even render it permanent, if not hereditary, in
his own : a similar process may take place, if the
priest or judge be one, the general another, of the
same household. We may conclude that the regal
power grows out of the judicial and sacerdotal, and
that, whether the military skill and authority be
superadded or not, king is only another name for
the judge of a small circuit¹. It is only when many
such districts have been combined, when many
such smaller kings have been subdued by one more
wise, more wealthy, powerful or fortunate than
themselves, that the complete idea of the German
kingdom developes itself: that the judicial, military,
and even, in part, the priestly po>γers sink into a
subordinate position, and the kingdom represents
the whole state, the freemen, the nobles, and the
folcriht or public law of both. It is thus that the
king gains the ultimate and appellate jurisdiction,
the right of punishment, and the general conser-
vancy of the peace, as well as the power of calling
the freemen to arms (cyninges ban, cyninges ιltware).
When this process has taken place the former kings
have become subreguli, principes, duces, ealdormen :
they retain their nobility, their original purity of
blood, their influence perhaps over their people ;
but they have sunk into subordinate officers of a
state, of which a king at once hereditary and
elective is the head².

' “Nec potest aliquis iudicare in temporalibus, nisi solus rex vel
Subdelegatus : ipse namque ex virtute Sacramenti ad hoc specialiter
obligatur, et ideo corona insignitur, ut per iudicia populuɪn regat sibi
subiectum.” Fleta, lib. i. cap. 17. § 1.

“ Le titre de roi était primitivement de nulle conséquence chez les
L 2

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