Me EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 145 



HINCMAR, which, he fays, confifted only of the feniores and 

 pratcipui conciliarii^ i. e. " the magiftracy and principal officers 

 of the crown," and was deftined for the purpofe of making pre- 

 fents to the king, and confulting on fuch affairs refpecting the 

 bufinefs of the enfuing year, as required early deliberation. 



OF this period, as well as the former, it is alfo to be re- 

 marked, that we find the term placitum applied indifcriminate- 

 ly to the affembly fummoned for immediate war, and to that 

 where deliberation rather than action was its object *. 



THE ancient German diet, under the houfes of Saxony and 

 Franconia feems to have retained precifely the form which 

 HINCMAR afcribes to it under CHARLEMAGNE. At the election 

 of CONRAD II. A. D. 1024, we find the nation aflembling in 

 the plains between Worms and Mentz ; the Franks on the weft, 

 the Saxons, Carinthians, and Bavarians, on the eaft. The dig- 

 nified clergy, and the dukes, counts, and marquifles, retired to 

 an ifland on the Rhine, and agreed, that two perfons, named 

 CONRAD, mould be the candidates. The archbifhop of Mentz 

 propofed the eldeft firft. The dignified clergy gave him their 

 fufFrages, then the dignified laymen, and, in fine, the multitude 

 of the nobility, diftributed into national battalions, gave their 

 confent by cries and acclamations f. PFEFFEL, vol. i. p. 180. 



I NEED fcarce obferve, that this form of the diet under the houfe 

 of MARTEL affords the ftrongeft indication of its form under that 



of CLOVIS ; for it is clear from the Capitularies, that the feus had 



t not 



whole bufinefs of the year was arranged, fo as not to be altered : " Nifi fumma necef- 

 " fitas quse toto regno incumbebat ;" and thus proceeds, " In quo placito generalitas 

 " univeribrum majorum, tarn clericorum quam laicorum, conveniebat; feniores, propter 

 " concilium ordinandum ; minores, propter idem concilium fufcipiendum et interdum pa- 

 " riter tradtandutn, et non ex potentate, fed ex proprio mentis intelleftu vel fententia 

 " confirmandum." Vol. 2. p. 211. 



* SEE paflage in the preceding note, as an example of the latter ; and for the former, 

 fee Capit. paflim. Thus, cap. 2. Car. Mag. cap. 9. where the bifhops, counts and ab- 

 bots are required to have people, " Qui, tec. ad diem denunctati placiti veniant, et ibi 

 " oflendant quomodo fint parati. Habeant loricasvel galeas et temporalem hoftem." 



\ THE eleftion of LOTHARIOS II. A. D. 1125, was decided againft the inclination of 



the fenate, by the will of the multitude, of which, as the accurate PFEFFEL obferves, 



" Les 



