35 2 LANGUAGES. 



in books and public documents, there were only two general languages 

 throughout the whole of Charlemagne's vast empire Romance and Teutonic. 

 The most ancient monument which we possess in the middle of the ninth 

 century is the double oath which Charles the Bald, King of France, and 

 Louis the German, leagued against their brother, the Emperor Lothair, took 

 in presence of their armies upon the 14th of February, 842. It will be 

 sufficient for present purposes to cite the oath taken by Louis the German in 

 Romance, in order to be heard and understood by the army of Charles, 

 which was composed of Franks and Gallo-Romans from Neustria, Aquitainc, 

 and other Southern regions : " Pro Deo amur et pro Christian poblo, et 

 nostro commun salvament, d'ist di en avant, in quant Deus savir et podir me 

 dunat, si salvarai eo cist meon fradre Carle, et in adjudha, et in cadhuna 

 nosa, si cum om per dreit son fradre salvar dist, in o quid il mi altresi fazet. 

 Et ab Ludher nul plaid numquam prindrai, qui, meon vol, cist moon fradre 

 Karle in damno sit." 



This was the vulgar tongue as spoken in the greater part of France at 

 this period, and it is worthy of remark that nearly all the words in the above 

 document are taken, disfigured in pronunciation or spelling, from the Latin. 

 Thus the common language was rustic Latin ; the Romance formed from a 

 fusion of Celtic, German, and Latin. This was the language of France, and 

 the Germans called France " Latin " (Francia Latino), because this language, 

 which was only a hybrid product of the Latin tongue, was spoken there. 

 According to Luitprand, an historian of the tenth century, Gaul was always 

 named Francia Romano, and a later writer says that this denomination was 

 not given to France on account of Rome, but because of the Romance 

 language spoken there ("sic dicta, non a Roma, sed a lingua Romana"). 

 And this is how the Franks of Gaul came to be called Francs Latin (Latin 

 Franks). 



Still the Gallic nobles, as the great lords of the soil called themselves, 

 protested against this general invasion of the Latin vulgar tongue. The 

 Emperor Lothair, son' of Louis the Mild, had steadfastly refused to learn 

 Latin, even the vulgar tongue, and his father had endeavoured to preserve 

 the use of the Teutonic language in his states by means of a decree to the 

 effect that the Bible should be translated into this language, which had few 

 representatives out of Germany itself. At the Council of Tours (813) the 

 bishops furthered the intentions of Charlemagne's successor by expressing- 



