Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CHAP. XIX.: The same Subject continued. - Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws

Return to Title Page for Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws

Search this Title:

CHAP. XIX.: The same Subject continued. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws [1748]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 2.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


CHAP. XIX.

The same Subject continued.

THIS great prince was afraid lest those whom he intrusted in distant parts with the command, should be inclined to revolt; and thought he should find more docility among the clergy. For this reason he erected a great number of bishopricks in Germany§ and endowed them with very large fiefs. 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* ; 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 he used against the Saxons. That which he could not expect from the indolence and supineness of a vassal, he thought he might promise himself from the sedulous attention of a bishop. Besides a vassal of that kind, far from making use of the conquered people against him, would rather stand in need of his assistance to support himself against his people.

[§ ]See among others the foundation of the archbishoprick of Bremen in the capitulary of the year 789. Baluzius’s edition, page 245.

[* ]For instance, the prohibition to 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.