Nay, he never so much as endeavour’d to undertake the least Matter of Moment without the Advice and Authority of his People and Nobles.  And there is no doubt of it, after Charles’s Death, Lewis his Son administred the Kingdom upon the same Terms and Conditions.  For the Appendix to Aimoinus, lib. 5. cap. 10. tells us, that when Charles was dead, Lewis the Emperor, thro’ a certain Kind of Foreknowledge, summon’d the general Council of his People to meet at Doue, near the Loire.  And again, cap. 38. where he makes Mention of the Articles of Peace, concluded between King Lewis and his Cousin Lewis, “—­They summoned, says he, a PLACITUM, and in that PLACITUM, by the Advice and Consent of their faithful Subjects, they agreed to observe and keep the Articles which follow.  In which Placitum it was also by common Consent found convenient, that both Kings should return with a Guard [redirent cum scara] _&c._” Also cap. 41. where he speaks of Carloman the Son of Lewis the Stammerer,—­“And so (says he) he departed from the Normans, and returned to Wormes, where he was on the Kalends of November to hold his Placitum.”  Also in the following Chapter, where he speaks of Charles the Simple,—­“Whose Youth (says he) the great Men of France thinking unfit for the Administration of the Government, they held a Council concerning the State of the Nation.”

But it would be an infinite Labour, and indeed a superfluous one, to quote all the Instances which might be given of this Matter:  From what we have already produced, I think ’tis apparent to every man, that till Charles the Simple’s Reign, that is, for more than 550 Years, the Judgment and Determination of all the weighty Affairs of the Commonwealth, belonged to the great Assembly of the People, or (as we now call it) to the Convention of the Estates:  And that this Institution of our Ancestors was esteemed sacred and inviolable during so many Ages.  So that I cannot forbear admiring the Confidence of some Modern Authors, who have had the Face to publish in their Writings, That King Pipin was the first to whom the Institution of the Publick Council is owing.  Since Eguinarthus, Charles the Great’s own Chancellor, has most clearly proved, that it was the constant Practice of the whole Merovingian Line, to hold every Year the Publick Convention of the People on the Kalends of May; and that the Kings were carried to that Assembly in a Chariot or Waggon drawn by Oxen.