name and a little bit
in the name of the Emperor, a certain jurisdiction and nearly all the
rights of sovereignty. There was nothing very fixed or clear in the
position of the beneficiaries and in the nature of their power; they
were at one and the same time delegates and independent owners and
enjoyers of usufruct, and the former or the latter character prevailed
among them according to circumstances. But, altogether, they were
closely bound to Charlemagne, who, in a great number of cases, charged
them with the execution of his orders in the lands they occupied.

Above these agents, local and resident, magistrates or beneficiaries,
were the _missi dominici_, temporary commissioners, charged to inspect,
in the Emperor's name, the condition of the provinces; authorized to
penetrate into the interior of the free lands as well as of the domains
granted with the title of benefices; having the right to reform certain
abuses, and bound to render an account of all to their master. The
missi dominici were the principal instruments Charlemagne had,
throughout the vast territory of his empire, of order and
administration.

As to the central government, setting aside for a moment the personal
action of Charlemagne and of his counsellors, the general assemblies, to
judge by appearances and to believe nearly all the modern historians,
occupied a prominent place in it. They were, in fact, during his reign,
numerous and active; from the year 770 to the year 813 we may count
thirty-five of these national assemblies, March-parades and May-parades,
held at Worms, Valenciennes, Geneva, Paderborn, Aix-la-Chapelle,
Thionville, and several other towns, the majority situated round about
the two banks of the Rhine. The number and periodical nature of these
great political reunions are undoubtedly a noticeable fact. What, then,
went on in their midst? What character and weight must be attached to
their intervention in the government of the State? It is important to
sift this matter thoroughly.

There is extant, touching this subject, a very curious document. A
contemporary and counsellor of Charlemagne, his cousin-german Adalbert,
abbot of Corbie, had written a treatise entitled "Of the Ordering of the
Palace" _(de Ordine Palatii),_ and designed to give an insight into the
government of Charlemagne, with especial reference to the national
assemblies. This treatise was lost; but toward the close of the ninth
century Hincmar, the celebrated a