C HARLEMAGNE'S broad vision as an organizer reveals itself
in the manner whereby, in an empire that embraced the most
diverse peoples, he retained existing customs and institutions while
working to achieve the needed unity of the whole. He allowed the
several peoples their ancestral laws, and the old principle that every-
one was to live and be judged according to his own law, was re-
peatedly enunciated anew. This was, indeed, to become fundamental
in the development of liberty in the West. It was without doubt also
an essential factor in bringing about the ready acceptance of Charle-
magne's rule by the subjected countries, and in permitting the feel-
ing that they belonged together to grow strong among these peoples
with little opposition. Even the Lombards and the Saxons retained
their ancient law, though they had been subjugated by the sword.

After Charlemagne became emperor, he had the various legal
codes read to him and examined, and then delivered to each tribe
its own proper code. The tribal law of the Saxons and the Frisians
was committed to writing for the first time during his reign. Thus,
there was one law for the Salic Franks and another for the Ripuarian
Franks; there were separate codes for the Burgundians, who lived
according to the ancient law of Gundobad, for the Alamanni, the
Bavarians, the Saxons and Frisians, for the Goths in the Spanish
March, for the Lombards, for the Romans in the Papal States, or
Romania, as these States were sometimes called. A characteristic
of the law was that it guarded the rights of the individual -- a
sign of how much the person of the free man was respected. In
Rome, everyone was permitted to declare whether he chose to live
according to the Roman or the Frankish law.

The unity of the empire found expression in the great national
assembly which by former Frankish custom had taken place early
in spring, but now was held later, usually in May. This was the

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