Cha rlemagne 141 accordance with his own promise, because the lord emperor is unable to give to all individually the necessary care and . discipline. Secondly, that no man, either through perjury or any other wile or fraud, or on account of the flattery or gift of any one, shall refuse to give back or dare to abstract or conceal a serf of the lord emperor, or a district, or land, or anything that belongs to him ; and that no one shall presume, through perjury or other wile, to conceal or abstract his fugitive serfs belonging to the fisc, who wrongly and fraudulently claim that they are free. That no one shall presume to rob or in any way do injury fraudulently to the churches of God, or to widows or orphans or pilgrims; for the lord emperor himself, after God and his saints, has constituted himself their protector and defender. That no one shall dare to lay waste a benefice of the lord emperor, or to make it his own property. That no one shall presume to neglect a summons to war from the lord emperor ; and that no one of the counts shall be so presumptuous as to dare to excuse any one of those who owe military service, either on account of relationship, or flattery, or gifts from any one. That no one shall presume to impede in any way a ban or command of the lord emperor, or to dally with his work, or to impede or to lessen or in any way to act contrary to his will or commands. And that no one shall dare to neglect to pay his dues or tax. That no one, for any reason, shall make a practice in court of defending another unjustly, either from any desire of gain when the cause is weak, or by impeding a just judg- ment by his skill in reasoning, or by a desire of oppressing when the cause is weak. . . . The oath to the emperor should include the observance of all those things mentioned above. Bishops and priests shall live according to the canons and Duties of the shall teach others to do the same. prelates.
