[Illustration: Fig. 296.--The Familles and the Barbarians.--Fac-simile of
a Woodcut in the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster: in folio, Basle,
1552.]
Under the Merovingians the legal principle of power was closely bound up
with the possession of landed property. The subdivision of that power,
however, closely followed this union, and the constant ruin of some of the
nobles rapidly increased the power of others, who absorbed to themselves
the lost authority of their more unfortunate brethren, so much so that the
Frank kings perceived that society would soon escape their rule unless
they speedily found a remedy for this state of things. It was then that
the _lois Salique_ and _Ripuaire_ appeared, which were subjected to
successive revisions and gradual or sudden modifications, necessitated by
political changes or by the increasing exigencies of the prelates and
nobles. But, far from lessening the supremacy of the King, the national
customs which were collected in a code extended the limits of the royal
authority and facilitated its exercise.
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