It is doubtful whether immunities of any importance were granted even
by the latest kings of the Lombards, before the invasion of the
Franks. Under the first Lombard monarchy the church held a very
subordinate position with regard to the state, and if privileges were
granted to any of its members, they had attached to them no greater
meaning than the simple extension to them of the _mundibrium_ of the
king, such as was often allowed to private individuals; that is, they
were simply grants of royal protection, and were not similar to the
later grants which included both protection and privilege.[89]
With the advent of Frankish rule under Charlemagne, marked
consideration immediately appears for the church and its
representatives. Not alone is ample protection granted to many of the
churches of the kingdom, but to it is added the important function of
exemption. The greatest evil endured in those days by the
ecclesiastical authorities was exactions levied on their property and
oppression exercised on their dependents by the dukes and counts under
whose jurisdiction lay the temporal possessions of the churches and
monasteries. Consequently the aim of every bishop and of every abbot
was to obtain for the possessions of his diocese or his convent an
exemption more or less complete from the civil administration of the
neighboring secular ruler.
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