Charlemagne renounced the arbitrary rights established by the Mayors of the Palace, and retained only those which long usage had legitimatised.  He registered them clearly in a code called the Capitulaires, into which he introduced the ancient laws of the Ripuaires, the Burgundians, and the Franks, arranging them so as to suit the organization and requirements of his vast empire.  From that time each freeman subscribed to the military service according to the amount of his possessions.  The great vassal, or fiscal judge, was no longer allowed to practise extortion on those citizens appointed to defend the State.  Freemen could legally refuse all servile or obligatory work imposed on them by the nobles, and the amount of labour to be performed by the serfs was lessened.  Without absolutely abolishing the authority of local customs in matters of finance, or penalties which had been illegally exacted, they were suspended by laws decided at the Champs de Mai, by the Counts and by the Leudes, in presence of the Emperor.  Arbitrary taxes were abolished, as they were no longer required.  Food, and any articles of consumption, and military munitions, were exempted from taxation; and the revenues derived from tolls on road gates, on bridges, and on city gates, &c., were applied to the purposes for which they were imposed, namely, to the repair of the roads, the bridges, and the fortified enclosures.  The heriban, a fine of sixty sols—­which in those days would amount to more than 6,000 francs—­was imposed on any holder of a fief who refused military service, and each noble was obliged to pay this for every one of his vassals who was absent when summoned to the King’s banner.  These fines must have produced considerable sums.  A special law exempted ecclesiastics from bearing arms, and Charlemagne decreed that their possessions should be sacred and untouched, and everything was done to ensure the payment of the indemnity—­dime and none—­which was due to them.

[Illustration:  Fig. 260.—­Toll on Markets levied by a Cleric.—­From one of the Painted Windows of the Cathedral of Tournay (Fifteenth Century).]

Charlemagne also superintended the coining and circulation of money.  He directed that the silver sou should exactly contain the twenty-second part by weight of the pound.  He also directed that money should only be coined in the Imperial palaces.  He forbade the circulation of spurious coin; he ordered base coiners to be severely punished, and imposed heavy fines upon those who refused to accept the coin in legal circulation.  The tithe due to the Church (Fig. 260), which was imposed at the National Assembly in 779, and disbursed by the diocesan bishops, gave rise to many complaints and much opposition.  This tithe was in addition to that paid to the King, which was of itself sufficiently heavy.  The right of claiming the two tithes, however, had a common origin, so that the sovereign defended his own rights