The composition of the army varied during the Merovingian period. The army of Clovis with which he conquered Gaul was an army of barbarians, to which some Roman soldiers, encamped in the country, had joined themselves. These Roman troops long preserved their name, their accoutrements, their insignia. Later it seems clear that certain of the barbarian tribes were liable to special military obligations, and in case of military expeditions were the first to take the field. The armies which descended from Gaul upon Italy in the sixth century were principally composed of Burgundian warriors. The Saxons established near Bayeux, the Taifali, whose name is found in the Poitivin district of Tiffauges, were for long distinctly military colonies whose members took the field at the first alarm of war. But soon the Gallo-Romans, too, find a place in the armies. Some of them doubtless asked leave to join an expedition which was likely to bring back spoil; thenceforward their descendants were under obligation to render military service. Others were obliged by the count or the duke to equip themselves, and in this way a precedent was created which bound their descendants. Thus certain free persons, whether Gallo-Romans or barbarians, are subject to the obligation of military service, just as certain persons are subject to the capitatio humana and certain lands to the capitatio terrena. These persons were obliged to arm themselves and march whenever the king summoned them to do so. But they were rarely all summoned at one time; the king first called on those who lived in the neighbourhood of the scene of war. If it was for an expedition against Germany he summoned the fighting-men of Austrasia, for a war against Brittany he summoned the men of Tours, Poitiers, Bayeux, Le Mans, and Angers. All the men thus mustered served at their own expense, and remained on campaign all summer; in winter they returned to their homes, to be recalled, if need were, the following spring. Charles the Great made a great reform in the military organisation. He based the obligation to military service upon property, the principle being that everyone who possessed a certain number of mansi was obliged to serve. The number varied from year to year according to the number of fighting-men required.
We thus see how these institutions were incessantly transformed by the influence of circumstances and by human action. Roman and Germanic elements were combined in them in various proportions, and new elements were added to them. The Merovingian institutions thus came to form a new system; and from them arise by a series of transformations the institutions of Charles the Great.
Only the Church, which connects itself with the Gallo-Roman Church, presents an appearance of greater fixity, since the Church claims to hold always the same dogmas and to be founded on stable principles. Nevertheless even the Church underwent an evolution along with the society which it endeavoured to guide. We shall give our attention successively to the secular Church and the religious Orders.
