LOXGOBARDI
501
LOXGOBARDI
davi? before his death as containing the faith in which he " wished to die" — words expressive of liis sense of guilt and his faith in Christ's blood to cleanse him from that guilt. See London Spectator, 1808, Oct. 31, p. 1272 ; N. Y. Tribune, Oct. 29, 18G8. (J. H. W.)
Longobardi (otherwise called Lombards), a Teu- tonic people of the Suevic race, who maintained a do- minion in Italy from A.D. 568 to 774.
The name Lombards is derived from the Latin LMvgo- bardi or Lungobardi, a form in use since the r2th centu- ry, and generally supposed to have been given in refer- ence to the long beards of this people; although some derive it rather from a woxAparta or 6a?te, which sig- nifies a battle-axe.
The first historical notices present them as a people small in number, having their original seat on the west side of the Lower Elbe, in a territory extending some sixty miles southward from Hamburg. They advanced into Moravia and Hungary, the abode of the Kugi, be- fore 500, and contjuereil the Heruli, and were invited by Justinian to the neighborhood of the Danube in the year 52G. They afterwards crossed into Panno- nia, where, though at first in alliance with the Gepida?, they subsequently (A.D. 5(JG or 5G7) subdued the peo- ple, yielding in turn to the Avars, and in 5G9 crossed the Alps into Italy under Alboin, having been invited thither by Narses, as it is said, out of revenge against the province and the emperor. This was fourteen years after the overthrow of the Gothic kingdom, and the ex- hausted state of the country left Northern Italy an easy prey. The Goths were Arians, and religious ilifferences with both the Koman and Greek churches went far to prevent the acceptance of their rule, and the establish- ment at that time of a united government in Italy, for the want of which the country has so many centuries suffered. The Lombards succeeded no better in secur- ing entire dominion. They, however, extended their power, estabhshing the duchies of Frioul, Spoleto, and Benevento, until only the districts of Rome and Naples, the southern extremity of the peninsula, Venice, and the east coast from the Po to Ancona, with Ravenna as the city of the exarchs, remained under the power of the Greek emperor. The conduct of the Lombards as conquerors has been severely characterized on the au- thority of early writers of the Romish Church. Gregorj"- the Great, in his epistles and dialogues, draws a fright- ful picture of their oppressions, as does Paulus Diaco- nus of the unquestionably lawless sway of the thirty- five dukes, who were the only rulers in the interregnum after the death of Clcph, till, by the threatening ap- proach of the Franks, they were compelled to elect a king in the person of Autharis. Now for the first time (584-590) an orderly constitution was established. Pau- lus Diaconus speaks with great praise of the new state of things. " Wonderful was the state of the Lombard kingdom : violence and treachery were alike unknown ; no one was oppressed, no one plundered another ; thefts and robberies ivere unheard of; the traveller went wher- ever he would in perfect security" (Paul. Diac. iii, 16).
A general idea of their political constitution may be found in the edict of king Rothari (63G-652), a kind of Bill of Rights, which was promulgated Nov. 22, 643, and IS memorable as having become the foundation of constitutional law in the (icrmanic kingdoms of the Middle Ages. It was revised and extended by subse- quent Lombard kings, but suljsisted in force for several centuries after the Lombard kingdom had passed away. The edict recognises, as among all German nations, three classes— the free, the semi-free, and slave or vas- sal. Among the free were the nobiles. The army se- cured the national unity, civil officers being regarded as rendering military service. The king was elective, and among the dukes he represented the nation. He was commander of the army, head of all poHce power, chief judge, and general ward. There were courtiers of va- rious ranks. The dukes were also called judges, or /;/- dices civitatis. Under each judex were many local, j udi-
cial, police, and military' authorities. The cities chosen by the dukes severally as their residences were centres of the Lombard government. There woidd seem to be but little room for the old Roman municipal constitu- tions. Concerning the relation of the Lombard rule to the continuance of the Roman law and the rights of the conquered people there are differences of opmion. Len- der the Goths the former laws and customs remained largely unaffected; but it has been maintained (as by Leo) that under the Lombards the personal liberty, right of property, and municipal constitutions of tlie conquered people were abolished. The subject was much discussed by the Italians in the last century; and in this century the historians Savigny, Leo, Bandi di Vesme, Fossati, Troya, Bethmann-HoUweg, etc., present conflicting or somewhat varied views. The Lombard laws themselves give but little precise information on this point. The Romans at least lost all united nationality. Koman law seems to have been first distinctively brought into use under Luitprand. The feeling of enmity which, for a long time at least, existed between the people and their conquerors, was increased by religious differences, and on this account the new power was specially obnox- ious to the authorities of the Roman Church. A state of war generally prevailed between the two powers. The Church writers are constant and bitter in their complaints of Lombard impiety and oppressions — at least during the earlier period of their dominion — in the wast- ing of churches and monasteries, and the treatment of ecclesiastics. The Lombard clergy themselves, how- ever, do not seem to be charged as active participants in these deeds. Gregory the Great discerns in the times signs of the approaching judgment. " What is happening in other parts of the world," he says, " we know not ; but in this the end of all things not merely announces itself as approaching, but shows itself as act- ually begun" {Dial. iii). Such representations of the spirit and course of the conquerors must be taken with considerable qualification. Still more untrustworthy are the accounts given, especially by Gregory, of numerous miracidous interferences in behalf of the true faith.