They were more eager to mitigate the evil and to offer the
Church compensation for their share in this evil to which it was not in
their power to put a stop. Accordingly, at the March parade, held at
Leptines in 743, it was decided, in reference to ecclesiastical lands
applied to the military service: 1st, that the churches having the
ownership of those lands should share the revenue with the lay holder;
2d, that on the death of a warrior in enjoyment of an ecclesiastical
benefice, the benefice should revert to the Church; 3d, that every
benefice, by deprivation whereof any church would be reduced to poverty,
should be at once restored to her.
"That this capitular was carried out, or even capable of being carried
out, is very doubtful; but the less Carloman and Pepin succeeded in
repairing the material losses incurred by the Church since the accession
of the Carlovingians, the more zealous they were in promoting the growth
of her moral power and the restoration of her discipline ... That was
the time at which there began to be seen the spectacle of the national
assemblies of the Franks, the gatherings at the March parades
transformed into ecclesiastical synods under the presidency of the
titular legate of the Roman pontiff, and dictating, by the mouth of the
political authority, regulations and laws with the direct and formal aim
of restoring divine worship and ecclesiastical discipline, and of
assuring the spiritual welfare of the people.
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