<P> The Merovingian Church was shaped by both internal and external forces . It had to come to terms with an established Gallo - Roman hierarchy that resisted changes to its culture, Christianise pagan sensibilities and suppress their expression, provide a new theological basis for Merovingian forms of kingship deeply rooted in pagan Germanic tradition and accommodate Irish and Anglo - Saxon missionary activities and papal requirements . The Carolingian reformation of monasticism and church - state relations was the culmination of the Frankish Church . </P> <P> The increasingly wealthy Merovingian elite endowed many monasteries, including that of the Irish missionary Columbanus . The 5th, 6th and 7th centuries saw two major waves of hermitism in the Frankish world, which led to legislation requiring that all monks and hermits follow the Rule of St Benedict . The Church sometimes had an uneasy relationship with the Merovingian kings, whose claim to rule depended on a mystique of royal descent and who tended to revert to the polygamy of their pagan ancestors . Rome encouraged the Franks to slowly replace the Gallican Rite with the Roman rite . When the mayors took over, the Church was supportive and an Emperor crowned by the Pope was much more to their liking . </P> <P> As with other Germanic peoples, the laws of the Franks were memorised by "rachimburgs", who were analogous to the lawspeakers of Scandinavia . By the 6th century, when these laws first appeared in written form, two basic legal subdivisions existed: Salian Franks were subject to Salic law and Ripuarian Franks to Ripuarian law . Gallo - Romans south of the River Loire and clergy remained subject to traditional Roman law . Germanic law was overwhelmingly concerned with the protection of individuals and less concerned with protecting the interests of the state . According to Michel Rouche, "Frankish judges devoted as much care to a case involving the theft of a dog as Roman judges did to cases involving the fiscal responsibility of curiales, or municipal councilors". </P> <P> The term Frank has been used by many of the Eastern Orthodox and Muslim neighbours of medieval Latin Christendom (and beyond, such as in Asia) as a general synonym for a European from Western and Central Europe, areas that followed the Latin rites of Christianity under the authority of the Pope in Rome . Another term with similar use was Latins . </P>

Where does the term being frank come from