 According to these writers, the king is in some sense a religious figure (Oakley 2010: 143ff.). This meant that the king could involve himself in religious matters much more than would later be acceptable to the medieval church, but it also meant that the king was to be instructed in his duties by the clergy. Some of the writings of this period belong to what modern scholars call the “mirror of princes” genre. An early example was written by Jonas of Orléans (1983) in about 831, which is a good example, too, of how the genre was rarely limited to only discussions of the secular  power.[19]  Writers taught the king that he had a duty to do justice. This was often construed as meaning that the king had a duty to enforce and also to obey the law, and the law was thought of as partly custom, partly royal decree, but also as something based on the consent of the  people.[20]  It was suggested—notably, e.g., by Hincmar of Rheims—that a king might be deposed if he failed to obey the laws and lost the consent of the people (Carlyle and Carlyle 1903: vol. 1, 242–52).