CAPITULARIES
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CAPITULARIES
Capitularies (Lat. Capitularia), collections of laws
or ordinances, chiefly of the Frankish kings, divided
into many single laws or chapters (capitula), so that
a capitulare meant the sum total of such single laws.
Sometimes such collections consisted of only one law
or capitulum; even then they were called capitularia.
The word capitulare was used officially for the first
time (779) in an enactment of Charlemagne (Mon.
Germ. Hist: Leges, II, i, 47). It was also applied to
certain legislative acts of bishops.
Episcopal Capitularies. — The capitularies or capitula of the bishops were compilations of eccle- siastical laws, drawn as a rule from previous legisla- tion, and proposed to the clergy and people for their guidance. Their general purpose was, on the one hand, to make it easy for ecclesiastics to know the canons or laws of the Church, at least in the sum- maries thus compiled; on the other, to keep intact and uniform the discipline of the Church, and to maintain the religious life of both clergy and laity at as high a standard as possible. There are yet ex- tant many such compilations, which may be divided into two categories. Those of the first contain laws whose content shows that they were not restricted to one diocese, but were applicable to several. Those of the second were meant primarily for one diocese and are more properly called capitularies. To the first order of capitularies belong the capitula of St. Martin, Metropolitan of Braga (571-80) in Gallicia, the present Portugal (Mansi, Sacr. Cone. Coll., IX, 845, sqq.). His object was to render more intelligible the canons of the Greek Church by a new translation into Latin, and to arrange them in a systematic order. The collection became very important in subsequent ages, when it was incorporated with the "Collectio Hispana", and with this passed into the work of Pseudo-Isidore. After the tenth century it formed part of nearly every compilation of ecclesiastical law. Then follow two collections made by St. Boniface (d. 754). The first contains twenty-eight capitula issued about 744 (Mansi, op. cit., XII, App. 107, sqq.); the second has thirty-six statuta issued about 745 (op. cit., XII, 383, sqq.). The collection of Egbert, Archbishop of York (735-51), known as "Excerptiones Egberti Eboracensis Archiepiscopi " (op. cit., XII, 411, sqq.), is but a summary made by the deacon Huncar about 1040 from a larger work of Egbert (q. v.) entitled "De jure sacerdotali". The collection attributed to Isaac, Bishop of Langres in France (S59-S0), and known as "Canones Isaac Episcopi Lingonensis" (op. cit., XVI, App. 633, sqq.), is merely an extract from the three books of capitularies of Benedictus Levita. The capitula of Angilramnus, Bishop of Metz (768- 91), are said to have been published by him after he had received them from Adrian I (772-95). They are intimately connected with the pseudo-Isidorian decretals, and hence not genuine; they were written about the middle of the ninth century (Hinschius, Decretales Pseudo-Isidorianae, 757, sqq.).
Among the capitularies of the second class we may mention first the Rule of St. Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz (742-66), written about 760 (Mansi, op. cit., XIV, 313, sqq.) , which regulated the common or canonical life of his diocesan clergy. These decrees, modified by Amalarius of Metz, were eventually made obligatory upon the clergy of the whole Frankish Empire at the Diet of Aachen (817). Then follow: the capitulary of Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans (797-821), issued towards the end of the eighth century, with several additions (op. cit., XIII, 993, sqq.); the capitulary of Hatto, Bishop of Basle (836), issued about 822 (op. cit., XIV, 393, sqq.); the capitula of Rodulf, Arch- bishop of Bourges, issued about 850 (op. cit., XIV, 943, sqq.); (lie capitula of Herard, Archbishop of
Tours (S55 70), issued in 858 (op. cit., XVI, App. 677, sqq.); the i irious capitula of Ilinemar, Arch- bishop of Reims (845-82), issued in .852, 856, and 874
(op. cit., XV, 475, sqq., 493, sqq.); the capitula
of Walter, Bishop of Orleans, issued about 871 (op.
cit., XV, 503, sqq.); finally, the constitutio of Kiculf,
Bishop of Soissons, issued about 8S9 (op. cit.. XVIII,
81, sqq.). A number of these capitularies were pub-
lished in diocesan synods, e. g. those of Herard of
Tours, of Hincmar of Reims (at least the ones of 852
and 874), and of Walter of Orleans. Perhaps this
was the usual custom, since the capitula of Theodulf
of Orleans and of Rodulf of Bourges mention the
diocesan synod as of obligation at stated intervals.
Royal Capitularies. — The capitularies of the Frankish kings were legislative or administrative enactments. In the Merovingian period they were known as epistola, prceceptum, edictum, decrctio, or pactus if issued by several kings together. In the present acceptation of the word the capitularies com- prise legislative acts issued by the Frankish rulers, either Merovingians or Carlovingians, from the begin- ning of the sixth century to the end of the ninth. They are usually distinguished from leges, or laws, not because they lack legislative force, but because since the sixth century the term leges is usually ap- plied to the written or formally codified customs pre- vailing among the various Germanic nations; thus we have the " Lex Salica", the " Lex Alamannorum", and the like. The capitularies, on the contrary, may have a wider application. They were usually drawn up without any specific order and without such formalities as the royal seal or signature; hence they differed from other royal acts, e. g. the diplomata and mandata. The capitularies were executed by the royal officers or by the king himself; therefore they did not need the formalities required for other docu- ments as evidences of the royal will. The contents of the capitularies are manifold. Sometimes they contain only directions given to royal officers, chiefly the missi dominici; sometimes additions to, or modi- fications of, the leges; more generally they contain ordinances bearing on almost every form of civil and ecclesiastical life. Among the civil ordinances are regulations affecting the royal magistracy, commerce, customs-duties, markets, currency, the army, safety of travellers, procedure in criminal and civil suits, private rights or prerogatives, and many other sub- jects. Concerning ecclesiastical matters there are regulations on the organization of the Church, its relation to the civil power, monastic life, discipline of the Church, education, manner of worship, ecclesi- astical feast-days, and the like. A division or syste- matic classification of the capitularies is practically impossible. While some deal exclusively with ecclesi- astical matters, in many of them tilings ecclesiastical and civil are so intermingled that it is difficult to dis- tinguish in them two kinds of capitularies. Nor can the capitularies bearing on civil matters be divided into classes, though some have imagined that they could distinguish three different kinds. Those of the first class were called capitularia legibus addenda, and were said to contain modifications of the leges, made with the consent of the nation whose laws were thus affected. Those of the second class were called capit- ularia per se scribenda, said to contain ordinances affecting the people of the Frankish Empire generally, issued by the king with or without the consent of the men of rank. Those of the third class were called capitularia missorum, and were said to contain merely instructions for the royal officers or counts known as the missi dominici.
There is no sufficient basis, however, in the text of the capitularies for this classification. While the matter contained therein has a bearing on all those subjects, still it is put together so indiscriminately that no systematic division can be made; in fact, no uniform system was aimed at in this legislation. There is, moreover, no sufficient foundation for the assertion that for a certain class of capitularies the
