Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

CAPITULARY (Med. Lat. capitularium)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 283 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

CAPITULARY (Med. See also:Lat. capitularium) , a See also:series of legislative or administrative acts emanating from the Merovingian and Carolingian See also:kings, so called as being divided into sections or chapters (capitula). With regard to these capitularies two questions arise: (1) as to the means by which they have been handed down to us; (2) as to their true See also:character and See also:scope. (1) As soon as the capitulary was composed, it was sent to the various functionaries of the Frankish See also:empire, archbishops, bishops, missi and See also:counts, a copy being kept by the See also:chancellor in the archives of the See also:palace. At the See also:present See also:day we do not possess a single capitulary in its See also:original See also:form; but very frequently copies of these isolated capitularies were included in various scattered See also:manuscripts, among pieces of a very different nature, ecclesiastical or See also:secular. We find, therefore, a See also:fair number of them in books which go back as far as the 9th or loth centuries. In See also:recent See also:editions in the See also:case of each capitulary it is carefully indicated from what manuscripts it has been collated. These capitularies make provisions of a most varied nature; it was therefore found necessary at quite an See also:early date to classify them into chapters according to the subject. In 827 Ansegisus, See also:abbot of St Wandrille at See also:Fontenelle, made such a collection. He embodied them in four books: one of the ecclesiastical capitularies of See also:Charlemagne, one of the ecclesiastical capitularies of See also:Louis the Pious, one of the secular capitularies of Charlemagne, and one of the secular capitularies of Louis, bringing together similar provisions and suppressing duplicates. This collection soon gained an See also:official authority, and after 829 Louis the Pious refers to it, citing See also:book and See also:section. After 827 new capitularies were naturally promulgated, and before 858 there appeared a second collection in three books, by an author calling himself See also:Benedictus Levita.

His aim was, he said, to See also:

complete the See also:work of Ansegisus, and bring it up to date by continuing it from 827 to his own day; but the authc has not only borrowed prescriptions from the capitularies; he has introduced other documents into his collection, fragments of See also:Roman See also:laws, canons of the See also:councils and especially See also:spurious provisions very similar in character to those of the same date found in the False See also:Decretals. His contemporaries did not See also:notice these spurious documents, but accepted the whole collection as See also:authentic, and incorporated the four books of Ansegisus and the three of Benedictus Levita into a single collection in seven books. The serious historian of to-day, however, is careful not to use books v., vi. and vii. for purposes of reference. Early editors See also:chose to republish this collection of Ansegisus and Benedictus as they found it. It was a distinguished See also:French See also:scholar, See also:Etienne See also:Baluze, who led the way to a fresh See also:classification. In 1677 he brought out the Capitularia regum francorum, in two See also:folio volumes, in which he published first the capitularies of the Merovingian kings, then those of See also:Pippin, of See also:Charles and of Louis the Pious, which he had found complete in various manuscripts. After the date of 84o, he published as supplements the unreliable collection of Ansegisus and Benedictus Levita, with the warning that the latter was quite untrustworthy. He then gave the capitularies of Charles the Bald, and of other Carolingian kings, either contemporaries or successors of Charles, which he had discovered in various places. A second edition of Baluze was published in 1780 in 2 volumes folio by See also:Pierre de Chiniac. The edition of the Capitularies made in 1835 by See also:George Peitz, in the Monumenta Germaniae (folio edition, vol. i., of the Leges) was not much advance on that of Baluze. A fresh revision was required, and the editors of the Monumenta decided to reissue it in their See also:quarto series, entrusting the work to Dr See also:Alfred Boretius. In 1883 Boretius published his first See also:volume, containing all the detached capitularies up to 827, together with various appendices bearing on them, and the collection of Ansegisus.

Boretius, whose See also:

health had been ruined by overwork, was unable to finish his work; it was continued by See also:Victor See also:Krause, who collected in vol. ii. the scattered capitularies of a date posterior to 828. Karl Zeumer and Albrecht Werminghoff See also:drew up a detailed See also:index of both volumes, in which all the essential words are noted. A third volume, prepared by Emil Seckel, was to include the collection of Benedictus Levita. (2) Among the capitularies are to be found documents of a very varied See also:kind. Boretius has divided them into several classes: (a) The Capitula legibus addenda.—These are additions made by the See also:king of the See also:Franks to the See also:barbarian laws promulgated under the See also:Merovingians, the Salic See also:law, the Ripuarian or the Bavarian. These capitularies have the same See also:weight as the law which they complete; they are particular in their application, applying, that is to say, only to the men subject to that law. Like the laws, they consist chiefly of scales of See also:compensation, rules of See also:procedure and points of See also:civil law. They were solemnly promulgated in the See also:local assemblies where the consent of the See also:people was asked. Charlemagne and Louis the Pious seem to have made efforts to bring the other laws into See also:harmony with the Salic law. It is also to be noted that by certain of the capitularies of this class, the king adds provisions affecting, not only a single law, but all the laws in use throughout the See also:kingdom. (b) The Capitula ecclesiastics.—These capitularies were elaborated in the councils of the bishops; the kings of the Franks sanctioned the See also:canon of the councils, and made them obligatory on all the Christians in the kingdom. (c) The Capitula per se scribenda.—These embodied See also:political decrees which all subjects of the kingdom were See also:bound to observe.

They often See also:

bore the name of edictum or of constitutio, and the provisions made in them were permanent. These capitularies were generally elaborated by the king of the Franks in the autumn assemblies or in the committees of the See also:spring assemblies. Frequently we have only the proposition made by the king to the See also:committee, capitula tractanda cum comitibus, episcopis, et abbatibus, and not the final form which was adopted. (d) The Capitula missorum, which are the instructions given by Charlemagne and his successors to the missi sent into the various parts of the empire. They are sometimes See also:drawn up in See also:common for all the missi of a certain year—capitula missorum generalia; sometimes for the missi sent only on a given circuitcapitula missorum specialia. These instructions sometimes hold See also:good only for the See also:circuit of the missus; they have no See also:general application and are merely temporary. (e) With the capitularies have been incorporated various documents; for instance, the rules to be observed in administer- See also:CAPITULATIONS 283 See also:ing the king's private domain (the celebrated capitulary de villisy which is doubtless a collection of the instructions sent at various times to the agents of these domains); the partitions of the kingdom among the king's sons, as, the Divisio regnorum of 8o6, or the Ordinatio imperii of 817; the oaths of See also:peace and See also:brother-See also:hood which were taken on various occasions by the sons of Louis the Pious, &c. The merit of clearly establishing these distinctions belongs to Boretius. He has doubtless exaggerated the difference between the Capitula missorum and the Capitula per se scribenda; among the first are to be found provisions of a general and permanent nature, and among the second temporary See also:measures are often included. But the See also:idea of Boretius is none the less fruitful. In the capitularies there are usually permanent provisions and temporary provisions intermingled; and the observation of this fact has made it possible more clearly to understand certain institutions of Charlemagne, e.g. military service. After the reign of Louis the Pious the capitularies became See also:long and diffuse.

Soon, from the loth See also:

century onwards, no See also:provision of general application emanates from the kings. Hence-forth the kings only regulated private interests by charters; it was not until the reign of See also:Philip Augusttiis that general provisions again appeared; but when they did so, they bore the name of ordinances (ordonnances). There were also capitularies of the See also:Lombards. These capitularies formed a continuation of the Lombard laws, and are printed as an appendix to these laws by Boretius in the folio edition of the Monumenta Germaniae, Leges, vol. iv.

End of Article: CAPITULARY (Med. Lat. capitularium)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
CAPITO (or KOPFEL), WOLFGANG [FABRIC1us] (1478-1541... 		[next]
CAPITULATION (Lat. capitulum, a little head or divi...

Site © 2006 - Net Industries