CHAPTER II.

MODIFICATIONS IN THE RELATIONS AND ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH.

Capitularia regum Francor., see Vol. I., p. 23, n. 3, ed. Baluzi, Venet. 17721773, 2 T. fol., and in Pertz, Monumenta, T. III., with valuable chronologicel disquisitions. We quote from the one more spread about, ed. Baluzi. Friedrich, Three Unpublished Councils of Merovingian Times, Bambg. 1867. Maassen, Two Synods under King Childeric II., according to a Manuscript of the City Library of Alb, Gratz, 1867.

†Thomassini vetus et nova eccl. Disciplina. Plank, Hist. of the Organization of Eccl. Society, Vol. II. Grimm, Antiquities of German Law, Götting. 1828. Phillips, C. L., Vol. III., "The Church and the Germanic Kingdoms,” p. 61–113. †Binterim, Philosophical Hist. of the German National Councils, Pts. I. and II.; Succession of all the Bishops and Archbishops of Germany, Pt. I., p. 282–340. *Lau, On the Influence of the Feudal System upon the Clergy and the Papacy. (Jllgen's Hist. Journal, year 1841, nros. 1 and 2.) Thereto, Phillips' Germàn Hist., Vol. I., p. 506 sq. Zöpfl, Hist. of German Law, 3d ed., Stuttg. 1858, and the writings of Rettberg, Fehr, Rückert; *Gfrörer, On the Hist. of German Popular Rights, in the M. A., 2 vols., Schaffh. 1865.

§ 161. The Church in Her Relations to the Germanic States— Close Alliance of Church and State.

The essential elements of ecclesiastical polity, as developed among the Greeks and Romans, now passed, without material change, over to the Germanic people, who, after their conversion, regarded Roman law as inseparably connected with the Church. Hence, as "every one," according to an axiom of German jurisprudence, "preserves intact his hereditary rights," so did the Church and her ministers continue to follow the Roman civil law and the Dionysian or Spanish collection of canon law. It is especially noticeable, and per

1 Walter, Corpus juris German. antiqui., Berol. 1824 sq., 3 T. Pertz, Monu menta Germ., T. III. and IV. (containing leges.) Cf. Regesta Carolorum, Documents of all the Carlovingians (752-918), epitomized by Böhmer, Frkft. 1834, 4to.

2 Conf. Conc. Aurel. I. (a. D. 511) can. 1: Id constituimus observandum quod

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haps more so in the Frankish Empire than elsewhere, that these canons passed, though insensibly, yet definitely, into the public law and the Capitularies. It could not be expected that the Church would maintain precisely the same relations with a rude and barbarous people which she had with nations of a more advanced and refined civilization. Before such a state of things could be brought about, a certain amount of teaching and a thorough reformation of manners were necessary, and it was the Church's duty to effect the one and impart the other. Faithful to her mission, she did not shrink from the task; but, to accomplish it successfully, she was obliged to adopt, in a great measure, a new system and a novel policy in her external relations to the State and to society. On the one hand, it was necessary to obtain greater political independence, and, on the other, to rise to civil influence and importance, in order that she might be in a position to widen the sphere of her jurisdiction and infuse Christian ideas into the masses of the people.

Ecclesiastics, who spent their days in the contemplation of things human and divine, seemed at least as well qualified to administer justice intelligently and impartially as persons who had passed their lives in the profession of arms; and the more so as they alone possessed all the knowledge and culture of the age. Hence-1. In Spain, Reccared commanded the judges to attend the ecclesiastical synods, in order that they might there learn the law; while, on the other hand, he instructed the bishops to watch over the administration of ecclesiastici canones decreverunt et lex Romana constituit. (Harduin, T. II., p. 1009). The principle is enforced: Ecclesia vivit lege Romana (Leg. Ripuar. tit. LVIII. 1); see Maassen, lex Rom. canonice compta, Vienna, 1860. Friedberg, de finium inter et ecclesiam et civitatem judicio, qui medii aevi doctores et leges statuerint, Leips. 1861.

1 Concil. Toletan. III. a. 589, capitul. 18: Judices vero locorum, vel actores fiscalium patrimoniorum ex decreto gloriosissimi domini nostri simul cum sacerdotali concilio-in unum conveniant, ut discant, quam pie et juste cum populis agere debeant.-Sunt enim prospectores Episcopi secundum regiam admonitionem, qualiter judices cum populis agant, ita ut ipsos praemonitos corrigant, aut insolentias eorum auditibus principis innotescant. (Harduin, T. III., p. 482.) The Frankish ordinance by Chlotar: Si judex aliquem contra legem injuste damnaverit, in nostri absentia ab Episcopis castigetur, ut quod perpere judicavit, versatim melius discussione habita emendare procuret. (Baluz. T. I., p. 7.)

justice. Similar provisions were made in the Frankish kingdom in the year 585. 2. To render judgment in all matrimonial causes was regarded among the Burgundian Germans more positively even than among the ancient Romans, as a distinct and peculiar office of the priesthood, inasmuch as these were considered as belonging to the category of things sacred. 3. Last wills and testaments, especially when there was question of goods bequeathed to the Church, were always submitted to the bishops. 4. Under the Frankish, as under the Roman law,' ecclesiastics enjoyed certain privileges and immunities; for example, they were considered as wholly under the jurisdiction of the bishop, and not within the competence of civil tribunals, unless when guilty of atrocious crimes; and then only after they had been degraded from their dignity and office. It is clear, therefore, that there were circumstances in which the power of the Church and that of the State were in such harmonious accord that it was difficult to say precisely where one ended and the other commenced. The ceremony of the coronation of kings,3 which was at this

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1The Druids likewise, as we learn from Caesar de bello Gallico, enjoyed immunity: Druides a bello abesse consueverant, neque tributa cum reliquis pendunt, militiae vacationem omniumque rerum habent immunitatem. (VI.14.)

2 Capitular., lib. VII., c. 422: Placuit, ut Clerici non distringantur vel dijudicentur nisi a propriis Episcopis. Fas enim non est, ut divini muneris ministri temporalium potestatum subdantur arbitrio. Nam si propriorum Episcoporum jussionibus inobedientes extiterint, tunc juxta canonicas sanctiones per potestates exteras adducantur, i. e. per judices saeculares. (Baluz. T. I.)

3 "The religious consecration of the new sovereign was introduced first into the Eastern Roman Empire. The first known example is that of Theodosius the Younger, who was crowned by the patriarch Proclus. In the following century, the Emperor Justinus caused himself to be crowned by Pope John I., although he had before received the crown from the hands of the patriarch John. Of the new German Christian kingdoms, the Spanish was the first that adopted this ceremony. (King Wamba was the first, A. D. 672.-TR.) In the first canon of the twelfth synod of Toledo, it is said of King Erwig that he received his regal power by the sacred unction. By the Merovingian kings of the Franks, the rite was not practiced. Pepin was the first. After his time, all the kings were crowned, and the rite was introduced by the East-Franks into Germany, where Conrad I. was the first who was consecrated in this manner. The sovereign to be crowned read a profession of Catholic faith; he then swore, at the desire of the bishops, to maintain to all prelates, and to the churches intrusted to them, their canonical privileges; to protect and to defend, according to his power, every and each bishop and his church, and to preserve invio

time being gradually introduced, is a most striking evidence of this coalition of the two powers. The Church imparted to the State a divine blessing, and invested it with an authority which, bearing the sanction of religion, inspired both reverence and awe, and was alone capable of preserving civil order and restraining the pride and insolence of a barbarous people. There were many other instances of the coalition or harmonious action of the civil and ecclesiastical orders-such, for example, as the participation of the State in the election of bishops; in the holding of ecclesiastical synods, and the ratification of their decrees; in the institution of ecclesiastical circuit courts or diocesan visitations; and, particularly, in the readiness with which the civil authority lent its aid to the execution of that portion of ecclesiastical legislation which directly and immediately affected the Church's external relations with society. So intimate were the relations of Church and State, that they gave rise to legislative bodies, altogether without precedent in the history of the Church, known as Mixed Synods, bearing a very close resemblance to a diet,2 and composed of both clerical and lay persons, as

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late the rights and laws of the people." Döllinger's Ch. Hist., Vol. III., pp. 166, 167, Eng. trans.

In Britain, the Pontifical of Egbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, which dates back to the eighth century, contains a rite for the coronation of kings.

This ceremony was usually accompanied with the more important and imposing rite of anointing with oil, signifying a particular and special consecration of the anointed to the service of God. The term for consecration in the Saxon chronicle is "gehalgod," that is, hallowed or consecrated. A copy of one of the Gospels, on which the Saxon kings took the coronation oath, is still preserved in the British Museum. Cf. Phillips, C. L., Vol. III., Pt. I., p. 67 et sq.; Hist. Polit. Papers, Vol. 20, p. 218–231. Chambers' Cyclop., art. Coronat. (TR.)

1 Already in the ep. Synod. Aurelian. I. (a. 511) ad Clodoveum regem, it is said: Quia tanta ad religionis cathol. cultum gloriosae fidei cura vos excitat, ut sacerdotalis mentis affectu sacerdotes de rebus necessariis tractaturos in unum colligi jusseritis, secundum voluntatis vestrae consultationem, et titulos quos dedistis, ca quae vobis visum est definitione respondimus; ita ut si ea, quae nos ɛtatuimus, etiam vestro recta esse judicio comprobantur, tanti consensus regis ac domini majori auctoritate servandam tantorum firmet sententiam sacerdotum (Harduin, T. II., p. 1008.) Thus Charlemagne called five synods. The bishops assembled at Tours, at the conclusion of their proceedings, declared: "We have noted down the chapters to be laid before the emperor." Binterim, Pt. I., p. 223. 2 The preface to the Synod of Mentz (813) may be taken as a particular

sembled to provide for the good government of both orders. The institution of the Missi Dominici was but the complement of the system of which the Mixed Synods were the legislative branch. This was the Imperial Court of Judicature, formed on the model of the ecclesiastical circuit courts or diocesan visitations, and composed of clerics and laymen, who assembled four times a year to execute the laws, both ecclesiastical and civil.1 Thus, while, on the one hand, the reverence which necessarily attaches to the priestly office, and the learning and culture of the clergy, opened to them a wide sphere of action and usefulness; on the other, the vulgar and insolent pride of rude and barbarous princes, who, in their wild schemes of ambition and in their love of rule, entirely lose sight of religious principles and obligations, seriously threatened the independence and impeded the progress and internal development of the Church. There were, however, many well-disposed princes who reposed a loving and filial confidence in the Church, and contributed to bring about that beautiful harmony which shortly characterized the relations of the two orders. Its results were particularly beneficial and manifest in the great empire of Charlemagne, where it formed the underlying and fundamental principle of all legislation. That these results were more evident here than else

instance in illustration of the harmonious action of Church and State: Incipientes igitur in nomine Domini communi consensu et voluntate tractare pariter de statu verae religionis, ac de utilitate et profectu christianae plebis, convenit nobis, de nostro communi collegio clericorum seu laicorum tres facere turmas, sicut et fecimus. In prima autem turma consederunt Episcopi cum quibusdam notariis, legentes atque tractantes St. evangelium nec non epistolas et actus Apostolorum, canones quoque, etc.-diligenti studio perquirentes, quibus modis statum ecclesiae Dei et christianae plebis proficere et conservare potuissent. In alia vero turma consederunt Abbates, etc.-In tertia denique turma sederunt comites et judices, in mundanis legibus decertantes, vulgi justitias perquirentes omniumque advenientium causas diligenter examinantes modis, quibus poterant, justitias terminantes. (Harzheim, Conc. Germ., T. I., p. 405.) Binterim, Hist. of German Councils, Pt. I., p. 104 sq. "Nature of Mixed Synods," synodi

nixtae.

1 The Capitularia reg. Franc., ed Baluz. Ven. contain at their head the tractatus de Missis Dominicis, Franc. de Roye Andegavensis (T. I., p. L-CXLVIII); likewise, Muratorii diss. de missis regiis (T. II., p. VI-XX), from ejusd. antiquit. Ital. med. aevi, T. I., p. 455 sq.

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