Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/181

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143

FORMULARIES


143


FORMULARIES


for a royal decree; the other embodies three formula; made at Strasburg (Formulae Argentinenses) and pre- served in a Berne manuscript. — (b) "Formulse Augi- enses", from the Abbey of Reiehenau. This consists of three distinct collections: one from the end of the eighth century containing twenty-three formuUe of private ac(«; another belonging to the eighth and ninth centuries contains forty-three formulie of private docu- ments; the third, " FormuUe epistolares Augienses", is a "correct letter-writer" with twenty-six formula?. — (c) "Fornmla; Sangallenses" (from the Abbey of St. Gall), in two collections of this name. The " Formute Sangallenses miscellanese " consists of twenty-five for- mulae, many of which are accompanied by directions for their use. They date from the middle of the eighth to the enil of the ninth century. The impor- tant "Collectio Sangallensis Salomonis III tempore conscripta" is so called because it seems to have been compiled by the monk Not ker at St. Gall, under Alibot Salomon III (S90-920), who was also Bishop of Con- stance. Notker died in 912. It contains, in forty- seven formukp, models of royal decrees, of private documents, of litterce jormatm and other episcopal documents. Zeumer added six formulae taken from the same manuscript.

(5) The Bavarians. — Among their formula; are: (a) "Formulae Sahsburgenses", a very fine collection of one hundred and twenty-six models of documents and letters, published in 18.58, by Rockinger, and drawn up at Salzburg in the early part of the ninth century. — (b) "Collectio Pataviensis" (of Passau), containing seven formula;, five of which are of royal decrees, ex- ecuted at Passau under Louis the German. — (c) " For- mulae codicis S. Emmerami", fragments of a large collection made at St. Emmeram's, Ratisbon.

(6) Rome. — The most important of all ancient for- mularies is certainly the " Liber diurnus romanorum pontificum", a collection of one hundred and seven formularies long used by the Apostolic chancery. If it was not drawn up for the papal chancery, it copies its documents, and is largely compiled from the " Registrum " or letter-book of St. Gregory the Great (.59Cp604). It was certainly in official use by the Roman chancery from the ninth to the end of the eleventh century. This collection was known to the medieval canonists, and is often quoted by Cardinal Deusdedit and Yves of Chartres; four of its documents were incorporated into the " Decretum " of Gratian. The best manuscript of the "Liber diurnus", written at the beginning of the ninth century, comes from the Roman monastery of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, and was discovered in the Vatican Library. About the middle of the seventeenth century, the learned Lucas Holstenius used it when preparing an edition of the work which was officially stopped and suppressed on the eve of its appearance, because it contamed an ancient profession of faith in which the popes anathe- matized their predecessor Honorius. In 1680 the Jesuit Garnier, using another manuscript of the Col- lege of Clermont (Paris), brought out an edition of the " Liber diurnus" not approved by Rome (P. L., CV). In the nineteenth century the Vatican manuscript was utilized for two editions, one by de Roziere (Paris, 1869), the other by von Sickel (Vienna, 1889). In 1S91 the Abb;ite Ceriani discovered at the Ambrosiana (Milan) a third manuscript as yet unused. For a full bibliography of recent researches concerning the "Liber diurnus" see the "Topo-Bibl." of Chevalier, s. V. While, in its complete form, the " Liber diurnus" cannot date back further than 786, the earliest forms of it go back to the end of the seventh century. Von Sickel holds that its opening formul-.e (1-63) are even fifty years earlier than that date. It is badly arranged as a collection, but wonderfully complete. After a series of nddrcssrs and conclusions for papal letters, that vary according 1 1 ) t he addressees, t here are formulae concerning the installation of bishops, the consecra-


tion of churches, the administration of church prop- erty, the grant of the pallium, and various other privileges. Then follow models for the official corres- pondence on the occasion of a vacancy of the Holy See and the election of a pope, also directions for the con- secration and the profession of faith of the pope-elect; finally a group of fornmUc affecting various matters of ecclesiastical administrat ion.

In the tenth century these formularies cease to be in universal use; in the eleventh, recoiu'se is had to them still more rarely; other methods of training notaries are introduced. Copies of letters are no longer placed before them. In their stead, special treatises of in- struction are prepared for these officials, and manuals of epistolary rhetoric appear, with examples scattered here and there throughout the text, or collected in separate books. Such treatises on composition, artea didaminis, have hitherto been only partially stuilied and classified, chiefly by Rockinger in " Bri(>fstcllor und Formelbiicher des XI. bis XIV. Jahrhunderts" (Munich, 1863). The most ancient of these manuals known to us is the " Breviarium de dictamine " of Alberic of Monte Cassino, about 1075; in the twelfth century treatises of this kind become more frequent, first in Italy, then in France, especially along the banks of the Loire at Orl6ans and at Tours. Side by side with these works of epistolary rhetoric we meet special treatises for the use of clerks in different chan- ceries, and formularies to guide notaries public. Such are the "Formularium tabellionum" of Irnerius of Bologna in the twelfth century, and the "Summa artis notaria;" of Ranieri of Perugia in the thirteenth; that of Salathiel of Bologna printed at Strasburg, in 1516, and the very popular one of Rolandino that went through many editions, beginning with the Turin edition of 1479.

As to the papal chancery, in general very faithful to its customs and its "style", after the reform of Inno- cent III many formularies anfl practical treatises appeared, none of them possessing an official value. The w ritings of Dietrich of Nieheim (an employ^ of the chancery in 1380), "De Stilo" and "Liber Cancel- lariae", have been the subject of critical studies (see Dietrich von Nieheim). At a more recent date we meet many treatises on the Roman chancery and on pontifical letters, but they are not formularies, though their text often contains many models.

Quite recently, however, there has appeared an official publication of certain formulae of the Roman Curia, i. e. the collection of formulae for matrimonial dispensations granted by the Dataria Apo.stolica (see Roman Congregations), published in 1901 as "For- mulae Apostolicae Datariae pro matrimonialibus dis- pensationibus, jussu Emi. Card. Pro Datarii Cajetani Aloisi-Masella reformatae ".

Lastly, in a different order of ideas, it may be well to mention a collection of formulae for use in episcopal courts, the "Formularium legale-practicum" of Fran- cesco Monacelli (Venice, 1737), re-edited by the Cam- era Apostolica (3 vols, fol., Rome, 1834).

From the twelfth century onw ard the formularies of the papal Curia become more numerous but less in- teresting, since it is no longer necessary to have re- course to them to supplement the documents.

The formularies of the Cancellaria Apostolica are collections drawn up by its clerks, almost exclusively for their own guidance; they interest us only through their relation to the "Rules of the Chancery" (see Roman Ccria). The formularies of the Pceniten- tiaria have a higher interest for us; they appear during the twelfth century when that department of Roman administration was not restricted, as it now is, to questions of conscience and the jorum internum, but served as a sort of clearing-house for lesser favours granted by the Holy See, especially for dispensations. These interesting documents, including the formu- laries, have been collected and edited by Gdller in "Die