Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/421

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HISTORY


371


HiSfOfl?


laws, since they often contain matters bearing on religion or of ecclesiastical interest.

(B) Tradition. — We speak here of those sources which rest on mere tradition, and which, unlilce the remains, are themselves no part of the fact. They are: (1) Collections of acts of the martyrs, of legends and lives of the saints. (2) Collections of lives of the popes (Liber Pontificalis) and of bishops of particular Churches. (.3) Works of ecclesiastical WTiters, which contain information about historical events; to some extent all ecclesiastical literature belongs to this category. (4) Ecclesiastico-historical works, which take on more or less the character of sources, espe- cially for the time in which their authors lived. (5) Pictorial representations (paintings, sculptures, etc.). The foregoing are accessible in various collections, partly in editions of the works of particular authors (Fathers of the Church, theologians, historians), partly in historical collections which contain writings of different authors correlated in content, or all the traditional written sources for a given land.

VI. AuxiLi.uiy Sciences. — The basis of all histori- cal science is the proper treatment and use of the sources. The ecclesiastical historian must therefore master the sources in their entirety, examine them as to their trustworthiness, understand them correctly, and use methodically the information gleaned from them. Systematic guidance in all these matters is afforded by certain sciences, known as the " auxiliary historical sciences". Since ecclesiastical history is so closely related to theology on the one hand, and on the other to the historical sciences, a knowledge of all is generally speaking a prerequisite for the scientific study of church history. How to treat the sources critically is best learned from a good manual of scien- tific introduction to the study of history (Bernheim); special auxiliary sciences (e. g. epigraphy, palaeo- graphy, numismatics) deal with certain particular kinds of the above-mentioned sources. Of these helps we may mention:

(1) The study of the languages of the sources, which necessitates the use of lexicons, either general or spe- cial (i. e. for the language of particular authors). Among the general lexicons or glossaries are: Du Fresne du Cange, " Glossarium ad scriptores medise et infimae grsecitatis" (2 vols., Lyons, lOSS); Idem, " Glossarium ad scriptores medis et infimse latinita- tis"; ForceUini, "Lexicon totius latinitatis" (Padua, 1771, often reprinted). "Thesaurus linguae latinae" (begun at Leipzig, 1900).

(2) Paheography, a methodical introduction to the reading and dating of all kinds of manuscript sources. It was first scientifically investigated and formulated by Mabillon, " De re diplomatic^," (Paris, 1681); the literature on this subject is to be found in the manuals of de Wailly, "Elements de PaMographie " (2 vols., Paris, 1838); Wattenbach, "Latein. Palaog." (4th ed., Leipzig, 1886) and " Schriftwesen ira Mittelalter" (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1896); E. M. Thompson, "Hand- book of Greek and Latin Paleography" (2nd ed., London, 1894); Prou, "Manuel de Pal^ographie latine et fran^aise " (Paris, 1904); Cha.ssant, " Paleo- graphie des chartes et des manuscrits" (8th ed., Paris, 1885); Reusens, "Elements de paleogr. " (Louvain, 1899); Paoli, "Paleografia" (3 vols., Florence, 1888- 1900) . Charts for practice in reading medieval manu- scripts were edited by: Wattenbach, "Script, groec. specimina" (3rded., Leipzig, 1897); Sickel, " Montim. graph, medii aevi" (10 series, 1858-82); Bond, Thompson, and Warner, "Facsimiles" (5 series, Lon- don, 1873-1903); Delisle, "Album paleogr." (Paris, 1887); Arndt and Tangl, " Schrif ttafeln " (3 vols., 1904-6) ; Chroust, " Mon. palseogr." (25 series, Munich, 1899—); Steffens, "Latein. PalSogr." (2nd ed., 3 parts, Trier, 1907 — ); Zangemeister and Wattenbach, "Exempla cod. latin." (1876-9); Sickel and Sybel, " Kaiserurkunden in Abbildungen (1880-91); Pflugk-


Harttvmg, "Chartarum pont. Roni. specimina" (3 parts, 1881-6); Denifle, "Specimina palaeographica ab Inn. Ill ad Urban. V" (Rome, 1888). A very useful work is Capelli, "Dizionario di abbreviature latine ed italiane" (Milan, 1899).

(.3) Diplomatics, which teaches how to examine critically the form and content of historical docimients _(e. g. charters, privileges), to pronounce on their genu- ineness, to understand them correctly, and to use them methodically. It is usually combined with paleog- raphy. The literature may be found in recent manu- als, e. g. Bresslau, " Handbuch der Urkundenlehre fiir Deutschland und Italien", I (Leipzig, 1889); Giry, "Manuel de diplomatique" (Paris, 1894). See also " Nouveau traite de diplomatique " (Paris, 1750-65).

(4) Historical Methodology, which enables the stu- dent to treat in a correct and critical way all the sources known to him and to combine the results of his . researches in a methodical narrative. See Fr. Blass, "Hermeneutik und Kritik" in Iwan Muller's "Hand-- buch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft ", I (2nd ed., Munich, 1S93); Bernheim, "Lehrbuch der his- torischen Methode" (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1903); Idem, "Das akademische Studium der Geschichtswissen- schaft (2nd ed., Greifswald, 1907) ; Idem, " Einleitung in die Geschichtswis-senschaft" in "Sammlung Goschen" (Leipzig, 1906); Zurbonsen, "Anleitung zum wissenschaftlichen Studium der Cieschichte nebst Materialien" (Berlin, 1906); "Grundriss der Ge- schichtswissenschaft", edited by Al. Meister, I (Leip- zig, 1906); Langlois and Saignobos, "Introduction aux (Etudes historiques" (Paris, 1905); Battaini, "Man- uale di metodologia storica" (Florence, 1904).

(5) Bibliography, a practical science which enables the student to find quickly all the literature bearing on a given ecclesiastico-historical subject. The most important literature is to be found in recent ecclesias- tico-historical manuals at the end of the various sub- jects treated, and is given with especial fulness la the fourth edition of Hergenrother's " Ivirchenge- schichte " by J. P. Kirsch (Freiburg, 1902-9). Among the bibliographical works of special importance for ecclesiastical history must be named : " Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquse et mediae aetatis ", edited by the Bollandists (2 vols., Brussels, 1898-1901); Potthast, "Bibhotheca historica medii aevi " (2nd ed., 2 vols., Berhn, 1896); Bratke, "Wegweiser zu den Quellen und der Literatur der Kirchengeschichte " (Gotha, 1890); Chevalier, "Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen-age: I. Bio-BibUographie " (Paris, 1877-88, 2nd ed., 2 vols., ibid., 1905); "II. Topo-Bibliographie historique " (2 parts, Paris, 1901- 4) ; Stein, " Manuel de bibliographic generale " (Paris, 1898) ; de Smedt, " Introductio generalis ad historiam ecclesiasticam critice tractandam" (Ghent, 1876); Hurter, " Nomenclator literarius recentioris theologiae cathohcae" (2nd ed., 3 vols., Innsbruck, 1890-4; vol. 4: "Theologia catholica medii aevi", ibid., 1899. A third edition comprises the whole of ecclesiastical history, ibid., 1903 — ) . For the history of the several nations see: Wattenbach, " Deutschlands Geschichts- quellen im Mittelalter bis zur Mitte des 13. Jalirh." (6th ed., Berlin, 1894, 7th ed. by Dummler, I, ibid., 1904); Lorenz, "Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter seit der Mitte des 13. Jahrh." (3rd ed., ibid., 1886); Dahlmann and Waitz, " Quellenkunde der deutschen Geschichte" (6th ed. by Steindorff, Gottingen, 1894); Monod, "Bibliographic de I'his- toire de France " (Paris, 1888) ; Molinier, " Les sources de I'histoire de France" (6 vols., Paris, 1902); Gross, " The Sources and Literature of English History from the earliest times to about 1485" (London, 1900). Among the bibliographical periodicals that treat the history of the Church see : " Theologischer Jahresberieht " (since 1880), in the section "Kirchen- geschichte"; " Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissen- schaft" (since 1878) in the section "Ku-chenge-