The Spirit of the Laws :: :: University of Virginia Library

The churches acquired very considerable property. We find that our kings gave them great seigniories, that is, great fiefs; and we find jurisdictions established at the same time in the demesnes of those churches. Whence could so extraordinary a privilege derive its origin? it must certainly have been in the nature of the grant. The church land had this privilege because it had not been taken from it. A seigniory was given to the church; and it was allowed to enjoy the same privileges as if it had been granted to a vassal, it was also subjected to the same service as it would have paid to the state if it had been given to a layman, according to what we have already observed.

The churches had therefore the right of demanding the payment of compositions in their territory, and of insisting upon the fredum; and as those rights necessarily implied that of hindering the king's officers from entering upon the territory to demand these freda and to exercise acts of judicature, the right which ecclesiastics had of administering justice in their own territory was called immunity, in the style of the formularies, of the charters, and of the capitularies. [164]

The law of the Ripuarians [165] forbids the freedom of the churches [166] to hold the assembly for administering justice in any other place than in the church where they were manumitted. [167] The churches had therefore jurisdictions even over freemen, and held their placita in the earliest times of the monarchy.

I find in the Lives of the Saints [168] that Clovis gave to a certain holy person power over a district of six leagues, and exempted it from all manner of jurisdiction. This, I believe, is a falsity, but it is a falsity of a very ancient date; both the truth and the fiction contained in that life are in relation to the customs and laws of those times, and it is these customs and laws we are investigating. [169]

Clotharius II orders the bishops or the nobility who are possessed of estates in distant parts, to choose upon the very spot those who are to administer justice, or to receive the judiciary emoluments. [170]

The same prince regulates the judiciary power between the ecclesiastic courts and his officers. [171] The Capitulary of Charlemagne in the year 802 prescribes to the bishops and abbots the qualifications necessary for their officers of justice. Another capitulary of the same prince inhibits the royal officers [172] to exercise any jurisdiction over those who are employed in cultivating church lands, except they entered into that state by fraud, and to exempt themselves from contributing to the public charges. [173] The bishops assembled at Rheims made a declaration that the vassals belonging to the respective churches are within their im-munity. [174] The Capitulary of Charlemagne in the year 806 ordains that the churches should have both criminal and civil jurisdiction over those who live upon their lands. [175] In fine, as the capitulary of Charles the Bald [176] distinguishes between the king's jurisdiction, that of the lords, and that of the church, I shall say nothing further upon this subject.