Oliva 8b 
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[8b. ON NARRATIONS WHICH ARE USED IN PRIVILEGES]

[8b.1] The signs of the narration of privileges are 'Hence' or 'Thence it is' and similar signs.94 Indeed, it would be tedious and superfluous to specify all classes of narrating which are placed in privileges of the highest pontiff, and in other privileges. Thus I propose to very briefly skip over the text of the narrations.

[8b.2] For all those privileged by the pope, when they have their privileges renewed, hardly ever, or never, change anything except proper names placed in the title. And if anyone might acquire any privileges anew there, dictators will always find in the genera what is suitable for them to place in the species, and so it is done also in other courts by means of diverse considerations. 

[8b.3] Sometimes good dictators vary preambles, either because they wish to seem copiously95 eloquent or because too much repetition bores them. But it is not proper for them to vary the narration in any way, because that would perhaps detract from the legal right of the recipient, unless the narrations had been wrongly ordained from the beginning, or unless it should be diminished or augmented.

[8b.4] Thus knowledge held about one class of privileges can be easily had of all. Therefore, when narrating after the aforesaid preambles, it should not be necessary to respond to specifics, because there are some preambles after which a narration hardly ever, or never, follows, such as in some preambles of the emperor and of kings.96 Even if narration at some time will appear, only a few words will be necessary.

[8b.5] Truly those preambles have been dictated <here> as an exercise. Indeed other and similar preambles are necessary for many dictators, and especially for those who wish to make privileges concerning ecclesiastical matters.

[8b.6] Because the lord pope frequently privileges ecclesiastical men, I wish to note here certain things concerning the text of the narration that is placed after preambles. For just as I said above, the signs of the narration are 'Hence it is' or 'Thence it is' and similar other signs.

[8b.7] Vocatives are sometimes placed after those signs, such as 'O venerable brother', if he is a patriarch, archbishop or bishop. If another or others, then 'O beloved son' or 'O beloved sons'. As I have said, vocatives are sometimes, but not always placed. 

[8b.8] Then he continues: that attending to your petitions (or 'Your', if he addresses many), an equal and favorable hearing... If it should be a patriarch, archbishop or bishop for whom he makes the privilege he adds: we have received under our protection and that of the S. Peter, the church of blessed Mary, over which you are known to rule by the authority of God; establishing etc. 

[8b.9] For any conventual church, he should proceed as follows: we receive under our protection and that of S. Peter the church of blessed Mary, to which you are bound in divine service; establishing etc. But for some Hospitallers, as follows: the Jerusalem hospital or the Lord's temple or the hospital of S. Jacob in Alto Passio,97 to which you are bound in divine service etc. For virgins, he changes nothing except masculine into feminine. 

[8b.10] One should know that anyone who writes the word 'Establishing'98 with a capital letter after 'we receive', errs in no small way, because a capital letter ought to be at the beginning of a sentence, unless it happens to be a proper name, whose first letter should be written as a capital, for this reason: so that certainty may be had concerning this name, or for the sake of honor, as I said in the Treatise on punctuation.99 But if the participle 'Establishing' should be written with a capital letter, it will seem to be the beginning of a sentence.100 

[8b.11] Whence it is implied that the particular sense of the expression should be completed beforehand, because it seems that this participle ('Establishing') expects a complement from the following verb and not from the preceding verb ('we receive'). Note that every word which is completed by another ought to be present with that complement in the same sentence and a period should never stand between a nominative and its complement.

[8b.12] After 'Establishing', a further advance is made below, such as: whatever goods and possessions you now possess or will in the future reasonably acquire, the Lord giving, shall remain strengthened and unharmed for you, by apostolic strength. In subsequent <privileges> he may diversify the grants which he had made, according to the offices and merits of the persons, specifying the spiritual and temporal jurisdictions of that one or of those to whom he has conceded privileges, such as: 

[8b.13] It should be legal for them to prepare chrism and holy oil, to consecrate bishops and churches in his patriarchate or archdiocese, to excommunicate offenders and to absolve those from excommunication if they wish to repent, unless these are exempted from their jurisdiction by a special privilege, to ordain clerics, assign prebends,101 and many other things which it does not suit me here to name or to specify, because any dictator in the various parts of the world can look at innumerable privileges.102 

[8b.14] He may also grant all this to bishops, except the right to consecrate bishops. 

[8b.15] Nevertheless, he says in all privileges: reserving in all things the right of the Roman church, unless he makes a privilege for those who stand under him with other prelates in between, such as the bishop of Bologna, who stands beneath the pope with the archbishop of Ravenna placed between, and then he says: reserving the right of the church of Ravenna or the metropolitan church.103 

[8b.16] And it should be understood concerning all this: he has exempted the Cistercians, Vallambrosians, Camaldulensians and innumerable abbeys, Templars and Hospitallers of Jerusalem, certain canons regular, certain nunneries, and even certain chapels and parishes established throughout the diverse parts of the world from all jurisdiction of patriarchs, archbishops and bishops. The hospital in Alto Passio104 is exempt, as are also exempt many other hospitals established throughout the world. 

[8b.17] There are also certain censual churches in whose privileges are contained the amounts of census owed.105 

[8b.18] Note that all churches or hospitals exempt in this manner are called 'special sons of the Roman church', others are called 'general'. When he grants a privilege to the latter, he always says toward the end: reserving the right of the diocesan bishop. In addition, those who acquire a privilege make sure their spiritual and temporal jurisdictions are expressed with precise words in their privileges, so that their rights are strongly enforced. 

[8b.19] For at first it is said generally 'whatever goods and possessions', then in another sentence it is added (so that all should receive greater strength): we have arrayed these things to be expressed in precise words.106 Thereafter each possession is named in order and thus by successive sentences special mention is made of each jurisdiction, up to that last sentence which begins as follows: Thus, in the future, if any ecclesiastical or secular person etc. 

[8b.20] But it should be noted that spiritual rights, and namely those containing a greater dignity among spiritual things, should always be narrated first in a special narration, because that which is worthier should deservedly be placed first.107 

[8b.21] Thus the following should be placed in order: consecration, celebration of divine offices, burial, liberty of election, the right to prepare chrism and holy oil, the power to bind and to loose, to receive clerics and laymen fleeing the secular world for conversion without any contradiction, tithes, first-fruits and similar things, provided that each should be rendered its due.

[8b.22] Thereafter, the archdioceses are specified and named in the privileges of those patriarchs who have archbishops under them in this manner: We grant to you and to your successors the archdioceses of Caesarea and of Tyre,108 with all their appurtenances.

[8b.23] He grants episcopal dioceses to archbishops in the same manner and says: the diocese of Cremona109 with all its appurtenances.

[8b.24] He grants parishes, abbeys and canonries to bishops and says: the parish of S. Gavin110 with all its appurtenances and all things may be enumerated, just as you will be able to see in these privileges. 

[8b.25] Subsequently, temporal possessions may be placed and specified in precise words, namely: 'castles, villages, forests, fisheries, marshes, rents, estates, annual taxes, cultivated and fallow fields.'111 It does not seem that he can make a privilege concerning these things, because possessions should be possessed through the rights of kings.112 

[8b.26] It should be said to this objection that emperors and kings can principally make a privilege for all ecclesiastics concerning estates and all temporal possessions, and the pope can do so secondarily. 

[8b.27] For when spiritual and temporal authority come together in one,113 the right of the recipient gains a manifold strength. Nevertheless, concerning possessions pertaining to the right of the blessed Peter,114 the pope can principally make a privilege for clerics and also for laymen. 

[8b.28] Having named each thing at length, the pope speaks in the penultimate sentence as follows: If thus in the future any ecclesiastical or secular person knowingly attempts to rashly contravene this page of our constitution etc.115 up to 'he shall be subject to divine punishment'. And this sentence is a certain species of excommunication which the dictators of the Roman curia hardly ever, or never, vary.116 

[8b.29] In the last sentence is said: To all those who etc.117 up to they shall find the reward of eternal peace. Amen. And this final sentence118 is a certain species of blessing which is also not varied. Only very rarely is the dictamina varied in the privileges, confirmations and letters of the Roman church. And although sometimes the words are somewhat varied in that formula, yet its mode is unique and invariable. 

[8b.30] But exceptional dictators make variations excellently in that formula as well as in all others, and by painting119 sentences with marvelous clauses they so ornament their dictamina that old things always seem new120 with them, and good as well as bad dictamina furnish them with splendid examples.

[8b.31] But only rarely ever have there been birds on the land121 who thus know how to gather their food from various volumes.

[8b.32] Indeed, the others, when they strive (need) to page through (recall, revert to) the dictamina of excellent dictators, openly demonstrate their crudity in the placement or change of a single word, which few are accustomed to discern. Yet they do what they can for their livelihood. Nor should they be much criticized for this,122 unless they ascribe to themselves the glory of others,123 because the Divinity has not conferred this gift to all.

[8b.33] But there are many today who conglomerate together into one fascicle the summas and dictamina of others, plagiarizing shamefully here and there, and so they make a stolen tunic from another's fleece,124 saying 'We have made this summa' and 'We have made this book'.125 

[8b.34] But as I have said in a certain rhetorical oration,126 all authors should assiduously imitate the flight of a bee, which when it approaches the flower of any plant, just sips from the purity <or: tenderness> of its nectar in such a way that it does not destroy the flower and it praiseworthily perfects its own, equally sweet and useful work.127 

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94 Boncompagno treats the signa narrationis in Notule auree 10 and below, Oliva cc. 18, 34. Cf. also Tractatus virtutum §8-§9 and Mirra 10.1, 11.1. His Breviloquium treats initia dicendorum, not only of preambles, but also of narrations and petitions. For the signa conclusionis, see Gaufredus of Vinsauf Summa de arte dictandi 4.3, ed. VINCENZO LICITRA "La Summa de arte dictandi di Maestro Goffredo" Studi Medievali3 7 (1966) 865-913 at 909; Gaufredus disparages the idea of a signum narrationis at 3.1 (LICITRA ed. 900-901) without using that term.

95 The ideal of copia dicendi was announced already at the beginning of the earliest Latin treatise on rhetoric: Rhetorica ad Herennium 1.1, see also De Inventione 1.3. In the De obsidione Ancone the legist Martinus Gosia is described as possessing a copia legum, 1.16.3, on which see also HERMANN KANTOROWICZ Studies in the Glossators of the Roman Law (Cambridge 1938) 96-7. In several notulae of the Boncompagnus the reader is assured that this volume contains a copiosam materiam (or doctrinam) for rhetorical invention (1.10.6, 1.14.3, 1.16.5, 1.18.10, 1.24.11, 6.10.18). But here and below at Oliva 21.1, 25.3, Boncompagno suggests that dictators strive for the appearance of copiousness; a similar accent is struck at Boncompagnus 1.25.2 and 5.20.10.

96 The explanation offered here for the Oliva's meager discussion of the narratio fails to convince. The reference to secular privileges without narrationes seems out of place, and unfounded. Rather more to the point is Isagoge 2.19, which advises that a preamble is unnecessary when a greater person writes to a lesser one; contemporary mandates and letters to subjects by emperors and kings often omit a preamble.

97 The hospital of S. Jacob's of Altopassu was located on the pilgrim's road (Via Francigena), east of Lucca.

98 This standard feature of papal charters is also treated in Notule auree 18 and Palma 44.

99 Boncompagno refers here to his Palma cc. 34-49. Punctuation is also also treated in Tractatus virtutum §30, §58, Notule auree 12, 17, 21, Rhetorica novissima 2.2 and below, Oliva 10.20. Some ancient and medieval texts on punctuation have been compiled in "Corpus stigmalologicum minus" ed. M. HUBERT, ALMA 37 (1970) 5-171 (this passage not included). One of the most useful recent studies of Latin punctuation is ERIKA EISENLOHR "Kola und Kommata von Hieronymus zum Evangeliar Heinrichs des Löwen" in PETER RüCK ed. Mabillons Spur: Zweiundzwanzig Miszellen aus dem Fachgebiet für Historische Hilfswissenschaften der Philipps-Universität Marburg, zum 80. Geburtstag von Walter Heinemeyer (Marburg 1992) 105-132.

100 On the capitalization of 'Statuentes' in papal charters, see REGINALD L. POOLE, Lectures on the History of the Papal Chancery (Cambridge 1915) 45 and literature there cited.

101 A model confirmation of a prebend is given below, Oliva 56.4.

102 Boncompagno's teaching style oscillates between prescriptive and descriptive, between theoretical and empirical. He returns to the latter pole here, but rather than making appeal to specific models and Vorurkunden, he here envisions an itinerant student of diplomatic, a connoisseur of charters. See above, Oliva 7.8, note 67.

103 IP 5.247-8 no. 12 (JL 4847), 5.252 no. 30 (JL 11643) have only papal reservation clauses, none for the archbishop of Ravenna. On the reservation (salvo) clause, see below, Oliva 18.15-18, 34.8, 34.22, 36.11, 38.5.

104 For the hospital of S. Jacob's of Altopassu, located on the pilgrim's road (Via Francigena) east of Lucca, see above, Oliva 8b.9. Boncompagno's home town, Signa, had two important bridges over the Arno river, and thus may have had a Hospitallers house. .

105 For the distinction between churches paying census with exempt houses, see MICHELE MACCARRONE "Primato Romano e monasteri dal principio del secolo XII ad Innocenzo III" in Istituzioni monastiche e istituzioni canonicali in occidente (1123-1215) (Milan 1980) 49-132.

106 MICHAEL TANGL Päpstlichen Kanzleiordnungen von 1200-1500 (Innsbruck 1894) 229 no. 5.

107 This fundamental precept of rhetoric, 'premittere maiorem', is found throughout Boncompagno's works. On the definition of spiritualia, see above, Oliva 7.6.

108 Although Caesarea was indeed a suffragan archbishopric of the patriarchal see of Jerusalem, Tyre was normally subject to the patriarch of Antioch (Radulphus II 1188-1200, Petrus 1201-1208). The church of Tyre also appears below, Oliva 10.17, 10.21, 18.16, 37.6. For the dispute between Jerusalem and Antioch over the see of Tyre, see RUDOLF HIESTAND and HANS EBERHARD MAYER "Die Nachfolge des Patriarchen Monarchus von Jerusalem" Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde 74 (1974) 109-130 and J.G. ROWE "The Papacy and the ecclesiastical province of Tyre (1100-1187)" Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 43 (1960/61) 160-189. In general, see GIORGIO FEDALTO La chiesa latina in Oriente 1.234 (1981), 2.60 (1976).

109 Cremona was a suffragen diocese of the archbishop of Milan. Privileges for the archepiscopal see of Milan: Alexander III, 14 October 1162 (IP 6.1.62, no. 177, ed. PL 200.174); Celestine III, 16 June 1193 (deperdita, IP 6.1.66, no. *200); Innocent III XXX; Honorius III (Po. 6124)

110 S. Gavin's parish is located on the road which leads from Florence to Bologna, in the northern part of the diocese of Florence. More precisely: at the upper reaches of the river Sieve, near the village of Montecarelli and before the Futa pass.

111 For the appurtenance formula: DIETRICH LOHRMANN "Formen der Enumeratio bonorum in Bischofs-, Papst- und Herrscherurkunden (9.-12. Jahrhundert)" Archiv für Diplomatik 26 (1980) 281-311.

112 The idea that legitimate title stems from royal dispensation also appears below, Oliva 51.2. See also below, Oliva 34.3.

113 Cf. below, Oliva 10.2, for a view stressing more distinct separation of lay and ecclesiastical priniciples. The pope, who can grant privileges principaliter, was able to grant privileges concerning temporalities in the patrimonium S. Petri. Other prelates, even patriarchs, had no such right in their territories.

114 See below, Oliva 18.14, where a patriarch's privilege has only the strengthening function, a favorable assent to the recipient's rights and possessions, without actually granting those. These two passages were pointed to exemplify the difference between plenitudo potestatis and pars sollicitudinis (see above Oliva 1.8), in the concrete instance of the privilege-making power. On Innocent III's Rekuperationspolitik for recovery of the ius beati Petri: J. SEEGER Die Reorganisation des Kirchenstaates unter Innocenz III. Grundlagen und Durchführung (Kiel 1937) 31ff. and CHRISTIAN LACKNER "Studien zur Verwaltung des Kirchestaates unter Papst Innocenz III" RHM 29 (1987) 127-214.

115 MICHAEL TANGL Päpstlichen Kanzleiordnungen von 1200-1500 (Innsbruck 1894) 232 no. 24. The negative papal sanctio is completed as follows: [...contra eam temere venire temptaverit, secundo tertiove commonita, nisi reatum suum congrua satisfactione correxit, potestatis honorisque sui careat dignitate reamque se divino iudicio existere de perpetrata iniquitate cognoscat et a sacratissimo corpore et sanguine Dei et Domini redemptoris nostri Iesu Christi aliena fiat atque in extremo examine] districte subiaceat ultioni. For a lengthy logical analysis of the spiritual sanctions in ecclesiastical privileges, see below Oliva 18.19-27.

116 For literature and analysis, see STEVEN WIGHT "The Gregorian Sanctio" (typescript, UCLA History Seminar, 1984).

117 MICHAEL TANGL Päpstlichen Kanzleiordnungen von 1200-1500 (Innsbruck 1894) 232 no. 25. The positive papal sanctio is completed by: [...loco sua iura servantibus sit pax Domini nostri Iesu Christi, quatenus et hic fructum bone actionis percipiant et apud districtum iudicem] premia eterne pacis inveniant. Amen.

118 On the clausula finalis, see Palma 49.

119 See Liber de obsidione Ancone (ZIMOLO ed. 42.14-43.4). For other usage of picturare, see above Oliva 1.3, below 39.1. For analysis, see DANIELA GOLDIN B come Boncompagno (Padua 1988).

120 For the emphasis on the rejuvenative role of literature in France, see FRANZ JOSEF WORSTBROCK "Die Frühzeit der Ars dictandi in Frankreich" in Pragmatische Schriftlichkeit im Mittelalter: Erscheinungsformen und Entwicklungsstufen. Akten des Internationalen Kolloquiums 17.-19. Mai 1989 edd. HAGEN KELLER, KLAUS GRUBMüLLER and NIKOLAUS STAUBACH (München 1992, Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften, Bd. 65) 131-156 at 151.

121 Juvenal 6.165. See Liber de obsidione Ancone (ZIMOLO ed. 33.17-18, 41.25-42.2); Quinque tabule salutationum 2.17 (Sunt autem quidam bipedes yrci...).

122 Cf. Alexander Neckam In Ecclesiasten 2.5 (Cambridge, Trinity College R.16.4, fol. 190va): Absit, ut doctores liberalium artium reprehendam, qui nonnumquam exercitio laboris sui rei familiaris excludunt inopiam. But see above, Oliva 7.8 and De obsidione Ancone prol.: Ego vero non pro temporali munere seu levitate animi, set sola veritate, que numquam vincitur, inductus, de obsidione predicta et magnanimitate vestra scribere procuravi.

123 Cf. Alexander Neckam De naturis rerum 1.2 (WRIGHT ed. 16-17): Opuscula itque nostra alienum nolo laudare auctorem, memor furti Theodectis discipuli Aristotelis, qui Rhetoricam editam ab Aristotele surripiens, gloriam tam subtilis operis in se transfundere voluit, unius nomine mutatione...Perventum est autem quadam die ad tractatum difficilem, quem Aristotles dilucidius explanaverat in Rhetorica, quam sibi ascripsit Theodectes... See below, Oliva 17.2.

124 For other comparisons between weaving and literary creation, see above, Oliva 1.2 and Palma 24.

125 For the problem of plagiarism and unauthorized publication at Bologna, see the 1274 Bolognese university statutes (ed. BOHACEK De officio stationariorum 5): Item statuimus, quod nullus stationarius opus det aliquod ad exemplar sub nomine alicuius doctoris, nisi quod ipsemet doctor, qui dicetur hoc fecisse preconicari per scolas publice, faciat qualiter recognoscit illud opus suum esse et sibi placere, quod detur ad exemplar. Et si quis contra fecerit, penis dictis superius puniatur. Tancred wrote in the prologue to his apparatus to Comp. III (SAVIGNY 3.558, from SARTI I.257 and II.32): Primas et secundas decretales, prout melius potuit, glossulavi; sed super presentia tertia compilatione non apparatum feci, sed audiendo atque legendo quaedam in libro notavi, quae scholares quidem absque conscientia mea de libro meo extraxerunt, et pro apparatu tertiarum illum michi intitulaverunt. Nunc autem...presentem tertiam compilationem..glossabo et constitutiones concilii proxime celebrati et iura a domino Innocentio Papa III post XII annos edita, tam in apparatibus a me factis, quam in hoc quem indicare dispono, diligentissime collocabo.

126 Boncompagno purports to quote here from a 'rhetorical oration', that is, from a speech he had made. The adjective 'rhetorical' is added to distinguish 'oration' from 'prayer', two possible meanings of oratio.

127 Cf. Seneca Epistulae morales 84.3 and see also Boncompagnus prol. 3.16, Rhetorica novissima 2.2.10. On the bee metaphor, see JüRGEN VON STACKELBERG "Das Bienengleichnis. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der literarischen Imitatio" Römanische Forschungen 68 (1956) 271-293 and JACQUELINE HAMESSE, "Le vocabulaire des florileges medievaux" in Methodes et instruments du travail intellectuel au moyen age: Etudes sur le vocabulaire ed. OLGA WEIJERS (Turnhout 1990) 209-230.

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