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    "title": "DIPLOMATIC",
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    "verified_text": "diplomatic, the science of diplomas, founded on the critical study of the \"diplomatic\" sources of history: diplomas, charters, acts, treaties, contracts, judicial records, rolls, chartularies, registers, &c. the employment of the word \"diploma,\" as a general term to designate an historical document, is of comparatively recent date. the roman diploma, so called because it was formed of two sheets of metal which were shut together (gr. [greek: diploun], to double) like the leaves of a book, was the passport or licence to travel by the public post; also, the certificate of discharge, conferring privileges of citizenship and marriage on soldiers who had served their time; and, later, any imperial grant of privileges. the word was adopted, rather pedantically, by the humanists of the renaissance and applied by them to important deeds and to acts of sovereign authority, to privileges granted by kings and by great personages; and by degrees the term became extended and embraced generally the documents of the middle ages. _history of the study._--the term \"diplomatic,\" the french _diplomatique_, is a modern adaptation of the latin phrase _res diplomatica_ employed in early works upon the subject, and more especially in the first great text-book, the _de re diplomatica_, issued in 1681 by the learned benedictine, dom jean mabillon, of the abbey of st germain-des-pres. mabillon's treatise was called forth by an earlier work of daniel van papenbroeck, the editor of the _acta sanctorum_ of the bollandists, who, with no great knowledge or experience of archives, undertook to criticize the historical value of ancient records and monastic documents, and raised wholesale suspicions as to their authenticity in his _propylaeum antiquarium circa veri ac falsi discrimen in vetustis membranis_, which he printed in 1675. this was a rash challenge to the benedictines, and especially to the congregation of st maur, or confraternity of the benedictine abbeys of france, whose combined efforts produced great literary works which still remain as monuments of profound learning. mabillon was at that time engaged in collecting material for a great history of his order. he worked silently for six years before producing the work above referred to. his refutation of papenbroeck's criticisms was complete, and his rival himself accepted mabillon's system of the study of diplomatic as the true one. the _de re diplomatica_ established the science on a secure basis; and it has been the foundation of all subsequent works on the subject, although the immediate result of its publication was a flood of controversial writings between the jesuits and the benedictines, which, however, did not affect its stability. in spain, the benedictine perez published, in 1688, a series of dissertations following the line of mabillon's work. in england, madox's _formulare anglicanum_, with a dissertation concerning ancient charters and instruments, appeared in 1702, and in 1705 hickes followed with his _linguarum septentrionalium thesaurus_, both accepting the principles laid down by the learned benedictine. in italy, maffei appeared with his _istoria diplomatica_ in 1727, and muratori, in 1740, introduced dissertations on diplomatic into his great work, the _antiquitates italicae_. in germany, the first diplomatic work of importance was that by bessel, entitled _chronicon gotwicense_ and issued in 1732; and this was followed closely by similar works of baring, eckhard and heumann. france, however, had been the cradle of the science, and that country continued to be the home of its development. mabillon had not taken cognizance of documents later than the 13th century. arising out of a discussion relative to the origin of the abbey of st victor en caux and the authenticity of its archives, a more comprehensive work than mabillon's was compiled by the two benedictines, dom toustain and dom tassin, viz. the _nouveau traite de diplomatique_, in six volumes, 1750-1765, which embraced more than diplomatic proper and extended to all branches of latin palaeography. with great industry the compilers gathered together a mass of details; but their arrangement is faulty, and the text is broken up into such a multitude of divisions and subdivisions that it is tediously minute. however, its more extended scope has given the _nouveau traite_ an advantage over mabillon's work, and modern compilations have drawn largely upon it. as a result of the revolution, the archives of the middle ages lost in france their juridical and legal value; but this rather tended to enhance their historical importance. the taste for historical literature revived. the academie des inscriptions fostered it. in 1821 the ecole des chartes was founded; and, after a few years of incipient inactivity, it received a further impetus, in 1829, by the issue of a royal ordinance re-establishing it. thenceforth it has been an active centre for the teaching and for the encouragement of the study of diplomatic throughout the country, and has produced results which other nations may envy. next to france, germany and austria are distinguished as countries where activity has been displayed in the systematic study of diplomatic archives, more or less with the support of the state. in italy, too, diplomatic science has not been neglected. in england, after a long period of regrettable indifference to the study of the national and municipal archives of the country, some effort has been made in recent years to remove the reproach. the publications of the public record office and of the department of mss. in the british museum are more numerous and are issued more regularly than in former times; and an awakened interest is manifested by the foundation in the universities of a few lectureships in diplomatic and palaeography, and by the attention which those subjects receive in such an institution as the london school of economics, and in the publications of private literary societies. but such efforts can never show the systematic results which are to be attained by a special institution of the character of the french ecole des chartes. _extent of the science._--the field covered by the study of diplomatic is so extensive and the different kinds of documents which it takes into its purview are so numerous and various, that it is impossible to do more than give a few general indications of their nature. no nation can have advanced far on the path of civilization before discovering the necessity for documentary evidence both in public and in private life. the laws, the constitutions, the decrees of government, on the one hand, and private contracts between man and man, on the other, must be embodied in formal documents, in order to ensure permanent record. in the case of a nation advancing independently from a primitive to a later stage of civilization we should have to trace the origin of its documentary records and examine their development from a rudimentary condition. but in an inquiry into the history of the documents of the middle ages in europe we do not begin with primitive forms. those ages inherited the documentary system which had been created and developed by the romans; and, imperfect and limited in number as are the earliest surviving charters and diplomas of european medieval history, they present themselves to us fully developed and cast in the mould and employing the methods and formulae of the earlier tradition. based on this foundation the chanceries of the several countries of europe, as they came into existence and were organized, reduced to method and rule on one general system the various documents which the exigencies of public and of private life from time to time called into existence, each individual chancery at the same time following its own line of practice in detail, and evolving and confirming particular formulas which have become characteristic of it. _classification of documents._--if we classify these documents under the two main heads of public and private deeds, we shall have to place in the former category the legislative, administrative, judicial, diplomatic documents emanating from public authority in public form: laws, constitutions, ordinances, privileges, grants and concessions, proclamations, decrees, judicial records, pleas, treaties; in a word, every kind of deed necessary for the orderly government of a civilized state. in early times many of these were comprised under the general term of \"letters,\" _litterae_, and to the large number of them which were issued in open form and addressed to the community the specific title of \"letters patent,\" _litterae patentes_, was given. in contradistinction those public documents which were issued in closed form under seal were known as \"close letters,\" _litterae clausae_. such public documents belong to the state archives of their several countries, and are the monuments of administrative and political and domestic history of a nation from one generation to another. in no country has so perfect a series been preserved as in our own. into the public record office in london have been brought together all the collections of state archives which were formerly stored in different official repositories of the kingdom. beginning with the great survey of domesday, long series of enrolments of state documents, in many instances extending from the times of the angevin kings to our own day in almost unbroken sequence, besides thousands of separate deeds of all descriptions, are therein preserved (see record). under the category of private documents must be included, not only the deeds of individuals, but also those of corporate bodies representing private interests and standing in the position of individual units in relation to the state, such as municipal bodies and monastic foundations. the largest class of documents of this character is composed of those numerous conveyances of real property and other title deeds of many descriptions and dating from early periods which are commonly described by the generic name of \"charters,\" and which are to be found in thousands, not only in such public repositories as the public record office and the british museum, but also in the archives of municipal and other corporate bodies throughout the country and in the muniment-rooms of old families. there are also the records of the manorial courts preserved in countless court-rolls and registers; also the scattered muniments of the dissolved monasteries represented by the many collections of charters and the valuable chartularies, or registers of charters, which have fortunately survived and exist both in public and in private keeping. it will be noticed that in this enumeration of public and private documents in england reference is made to rolls. the practice of entering records on rolls has been in favour in england from a very early date subsequent to the norman conquest; and while in other countries the comprehensive term of \"charters\" (literally \"papers\": gr. [greek: chartes]) is employed as a general description of documents of the middle ages, in england the fuller phrase \"charters and rolls\" is required. the master of the rolls, the _magister rotulorum_, is the official keeper of the public records. from the great body of records, both public and private, many fall easily and naturally into the class in which the text takes a simpler narrative form; such as judicial records, laws, decrees, proclamations, registers, &c., which tell their own story in formulae and phraseology early developed and requiring little change. these we may leave on one side. for fuller description we select those deeds which, conferring grants and favours and privileges, conform more nearly to the idea of the roman diploma and have received the special attention of the chanceries in the development and arrangement of their formulae and in their methods of execution. structure of medieval diplomas. all such medieval deeds are composed of certain recognized members or sections, some essential, others special and peculiar to the most elaborate and solemn documents. a deed of the more elaborate character is made up of two principal divisions: 1. the text, in which is set out the object of the deed, the statement of the considerations and circumstances which have led to it, and the declaration of the will and intention of the person executing the deed, together with such protecting clauses as the particular circumstances of the case may require; 2. the protocol (originally, the first sheet of a papyrus roll; gr. [greek: protos], first, and [greek: kollan], to glue), consisting of the introductory and of the concluding formulae: superscription, address, salutation, &c., at the beginning, and date, formulae of execution, &c., at the end, of the deed. the latter portion of the protocol is sometimes styled the eschatocol (gr. [greek: eschatos], last, and [greek: kollan], to glue). while the text followed certain formulae which had become fixed by common usage, the protocol was always special and varied with the practices of the several chanceries, changing in a sovereign chancery with each successive reign. the invocation. the superscription. the address. the salutation. the different sections of a full deed, taking them in order under the heads of initial protocol, text and final protocol or eschatocol, are as follows:--the initial protocol consists of the invocation, the superscription, the address and the salutation. 1. the invocation, lending a character of sanctity to the proceedings, might be either verbal or symbolic. the verbal invocation consisted usually of some pious ejaculation, such as _in nomine dei, in nomine domini nostri jesu christi_; from the 8th century, _in nomine sanctae et individuae trinitatis_; and later, _in nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti_. the symbolic form was usually the _chrismon_, or monogram composed of the greek initials [chi][rho] of the name of christ. in the course of the 10th and 11th centuries this symbol came to be so scrawled that it had probably lost all meaning with the scribes. from the 9th century the letter c (initial of _christus_) came gradually into use, and in german imperial diplomas it superseded the _chrismon_. stenographic signs of the system known as tironian notes were also sometimes added to this symbol down to the end of the 10th century, expressing such a phrase as _ante omnia christus_, or _christus_, or _amen_. from the merovingian period, too, a cross was often used. the symbol gradually died out after the 12th century for general use, surviving only in notarial instruments and wills. 2. the superscription (_superscriptio, intitulatio_) expressed the name and titles of the grantor or person issuing the deed. 3. the address. as diplomas were originally in epistolary form the address was then a necessity. while in merovingian deeds the old pattern was adhered to, in the carolingian period the address was sometimes omitted. from the 8th century it was not considered necessary, and a distinction arose in the case of royal acts, those having the address being styled letters, and those omitting it, charters. the general form of address ran in phrase as _omnibus_ (or _universis_) _christi fidelibus presentes litteras inspecturis_. 4. the salutation was expressed in such words as _salutem_; _salutem et dilectionem_; _salutem et apostolicam benedictionem_, but it was not essential. the preamble. the notification. the exposition. the disposition. the final clauses. then follows the text in five sections: the preamble, the notification, the exposition, the disposition and the final clauses. 5. the preamble (_prologus_, _arenga_): an ornamental introduction generally composed of pious or moral sentiments, a _prefatio ad captandam benevolentiam_ which _facit ad ornamentum_, degenerating into tiresome platitudes. it became stereotyped at an early age: in the 10th and 11th centuries it was a most ornate performance; in the 12th century it was cut short; in the 13th century it died out. 6. the notification (_notificatio_, _promulgatio_) was the publication of the purport of the deed introduced by such a phrase as _notum sit_, &c. 7. the exposition set out the motives influencing the issue of the deed. 8. the disposition described the object of the deed and the will and intention of the grantor. 9. the final clauses ensured the fulfilment of the terms of the deed; guarded against infringement, by comminatory anathemas and imprecations, not infrequently of a vehement description, or by penalties; guaranteed the validity of the deed; enumerated the formalities of subscription and execution; reserved rights, &c. the date. the appreciation. the authentication. next comes the final protocol or eschatocol comprising: the date, the appreciation, the authentication. it was particularly in this portion of the deed that the varying practices of the several chanceries led to minute and intricate distinctions at different periods. 10. the date. by the roman law every act must be dated by the day and the year of execution. yet in the middle ages, from the 9th to the 12th century, a large proportion of deeds bears no date. in the most ancient charters the date clause was frequently separated from the body of the deed and placed in an isolated position at the foot of the sheet. from the 12th century it commonly followed the text immediately. certain classes of documents, such as decrees of councils, notarial deeds, &c., began with the date. the usual formula was _data, datum, actum, factum, scriptum_. in the carolingian period a distinction grew up between _datum_ and _actum_, the former applying to the time, the latter to the place, of date. in the papal chancery from an early period down to the 12th century the use of a double date prevailed, the first following the text and being inserted by the scribe when the deed was written (_scriptum_), the second being added at the foot of the deed on its execution (_actum_), by the chancellor or other high functionary. from the roman custom of dating by the consular year arose the medieval practice of dating by the regnal year of emperor, king or pope. special dates were sometimes employed, such as the year of some great historical event, battle, siege, pestilence, &c. 11. the appreciation. the _feliciter_ of the romans became the medieval _feliciter in domino_, or _in dei nomine feliciter_, or the more simple _deo gratias_ or the still more simple _amen_, for the auspicious closing of a deed. in merovingian and carolingian diplomas it follows the date; in other cases it closes the text. in the greater papal bulls it appears in the form of a triple _amen_. _benevalete_ was also employed as the appreciation in early deeds; but in merovingian diplomas and in papal bulls this valedictory salutation becomes a mark of authentication, as will be noticed below. 12. the authentication was a solemn proceeding which was discharged by more than one act. the most important was the subscription or subscriptions of the person or persons from whom the deed emanated. the laws of the late roman empire required the subscriptions and the impressions of the signet seals of the parties and of the witnesses to the deed. the subscription (_subscriptio_) comprised the name, signature and description of the person signing. the impression of the signet (not the signature) was the _signum_, sometimes _signaculum_, rarely _sigillum_. the practice of subscribing with the autograph signature obtained in the early middle ages, as appears from early documents such as those of ravenna. but from the 7th century it began to decline, and by the 12th century it had practically ceased. in roman deeds an illiterate person affixed his mark, or _signum manuale_, which was attested. the cross being an easy form for a mark, it was very commonly used and naturally became connected with the christian symbol. hence, in course of time, it came to be attached very generally to subscriptions, autograph or otherwise. great personages who were illiterate required something more elaborate than a common mark. hence arose the use of the monogram, the _caracter nominis_, composed of the letters of the name. the emperor justin, who could not write, made use of a monogram, as did also theodoric, king of the ostrogoths. those merovingian kings, likewise, who were illiterate, had their individual monograms; and at length charlemagne adopted the monogram as his regular form of signature. from his reign down to that of philip the fair the monogram was the recognized sign manual of the sovereigns of france (see autographs). it was employed by the german emperors down to the reign of maximilian i. the royal use of the monogram was naturally imitated by great officers and ecclesiastics. but another form of sign manual also arose out of the subscription. the closing word (usually _subscripsi_), written or abbreviated as _sub._, or _ss._ or _s._, was often finished off with flourishes and interlacings, sometimes accompanied with tironian notes, the whole taking the shape of a domed structure to which the french have given the name of _ruche_ or bee-hive. thus in the early middle ages we have deeds authenticated by the subscription, usually autograph, giving the name and titles of the person executing, and stating the part taken by him in the deed, and closing with the _subscripsi_, often in shape of the ruche and constituting the _signum manuale_. if not autograph, the subscription might be impersonal in such form as _signum_ (or _signum manus_) + n. in the carolingian period, while phrases were constantly used in the body of the deed implying that it was executed by autograph subscription, it did not necessarily follow that such subscription was actually written in person. the ruche was also adopted by chancellors, notaries and scribes as their official mark. while autograph subscriptions continued to be employed, chiefly by ecclesiastics, down to the beginning of the 12th century, the monogram was perpetuated from the 10th century by the notaries. their marks, simple at first, became so elaborate from the end of the 13th century that they found it necessary to add their names in ordinary writing, or also to employ a less complicated design. this was the commencement of the modern practice of writing the signature which first came into vogue in the 14th century. the benevalete. the rota. to lend further weight and authority to the subscription, certain symbols and forms were added at different periods. imitating, the corroborative _legi_ of the byzantine quaestor and the _legimus_ of the eastern emperors, the frankish chancery in the west made use of the same form, notably in the reign of charles the bald, in some of whose diplomas the _legimus_ appears written in larger letters in red. the valedictory _benevalete_, employed in early deeds as a form of appreciation (see above), appears in merovingian and in early carolingian royal diplomas, and also in papal bulls, as an authenticating addition to the subscription. in the diplomas it was written in cursive letters in two lines, _bene valete_, just to the right of the incision cut in the sheet to hold fast the seal, which sometimes even covered part of the word. in the most ancient papal bulls it was written by the pope himself at the foot of the deed. in two lines, generally in larger capital or uncial characters, placed between two crosses. from the beginning of the 11th century it became the fashion to link the letters; and, dating from the time of leo ix., a.d. 1048-1054, the _benevalete_ was inscribed in form of a monogram. during leo's pontificate it was also accompanied with a flourish called the _komma_, which was only an exaggeration of the mark of punctuation (_periodus_) which from the 9th to the 11th century closed the subscription and generally resembled the modern semicolon. leo's successors abandoned the _komma_, but the monogrammatic _benevalete_ continued, invariable in form, but from time to time varying in size. in leo ix.'s pontificate also was introduced the _rota_. this sign, when it had received its final shape in the 11th century, was in form of a wheel, composed of two concentric circles, in the space between which was written the motto or device of the pope (_signum papae_), usually a short sentence from one of the psalms or some other portion of scripture; preceded by a small cross, which the pontiff himself sometimes inscribed. the central space within the wheel was divided (by cross lines) into four quarters, the two upper ones being occupied by the names of the apostles st peter and st paul, and the two lower ones by the name of the pope. the _rota_ was placed on the left of the subscription, the monogrammatic _benevalete_ on the right. the two signs were likewise adopted by certain ecclesiastical chanceries and by feudal lords, particularly in the 12th century. from the same period also the spanish and portuguese monarchs adopted the _rota_, the _signo rodado_, which is so conspicuous in the royal charters of the peninsula. sealing. besides the subscription, an early auxiliary method of authentication was by the impression of the seal which, as noticed above, was required by the roman law. but the general use of the signet gradually failed, and by the 7th century it had ceased. still it survived in the royal chanceries, and the sovereigns both of the merovingian and of the carolingian lines had their seals; and, in the 8th century, the mayors of the palace likewise. it is interesting to find instances of the use of antique intaglios for the purpose by some of them. in england too there is proof that the mercian kings offa and coenwulf used seals, in imitation of the frankish monarchs. in the 7th century, and still more so in the 8th and 9th centuries, the royal seals were of exaggerated size: the precursors of the great seals of the later sovereigns of western europe. the waxen seals of the early diplomas were in all cases _en placard_: that is, they were attached to the face of the document and not suspended from it, being held in position by a cross-cut incision in the material, through which the wax was pressed and then flattened at the back. on the cessation of autograph signatures in subscriptions, the general use of seals revived, beginning in the 10th century and becoming the ordinary method of authentication from the 12th to the 15th century inclusive. even when signatures had once again become universal, the seal continued to hold its place; and thus sealing is, to the present day, required for the legal execution of a deed. the attachment _en placard_ was discontinued, as a general practice, in the middle of the 11th century; and seals thenceforward were, for the most part, suspended, leathern thongs being used at first, and afterwards silken and hempen cords or parchment labels. in documents of minor importance it was sometimes the custom to impress the seal or seals on one or more strips of the parchment of the deed itself, cut, but not entirely detached, from the lower margin, and left to hang loose. besides waxen impressions of seals, impressions in metal, bearing a device on both faces, after the fashion of a coin, and suspended, were employed from an early period. the most widely known instances are the _bullae_ attached to papal documents, generally of lead. the earliest surviving papal _bulla_ is one of pope zacharias, a.d. 746, but earlier examples are known from drawings. the papal _bulla_ was a disk of metal stamped on both sides. from the time of boniface v. to leo iv., a.d. 617-855, the name of the pontiff, in the genitive case, was impressed on the obverse, and his title as pope on the reverse, e.g. _bonifati/ papae_. after that period, for some time, the name was inscribed in a circle round a central ornament. other variations followed; but at length in the pontificate of paschal ii., a.d. 1099, the _bulla_ took the form which it afterwards retained: on the obverse, the heads of the apostles st peter and st paul; on the reverse, the pope's name, title and number in succession. in the period of time between his election and consecration, the pope made use of the half-bull, that is, the obverse only was impressed. it should be mentioned that, in order to conform to modern conditions and for convenience of despatch through the post, leo xii., in 1878, substituted for the leaden _bulla_ a red ink stamp bearing the heads of the two apostles with the name of the pope inscribed as a legend. the carolingian monarchs also used metal _bullae_. none of charlemagne's have survived, but there are still extant leaden examples of charles the bald. the use of lead was not persisted in either in the chancery of france or in that of germany. golden _bullae_ were employed on special occasions by both popes and temporal monarchs; for example, they were attached to the confirmations of the elections of the emperors in the 12th and 13th centuries; the bull of leo x. conferring the title of defender of the faith on henry viii. in 1524, and the deed of alliance between henry and francis i. in 1527, had golden _bullae_; and other examples could be cited. but lead has always been the common metal to be thus employed. in the southern countries of europe, where the warmth of the climate renders wax an undesirable material, leaden _bullae_ have been in ordinary use, not only in italy but also in the peninsula, in southern france, and in the latin east (see seals). formularies. the necessity of conforming to exact phraseology in diplomas and of observing regularity in expressing formulas naturally led to the compilation of formularies. from the early middle ages the art of composition, not only of charters but also of general correspondence, was commonly taught in the monasteries. the teacher was the _dictator_, his method of teaching was described by the verb _dictare_, and his teaching was _dictamen_ or the _ars dictaminis_. for the use of these monastic schools, formularies and manuals comprising formulas and models for the composition of the various acts and documents soon became indispensable. at a later stage such formularies developed into the models and treatises for epistolary style which have had their imitations even in modern times. the widespread use of the formularies had the advantage of imposing a certain degree of uniformity on the phrasing of documents of the western nations of europe. those compilations which are of an earlier period than the 11th century have been systematically examined and are published; those of more recent date still remain to be thoroughly edited. the early formularies are of the simpler kind, being collections of formulas without dissertation. the _formulae marculfi_, compiled by the monk marculf about the year 650, was the most important work of this nature of the merovingian period and became the official formulary of the time; and it continued in use in a revised edition in the early carolingian chancery. of the same period there are extant formularies compiled at various centres, such as angers, tours, bourges, sens, reichenau, st gall, salzburg, passau, regensburg, cordova, &c. (see giry, _manuel de diplomatique_, pp. 482-488). the _liber diurnus romanorum pontificum_ was compiled in the 7th and 8th centuries, and was employed in the papal chancery to the end of the 11th century. of the more developed treatises and manuals of epistolary rhetoric which succeeded, and which originated in italy, the earliest example was the _breviarium de dictamine_ of the monk alberic of monte cassino, compiled about the year 1075. another well-known work, the _rationes dictandi_, is also attributed to the same author. of later date was the _ars dictaminis_ of bernard of chartres of the 12th century. among special works on formularies are: e. de roziere, _recueil general des formules usitees dans l'empire des francs_ (3 vols., paris, 1861-1871); k. zeumer, _formulae merovingici et karolini aevi_ (hanover, 1886); and l. rockinger, _briefsteller und formelbucher des 11 bis. 14 jahrhunderts_ (munich, 1863-1864). _organization._--the formalities observed by the different chanceries of medieval europe, which are to be learned from a study of the documents issued by them, are so varied and often so minute, that it is impossible to give a full account of them within the limits of the present article. we can only state some of the results of the investigations of students of diplomatic. papal chancery. the chancery which stands first and foremost is the papal chancery. on account of its antiquity and of its steady development, it has served as a model for the other chanceries of europe. organized in remote times, it adopted for the structure of its letters a number of formulas and rules which developed and became more and more fixed and precise from century to century. the apostolic court being organized from the first on the model of the roman imperial court, the early pontiffs would naturally have collected their archives, as the emperors had done, into _scrinia_. pope julius i., a.d. 337-353, reorganized the papal archives under an official _schola notariorum_, at the head of which was a _primicerius notariorum_. pope damasus, a.d. 366-384, built a record office at the lateran, _archivium sanctae romanae ecclesiae_, where the archives were kept and registers of them compiled. the collection and orderly arrangement of the archives provided material for the establishment of regular diplomatic usages, and the science of formulae naturally followed. for the study of papal documents four periods have been defined, each successive period being distinguished from its predecessor by some particular development of forms and procedure. the first period is reckoned from the earliest times to the accession of leo ix., a.d. 1048. for almost the whole of the first eight centuries no original papal documents have survived. but copies are found in canonical works and registers, many of them false, and others probably not transcribed in full or in the original words; but still of use, as showing the growth of formulas. the earliest original document is a fragment of a letter of adrian i., a.d. 788. from that date there is a series, but the documents are rare to the beginning of the 11th century, all down to that period being written on papyrus. the latest existing papyrus document in france is one of sergius iv., a.d. 1011; in germany, one of benedict",
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