[981] A.D. 828, K. 223 (i. 287): ‘cum furis comprehensione intus et foris’; A.D. 842, K. 253 (ii. 16) ‘ut ... furis comprehensione ... terra secura et immunis ... permaneat’; A.D. 850, K. 1049 (v. 95) a similar form; A.D. 858, K. 281 (ii. 64), a similar form; A.D. 869, K. 300 (ii. 95), a similar form; A.D. 880, K. 312 (ii. 109): ‘cum furis comprehensione.’ See Kemble’s remarks, C. D. vol. i. p. xlvi.
[982] Hist. Eng. Law, i. 565.
[983] K. 1084 (v. 157); B. ii. 272: ‘Christo concessi ut episcopi homines tam nobiles quam ignobiles in praefato rure degentes hoc idem ius in omni haberent dignitate quo regis homines perfruuntur regalibus fiscis commorantes, et omnia saecularium rerum iudicia ad usus praesulum exerceantur eodem modo quo regalium negotiorum discutiuntur iudicia.’ Similar words occur in a confirmation by Edgar, K. 598 (iii. 136), which Kemble rejects. This contains an English paraphrase of the Latin text.
[984] Compare K. 821 (iv. 171): ‘swa freols on eallan thingan eall swa thaes cinges agen innland.’
[985] Hist. Eng. Law, i. 570.
[986] Hist. Eng. Law, i. 580.
[987] Few questions in Frankish history have been more warmly contested than this, whether the immunist had a jurisdiction within his territory. On the one hand, it has been contended that there is no evidence older than 840 that he exercised jurisdiction even as between the inhabitants of that territory. On the other hand, it has been said that already in 614 he has civil jurisdiction in disputes between these inhabitants, besides a criminal jurisdiction over them, which however does not extend to the graver crimes. A few references will suffice to put the reader in the current of this discussion; Löning, Geschichte des Deutschen Kirchenrechts, ii. 731; Brunner, D. R. G. ii. 298; Schröder, D. R. G. 174; Beauchet, Histoire de l’organisation judiciaire en France, 74; Beaudoin, Étude sur les origines du regime féodal (Annales de l’enseignement supérieur de Grenoble, vol. i. p. 43); Fustel de Coulanges, L’Immunité Mérovingienne (Revue Historique, xxii. 249, xxiii. I). One of the most disputed points is the character of the court held by an abbot, which is put before us by the very ancient Formulae Andecavenses, a collection attributed to the sixth or, at the latest, to the early years of the seventh century. It has been asserted and denied that this abbot of Angers is exercising the powers given to him by an immunity; some have said that he, or rather his steward, is merely acting as an arbitrator; Brunner, Forschungen, 665, explains him as one of the mediocres iudices of decaying Roman law. On the whole, the balance of learning is inclining to the opinion that, even in the Merovingian time, there were great churches and other lords with courts which wielded power over free men, and that the ‘immunities,’ even if they were not intended to create such courts, at all events made them possible, or, as Fustel says, consecrated them.
[988] Madox, Hist. Exch. i. 109; Bigelow, Placita Anglo-Normannica, 114.
[989] Hist. Eng. Law, i. 224–30.
[990] Nissl, Der Gerichtsstand des Clerus im Fränkischen Reich, 247.