Chirograph
| Controlling authority | The Roman Pontiff and the specific provisions of the chirograph |
|---|---|
| Juridical character | Personal papal instrument, commonly singular or institutional rather than a universal genre of teaching |
Chirograph is a personally issued papal instrument used in modern Holy See practice to establish, govern, or direct particular institutions and matters under the Roman Pontiff's immediate authority.
Overview
A chirograph is a medieval document, which has been written in duplicate, triplicate or very occasionally quadruplicate (four copies) on a single piece of parchment, with the Latin word chirographum (occasionally replaced by some other term) written across the middle, and then cut through to separate the parts. The term also refers to a papal decree whose circulation is limited to the Roman curia.
Name and modern practice
Chirograph derives from language of handwriting or a hand-signed instrument, but contemporary papal use should be described from the official act rather than romanticized as an autograph note. Modern Chirographs have established commissions and coordination bodies, approved statutes, set membership, assigned canonical dependency, and ordered publication.[1]
The form is distinct from an Encyclical or Apostolic Exhortation because its normal center is a concrete act of governance. It can nevertheless contain theological and pastoral reasons for the decision. The document's personal papal provenance does not eliminate the need to identify which provisions are constitutive, directive, temporary, or explanatory.[2]
Institutional act and attached statutes
A Chirograph may establish a body while attached statutes supply detailed competencies and procedure. The two texts must be read together, but their amendment rules may differ. A later statute, Apostolic Constitution, or Motu Proprio can modify the institution without denying the historical fact that the chirograph created or reorganized it.
Canonical effect
Canonical effect follows the pope's operative words, competence, publication, and subject. A chirograph may function as a Singular Administrative Act, approve proper law, or contain special provisions for an entity connected with the Holy See. It is not automatically a universal law merely because the pope signs it.[3][4]
Recent examples expressly order promulgation through L'Osservatore Romano and later publication in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, sometimes with immediate effect. That clause establishes publicity and commencement for the particular act. It does not make every background observation a legal norm or magisterial definition.
Authority of accompanying teaching
A papal chirograph can express authentic pastoral judgment, yet Chirograph is not a rung in Grades of Magisterial Teaching. Institutional norms ordinarily call for canonical obedience; doctrinal statements receive the assent appropriate to their content, intention, and continuity with the Magisterium.
Documentary method
Searches for papal chirograph and pontifical chirograph should reach this classification. Individual instruments deserve their own articles when their institutions or consequences are notable, with the Chirograph serving as the documentary rather than doctrinal parent category.
Etymology
The Latin word chirographum, often spelled cirographum or cyrographum in the medieval period, is derived from the Greek χειρόγραφον, and simply means "handwritten".[5]
Description
The intention of the chirograph was to produce two (or more) identical written copies of a legal agreement, that could be retained by each party to the transaction, and if necessary verified at a later date through comparison with one another. Whereas Charters were typically used for titles of property and did not give each party a copy, chirographs could be used for almost any legal agreement – for example, matters of state, land transfers, repayments of loans, marriage settlements, etc.[6] The cut itself would generally be made with a wavy or serrated edge, running through the word chirographum, to allow the copies to be matched physically as a safeguard against forgery. The earliest surviving portion of a chirograph in England dates from the middle of the ninth century.[7]
The practice of separating the copies with an irregular cut also gave rise to the description of the documents as "indentures", since the edges would be said to be "indented".[8] In the post-medieval period, as legal documents grew in length and complexity, it became impractical to fit two duplicate texts onto a single sheet of parchment. It therefore became more usual to make the two copies on two or more separate sheets, the top edges of which were still cut with a symbolic or matching wavy line.[9]
Ecclesiastical use
A more restricted use of the term is to describe a papal decree whose circulation—unlike an encyclical—is limited to the Roman curia.[10]
Pope Francis on 26 June 2013 used a chirograph to set up a Commission to investigate the decisions and underlying investments of the Institute for the Works of Religion (the so-called "Vatican Bank"). The document was "an instrument under canon law giving the commission legal force, and expressing its broad aim to help ensure that 'the principles of the Gospel also permeate activities of an economic and financial nature.'"[11]
See also
- Indenture, a similar document recording an important agreement, formerly including slavery and apprenticeships, latterly in relation to certain major land dealings or certain debts of money, retained in a few and dwindling number of jurisdictions
- Fine of lands, or final concord, a type of property conveyance in chirograph form common in medieval and post-medieval England
- Tally stick, or split tally, a comparable system of creating matching copies of simple accounting records on a split stick
References
- Back to citation Chirograph establishing the Apostleship of the Sea coordination body — A modern papal chirograph establishing and governing a central body, approving statutes, fixing canonical dependency, and ordering promulgation and publication in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.
- Back to citation Chirograph establishing the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — A papal chirograph creating a governance institution, defining its purpose and composition, and giving the provisions stable effect, showing the form's contemporary institutional use.
- Back to citation Praedicate Evangelium, articles 29–31 — Binding norms for documents of the Roman Curia, papal approval, special faculties, general decrees, derogations from universal law, and approval in forma specifica.
- Back to citation Code of Canon Law, canons 35–93 — Binding Latin law on singular administrative acts, singular decrees and precepts, rescripts, privileges, dispensations, competence, interpretation, execution, notification, and cessation.
- Back to citation Harper, Douglas. "Chirography". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
- Back to citation Clanchy, Michael T. (2013). From Memory to Written Record: England 1066-1307. Chichester, West Sussex, UK Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons. p. 89. ISBN 1405157917.
- Back to citation Lowe, Kathryn A. (1997). "Lay Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England: the Development of the Chirograph". In Pulsiano, P; Treharne, E. (eds.). Anglo Saxon Manuscripts and their Heritage. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 161–204.
- Back to citation Brown, M. P. (1990). A Guide To Western Historical Scripts From Antiquity to 1600. London: British Library. pp. 78–9. ISBN 0712301771.
- Back to citation Alcock, N. W. (1986). Old Title Deeds: a guide for local and family historians. Chichester: Phillimore. pp. 35–6, 58. ISBN 0-85033-593-0.
- Back to citation Pollard, p. xvi.
- Back to citation Glatz, Carol; Wooden, Cindy (26 June 2013). "Pope creates commission to study activities, mission of Vatican bank". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
External links
- Chirographs, Indentures and Final Concords Medieval Writing. Retrieved on August 7, 2008.
- Vatican page on Chirographs
Bibliography
- Bedos-Rezak, Brigitte (2010). "Cutting Edge: The Economy of Mediality in Twelfth-Century Chirographic Writing.” In Das Mittelalter 15: 134-161.
- Lowe, Kathryn A. (1997). "Lay Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England: the Development of the Chirograph". In Pulsiano, P; Treharne, E. (eds.). Anglo Saxon Manuscripts and their Heritage. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 161–204.
- Pollard, John F. (2005). Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850–1950. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521812046.