Arian Assises

In 1127, Roger II , the great count of Sicily, inherited the duchy of Apulius and Calabria after the death of his cousin William II , and on December 25, 1130 he was crowned in the Cathedral of Palermo as king of the united Sicilian kingdom , which included Sicily, Apulia and Calabria. During 1130-1139 , Roger II was forced to almost constantly fight the rebellious continental barons, behind which stood Pope Innocent II and Emperor Lothar II , and then he came into direct conflict with the papacy and empire.

After defeating external and internal opponents (1139), Roger II faced the task of consolidating the newly formed kingdom. On the one hand, the task was complicated by the multinational ( Normans , Lombards , Greeks , Arabs ) and multiconfessional ( Catholics , Orthodox , Muslims ) population of the state, the presence of various legal norms in various, previously completely separate, parts of the kingdom. On the other hand, the diversified Roger II, at least in Sicily, enjoyed unprecedented (in comparison with other monarchs of Western Europe) power: for his Orthodox subjects he represented the successor of the Byzantine emperors , for Catholics he was actually a hereditary papal legate , for Muslims - acted as the rightful lord. The path to the creation of a single state lay in this case through the formation of a strong central authority based on a single legislation. An analysis of the sources shows that the formation of a single code of laws can be attributed to 1140 . In particular, the chronicler Falco from Benevento testifies that at the large assembly of the kingdom's barons in Ariano (summer-autumn of 1140) Roger II published " countless acts ", including the introduction of a single coin - ducat . Romuald Salernsky also points out that in 1140 Roger II " introduced new laws and eradicated harmful customs ." In this regard, the set of laws of Roger II is usually called the Arian assises and dates back to 1140.

The text of the Arian Assis is preserved in two manuscript versions: the Vat.lat manuscript . 8782 of the Vatican Library and Codice Cassinese 468 library of the Monte Cassino monastery, discovered almost simultaneously in the XIX century .

Vatican manuscript Vat.lat. 8782 contained four documents in the original: the code of the Lombard laws, extracts from the Justinian code, Justinian institutions and Arian assises (fol. 91rb ‑ 94va), then two more postscripts were made to the manuscript with the other hand. One of the postscripts is a message addressed to a person who died in 1141 , so that the entire manuscript confidently dates from no later than 1141. In favor of such dating , the use of the letter D with a horizontal transverse line, characteristic of the first half of the 12th century, also indicates a quote from Digest Justinian. The text of Assis is designed in the style typical for legal compilations of the 12th century: it begins with a prologue , the main part is divided into chapters, the text is written in two columns. A comparison of the Assisi Vatican manuscript with the text of the Melfi constitutions of 1231 shows that the lawyers of Frederick II worked with the text of the Arian assisi, similar to the Vatican.

The manuscript from Monte Cassino Codice Cassinese 468 consists of 3 parts, the first and third confidently date from the beginning of the XIII century , and the second (actually containing the Arian assises) - the border of the XII-XIII centuries. The Monte Cassin assis text is shorter than the Vatican, some sections are rearranged, others are missing, and others are added. Most likely, this manuscript is not a new version of Assis, but only a shortened presentation of the original text.

There are alternative ideas about these manuscripts:

• Assises were not proclaimed in Ariano in 1140, but at another Baronial assembly in Silva Marka in 1142 .
• Assisi never existed as a single code of laws, but they are a collection of various acts made by the owner of the Vatican manuscript.
• To summarize the legal basis for the Melfi constitutions of 1231, the lawyers of Frederick II attributed the same document to the era of Roger II.

The prologue assis asserts that the king, who received the kingdom by the grace of God, considers it his direct duty to God to “ renew the ways of justice and piety, ” distorted by his predecessors. This important duty makes the royal ministry “ worthy of the privileges granted to the priesthood, ” since “ knowledgeable sages consider law interpreters to be priests .” Such a broad interpretation of the privileges and rights of the king is completely uncharacteristic of Western legal thought, but it is fully consistent with the spirit of Justinian's legislative acts. Roger II acts as the legal successor to the Byzantine emperors.

Article 1 establishes the binding for the whole kingdom of new laws proclaimed by the king. The various nations that make up the state can retain their laws and customs to the extent and until these laws and customs come into conflict with the new royal laws. Thus, the king acts as the supreme legislator and judge in his state.

Article 4 establishes the inviolability and indivisibility of regalia - royal possessions, rights and privileges; no vassal or official who received part of the regalia from the king can alienate, sell, donate this part without the consent of the monarch. Thus, the king forbade subfeudalization (the creation by his vassals of his own vassals), received the right to intervene in the inheritance of feuds , posts or privileges (each heir was forced to again ask the king to use them). Using this establishment, Sicilian monarchs even intervened in the personal lives of their feudal lords, arbitrarily allowing or forbidding them to marry, which made it possible to suppress rebellious Baron clans and return to the treasury their escheated possessions.

Article 17 states that “ contesting the sentences, laws, actions and intentions of the king or the persons appointed or elected by him is comparable to blasphemy ” and should be punishable by death . Such an interpretation of the rights and privileges of the royal person is also more consistent with the Byzantine , rather than Western European tradition. The attempt or harm to royal officials is equated by article 25 in its legal consequences to the attempt on the monarch.

Article 18 prescribes the death penalty and confiscation of property for treason . In addition to the actual conspiracies, they also consider treason: arming the townspeople in peacetime, escaping in battle and desertion , surrendering fortresses, losing the battle, killing government officials, refusing to help the royal allies and, conversely, helping and harboring enemies of the state, preventing the hostages from fleeing, and condemnation of the actions of the deceased monarch. Citizens of the state were obliged to report on facts of high treason, otherwise those who did not report crimes known to them were considered accomplices of traitors. Such a broad interpretation of the concept of high treason did not know the legislation of any country in Western Europe.

Much attention is paid to assisitions in church matters. Article 2 guarantees the safety of church property, p. 7 determines compensation for damage to property and privileges of the Church, Article 5 - punishes the illegal sale of sacred relics, Article 6 - confirms the right of asylum in the church. Article 8 exempts the clergy from taking the oath in court and corporal punishment, and Art. 16 prohibits simony. Nevertheless, the privileges of the Church are not endless: the bishop does not have the right to ordain serfs without the written consent of their lord, even in the case of such ordination, only the priest himself passes into the clergy, and his children remain serfs (v. 10).

Catholicism was proclaimed the main religion in the kingdom (to which, however, the Orthodox Greeks , subordinate to Latin bishops, were also included), apostates lost their civil rights (Article 13). Jews and infidels (that is, Muslims) were forbidden to possess Christian slaves, and apostasy entailed the death penalty for their owner (Article 12). Article 27 proclaimed the only legal marriage church marriage, children born in any other cohabitation, lost the right to property and social status of their parents.

A significant part of Assis is devoted to criminal offenses: counterfeiting (Art. 21), falsification of documents (Art. 20, 22, 23), kidnapping (Art. 37), theft (Art. 40), arson (Art. 41), poisoning ( Article 43). Assisi is very verbose in describing the cases of adultery and punishment for them (vv. 28-29, 31-32).

• Assises of Roger II and some other medieval texts . Date of treatment May 16, 2010. Archived on August 25, 2011.
• Arian Assises - Assisse text for the Vatican and Monte Cassin codes.
• Pennington, Kennet "The Birth of the Ius commune: King Roger II's Legislation" (unavailable link from 13-03-2018 [522 days])
• Norwich, John . The heyday and sunset of the Sicilian kingdom. Normans in Sicily. 1130-1194 . - Moscow: Centerpolygraph, 2005 .-- S. 7-167. - 399 p. - ISBN 5-9524-1752-3 .