Any judicial authority possessed by
the bishop at this earlier period was not in virtue of any political
position he himself held, but came to him entirely in what might be
called an extraordinary manner, that is, by delegation from the king,
for definite specified occasions. As an example of this extraordinary
delegated jurisdiction, I will refer to a document in the Archivio of
the Canons of Arezzo[79] of the year 833, relating to the judgment of
a dispute between "Petrum Episcopum Arretinum et Vigilium Abatem
Monasterii Sancti Antemi," situated in the territory of Chiusi, over a
privilege ceded to that monastery by Lewis the Pious in 813.[80] The
bishop of Arezzo gained a favorable decision from a court constituted
of some _judices_, _missi_ of the emperor, and of the bishops of
Florence, Volterra and Siena, Agiprandus, Petrus and Anastasius.
According to the terms of the document with regard to the composition
of this court, the bishops sitting in it were "directi a Hlotario
magno Imperatore"; and their powers are several times referred to as
being "juxta jussionem et Indiculum Domni Imperatoris." Here, as in
all other similar cases, we see plainly that there is no indication of
any purely personal jurisdiction.
That the influence of the bishop in affairs of state at this period
was only of an individual, extra-official character can be seen also
from the fact that the king considered the bishops themselves to be
under his judicial jurisdiction in all secular matters, just as the
lesser clergy came under the jurisdiction of the _judices_:[81] and
further, that after the election to a church, the decision of the
_judex_ must confirm the choice of the community in order to render it
valid.
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