The numerical division of the Old and New Testa- ments into modem chapters is by some ascribed to Lanfiranc, who was archbishop of Canterbury in the reig^ of William the Conqueror and William II, while others attribute it to Stephen Langton, who was arch- bishop of the same see in the reigns of John and Henry III. Its authorship, however, is usually assigned to the schoolmen, who, with cardinal Hugh of St. Cher, were the authors of the Concordance for the Latin Vul- gate, about A.D. 1240. This cardinal wrote remarks, or PostHsj as they were called, on all the books of Scripture; and this Latin Bible, published by him, h generally supposed to be the first Bible divided into the present chapters. Yet cardinal Humbert, about A.D. 1069, cites the 12th and Idth chapters of Exodus, and the 2dd of Leviticus, according to our present di- vision of chapters. Whoever was the author, fhmi about this period the division of the several books into chapters was gradually adopted in the Latin and other versioas ; an^ finally, In the Hebrew, with a fbw va-
CHAPTER
212
CHARACTER
riations, and also in the Greek text. The several Psalms were not included in this division. See Yerss.
CHAPTER, as an ecclesiastical term, the name of a corporation of ecclesiastics, bound by canonical rules, and generally aftached to a cathedral. The name chapter arose from the (act that the first communities of canons (q. v.) were called together daOy in a com- mon hall, to hear a chapter of the Bible, or of their common rules, read aloud. The hall was hence called the Chapter, or Chapter-house (q. v.), and the name finally passed to the body of ecclesiastics assembling in it.
Originally the property of the chapter belonged to the diocese ; and the monks or canons had a common life, and kept strict obedience. Corporations of this kind rapidly multiplied, however, and soon began to have wealth of their own ; by the 12th century these capitttla eanomcontm were attached to almost every see. The nomination of the bishop fell to the chapter, and this was allowed by the popes, thus enlarging greatly the power of the chapter, and diminishing the authori- ty of the bishop over it The nobility of Europe found the canonries rich, and the chapters were made sources of income for their children, who in some dioceses fill- ed every stall. These tecular canons absorbed the revenues of the chapters, and appointed vicars lo do the work. The Council of Trent introduced many re- forms (sess. 23, 25). In 1808 the chapters, as corpora- tions, were abolished in South Germany, and in 1810 in Prussia. Whatever rights the chapters now have are based upon the canon law, and upon the special legis- lation of each country in which they exist. In Switz- erland, Prussia, and other Protestant countries of Ger- many, the chapters have received the right of electing the bishops, who in most of the Roman Catholic coun- tries are appointed by the sovereigns.
In Engluid the chapter of a cathedral church oon- sists ** of persons ecclesiastical, canons and prebenda- ries, whereof the dean is chief, all subordinate to the bishop, to whom they are as assistants in matters re- lating to the church, for the better ordering and dis- posing the things thereof, a£id for confirmation of such leases of the temporalities and officers relating to the bishopric as the* bishop from time to time shall happen to make'* (Hook, s. v.). The dean and chapter had formerly the right to choose the bishop in England, but that right was assumed by Henry YIII as a pro- rogative of the crown. In Germany, Luther made an attempt to preserve the chapters as ecclesiastical cor- porations, bnt soon most of them lost altogether their ecclesiastical character, and nearly all of them per- ished at the beginning of the present century. A few chapters, like those of EEalberstadt, Minden, and Osna- bruck, had both Protestant and Roman Catholic can- ons, and in OsnabrQck even the election of the bishop had to alternate between the two denominations. — Herzog, ReaL-Encyhlopadie^ ii, 554 sq. ; Ersch u. Gm- ber, Encyhhp. xxvl, 883 sq. See Canon ; Dean.
CHAPTERS, THE THREE, a title given to three points (ice^oXaca, capituld) condemned by the fifth Council of Constantinople. They were, 1. The person and writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia ; 2. The writ- ings of Theodoret, so far as they were directed against Cyril ; 8. The letter of Ibas of Edessa to Maris, con- cerning the Council of Ephesus. The emperor Jus- tinian, under the influence of his wife Theodora, who was at heart a Monophysite, and of Theodore, bishop of CsBsarea, published an edict A.D. 544, in which the above were condemned. This edict was signed by most of the Eastern bishops, but was opposed by the African and Western buhops, especially by Vigilius, the Roman pontiff, who was ordered to Constantinople (A.D. 547), and obliged to give a written declaration (Judicatum) approving the condemnation of the " Three Chapters." They were afterwards condemned anew by Justinian, A.D. 551, and by the fifth Council of Constantinople, A.D. 558. Dr. Schaff remarks (iii,
770) that the " controversy of the ' Three Chapters' has filled more volumes than it is worth lines." — ^Moshcim, CK Hiti. cent, vi, pt. ii, ch. iii, § 10, note ; Schaff, CSI. History, m, $ 144; Gieseler, Ckurdi History, i, § 109. See Constantinople.