RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Chapter
a sort of membership, extending at least as far as participation in episcopal elections. The office of vicar still exists; but in the modern chapter its holders are assistants rather than, as formerly, representatives of the canons.
As to the ofEcers of the chapter, after the redistribution of revenues to which allusion has been made and the acquisition of property, the provost generally retained only the right of presiding over the chapter and administering its property. The enforcement of discipline and the conduct of public worship was usually in charge of the dean, who had a certain disciplinary power, to be exercised with the coimsel and assent of the chapter; 5. Officers, in the Middle Ages his functions were frequently combined with those of the archpriest. Other officials were the primicerius, cantor, or prcecentor. in charge of the services and music; the scholasticus, in charge of the chapter school, and often of other schools in the see city or the diocese; the sacrista or thesaurarius, in charge of the sacred vessels, vestments, and other things used in divine worship; the cellerarius, who in the days of the vita communis provided for the housekeeping, and the portarius, who in the same period regulated the intercourse of the members of the chapter with the outside world. In the nineteenth-century reorganization of capitular life this whole system of official administration has been much simplified in some countries, especially in Germany, while others, such as Italy and Spain, retain more of the medieval arrangements. In accordance with the provisions of the Council of Trent, a theologian and a penitentiary are appointed for each chapter.
In the early period of the vita communis the decision as to the reception of new members into the community rested with its head, either bishop or provost, though the seniores sometimes had a consultative voice. After the dissolution of the common life, the chapter had the right in some cases to confirm or reject a nomination made by the bishop, and in others to nominate independently to certain canonries, while others, again, especially those founded by a bishop, were wholly in his gift. Further modifications were introduced by the papal claim of reservation, and by the patronal rights of founders. The emperors from the thirteenth century, and later other sovereigns and secular and ecclesiastical princes in their own countries, claimed the jus primariarum precum, the right to appoint one person to each chapter after their coronation or consecration. Opposed to this diversity is the principle of the present common law that cathedral canonries are in the joint gift of the bishop and the chapter, while in collegiate churches they are filled by the chapter with subsequent institution at the hands of the bishop.
The chapter is now, since the dissolution of the vita communis and the distribution of what was originally common property, a corporation with a separate legal existence of its own apart from the bishop, competent to deal with both ecclesiastical matters and matters of property, and to ordain and manage its own internal affairs independently, as by altering its former statutes and making new
ones. By common law the consent of the bishop is not necessary for this, though it is by special provision in some of the newer re- 6. Legal organized systems. The duties of the Provisions chapter as a whole include the daily and Duties, performance of divine service, both mass and choir offices. Cathedral chapters have the further duty of assisting the bishop in pontifical functions and in the administration of the diocese. The right corresponding to the last-named duty finds expression in various ways. The bishop is required to have the assent of the chapter for any alienation of the property of the cathedral or diocesan institutions, for any notable change in the system of benefices, for the appointment of a coadjutor, for any measures which are prejudicial to the rights or privileges of the chapter, and for the introduction into the diocese of a new feast of obligation. He is further required to seek their counsel in the appointment or deposition of ecclesiastical dignitaries, in the granting of dispensations or confirmations, in matters which touch the interests of the chapter, in the more important questions of diocesan administration, etc. For the rights of the chapter during the vacancy of a see or the incapacity of a bishop, see Sedes Vacans. According to the Roman Catholic theory, cathedral chapters are not essential and fundamental parts of the constitution of the Church, but the product of historic development. Accordingly, church law leaves a great deal to local usage in regard to the part to be played by them in the administration of a diocese; and they are lacking entirely in many dioceses, as in the " missionary " districts of North America, while in others (as in England, Ireland, and Canada) their organization is very loose.
Little need be said here about the survival of chapters in the Protestant churches. For the English system, see England, Church of. III., § 3. A few scattered chapters, of either cathedral or collegiate type, still exist in evangelical Germany, such as those of Brandenburg, Naimiburg, Merseburg, and Zeitz in Prussia, and Meissen and Wurzen in Saxony. After the Reformation the chapters
which came over to the new doctrine 7. In Prot- with their bishops were usually disestant solved; but a few of them succeeded Churches, in maintaining their existence in
spite of the local sovereign, especially those which did not become wholly Protestant and went on as " mixed chapters " (Osnabriick, Halberstadt, Minden), with a system of alternation as to the bishopric between the two religions, lasting even through the Peace of Westphalia. The connection of the others with the bishops who had become Protestants did not last long, and most of them were sooner or later incorporated with the territories of the sovereigns who had at first been their administrators; and only those named above survived the general secularization of 1803. Even these, however, are not properly church bodies, but corporations for the preservation and administration of certain property and revenues; and steps have been taken toward the abolition of the Prussian chapters. (A. Hauck.)