II.
Authority of the Caroline Books
.
But be their authorship what it may, we come next to
consider their authority; and here we are met with the greatest
difficulty, for it is certain that despite the statements to the
contrary, these books were not those sent to Pope Hadrian by
Charlemagne, those of which the Pope deigned to write a
refutation. This Hefele has clearly proved, by pointing out that
those sent to the Pope treated the matter in an entirely different
order; that there were in those sent only 85 chapters, while these
books have 120 (or 121 if the authenticity of the last chapter is
granted). Moreover the quotations made by Hadrian do not occur
verbatim
in the Caroline books, but are in some cases enlarged,
in others abbreviated. (Cf. Hefele’s treatment of the whole
subject in the original German.) Petavius thinks that what
Hadrian received were extracts from the Caroline Books, made by the
Council of Frankfort.
Hefele arrives at a
directly opposite conclusion, viz., that the Caroline Books are an
expansion of the
Capitula
sent to the Pope, and that this
expansion was made at the bidding of Charlemagne.
It should be noted here that Baronius, Bellarmine,
Binius, and Surius all question the authenticity of the Caroline Books
altogether. (
Vide
Baron,
Annal
.,
a.d.
, 794.) But this extreme position seems to be
refuted by the fact that certain quotations made by Hincmar are found
in the books as we have them. (
Cf
. Sirmond in Mansi, Tom.
XIII., 905, Labbe, Tom. VII., col. 1054.)