MISSI DOMINICI, the name given to the officials commis sioned by the Frankish kings and emperors to supervise the ad ministration of their dominions. Their institution dates from Charles Martel and Pippin the Short, who sent out officials to see their orders executed. When Pippin became king in 754 he sent out missi in a desultory fashion; but Charlemagne made them a regular part of his administration, and a capitulary issued about 802 gives a detailed account of their duties. They were to execute justice, to enforce respect for the royal rights, to control the administration of the courts, to receive the oath of allegiance, and to supervise the conduct and work of the clergy. They were to call together the officials of the district and explain to them their duties, and to remind the people of their civil and religious obligations. In short they were the direct respresentatives of the king or emperor. The inhabitants of the district they administered had to provide for their subsistence, and at times they led the host to battle. In addition special instructions were given to various missi, and many of these have been preserved. The missi were not permanent officials, but were generally se lected from among persons at the court, and during the reign of Charlemagne personages of high standing undertook this work. They were sent out in twos, an ecclesiastic and a layman, and were generally complete strangers to the district which they ad ministered. Even under Charlemagne it was difficult to find men
to discharge these duties impartially, and after his death in 814 it became almost impossible. Under Louis I. the nobles interfered in the appointment of the missi, who, selected from the district in which their duties lay, were soon found watching their own interests rather than those of the central power. Their duties became merged in the ordinary work of the bishops and counts, and under Charles the Bald they took control of associations for the preservation of the peace. About the end of the gth century they disappeared from France and Germany, and during the loth century from Italy.
See G. Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte (Kiel, 1844) ; E. Dob bert, Ueber das Wesen and den Geschiiftskreis der missi dominici (Heidelberg, 1860 ; L. Beauchet, Histoire de l'organisation judiciaire en France, epoque franque (1865) ; V. Krause, Geschichte des Insti tutes der missi dominici in the Mittheilungen des Instituts fiir &ter reichische Geschichtsforschung, Band XI. (Innsbruck, 188o) ; E.
Bourgeois, Le Capitulaire de Kiersy-sur-Oise (1885) ; N. D. Fustel de Coulanges, Histoire des Institutions politiques de rancienne France (1889-9o).