scavino” is mentioned; but it has been proved that the monastery was only founded in the year 760, and though it may, at a later date, have received the donation, the significancy of the use of the term vanishes.  The first authenticated use of the name of the new judge seems to be in a placitum of Charlemagne of the year 781.[66] In this the parties to a suit are mentioned as having already appeared before the “Comitem et suos Escapinios.”  Eight years later, in a Praeceptum of Charlemagne,[67] commission is given to the comes Tentmann “superque vicarios et Scabinos, quos sub se habet, diligenter inquirat.”

Now that we have indicated the origin and noted the first appearance of the new officer, let us examine his position and his duties.  I am much more willing to allow to the scabinus the title of “city officer,” than to the dux or even the count.  We have seen the latter as one of the important connecting links joining the city to the state, bringing the city into relationship with the constitution of the kingdom and making it a part of it; but we have been unwilling to call the count or dux the legal head of the city, as such, that is to allow him the title of the first city officer.  But with the scabinus the case is different.  His mode of appointment, and the character of the functions he performed, ally him with the city proper and with city people.  His duties and his interests were more confined to the city than those of any of the other judges, and when he accompanies the count to the general placita of the king, he seems to go in the capacity of a representative of the city, and more in the character of a city magistrate than any officer we have yet considered.  His duties were almost entirely of a judicial character, and his powers seem to have been as broad in their extent as those of the other judges.  That he had the power of imposing capital punishment, and that the other officers of the law could not change but only execute his orders, appears from the following passage:[68] “postquam Scabini eum [latronem] adjudicaverint, non est licentia vel Vicarii ei vitam concedere.”  Muratori[69] maintains that he also had the right of holding certain placita of his own, and cites in proof two placita of Lucca of the years 847 and 856, where we find:  “Dum nos in Dei nomine Ardo, Adelperto et Gherimundo Scabini adsedentes in lucho Civitate Lucana,” etc.; and “dum resedisset Gisulfus Scabinus de Vico Laceses, per jussionem Bernardi Comiti ... ubi cum ipso aderat Ausprand et Audibert Scavinis.”  In the first of these there is no mention whatever of the count, and in the second “Gisulfus Scabinus” acts with his associate scabini “per jussionem Comiti.”  But even if we allow to the scabini the right of holding placita, these must have been of a lower grade than those of the counts or of the missi regii; for to the mallum of