Charlemagne's Questionnaire: A Little-Known Document from the Very Beginnings of Survey Research by Thomas Peterson page 2

What was the purpose of these capitularies, and how was the "survey" conducted using these lists? The first article, which reads like an instruction manual, offers a clue: "Firstly, we shall separate the bishops, abbots, and counts [present at the planned assembly] and address them individually." Presumably, "address individually" did not mean there was to be a one-to-one meeting with every individual person, but rather an exchange with each before a gathering of bishops, abbots and counts. What is interesting here is that the representatives present were apparently expected to put the questions posed to them at the assembly to the secular and religious dignitaries in their own regions. According to a 1999 letter from Horst Fuhrmann to Norbert Grube at the Allensbach Institute, the goal of the survey was "to use embarrassing questions to ascertain the level of Christianization and to inspire the clergy to be more active in promoting a Christian way of life in their local communities." Fuhrman describes it as "a survey aimed at betterment and ultimately at creating a more zealous clergy."

The fact that Charlemagne's questionnaire was created not only with this aim of religious education, but probably also to obtain factual information—or specifically, an overview of the causes of the unrest throughout the realm—is evidenced by document 73, which comprises a list of responses, presumably either to this survey or a similar one. This capitulary is entitled, "On the reasons why men are commonly refusing to obey military orders," and it is followed by a whole list of reasons that read like real responses to article 2 of the questionnaire—like real reactions from the provinces, and not just the reports of high-ranking advisors. For example, the list says that the poor were complaining of having been driven from their homes, forcing them to abandon their elderly relatives, while the counts noted increasing insubordination among the peasants.

Examined together, documents 71 and 73 in Boretius' collection reveal the contours of what appears in part to be a remarkably modern process and which can be considered as the first known attempt to conduct an opinion survey. Among other things, it was clearly intended to investigate opinions and also aimed to obtain substantial information directly from the provinces, from the population—or at least from the more minor dignitaries—using standardized elements, that is, a written schedule of questions to be posed to all persons involved.

Thomas Petersen is project head at the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach in Allensbach, Germany. The author would like to offer his heartfelt thanks to Professor Horst Fuhrmann of the University of Regensburg, who is former president of the "Monumenta Germaniae Historica" and the Bavarian Academy of Science, for referring to the document in a conversation with Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann in the early 1990s at a meeting of the Order por le Merite. He would also like to thank Norbert Grube and Peter Voss very much for their hard work on the topic and most especially Peter Sabel, who translated the document from Latin for the first time.