GLOSSARY
This list is meant to include only technical terms which occur frequently in the text. Terms which are familiar, and those which are used only once or twice and explained in the text, are therefore not included.
abbot, head of a monastery; see no. 251, chs. [2], [64]. advocate, advocatus, representative of church or prelate in secular affairs; in feudal system regularly a vassal of the church, holding office and church lands as fief; see [no. 296] introduction. aids, obligations of vassal to his lord; see introductory note to [nos. 209–228], and [nos. 215–217]. alderman, originally head of a gild; later, regularly member of ruling council of a city. allodial land, alod, small freehold, as distinct from tenant-farm; later in feudal system also applied to family possessions of a noble as distinct from lands held by title of duke, count, etc.; an instance of this latter use in [no. 90]. anathema, curse, regularly associated with papal excommunication. apostolic seat, apostolic see, the bishopric of Rome, used as a figure of speech for pope or papal office. Augustus, from time of Otto III the title regularly assumed by emperors after imperial coronation; indicates the theory that mediæval emperors were successors to Roman emperors. bailly, bailiff, representative of lord in the villa. ban, (1) proscription, or outlawry, regularly that pronounced by emperor against a subject; (2) particular fine paid to emperor or king in addition to ordinary penalty, usually 60 solidi. basilica, church, especially early church modelled on Roman public building called basilica. Bauermeister, see introductory note to section vii. benefice, beneficium, (1) a form of land-holding, practically a fief; see nos. 197–202 and introduction; (2) lands and income attached to the office of a canon. bull, a decree or edict of the pope. burggrave, the official representative of overlord or king in a city; later a feudal noble. canon, (1) a decree of a council or synod; (2) one of the chapter of a bishop’s church. canon law, ecclesiastical law, the law of the church, based on the decrees of popes and councils; see [no. 33], introduction, and Bibliography, Corpus juris canonici. canonical election, election of a church official in accordance with canon law. capitulary, decree or edict of Carolingian king or emperor, drawn up with advice of Frankish assembly. cardinal, a member of the Sacred College, the advisory body of the pope, standing next to him in Catholic hierarchy, and intrusted with duty of electing pope. Members of college have titular offices in the bishopric of Rome, as cardinal bishops (now 6 in number), cardinal presbyters (now 50), and cardinal deacons (now 14). chamberlain, see court officials. chancellor, official at the head of the department intrusted with drawing up and preserving documents; an important office in every royal court, frequently held by an ecclesiastic. chaplain, priest of private church or chapel of great lord or ruler; in royal courts becomes important member of council and central administration of king. chapter, regularly the corporation of the clergy attached to the bishop’s church, including dean, præpositus, cantor, scholasticus, penitentiarius, treasurer, etc. confession of St. Peter; see [no. 45, note 64]. council, the general assembly of the church, composed of chief clergy and representatives of lower clergy, and summoned occasionally by pope or cardinals; see [no. 41, note 60], and nos. [169–174]. count, comes, the chief official in a county, originally as representative of the king, later, in feudal system, as feudal lord of lesser nobles in county. count palatine, comes palatinus, one of chief officials of royal court; in feudal system, hereditary title attached to certain possessions, as palatine county of the Rhine in Germany, and of Champagne in France. court officials, officers of the royal courts charged with important departments of central administration: seneschal, steward, chief official in charge of royal household and domains; chamberlain, originally officer in charge of royal chamber, later practically treasurer; cup-bearer, cellarer, or butler, officer in charge of vineyards; marshal or constable, officer in charge of royal stables, later of the royal army. These offices in the beginning were of private nature, were later extended to include important public functions and became hereditary in hands of great nobles, and then became merely titular and ceremonial, the real duties being performed by royal officials and servants. See [no. 160, ch. 27], for this last stage, in Germany. cupbearer, see court officials. dean, head of a chapter of canons. denarius, a small coin, penny, originally silver; see no. 4, I, note 2. diet, general assembly of the empire, including in final form the great ecclesiastics and nobles, and representatives of imperial cities; see nos. 146, 158, 159, 160 for instances. diocese, ecclesiastical district ruled over by a bishop, made up of parishes; archdiocese, ecclesiastical district of an archbishop, comprising several bishoprics. duke, ruler of a duchy, a great feudal lord, in Germany retaining character also of a public official to time of Frederick I. electors, electoral princes, princes of Germany who exercised the right of electing the emperor; see [no. 160] for names of the electors, their prerogatives, etc. excommunication, exclusion from the communion of the Catholic church, entailing loss of rank and privileges on part of church officials, and of allegiance of subjects on part of secular ruler; ecclesiastical outlawry. feudal terms, see introductory note to nos. 209–228. fief, regularly an estate or territory held from a superior on terms of personal allegiance and honorable service, usually military support. fodrum, fodder; as an obligation, the duty of supplying provisions for the royal army. gild, society or association of merchants of a town, or of artisans of single trade in a town. Gild of the merchants in many cases represented the town in the struggle for a charter, and government of many towns was based on the organization of the gild. hide, portion of a family in the lands of the village community. hierarchy of the Catholic church, chief ecclesiastical officials; in order of authority: pope, cardinals, archbishops, bishops. For lower grades, see [no. 34, note 57]. homage, ceremony of entering into personal dependence on a lord, preliminary to receiving a fief from him; see nos. [209–214], [218–225]. hundred, division of the county, mainly for judicial purposes; see [no. 1, note 1], and [no. 4 introduction]. hundred-court, local public court of the hundred; the regular public court in Germany; see introductory note to [section vii]. hundred-man, centenarius, centgraf, presiding official of the hundred-court, usually elected by freemen of the hundred; see [no. 1, note 4], and [no. 4] introduction. immunity, freedom from control of public officials; a right attached to gifts of land from king; see nos. [190–194], and introduction. indiction, number of a year in a period of 15 years, used as a means of dating mediæval documents; established by Constantine and beginning with the year 313 A.D. To find the indiction of a year, add 3 to the number of the year and divide by 15; the remainder is the indiction of the year; if there is no remainder, the indiction is 15. indulgence, see [no. 179] introduction. insignia, symbols of office, commonly referring to royal or imperial symbols; see nos. [158], [159], and [160, ch. 22], for insignia of emperor. interdict, prohibition of performance of church services and sacraments, pronounced by ecclesiastical authority against a district or a country, frequently for the sins of its ruler. investiture, the ceremony of induction into office, whether ecclesiastical or secular. justice, in feudal system technically right of lord to try cases of inhabitants of his fief in his feudal court; see [no. 228, 1, note 94]; as a revenue, income from fines in feudal justice. king of the Romans, title used by German kings from the time of Henry III before the imperial coronation; later also used by son of the emperor associated in the rule with his father. landgrave, a feudal noble, practically the same as feudal count. legate, special representative of the pope; see [no. 66] introduction. liege homage, see [no. 218] introduction. margrave, the official in control of a mark or frontier county; later a feudal noble. marshal, see court officials. metropolitan, as a noun, archbishop; as an adjective, archiepiscopal. ministerial, servant of the king or great lord in Germany; being endowed with land and used as mounted followers in war, they become a lower nobility; see [no. 297] introduction. missi, in general, representatives of central government sent into local districts; in particular, the officials sent out annually by Karl the Great and his successors to oversee the administration of local officials, etc.; see [no. 9] introduction. notary, lower official in the department of the chancellor. patriarch, in the west, honorary title attached to certain bishoprics, as patriarch of Aquileia; in East, bishop of highest rank, as patriarch of Constantinople. patricius, see [no. 48] introduction. patrimony, estate or territory belonging to the pope as possession of office; Patrimony of St. Peter, land about Rome which was the basis of the states of the church. Petrine theory, see [no. 35]. pfahlburgers, phalburgii; see [no. 139], sec. 10. pontificate, papacy, period of rule of a pope. pope, bishop of Rome and head of the church; titles: vicar of Christ, vicar of St. Peter, apostolic, universal, servant of the servants of God, etc. præpositus, prévôt, provost, (1) member of chapter of canons, in charge of lands of the chapter;(2) a layman in charge of domain lands of a bishop;(3) the representative of great lord or king in local regions;(4) the chief of a gild, or the mayor of a city. precarium, see [introductory note to nos. 184–188]. prior, chief official under the abbot in a monastery; also ruler of a priory or small congregation of monks dependent on a monastery. regalia, sovereign rights, or rights of the crown; see [no. 83], [no. 103] and introduction. Schoeffen, scabini, originally board of judges for each hundred-court, established as a judicial reform by Karl the Great; from these develop Schoeffen of feudal domains and cities, as judges in the courts there. Schultheiss, originally subordinate official of the count, who becomes presiding officer of lower public courts in Germany; name used also for presiding officer of court on territory of feudal lord, and in cities under jurisdiction of lord; see introductory note to [section vii]. seneschal, see court officials. senior, see [no. 208], note. serf, unfree tenant on a feudal estate, paying rent and services to the lord, bound to the soil, and subject to the jurisdiction of the lord’s officials. simony, use of money or secular influence to secure an ecclesiastical office; generally, securing of such an office by any means other than canonical election. solidus, a gold or silver coin, shilling, containing 12 denarii; see [no. 4, I, note 11]. suffragan bishop, one who has the right of voting for his archbishop. synod, local council of bishopric or archbishopric summoned by the prelate. vassal, one who has promised allegiance and fidelity to a superior, from whom he holds a fief. villa, village or community of tenants and serfs on feudal domain, corresponding to English manor; the unit of organization of feudal estates. wergeld, compensation for manslaughter, paid to the kindred of the slain man by slayer or his kindred; see [no. 1, ch. 21, note 6], and [no. 4, XLI, note 12].