HOMAGE (from homo, through the Low Lat. hominaticum, which occurs in a document of 1035), one of the ceremonies used in the granting of a fief, and indicating the submission of a vassal to his lord. It could be received only by the suzerain in person. With head uncovered the vassal humbly requested to be allowed to enter into the feudal relation; he then laid aside his sword and spurs, ungirt his belt, and kneeling before his lord, and holding his hands extended and joined between the hands of his lord, uttered words to this effect: “I become your man from this day forth, of life and limb, and will hold faith to you for the lands I claim to hold of you.” The oath of fealty, which could be received by proxy, followed the act of homage; then came the ceremony of investiture, either directly on the ground or by the delivery of a turf, a handful of earth, a stone, or some other symbolical object. Homage was done not only by the vassal to whom feudal lands were first granted but by every one in turn by whom they were inherited, since they were not granted absolutely but only on condition of military and other service. An infant might do homage, but he did not thus enter into full possession of his lands. The ceremony was of a preliminary nature, securing that the fief would not be alienated; but the vassal had to take the oath of fealty, and to be formally invested, when he reached his majority. The obligations involved in the act of homage were more general than those associated with the oath of fealty, but they provided a strong moral sanction for more specific engagements. They essentially resembled the obligations undertaken towards a Teutonic chief by the members of his “comitatus” or “gefolge,” one of the institutions from which feudalism directly sprang. Besides homagium ligeum, there was a kind of homage which imposed no feudal duty; this was homagium per paragium, such as the dukes of Normandy rendered to the kings of France, and as the dukes of Normandy received from the dukes of Brittany. The act of liege homage to a particular lord did not interfere with the vassal’s allegiance as a subject to his sovereign, or with his duty to any other suzerain of whom he might hold lands.
The word is also used of the body of tenants attending a manorial court, or of the court in a court baron (consisting of the tenants that do homage and make inquiries and presentments, termed a homage jury).
HOMBERG, WILHELM (1652-1715), Dutch natural philosopher, was the son of an officer of the Dutch East India Company, and was born at Batavia (Java) on the 8th of January 1652. Coming to Europe with his family in 1670, he studied law at Jena and Leipzig, and in 1674 became an advocate at Magdeburg. In that town he made the acquaintance of Otto von Guericke, and under his influence determined to devote himself to natural science. He, therefore, travelled in various parts of Europe for study, and after graduating in medicine at Wittenberg, settled in Paris in 1682. From 1685 to 1690 he practised as a physician at Rome; then returning to Paris in 1691, he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences and appointed director of its chemical laboratory. Subsequently he became teacher of physics and chemistry (1702), and private physician (1705) to the duke of Orleans. His death occurred at Paris on the 24th of September 1715. Homberg was not free from alchemistical tendencies, but he made many solid contributions to chemical and physical knowledge, recording observations on the preparation of Kunkel’s phosphorus, on the green colour produced in flames by copper, on the crystallization of common salt, on the salts of plants, on the saturation of bases by acids, on the freezing of water and its evaporation in vacuo, &c. Much of his work was published in the Recueil de l’Académie des Sciences from 1692 to 1714. The Sal Sedativum Hombergi is boracic acid, which he discovered in 1702, and “Homberg’s phosphorus” is prepared by fusing sal-ammoniac with quick lime.
HOMBURG-VOR-DER-HÖHE, a town and watering-place of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, prettily situated at the south-east foot of the Taunus Mountains, 12 m. N. of Frankfort-on-Main, with which it is connected by rail. Pop. (1905) 13,740. Homburg consists of an old and a new town, the latter, founded by the landgrave of Hesse-Homburg Frederick II. (d. 1708), being regular and well-built. Besides the palatial edifices erected in connexion with the mineral water-cure, there are churches of various denominations, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Russian-Greek and Anglican, schools and benevolent institutions. On a neighbouring hill stands the palace of the former landgraves, built in 1680 and subsequently enlarged and improved. The White Tower, 183 ft. in height, is said to date from Roman times, and certainly existed under the lords of Eppstein, who held the district in the 12th century. The palace is surrounded by extensive grounds, laid out in the manner of an English park. The eight mineral springs which form the attraction of the town to strangers belong to the class of saline acidulous chalybeates and contain a considerable proportion of carbonate of lime. Their use is beneficial for diseases of the stomach and intestines, and externally, for diseases of the skin and rheumatism. The establishments connected with the springs are arranged on a scale of great magnificence, and include the Kurhaus (built 1841-1843), with a theatre, the Kaiser Wilhelmsbad and the Kurhausbad. They lie grouped round a pretty park which also furnishes the visitors with facilities for various recreations, such as lawn tennis, croquet, polo and other games. The industries of Homburg embrace iron founding and the manufacture of leather and hats, but they are comparatively unimportant, the prosperity of the town being almost entirely due to the annual influx of visitors, which during the season from May to October inclusive averages 12,000. In the beautiful neighbourhood lies the ancient Roman castle of Saalburg, which can be reached by an electric tramway.
Homburg first came into repute as a watering-place in 1834, and owing to its gaming-tables, which were set up soon after, it rapidly became one of the favourite and most fashionable health-resorts of Europe. In 1849 the town was occupied by Austrian troops for the purpose of enforcing the imperial decree against gambling establishments, but immediately on their withdrawal the bank was again opened, and play continued unchecked until 1872, when the Prussian government refused to renew the lease for gambling purposes, which then expired. As the capital of the former landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg, the town shared the vicissitudes of that state.
Homburg is also the name of a town in Bavaria. Pop. (1900) 4785. It has a Roman Catholic and an Evangelical church, and manufactures of iron goods. In the neighbourhood are the ruins of the castles of Karlsberg and of Hohenburg. The family of the counts of Homburg became extinct in the 15th century. The town came into the possession of Zweibrücken in 1755 and later into that of Bavaria.
See Supp, Bad Homburg (7th ed., Homburg, 1903); Baumstark, Bad Homburg und seine Heilquellen (Wiesbaden, 1901); Schiek, Homburg und Umgebung (Homburg, 1896); Will, Der Kurort Homburg, seine Mineralquellen (Homburg, 1880); Hoeben, Bad Homburg und sein Heilapparat (Homburg, 1901); and N. E. Yorke-Davies, Homburg and its Waters (London, 1897).