Place of authentication
Encyclopedia
A "place of authentication" was a legal institution peculiar to the Kingdom of Hungary
. They were chapter
s or monasteries
obliged to offer services similar the ones now provided by public notaries
. For instance, they drew up contracts known as "confessions" , issued authentic copies of any document kept by or presented to them, and bore witness to the scene of any sort of legal act. Besides their own archives, they also took care of private papers of local noblemen
.
The institution came into being at the end of the 12th century, and it stopped functioning in the middle of the 19th century Around 1500 more than thirty ecclesiastic institutions functioned as such in the entire kingdom (out of which two in Transylvania
, and also two in Slavonia
), but the activities of most of them were restricted to some administrative districts called "counties
", only four of them having an authority extending all over the kingdom. They left no room for the institution of public notaries, thus when the latter appeared in the kingdom after 1300, their activity was restricted to the field of canon law
.
s issued by the monarchs
possessed legal credibility in the Kingdom of Hungary. However, in lawsuits between laymen it had already in the 11th century become customary for oaths to be taken and ordeals to be administered by members of ecclesiastic bodies, such as chapters and monasteries. Around 1200 at the latest chapters started to keep records of the cases that came before them. The earliest example of this practice is the "Registry of Várad" that contains the minutes of 389 cases brought before the cathedral chapter of Várad
(Oradea, Romania
) between 1208 and 1235.
Charters issued by chapters and monasteries started to assume an increasingly uniform character of their own from the late 12th century, carrying their issuers' distinct seals. Although charters issued by the royal chancellery or by the kingdom's principal judges (for instance, by the palatine) retained a special authority, documents issued under the name and seal of ecclesiastical institutions rapidly acquired an almost analogous status. Thereafter not only landowners turned to these ecclesiastical institutions to confirm their transactions, but the heads of the counties ("counts") and higher royal officers also sought to have their judgments published under the seal of chapters and monasteries.
Besides preparing documents for fee, these religious institutions began to store them in their sacristy
, thus in short time they became authorized to issue authentic copies of any document kept by or presented to them. For instance, around 1400 the archive of the chapterhouse
of Esztergom
had one charter originally issued by King Béla III
(1172–1196), eight published by Andrew II
(1205–1235), and twenty-one from the reign of Béla IV
(1235–1270), while in 1525 the chapterhouse of Eger
was able to produce a copy of a charter issued in 1282.
The transformation of the major ecclesiastic institutions into effective agencies of royal administration was associated with the eclipse of the office of pristaldus ("bailiff
s"), that was effectively annulled in 1222 by King Andrew II. Thereafter many of the judicial tasks previously performed by the pristaldus (for instance, issue of summons
, taking of evidence, and survey of boundaries of estates) was to be assumed by representatives of local chapters and monasteries.
Only the ecclesiastic institutions to which the principal judges of the realm commonly turned retained an authority which extended all over the kingdom. These included the house of the Hospitallers
at Székesfehérvár
, the collegiate chapters of Székesfehérvár, Buda
, and (from 1498) the cathedral chapter
of Bosnia. Besides them around 1526 fourteen cathedral chapters, seven collegiate chapters, eight Benedictine
monasteries and five Premonstratensian
monasteries functioned as "places of authentication" with authority within the neighboring one, two or three counties.
. The clerks always had to be convinced that a landowner's claims to ownership was genuine before issuing a charter affirming his or her title to landed property. For this purpose, the clerks examined the document, determining by reference both to its writing, seal and other features whether it carried the mark of authenticity in all its details. Private papers of local landowners were kept in deposit boxes sealed by the owners.
First documents from the 14th century attest that "places of authentication" were frequently involved in the conduct of inquisitions; thenceforth plaintiff
s most commonly initiated proceedings by registering a claim with the local locus credibilis, asserting either a trespass or assault, or a sale or exchange of land. The matter proceeded through the "place of authentication" to a higher officer of the realm who then required the relevant religious institution to perform an inquisition of the trespass, or introduce the new owner into his property and record any objections made at this time. The representatives of "places of authentication" also attested how estates were divided or their boundaries fixed. In the case of a royal grant, a writ ordered them to witness the investiture of which they were to draw up a record for the grantee.
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
. They were chapter
Chapter (religion)
Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....
s or monasteries
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
obliged to offer services similar the ones now provided by public notaries
Notary public
A notary public in the common law world is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business...
. For instance, they drew up contracts known as "confessions" , issued authentic copies of any document kept by or presented to them, and bore witness to the scene of any sort of legal act. Besides their own archives, they also took care of private papers of local noblemen
Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary
The origin of the nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary can be traced to the Magyar conquest of Pannonia in the 9th century, and it developed over the course of the Middle Ages...
.
The institution came into being at the end of the 12th century, and it stopped functioning in the middle of the 19th century Around 1500 more than thirty ecclesiastic institutions functioned as such in the entire kingdom (out of which two in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, and also two in Slavonia
Kingdom of Slavonia
The Kingdom of Slavonia was a province of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Austrian Empire that existed from 1699 to 1868. The province included northern parts of present-day regions of Slavonia and Syrmia...
), but the activities of most of them were restricted to some administrative districts called "counties
Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary)
A county is the name of a type of administrative units in the Kingdom of Hungary and in Hungary from the 10th century until the present day....
", only four of them having an authority extending all over the kingdom. They left no room for the institution of public notaries, thus when the latter appeared in the kingdom after 1300, their activity was restricted to the field of canon law
Canon law (Catholic Church)
The canon law of the Catholic Church, is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements: courts, lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code and principles of legal interpretation. It lacks the necessary binding force present in most modern day legal systems. The academic...
.
Origins
Until the late 12th century, only charterCharter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
s issued by the monarchs
King of Hungary
The King of Hungary was the head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 to 1918.The style of title "Apostolic King" was confirmed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 and used afterwards by all the Kings of Hungary, so after this date the kings are referred to as "Apostolic King of...
possessed legal credibility in the Kingdom of Hungary. However, in lawsuits between laymen it had already in the 11th century become customary for oaths to be taken and ordeals to be administered by members of ecclesiastic bodies, such as chapters and monasteries. Around 1200 at the latest chapters started to keep records of the cases that came before them. The earliest example of this practice is the "Registry of Várad" that contains the minutes of 389 cases brought before the cathedral chapter of Várad
Oradea
Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...
(Oradea, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
) between 1208 and 1235.
Charters issued by chapters and monasteries started to assume an increasingly uniform character of their own from the late 12th century, carrying their issuers' distinct seals. Although charters issued by the royal chancellery or by the kingdom's principal judges (for instance, by the palatine) retained a special authority, documents issued under the name and seal of ecclesiastical institutions rapidly acquired an almost analogous status. Thereafter not only landowners turned to these ecclesiastical institutions to confirm their transactions, but the heads of the counties ("counts") and higher royal officers also sought to have their judgments published under the seal of chapters and monasteries.
Besides preparing documents for fee, these religious institutions began to store them in their sacristy
Sacristy
A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.The sacristy is usually located inside the church, but in some cases it is an annex or separate building...
, thus in short time they became authorized to issue authentic copies of any document kept by or presented to them. For instance, around 1400 the archive of the chapterhouse
Chapterhouse
For the religious buildings, see Chapter houseChapterhouse are a British shoegazing band originally of the early 1990s, from Reading, Berkshire, England. Formed in 1987 by Andrew Sherriff and Stephen Patman, the band began performing alongside Spacemen 3...
of Esztergom
Esztergom
Esztergom , is a city in northern Hungary, 46 km north-west of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there....
had one charter originally issued by King Béla III
Béla III of Hungary
Béla III was King of Hungary and Croatia . He was educated in the court of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I who was planning to ensure his succession in the Byzantine Empire till the birth of his own son...
(1172–1196), eight published by Andrew II
Andrew II of Hungary
Andrew II the Jerosolimitan was King of Hungary and Croatia . He was the younger son of King Béla III of Hungary, who invested him with the government of the Principality of Halych...
(1205–1235), and twenty-one from the reign of Béla IV
Béla IV of Hungary
Béla IV , King of Hungary and of Croatia , duke of Styria 1254–58. One of the most famous kings of Hungary, he distinguished himself through his policy of strengthening of the royal power following the example of his grandfather Bela III, and by the rebuilding Hungary after the catastrophe of the...
(1235–1270), while in 1525 the chapterhouse of Eger
Eger
Eger is the second largest city in Northern Hungary, the county seat of Heves, east of the Mátra Mountains. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings , and red and white wines.- Name :...
was able to produce a copy of a charter issued in 1282.
The transformation of the major ecclesiastic institutions into effective agencies of royal administration was associated with the eclipse of the office of pristaldus ("bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
s"), that was effectively annulled in 1222 by King Andrew II. Thereafter many of the judicial tasks previously performed by the pristaldus (for instance, issue of summons
Summons
Legally, a summons is a legal document issued by a court or by an administrative agency of government for various purposes.-Judicial summons:...
, taking of evidence, and survey of boundaries of estates) was to be assumed by representatives of local chapters and monasteries.
Authority
The process by which a chapter or an abbey acquired a "credible" status depended to a large extent upon contemporary opinion. If an ecclesiastic institution was believed to be scrupulous in its assessment of landowners' rights to property, documents issued under their seals were deemed of an authentic quality. The "credibility" of a charter issued by a chapter or monastery usually only extended to the nearest counties in which its documents and seal were more familiar.Only the ecclesiastic institutions to which the principal judges of the realm commonly turned retained an authority which extended all over the kingdom. These included the house of the Hospitallers
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...
at Székesfehérvár
Székesfehérvár
Székesfehérvár is a city in central Hungary and is the 9th largest in the country. Located around southwest of Budapest. It is inhabited by 101,973 people , with 136,995 in the Székesfehérvár Subregion. The city is the centre of Fejér county and the regional centre of Central Transdanubia...
, the collegiate chapters of Székesfehérvár, Buda
Buda
For detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...
, and (from 1498) the cathedral chapter
Cathedral chapter
In accordance with canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese in his stead. These councils are made up of canons and dignitaries; in the Roman Catholic church their...
of Bosnia. Besides them around 1526 fourteen cathedral chapters, seven collegiate chapters, eight Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monasteries and five Premonstratensian
Premonstratensian
The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines, or in Britain and Ireland as the White Canons , are a Catholic religious order of canons regular founded at Prémontré near Laon in 1120 by Saint Norbert, who later became Archbishop of Magdeburg...
monasteries functioned as "places of authentication" with authority within the neighboring one, two or three counties.
Tasks and procedures
Verifying titles of ownership was the most frequent task carried out by "places of authentication". Accordingly, their clerks copied out previously issued charters, checked up on the authenticity of the originals, and recorded the deed either in a register or in the form of a chirographChirograph
A chirograph is the term given to a medieval document, which has been written in duplicate, triplicate or very occasionally quadruplicate on a single piece of parchment, where the Latin word "chirographum" has been written across the middle, and then cut through...
. The clerks always had to be convinced that a landowner's claims to ownership was genuine before issuing a charter affirming his or her title to landed property. For this purpose, the clerks examined the document, determining by reference both to its writing, seal and other features whether it carried the mark of authenticity in all its details. Private papers of local landowners were kept in deposit boxes sealed by the owners.
First documents from the 14th century attest that "places of authentication" were frequently involved in the conduct of inquisitions; thenceforth plaintiff
Plaintiff
A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...
s most commonly initiated proceedings by registering a claim with the local locus credibilis, asserting either a trespass or assault, or a sale or exchange of land. The matter proceeded through the "place of authentication" to a higher officer of the realm who then required the relevant religious institution to perform an inquisition of the trespass, or introduce the new owner into his property and record any objections made at this time. The representatives of "places of authentication" also attested how estates were divided or their boundaries fixed. In the case of a royal grant, a writ ordered them to witness the investiture of which they were to draw up a record for the grantee.