Book of Afflictions

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The Book of Afflictions and two books of eight are the oldest judgment books in the city of Eger (today Cheb). You document u. a. Court cases, ostracisms and their atonement through payment of fines and the swearing of primal feuds . They offer research insights into the local nobility of the Egerland and document regional drudgery and feuds of the late Middle Ages.

The Cheb court books that have been preserved include other documents, including debt registers. The Book of Afflictions and the two books of eight have only been preserved incompletely, with various pages missing. The first book of eight deals with the period from 1310 to 1390. In the course of its processing by the archivist Karl Siegl , the second, believed to be lost book of eight, about the period from 1391 to 1668, was rediscovered and it was also rediscovered by Siegl in an annotated version published.

Most of the eight were cases of theft, but also robbery and murder or manslaughter. Atoned cases were crossed out in the book of eight. Eight was a particularly harsh punishment because it allowed the outlaw to be killed and forbade his friends and family to provide shelter, food, drink or any other assistance.

Numerous family members from noble families of the Egerland and Vogtland operated as robber barons or slavers . With the decline of the knighthood, raids on merchants were lucrative. Imperial orders allowed the destruction of predatory nests, which in turn was a welcome opportunity for aspiring territorial lords to expand their power. The Luxburg and 1352 the Epprechtstein were due to their attacks on merchants, u. a. from Eger, taken. A few years after the Guttenberg feud of 1380 , numerous feuding participants joined forces in a feud against Eger , primarily to gain booty. In the period from 1381 and 1382 to 1396 they threatened the city and its trade routes. A particularly striking figure is Friedrich von Neuberg . In the Book of Afflictions, his tortured confession fills several pages.

literature

  • Heinrich Gradl : The book of the afflictions at the Egerer jury court . In: Archives for history and antiquity of Upper Franconia . Volume 15, Issue 2. Bayreuth 1882. pp. 215-274.
  • Eckard Lullies: The feud of Guttenberg against the bailiffs and the feud against Eger . Kulmbach 1999. ISBN 3925162194 .
  • Karl Siegl : The Egerer Achtbuch from the time from 1310 to 1390 . In: Communications from the Association of the History of Germans in Bohemia . 39th year. Prague 1901.
  • Karl Siegl: The Book of Eight II of the Egerer Schöffengericht from 1391 to 1668 . In: Communications from the Association of the History of Germans in Bohemia . 41st year 1903.