Gravamen
Gravamen (from Latin gravis = heavy; plural: Gravamina) is a term from the Middle Ages and denotes:
- a complaint or a charge against the church and clergy or the feudal lord .
- an objection to statements in a church confession
- a fee to be paid by the subjects to the feudal lord or the church
- generally an impairment or burden on the subjects
- in civil procedure law, the still disputed part of a claimed amount.
In the area of secular law, the possibility of introducing gravamina ( remonstrance ) was one of the most important rights of the estates . This gave the possibility of influencing the sovereign bureaucracy. Gravamina were also a means of the estates to present themselves to the diets as trustees of their subjects.
In this context, gravamina were often divided into particular and general gravamina . The former were those of individual communities or specific groups or individuals. General gravamina affected the whole country.
See also
- More extensive on canon law: Gravamina of the German nation
- Remonstrants
literature
- Rainer Walz : Gravamina. In: Stefan Gorißen, Horst Sassin, Kurt Wesoly (ed.): History of the Bergisches Land. Volume 1: Until the end of the old Duchy of Berg in 1806 (= Bergische Forschungen. 31). Publishing house for regional history, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-89534-971-3 , p. 489.
