Imperial Chamber Court Messenger
A Reich Chamber Court messenger , or chamber messenger for short , was a sworn messenger who delivered summons, mandates or other court letters issued by the Reich Chamber Court. This delivery was called a proclamation. When exercising their office, they enjoyed safe conduct and security everywhere in the empire, identified by a metal plate with the image and the emperor's coat of arms, the so-called rifle.
history
At the Reichshofgericht there were still no separate regulations for the delivery of loads, but these were delivered in various ways that were currently available. The delivery of a cargo was usually proven by oral testimony from the carrier. Particular difficulties arose from the fact that princes could only be invited by peers.
At the Royal Chamber Court , the forms of service were already very similar to those in the later Reich Chamber Court . There is hardly any mention of summons by peers and the deliveries were carried out either by notaries or by couriers. The logging of the delivery was carried out by means of documents that were created using forms.
Building on this, the Reich Chamber Court Regulations of 1495, which formed the legal basis of the Reich Chamber Court, provided for delivery either by their own chamber court messengers or notaries.
In 1548 the number of messengers was fixed at 12. In 1713, the messenger received an imperial livery in addition to the rifle .
Service and duties
A messenger had to be able to read and write, also to be able to read the letters aloud and to be able to explain the contents to the recipient. They received a monthly wage, had to look after mounts and take care of themselves. From the party that had obtained a letter to be served, they originally received one guilder for every 12 miles they traveled, and another half a guilder for the announcement. There were corresponding surcharges for further announcements on his journey. These tariffs have changed several times over the years.
The messengers handed over the original or a copy of the letters and wrote a handwritten report on the proclamation. This relation mentioned report was made public in a copy also the party that had obtained the letter, and was with the as reproduction designated resubmission to the Imperial Courts essential prerequisite for the further course of the proceedings. In this report the place, time and precise circumstances of the proclamation were recorded. I.a. the behavior of the recipient should be noted.
These remarks prove a large number of acts of violence and insults against the chamberlain. In particular, the imperial knights were feared by the chamberlain, which led to the fact that in the 16th century the letters were only regularly announced to them as so-called edictal citation , ie by public notice. This led to complaints from the imperial knighthood to the court, arguing, among other things, that threatening court messengers with ear cutting or eye piercing would not be regarded as unknightly. Compared to more powerful imperial estates, there were often no messengers or notaries at all to deliver.
Remarks
literature
- Rudolf Smend : The Reich Chamber of Commerce, 1: History and Constitution . Böhlau Verlag, Weimar 1911.
- Wolfgang Prange : Schleswig Holstein and the Reich Chamber of Commerce in its first fifty years . Ed .: Society for Reich Chamber Court Research. Wetzlar 1998 ( vifa-recht.de [PDF]).
- Wolfgang Prange : From the Reich Chamber of Commerce in the first half of the 16th century - The judgments in Christian Barth's edition; Chamber messengers and delivery of court letters . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 978-3-412-02602-8 , pp. 58 ff .