Glossary

Amercement: A fine.

Antipope: An irregularly elected pope. Normally competes with the pope for the allegiance of the church, and the antipope is the one who, ultimately, loses.

Archdeacon: The most important of a bishop's officers, responsible for enforcing decrees.

Attachment: Holding someone in custody to face a criminal charge.

Bailiff: Someone who manages an estate on behalf of its owner.

Bedell: An official responsible for enforcing regulations.

Benefice: A position, restricted to clerks, that provides an income. Most benefices are parishes, but some are attached to cathedrals. Also called a living.

Carol: A dance in which the participants form a ring. Not particularly associated with Christmas.

Chalice: The cup in which the wine is held at mass.

Chapter: The gathering of the members of an ecclesiastical organisation at which decisions are made.

Clerk: Someone in holy orders, whether major or minor. Beginning to be used to refer to anyone engaged in literate occupations, even if they are not in orders.

Consistory Court: A court of canon law in which cases are heard by the bishop's deputy.

Coram Rege: "In the presence of the king," usually referring to legal cases heard by the king in person.

Coroner: A legal official, responsible for hearing certain pleas of the crown.

Crown, The: The king as ruler, encompassing the activities of his officers.

Diocese: The main unit of ecclesiastical administration, headed by a bishop.

Dispensation: Permission from a high ecclesiastical authority to break one of the requirements of canon law.

Distaff: A staff with a cleft end, in which unspun wool or flax is held.

Essoin: Permission to not attend court in a civil case, usually given for sickness.

Excommunication: An ecclesiastical penalty, barring an individual from receiving any of the sacraments, including absolution. Anyone dying excommunicate is condemned to hell.

Eyre: A tour of the country by royal justices, to hear major cases.

Fee: The holding of a member of the feudal nobility. Can be land, or a fixed income, or the right to collect a certain tax.

Fief: The holding of a member of the feudal nobility, especially if it is land.

Flax: The raw material of linen.

Forester: A royal official responsible for enforcing forest law. Unpopular.

Fornication: Sexual relations outside marriage, regardless of whether those involved are married or not. That is, it includes pre-marital sex as well as adultery, homosexuality, and incest.

Gild: A group of people who have joined together for mutual aid and protection. Gilds may join people who follow the same craft, live in the same town, or worship at the same church. (Also spelled "guild.")

Grand Assize: Twelve knights serving to decide who has the right to a piece of land.

Holy Orders: The four highest degrees of ordination: subdeacon, deacon, priest, and bishop.

Host: The consecrated bread at a mass.

Hue: The pursuit of a criminal observed in the act by the residents of a place. Those engaged in the hue may legally kill the malefactor.

Hundred: A subdivision of a county.

Infangtheof: The right to hang a thief caught in the act.

Interdict: An ecclesiastical penalty prohibiting the celebration of the sacraments in an area.

Legate: A representative with the full power of the person he represents. Normally a Papal Legate.

Leyrwite: A fine paid by villein women caught in fornication.

Libel: A written account of charges, submitted in a church court.

Living: A benefice.

Marches: The Anglo-Norman possessions in Wales.

Merchet: A tax that must be paid by villeins before they can marry.

Mesnie: The household knights of a great lord.

Minor Orders: The four lower degrees of ordination: doorkeeper, lector, exorcist, and acolyte.

Mother House: A monastery which founds another monastery (the daughter), and retains some oversight.

Novel Disseisin: Recent dispossession of a piece of land. Also the writ allowing you to reclaim such land.

Obedientiary: An officer in a monastery.

Parish: The local unit of church administration, centered on a single church.

Palatinate: A lordship within which the lord has the powers of the king. These include the right to try pleas of the crown and the right to build castles.

Paten: The plate on which the host is placed at mass.

Pleas of the Crown: Criminal offenses that can only be tried in royal or palatine courts.

Priest: A clerk ordained to the priesthood, able to consecrate the bread and wine at the eucharist.

Proctor: A legal representative; an attorney.

Range: A continuous part of a building, particularly one side of a courtyard.

Rector: The clerk with a right to the tithes of a parish. Responsible for the sacraments, but may appoint a deputy.

Regular: A clerk who lives according to a rule. Secular: A clerk who does not live according to a rule.

Seisin: Possession of land.

Sheriff: The king's representative in a county, responsible for collecting taxes and dispensing justice. A very important officer.

Suit of Court: The duty to attend a particular court whenever it sits.

Tithe: A tenth of everything of which God gives the increase, which belongs to the rector of the parish in which it is produced.

Tithing: A group of men, nominally ten, legally responsible for one another's behavior.

Tonsure: A clerical hair cut, short and with a shaved area on the scalp.

Tourn: The sheriff's formal visitation of his shire.

Vicar: A clerk who does the rector's work in a parish. Ought to be a priest.

View of Frankpledge: See page 106.

Villein: An unfree peasant, bound to the land and requiring his or her lord's permission for many activities.

Visitation: An official investigation by a bishop of his diocese.

Wattle and Daub: A way of building walls which involves weaving sticks together and then covering the framework with mud mixed with straw to keep the wind out.

Writ: A legal document initiating a civil case. Yardland: Thirty acres of land, enough to make a peasant family prosperous.

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Heirs to Merlin Appendix One: Glossary

See Also

Glossary