exkusseia
Byzantine term from Latin word excusatio (verb, excusare), with an analogous meaning. The institution of immunity (immunitas) was also known in Byzantium as exkuseia or exkusseia (εξκουσσεια). The earliest imperial charter (chrysobull) granting an exkuseia was issued only in the middle of the eleventh century (1045). The documents of the Byzantine period contain grants of immunities-exkuseias mostly given to monasteries. According to them the privileges granted by the charters of the Byzantine emperors were chiefly concerned with forbidding imperial officials to enter the privileged localities, with exemptions from taxation, and with the right of jurisdiction; in other words, here was the real medieval immunity on the western feudal model.
|
firman
In the Ottoman Empire, an imperial edict or commission signed and sealed by the Sultan.
|
katholikon
The main church in a monastic complex, heart of the monastic activity.
|
paroikos
(Byz.) Dependent peasants, usually on estates of large landowners or on ecclesiastical estates.
|
patriarchal monastery (stauropegion)
A monastery under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate, autonomous from the administration of the local bishop. The term stauropegion applied also to villages, meaning that in tax matters (mostly in regard to ecclesiastical taxes) they were under the control of the Patriarchate and not of the local diocese.
|
ziteia
Collection of contributions from the flock in behalf of the ecclesiastical authorities or monasteries.
|