Az országgyűlési bíráskodás emlékei egy 17. századi Erdélyi formuláskönyvből
On the Estates Assembly as a Court of Justice Based on a 17th-Century Formulary from Transylvania

Summary/Abstract: In this study, we present a formulary compiled in the first half of the 17th century and analyze the documents that refer to the activity of the estate’s assembly as a court of judicature and the functioning of the princely table during the diets. The presented manuscript consists of two distinct parts: the first part contains model documents on the activity of the princely court of justice, i.e., related to the activity of the so-called “small chancery,” while the second part is more of a legal treatise. Based on the analysis of the sentence letters, we deduced that, in cases of lese-majesty trials, the diet constituted the court of justice, and the sentence was pronounced by those present at the assembly, not by the princely table. Several examples copied in the formulary book contain information about the activity of the princely table during the diets when the estates assembly essentially functioned as an octave court of judgment for specific causes.

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