A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 16. 1989 (Debrecen, 1989)

Tanulmányok - Balogh István: A magisztrátus tisztújítása Debrecenben (1715-1762)

requiráltatván = megkerestetvén reserválván = fenntartatván

restauratio electae juratae communitatis liberae ac regiae civitatis anni t.(itulatae) tenore privilegiato peracta = megnevezett szabad és királyi város megnevezett évi választott hites közönségének kiváltságlevél szokása megnevezett hónapjának, megnevezett napján végrehajtott tisztújítás serio = keményen

solemnitást contemnálván = ünnepséget lebecsülvén

sub poena = büntetés alatt

subscribálja = alánja

suffragium = szavazás

terminált = kitűzött

terminálta = kitűzte

titulatus = teljes című

titulust = címzést

tribunus plebis sive türmender = népszószóló ut supra = mint fent vice = helyettes

vox, voxolás = szavazat, szavazás

Re-Election of the Magistracy in Debrecen (1715?-1762?)

István Balogh

During the 16th-17th centuries Debrecen first was a manorial then a princely country-town and its autonomous administrative and judiciary organization was first put down in withing in 1552. According to this the representative of the town population was the 66 membered Senate that was completed by itself. On the nameday of Saint George (24th april) took place the elections of the 6 membered Court of Justice the members were named Sworn Judges (jurati judices) and the leader was called the Judge (judex oppidi).

In 1693 the town received its free royal town status in the royal patent. Simultaneously with this the name of the autonomous corporate body and the order of elections of the members were changed. The corporate body representing the town population was named Elected Sworn Community (electa jurata communitas), this comprised 80 members with the popular tribune at its head position (tribunus plebis, fürmender or magister plebis). This body elected 15 members to the Senate at every New Year’s Day and its principal, i.e. the Chief Judge of the town. The actual administration and jurisdiction were executed by this body but the statutes concerning the whole town were defined by the two bodies in collaboration.

After that the mode of election developed during a generation age but between the Senate, gradually becoming more and more aristocratic, and the Communites, representing the town population, there were througout may debates.

After 1715, by the introduction of the Government Administration and by its gradually increasing control, they carefully payed attention to the guarding of the free election practices duration (libera electio).

In order to avoid the governmental intervention and for the justification of legality they worked out the ceremony of the yearly re-election of officials in 1716.

As emphasis was put on the conception that the 60 membered Communitas was to be regarded as the sole representative of the entire local population (black community) and they elected the 12 membered Senate and its head the Chief Judge (judex primarius) these statements were not missing from the draft. This order remained in validity till 1848 in principle, and during the following decades election of the Senate, though the election of the senators for life, became the privilege of the town leadership.

The Communitas and its head, the popular tribune, had the right to intervene only in meaningless matters of the town’s matters.

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