Balázs György (szerk.): The abolition of serfdom and its impact on rural culture, Guide to the Exhibition Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Revolution and War if Independence of 1848-49 (Budapest-Szentendre, Museum of Hungarian Agriculture-Hungarian Open-Air Museum, 1998.)

of the common property of the community, aided by a juror and one or two so-called masters of wine and market inspectors. They called general meetings every year. The major functions of the village magistrates were the manageMembers of the lower nobility in Rábaköz ment of the community's common property, the distribution of their income, the maintenance of public order, and bringing about settlements. The peasantry were also divided into different layers, though not as sharply as the noble society. The largest and strongest of these layers was that of serfs with tenure. Their plots could be whole tenures or a half, a quarter or an eighth of a tenure. Then came the serfs with a small plot and a house, and those without. Below them followed the steadily growing layer of manorial servants. The village of serfs was led by the village mayor, assisted by a council of jurors and a notary. The mayor and the jurors were elected by the community from among the serfs themselves usually for a year. The leaders of the village were in charge of the common property of the community. The mayor collected the taxes and assigned his fellow serfs to 16