Diaconescu, Marius (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 1999 (3. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)
Mentalităţi
14 Mária Makó Lupescu ordeal of hot iron as it was practiced at Oradea three phases can be delimited: the first one which I named the part before the “cathedral-scene”, the second one named the “cathedral-scene”, and the third one, the part after the “cathedral-scene”. The appendix of the register has only preserved the “cathedral-scene”. Thus, the reconstruction process of the other two parts was based on the records of the Oradean register. I. Before the “cathedral-scene” The first part of the ordeal-process includes all steps made by the litigants until they came to the Oradean chapter to carry the hot iron. Although the register preserved many judicial cases, the Hungarian legal system of that time was established in such ways that people were not encouraged to litigate. For instance, at a time when ready cash was a rarity, a small fortune was established through law costs: for the trial by hot water they had to pay to the church one penza and for the trial by hot iron two penza.* 60 In this way, the litigants were encouraged to make a deal or to confess. Another opportunity to traverse the trial was offered by the work of so called “arbitrators” {probi viri). Their duty was to mediate between the litigants in such a way that a judicial process should be avoided.61 One supposes that the high number of reconciliations preserved in the Oradean register could be owned to them.62 When reconciliation between the litigant parties was not possible, a judicial process was started. 1. Based on a report made by the accuser, the designated or chosen judge ordered the litigants to appear in front of him. In the major part of the cases, the two parties involved in the process served the summons on the charge. Thus, in the presence of the litigants' parties the judicial process began. Sometimes, the accused did not appear in front of the judge. If the accused did not appear to the process after seven summons, the judge could order that his name should be shouted out in the market-places of the county in order to come either in front of the judge or at disintegrated, and the pages were out of order. Frater George, bishop of Oradea, recognizing the importance of the manuscript, published it in that “bad” order. The original manuscript has been lost and, at the present time, the published work itself can be considered a rarity, because only seven examples have survived. Georgius Maftinuzzi, ed.. Ritus Explorandae Veritatis, Quo Hungahea Natio in dirimendis controversiis ante annos trecentos et quadraginta usa est, et eius testimonia plurima in Sacrario summi templi Varadien. reperta (Cluj, 1550). 60 Saint Ladislas first code of law stated that “presbiter de ferro duas pensas et de aqua unam pensam accipiat.” Levente Závodszky, A Szent István, Szent László és Kálmán korabeli törvények és zsinati határozatok forrásai (The sources of the laws and counciliar decrees from the age of saint Stephen, saint Ladislas, and Coloman) (Budapest, 1904), 162 cp. Bunyitay, A váradi püspökség, voi. 1, 73. The penza was a counting money. At the beginning thirty, then fourty denars were counted on one penza. Gyula Kristó, Pál Engel, and Ferenc Makk, eds., Korai magyar történeti lexikon (9-14. század) (Lexicon for early Hungarian history, 9-14,h centuries) (Budapest, 1994), 541-42. 61 Botka, “A vármegyék első alakulásáról,” 74, 80. 62 Bunyitay, A váradi püspökség, voi. 1, 73-74. In a case of trial by oath from 1222 the reconciliation was made by “friends”: “Qui omnes, cum ad sepulchrum sancti Ladislai regis iuraturi accessissent, saepeiamdicti actores non ausi sunt eos adiurare, scilicet: adversarios suos pro iustis dimittendo pacem eorum interventu amicorum impetrarunt...” Karácsonyi, and Borovszky, Regestrum Varadinense, no. 340, p. 282.
