II. Die Königsgerichtsbarkeit und das privilegium fori im deutschen Spätmittelalter (1273–1400)

Abstract

Summary This article studies the relationship between the German royal jurisdiction and the clerical privilege about jurisdiction (privilegium fori) from 1273 to 1400. In investigating this it is important to consider that many conflicts in which the clergy participated were decided at the sovereign court through reconciliation and arbitration. From the end of the 13th century to the begin of the 14th century, the privilegium fori was respected in principle at the rulers‘ courts, but the privilege was invalid when a cleric fell into conflict with the king himself. Especially clerics with good connections to the court – such as the clerical princes – began to submit to the royal jurisdiction. At the end of the reign of the Wittelsbach Louis IV clerical cases were often treated at the sovereign court during a severe confrontation between the emperor and the Curia. At the same time the imperial court tribunal began to be active. From the middle of the 14th century, under the Luxemburg emperor Charles IV, the clerical privileges of the suit and forms of the process at the ruler court developed further. If the court tribunal had accepted lawsuits against the clergy, Charles IV intervened in favor of the defendant. At the end of the 14th century, under Wenceslas, the parties promoted the ‘Verrechtlichung‘ of the Holy Roman Empire in the later middle ages.