Právní institut apelace v pražském procesním traktátu Parvus ordinarius

Abstract

This paper aims to present the procedural treatise Parvus ordinarius as a valuable object for research into the history of the ecclesiastical judiciary in medieval Bohemia. One manuscript of the Parvus ordinarius, currently stored under the signature VIII.G.5 in the Prague National Library in Klementinum, serves as the source base for the study. There is good reason to believe that this very codex played a role in the judicial practice in the Czech lands in the (pre-)Hussite period. Firstly, we know from the ownership note that it once belonged to Pavel of Slavíkovice, a liberal arts bachelor at the University of Prague, who worked as a notary and became a criminal judge of the clergy in Prague before 1436. Secondly, the Prague version of Parvus ordinarius met the needs of the domestic legal environment thanks to the gloss added to the treatise in the first half of the 14th century. These remarks written down by an unknown jurist have not been edited so far and thus have escaped the attention of scholars. Of all the content of the Parvus ordinarius, the focus is on the appeal, seen as a merge of traditions of both Roman and ecclesiastical law. As argued in the text, the chosen topic is a great starting point not only for multidisciplinary collaboration between lawyers and historians of different specializations but also for the search for links between the functioning of the judiciary in the past and the present.