Black's Law Dictionary and Historical Jurisprudence Texts

• Allodialism — A legal, economic, and social system based on the holding of lands as allodium, meaning full private properties exempt from feudal dues, rents, or vassal services to a suzerain lord. This land tenure regime, though a minority during the medieval period dominated by conditional fiefs, represented an early form of absolute and independent ownership of the soil.
• Apocrisiarius — An old phonetic or spelling variant found in Byzantine manuscripts and medieval Romanian legal codes for the term 'apocrisiar' (apocrisiarius). It denotes a legate, emissary, special envoy, or official diplomatic representative of a patriarch, pope, or Byzantine emperor, sent to a foreign court or another ecclesiastical see to deliver official messages or negotiate dogmatic and territorial treaties.
• Provost-related — Belonging to the armaș, relating to the armaș; specific to the executive, judicial, or military duties of this old court office in the Romanian Principalities.
• Armatole — A member of Greek, Aromanian, or Balkan Christian militias who, during the Ottoman rule, were officially recognized and paid by the Turkish authorities to maintain public order, guard roads, mountain passes, and protect against brigands. In a historical sense, armatoles held a privileged and autonomous military status, with many later joining the revolutionary struggles for Greek national independence.
• Auxilium — A Latin term representing the original concept of help, assistance, or military alliance; in the Roman Empire, it denoted non-citizen auxiliary troops (auxilia), while in feudalism, it represented the obligation of military and financial assistance that a vassal owed to his lord (auxilium et consilium).