On 1 September 1231, Emperor Frederick II, promulgated one of his greatest legacies: the so-called Constitutions of Melfi, or Liber Augustalis,^[1] a new legal code for his Kingdom of Sicily. It was given at Melfi, the town from which Frederick's Norman ancestors had first set out to conquer the Mezzogiorno two centuries earlier. Originally a reform of the Assizes of Capua of 1220, themselves his reform of the Assizes of Ariano of 1140, the Constitutions formed the basis of Sicilian law for the next six centuries. September 1 is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years). ... // Events Ardengus becomes bishop of Florence. ... Frederick II (December 26, 1194 – December 13, 1250), Holy Roman Emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was pretender to the title of King of the Romans from 1212, unopposed holder of that monarchy from 1215, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 until his death in 1250. ... The following is a list of monarchs of Naples and Sicily: See also: List of Counts of Apulia and Calabria Hauteville Counts of Sicily, 1071-1130 Roger I 1071-1101 Simon 1101-1105 Roger II 1105-1130 Hauteville Kings of Sicily, 1130-1198 Roger II 1130-1154 William I 1154... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The Normans (adapted from the name Northmen or Norsemen) were a mixture of the indigenous population of Neustria and Danish or Norwegian Vikings who began to occupy the northern area of France now known as Normandy in the latter half of the 9th century. ... Southern Italy, often referred to as the Mezzogiorno, encompasses at least four of the countrys 20 regions: Basilicata, Campania, Calabria, and Puglia. ... The Assizes of Capua were the first of two great legislative acts of the reign of Frederick I of Sicily, Holy Roman Emperor. ... // The world in 1220 Middle Ages in Europe Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) Events Mongols first invade Abbasid caliphate - Bukhara and Samarkand taken End of the Kara-Khitan Khanate, destroyed by Genghis Khans Mongolian cavalry Dominican Order approved by Pope Honorius III Frederick II crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope... The Assizes of Ariano were a series of laws promulgated in the summer of 1140 at Ariano, near Benevento in the Mezzogiorno, by Roger II of Sicily. ... Events Henry Jasomirgott was made count palatine of the Rhine. ...

The author of the Constitutions is purported to be Frederick himself, though Giacomo Amalfitano, archbishop of Capua, appears as an influence as well. He was even reproved by the pope for accepting and advising clauses contrary to the wishes of the church. Traditionally, the author has been called Pier delle Vigne, but it is almost certain that, while Frederick, Giacomo, and Pier had their hand in it, the Liber is the product of months of work by a committee. In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated bishop. ... Country Italy Region Campania Province Caserta (CE) Mayor Elevation m Area 30 km² Population  - Total (as of December 31, 2004) 43,139  - Density 1,329/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Coordinates Gentilic Capuani Dialing code 0823 Postal code 81025 Frazioni Cantone Patron St. ... Pietro della Vigna, or Pier delle Vigne [Petrus de Vineas or de Vineis] (c. ...

The Constitutions were written in Latin and translated into Greek before their promulgation. They were meant to apply, as with previous Sicilian law, to all the peoples of the realm: Lombards, Greeks, Arabs, Germans, Jews. The 255 clauses are divided into three books:

• The first regards public law
• The second regards judicial procedure
• The third regards feudal, private, and penal law

The Constitutions, like the Assizes before them, strengthened the power of the king and diminished the power of his feudatories. The centralising and bureaucratising tendencies of Roger II's legislation continued a century later in the Constitutions. It also continued to emphasise the sacral role and God-given right to rule of the monarch. Frederick II wrote in the Constitutions that "we, whom He elevated beyond hope of man to the pinnacle of the Roman Empire." Roger II, from Liber ad honorem Augusti of Petrus de Ebulo, 1196. ...

Militarily, in specific, the Constitutions prohibited bearing arms without permission. A standing Saracen army was created to prevent the king from having to call up the unreliable barons, who were sure to not be pleased with the Constitutions. These, the feudatories, were gravely affected in other ways, too. For example, the sale of fiefs was banned, putting an end to subinfeudatiuon, and all vassals were subject to the king's taxes and other imposts. It has been suggested that Serkland be merged into this article or section. ... Under the system of feudalism, a fiefdom, fief, feud or fee, consisted of heritable lands or revenue-producing property granted by a liege lord in return for a vassal knights service (usually fealty, military service, and security). ...

Ecclesiastically, the Constitutions affected the bishops as they did all great landholders, but they also affected them in unique ways. The clergymen were made subject to the common courts. They were deprived also of judgement over heretics, prohibited from acquiring lands, and forced to sell inheritances. Look up Heretic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Also like the great dioceses and baronies, the cities were affected by the centralising laws which removed their powers and made them more directly subject to not only the king, but his ministers as well. Cities could not become communes, as many in Northern Italy had, and were prohibited from electing consuls or podestàs, on pain of sack and pillage. Like the baronage, the cities were deprived of rights of penal justice. These were transferred to the king and his magistrates alone. Defensive towers at San Gimignano, Tuscany, bear witness to the factional strife within communes. ... Northern Italy encompasses nine of the countrys 20 autonomous regions: Emilia-Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Liguria Lombardia Piemonte Toscana Trentino-Alto Adige Valle dAosta Veneto Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige and Valle dAosta are regions with a special statute. ... Consul (abbrev. ... The Palace of the Podestà in Florence, known as the Palazzo Vecchio or the Palazzo della Signoria Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later middle ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state (like otherwise styled counterparts in other cities...

These magistrates or ministers became a more important class. Fewer and fewer noblemen served the king as more and more simple freemen were raised to power. The magistrates were elected for a year pending reaffirmation and received a salary from the state. This made them loyal to the king and his administration, for without it they were nothing. The great officers of the Regno were the ancient ammiratus ammiratorum, the grand protonotary (or logothete), great chamberlain, great seneschal, great chancellor, great constable, and master justiciar. The last was the head of the Magna Curia, the court of the king (his curia regis) and the final court of appeal. The Magna Curia Rationum, a division of the curia, acted as an auditing department on the great bureaucracy. Other than this, there was a sort of parliament, consisting of not only the barons, but the universities and the landed commoners. It did not debate or rubber-stamp legislation, which was the king's to make and unmake, but merely received it and promulgated, giving its advice where it could. Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. ... The prothonotary is the chief court clerk in certain courts of law in certain Anglo-American jurisdictions, including Pennsylvania and Prince Edward Island. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Logothetes. ... Chamberlain can have several meanings: A chamberlain is an officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign. ... A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. ... For other articles with similar names, see Chancellor (disambiguation). ... hello peoples youve been fooled!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... In the medieval England and Scotland, a justiciar was an important legal and political figure. ... Court of Appeals is the title of certain appellate courts in various jurisdictions. ... States currently utilizing parliamentary systems are denoted in red and orange—the former being constitutional monarchies where authority is vested in a parliament, and the latter being parliamentary republics whose parliaments are effectively supreme over a separate head of state. ... A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. ...

Economically, state monopolies were imposed on silk, iron, and grain. On the other hand, tariffs on trade within the Regno were abolished. The privileges granted previously to Pisa and Genoa were, however, rescinded. Weights and measures were uniformly regulated across the realm. Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Tyrrhenian Sea. ... Country Italy Region Liguria Province Genoa (GE) Mayor Giuseppe Pericu (since 2005-05-30) Elevation 20 m Area 243 km² Population  - Total (as of 2006) 620,316  - Density 2,553/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Coordinates Gentilic Genovesi Dialing code 010 Postal code 16100 Frazioni Acquasanta, Vesima Patron St. ...

Finally, the equality of all citizens before the law was affirmed. The Constitutions made much of reducing the power of the nobility and of following the Roman tradition of equality before the law: thus, all freemen, all citizens, were equals, in theory. Likewise, for the benefit of commoners, Frederick banned trial by ordeal, ordering his judges to use instead "the common methods of proof which have been introduced both by the ancient laws and by our constitutions." The Constitutions notably used reason and logic to dismiss the superstitious foundations of the ordeal; for example, the use of trial by hot iron was dismissed because people believed "the natural heat of white-hot iron grows hot and, what is even more foolish, grows cold for no good reason at all", and trial by water was forbidden because of the belief "that the defendant of the crime, who has been established only by his guilty conscience, will not be received by the element of freezing water, when, in fact, it is the retention of sufficient air that prevents him from submerging." Frederick also banned trial by battle, ordering that more weight be given to the testimony of witnesses, although exceptions to this were granted to knights, and for cases in which no witnesses could be provided. Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them to a painful task. ...

The Constitutions also contain incidental information relating to the practice of medicine. Frederick proclaimed that, in order to become a medical practitioner, it was necessary to have some practical experience, which, interestingly, many European university-educated doctors did not have in 1231.

A final word on the Constitutions is best left to Ernst Kantorowicz: "it is the birth certificate of the modern administrative state." Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz (1895-1963) was a German-Jewish historian of medieval political and intellectual history, known for his 1927 book Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite on Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and in particular The Kings Two Bodies (1957). ...

Notes

1. ^ It is also called the Liber Constitutionum Regni Siciliae or Costitutiones Melphitanae, from which its informal name, Constitutions of Melfi, derives.

Sources

• Liber Augustalis, trans. James M. Powell. Syracuse University Press, 1971.
• Messana, Federico. Liber Augustalis o Costituzioni melfitane (1231).
• Wolfgang Stürner, ed., Die Konstitutionen Friedrichs II. für das Königreich Sizilien, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Constitutiones et Acta Publica Imperatorum et Regum, vol. 2, supp. Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1996.