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VIDAME (Lat. vice-dominus)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 48 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VIDAME (See also:Lat. See also:vice-See also:dominus) , a See also:French feudal See also:title. The vidame was originally, like the avoue (advocatus), an See also:official chosen by the See also:bishop of the See also:diocese, with the consent of the See also:count (see See also:ADVOCATE). Unlike the advocate, however, the vice-dominus was at the outset an ecclesiastic, who acted as the bishop's See also:lieutenant (locum tenens) or See also:vicar. But the causes that changed the See also:character of the advocatus operated also in the See also:case of the vidame. During the Carolingian See also:epoch, indeed, advocatus and vice-dominus were interchangeable terms; and it was only in the 11th See also:century `that they became generally differentiated: the title of avoue being commonly reserved for nobles charged with the See also:protection of an See also:abbey, that of vidame for those guarding an episcopal see. With the See also:crystallization of the feudal See also:system in the 12th century the See also:office of vidame, like that of avoue, had become an hereditary See also:fief. As a title, however, it was much less See also:common and also less dignified than that of avoue. The advocati were often See also:great barons who added their See also:function of See also:protector of an abbey to their own temporal See also:sovereignty; whereas the vidames were usually See also:petty nobles, who exercised their office in strict subordination to the bishop. Their See also:chief functions were: to protect the temporalities of the see, to represent the bishop at the count's See also:court of See also:justice, to exercise the bishop's temporal See also:jurisdiction in his name (placitum or See also:curia vice-domini) and to See also:lead the episcopal levies to See also:war. In return they usually had a See also:house near the episcopal See also:palace, a domain within and without the See also:city, and sometimes the right to See also:levy certain dues on the city. The vidames usually took their title from the see they represented, but not infrequently they styled themselves, not after their official fief, but after their private seigneuries. Thus the vidame de Picquigny was the representative of the bishop of See also:Amiens, the vidame de Gerberoy of the bishop of See also:Beauvais.

In many See also:

sees there were no vidames, their function being exercised by viscounts or chatelains. With the growth of the central See also:power and of that of the municipalities the vidames gradually lost all importance, and the title became merely honorary See A. See also:Luchaire, See also:Manuel See also:des institutions francaises (See also:Paris, 1892); Du Cange,, Glossarium (ed. See also:Niort, 1887), s. " Vice-dominus "; A. See also:Mallet, " Etude hist. sur See also:les avou6s et les vidames," in Position des theses de l'Ecole des chartes (an. 1870-72).

End of Article: VIDAME (Lat. vice-dominus)

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