Urkunden und Zeugen im Rechtsleben des Hochmittelalters

Abstract

The aim of the article is to clarify the use of charters in the high middle ages, not according to their production but with reference to the formulae and the practical statements listed in them. Most of the named examples derive from Austria and Slovenia. Charters are often confirmed, but there is only little evidence of their use as a proof in court. The issuers were often afraid, their legal successors wouldn't recognise their legal acts. Confirmations assured their permanence and the persistence of witnesses. The general knowledge of the legal act protected it somehow, but malicious infringers couldn't be turned away otherwise than through witnesses. The charters were mere reminders of the legal act itself and not a kind of protection. Witnesses obtained their knowledge about legal acts more often from legal charters than indicated by the historical tradition.