Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire

The Empire of Nicaea (1204-1261)

Byzantine feudalism 

Page 8

In Roman legislative documents the Latin terms immunitas and excusatio are identical in meaning, and the attempts of some learned jurists to establish a definite distinction between them have not led to final results.

In the codes of Theodosius and Justinian there are severe regulations against exemptions from taxation which are called immunitates or are expressed by the verb excusare.

The documents of the Byzantine period contain grants of immunities-exkuseias mostly given to monasteries. According to them the privileges granted by the charters of the Byzantine emperors were chiefly concerned with forbidding imperial officials to enter the privileged localities, with exemptions from taxation, and with the right of jurisdiction; in other words, here was the real medieval immunity on the western feudal model.

It is usually supposed that the earliest charter (chrysobull) granting an exkuseia was issued in the middle of the eleventh century. But this alone cannot be a proof that no exkuseia was granted before, the more so as the style and expressions of the charters of the eleventh and twelfth centuries which are preserved indicate that the idea of exkuseia was at that time perfectly common, definite, and well known, requiring no explanation. Nor is this all. The charters of the emperors of the Macedonian dynasty, of the late ninth and of the tenth century, granted to the Athonian monks, show all the traits of exkuseia. A charter of Basil I (867-886) protects all those who have chosen the hermit life on Mount Athos both from military commanders and imperial officials and from private citizens and peasants so that no one shall disturb those monks or enter the inner places of Mount Athos. This charter was confirmed by Basil's son, Emperor Leo VI the Philosopher (886-912), Another confirmation of this charter granted by the earlier reigning emperors was made in the first half of the tenth century by a charter of Romanus I Lecapenus (919-944). In other Athonian documents on the demarcation of litigable lands on Mount Athos in the tenth century, there are references to the charters of the preiconoclast period, which have survived; these were the charters of the seventh century and the opening of the eighth issued by Constantine IV (668-685), Justinian II Rhinotmetus (685-695 and 705-711), as well as by the first restorer of icon worship, Empress Irene (797-802) and her son Constantine VI (780-797). Of course it is impossible to tell exactly what these charters contained; but on the basis of the dispute which concerned the possession of land by the Athonian monks it may be supposed that they also dealt with immunities.

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