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Josef Pauser
This article deals with the influence of the Austrian estates on ‘Policey’-legislation in the sixteenth century especially in the Lower Austrian-group of Habsburgian territories. This group includes the lands of Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia and ‘Krain’ (most of today's Slovenia).
‘Policey’, the German translation of the Greek ‘politea’, describes as an extensive term the well-ordered community or the rules and laws which should establish and preserve this order. In the second half of the fifteenth century the word occurred first in the Holy Roman Empire under the reign of Emperor Friedrich III (Vienna 1451). Soon it developed to mean the leading aim of state and government. In the Holy Roman Empire as well as in the German territories this new aim led to a multiplication of legislation acts at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Emperor Maximilian I first tried to enact a ‘policey’-ordinance in the Lower Austrian territories with the help of the estates in 1518. Three major ‘policey’-ordinances (1527,1542,1552) were promulgated for the Lower Austrian territories under the reign of his grandson Ferdinand I. (1521–64). Furthermore hundreds of statutes were published, including no less than 90 per cent ‘policey’-orders.
The estates had the traditional right of participating in the process of legislation, which was due to the hereditary allegiance. Within the oath of allegiance the estates placed themselves under the sovereign's protection (‘Schutz und Schirm’), whereas he had the right to claim the estates' advice and help (‘Rat und Hilfe’). The estates actualized their advice mostly in lodging complaints about the lands' grievances (‘Gravamina’) during the annual estate meetings (diets, ‘Landtage’). If urgent remedial measures had to be taken, they also could send a delegation to the sovereign's court to emphasize their requests. More than 800 subjects of complaints can be found in the exchange of notes between, for example, the estates of Lower Austria and the Habsburg sovereigns between 1494 and 1564! About 44 per cent of them, to total 364, dealt with ‘po1icey’-subjects, which had been steadily increasing during the time. Half of these subjects concerned matters of commerce, the others demanded the publication of an universal ‘po1icey’-ordinance and the taking of measures against blasphemy, bad drinking habits, luxurious clothing and celebrations, Jews, mendicants, etc. So the grievances expressed the estates' interest in their land's development, but it indicated more often the specific interest in their own benefit.
Even though there was no duty to fulfill the estates' requests, the sovereign had to meet at least some of the demands in order to receive some financial help, which gives an established example of the connection between the estates' grievances and taxation. Therefore explicit reference to complaints of the estates can be found in some of Ferdinand I's laws. But these grievances could not only initiate legislation. The history of the ‘po1icey’-ordinances also pointed out the estates' possibility to formulate whole codes of law in special estate-conferences. Besides, Ferdinand I asked the estates to deliver their ‘expert’ opinion continuously before promulgating a new ‘policey’-ordinance. The estates' delay in answering these questions often resulted in Ferdinand I's and his government's non-consideration of their opinions. The consequence was protest and non-observation of these laws by the estates. In the end Ferdinand I had to come to terms with the opinion of the estates and enacted declarations of the ‘po1icey’-ordinances for each land. So the estates' participation in the ‘po1icey’-legislation had much more to do with politics than traditional rights.
