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OCR
The Felsőbüki Nagy family 251 chapter, Seb6k presents the chances of upward social mobility offered by carrying the highest judicial offices. The judicial system of the Kingdom of Hungary underwent a significant restructuring in the early 1720s. The supreme court of justice, the so-called Curia Regia was composed of two parts. Its upper section was the Court of Appeals, Tabula Septemviralis, originally composed of seven judges. It was extended to having fifteen members by article 24 of 1723, and, besides ecclesiastical and secular lords, also lesser noble judges were appointed as septemvir. Article 25 of 1723 made the lower section of the Curia Regia, the Royal Court of Justice, into a permanent tribunal situated in Pest. Chaired by the personalis, its further judges were an aristocrat and a bishop, then the vicepalatinus, the vice judex curiae regiae, four magistri protonotarii (one appointed by the palatine, one by the judex curiae regiae, i.e. the lord chief justice of Hungary, and two by the personalis) and six further judges, assessores. Four of these were appointed by the king and two by the archbishop of Esztergom. In addition, in 1723, four district tribunals were set up in Hungary. As we have seen, vicepalatinus Istvan Felsöbüki Nagy was outshone by Jozsef Fels6buki Nagy, who could climb one step higher on the ladder, to the chair of the Royal Court of Justice, while Päl Felsöbüki Nagy served in the Court of Appeals. As noted earlier, some nominations were the privilege of the high dignitaries of Hungary. The other judges of the supreme court of justice were all appointed by the king or the queen. Richard Seb6k’s first analysis is extended to cover those judges of the Royal Court of Justice that successively filled the offices of the three protonotarii, that of the personalis (of which there were two), that of the judex curiae regiae, and that of the palatine — just as Istvan Fels6buki Nagy did. In the eighteenth century, the protonotarii were no longer the clients of their patrons, the personalis, the lord chief justice and the palatine, but these judicial offices were seen as steps in a system of royal offices, the next more prestigious than the previous one. Seb6k’s second investigation compares the career of Pal Felsébiiki Nagy to those other judges of the Royal Court of Justice who jumped the office of the protonotarius of the lord chief justice, being promoted from protonotarius of the personalis to protonotarius of the palatine — just as he was. The third analysis of Chapter 3 is focussed on those cases in which the father abdicated in favour of his son as a judge of the Royal Court of Justice — although
