Definitions for vidame
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word vidame
one of a class of temporal officers who originally represented the bishops, but later erected their offices into fiefs, and became feudal nobles
Origin: [F., fr. LL. vice-dominus, fr. L. vice instead of + dominus master, lord.]
Vidame, a French term descended from mediaeval Latin vicedominus, was a feudal title in France. The vidame was originally, like the avoué, the royal or crown judge, a secular official chosen by the bishop of the diocese, with the consent of the count, to perform functions on-behalf of the prince-count in the church's earthly interest, canonically incompatible with the clerical state, or at least deemed inappropriate, especially involving violence, even in the service of justice, and to act as protector, rather in the tradition of the Roman Defensores. Unlike the advocate, however, the vice-dominus was at the outset an ecclesiastic, who acted as the bishop's lieutenant or vicar. But the causes that changed the character of the advocatus operated also in the case of the vidame.
Find a translation for the vidame definition in other languages:
Select another language: