Vogt

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For the surname Vogt, see Vogt (surname).

Vogt (also Voigt; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Polish: Wójt; equivalent in Latin advocatus) is probably derived from Old High German vogeten, "to protect". Originally, it referred in medieval German-speaking areas to the guardianship or military protection executed by an overlord over ecclesiastical institutions and their territory. The territory or area of responsibility of a Vogt is called a Vogtei.

In Poland the title of Vogt (Wójt) has the same origin as Ruissian vozhd' (chieftain, leader, somebody who conducts, leads, makes others follow) is still used by senior civil administrative officers and the highest representatives of the government on a communal level.

The range of social status and degrees of responsibility of persons so titled varied greatly, from the humble — the equivalents of the English reeve or bailiff — to the very elevated. At the upper end of its social range the office of Vogt was frequently held by noble and princely families in relation to ecclesiastical territories, a position which such families often exploited to their own advantage, and it is in this connection that it is most commonly referred to.

The concept of the Vogt was related to the Old German idea of the Munt, or guardian, but also included some ideas of physical defence and legal representation (whence the connection with advocatus or advocate).

From the time of Charlemagne, who had such officials appointed in ecclesiastical territories not directly under the control of his counts, the Vogt was a state functionary representing ecclesiastical dignitaries (such as bishops and abbots) or institutions in secular matters, and particularly before secular courts. Such representatives had been assigned to the church since late antiquity, as it was not supposed to act for itself in worldly affairs. Therefore, in areas such as the territories of abbeys and bishoprics, which by virtue of their ecclesiastical status were free (or immune) from the secular government of the local count (Graf, in origin an administrative official in charge of a territory and reporting to the emperor), the Vogt fulfilled the function of a protective lordship, generally commanding the military contingents of such areas (Schirmvogtei). Beyond that, he administered the high justice instead of the count from the Vogt court (Vogtgericht or Blutgericht).

In private and family monasteries the proprietor himself often also held the office of Vogt, frequently retaining it after reform of the propietorship (see also Lay abbot).

From the 10th century however the office developed into an hereditary possession of the higher nobility, who frequently exploited it as a way of extending their power and territories, and took for themselves the estates and assets of the church bodies for whose protection they were supposedly responsible.

There is no single equivalent in English history. The office of reeve was much the same at a village or peasant level, and in other contexts the roles of sheriff, steward, seneschal and castellan of course included similar elements. In France, the office of vidame, the temporal administrator for certain bishoprics, showed some connection. The status of protective lordship, however, in relation to ecclesiastical estates as held, and notoriously abused, by the nobility in Germany throughout the Middle Ages, is without close parallel. The most frequent translations in that connection are either advocate or lord protector.