how legal actions can end on civil or criminal matters.” (Allein ein jeder weis, daß nur in rebus artis vel professionis den Zünften ein gewißer Zwang beygeleget worden. In bürgerlichen oder peinlichen Sachen kömt ihnen nicht die mindeste cognition zu.)51 In fact, the practical significance of the imperial decrees, in particular in the imperial cities, can be regarded as rather minimal. For lack of any imperial executive authority of these decrees, the imperial estates would have had to implement them, which they only reluctantly did – also in Lübeck.52 It is thus more likely that the bricklayers’ guild was pacified by considerations, which had already caused them to appeal. However, it was this very dispute publicly fought over such a long period of time, which threatened to cause lasting damage to the guild’s reputation. In any case, the guild was cleansed from the stigma of “dishonesty” associated with hangmen, barbers, flayers and gravediggers, which forced them to live in the shadows of the community, and which might also apply to Stahl and his premarital impregnated wife and their child, when the family moved to Travemünde. Since the middle ages, courts had increasingly often exercised a conciliatory influence on the parties. Ultimately, the Youngest Recess obliged the “first-instance judge not only before commencement of an action and before a statement of defence but also at every point during the procedures to use all ways and means to enable an amicable solution by corresponding admonitions, in order to avoid any lengthy and cost-intensive jurisdiction“. (Richter erster Instantz, die Parteyen in zweiffelhafften Sachen nicht allein vor angefangenemRecht-Stand, und litis contestation, sondern auch, in quacunque parte Iudicii, durchalle dienlicheMittel undWeg, auch schiedliche Erinnerungen in Güte von einander zu setzen, und hierdurch alle weitläufftige kostspaltige Rechtsfertigung zu verhüten.)53 However, what should be equally 51 StadtA LübeckRKGno. M8, subfolder 4, fol. 49. 52 Schichtel, Peter 1986 p. 51; Deter, Gerhard 1999. 53 So § 110JRA1654, from: Koch, Ernst August 1967 p. 660-661. Summary of the norma90 Contribution of the Imperial Chamber Court and other institutions or persons
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