Custos, Pl. Custodes

Concept of “Custos, Pl. Custodes”

Traditional meaning of custos, pl. custodes in English (with some legal use of this latin concept in England and the United States in the XIX Century) [1]: (in Latin) A guard; keeper; warden; magistrate. Custos brevium: the keeper of the writs, a principal clerk of the C. B. Custos maris (warden of the sea): admiral. Custos moreum: the Court of Queen’s Bench, as custodian of the morals of England. Custos placitorum coronae: keeper of the pleas of the Crown. Custos rotulorum: keeper of the rolls; the principal justice of the peace of a county; the first civil officer, as the lord lieutenant is the first military officer; see 1st Book (“The Rights of Persons”), Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England 349. Custos spiritualium: guardian of the spiritualities; he that exercised ecclesiastical jurisdiction during the vacancy of a see, while the custos temporalium, guardian of the temporalities, looked after the material interests and accounted for the rents and profits to the King.

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Notes and References

1. Based on A Concise Law Dictionary of Words, Phrases and Maxims, “Custos, Pl. Custodes”, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1911, United States. It is also called the Stimson’s Law dictionary. This term and/or definition may be absolete.

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