Statuta noviter edicta per illustr[issimum] et revenderendissum in Christo patrem et domi[num domin]um Johannem de SaBaudia episcopum et principem gebennensem dignissimum.

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A small decorative woodcut initial 'I' featuring floral patterns, marking the start of the first paragraph.
Item: because general objections are sometimes made against instruments, whereby it happens that causes are prolonged? for a long time, we establish and ordain that unquestionable faith shall be given to instruments drawn up in public form and produced in court, provided that the subscriptions and clauses necessary in the instruments are present and they appear public on their face; and such shall be immediately pronounced and held by the judge as public with regard to their external form, unless an objection is made against them in particular; and the one objecting in such particular against the instrument shall prove his objection within a single term to be established by the other judges or their lieutenants, swearing an oath of calumny that he is not objecting maliciously or deceitfully.

¶ That those coming to the court to pursue their causes within the city shall be secure and shall not be seized or arrested.

¶ Item, and since causes suffer great detriment due to the lack of solicitation by the parties, whose principals, as we have learned, are sometimes arrested and seized while soliciting, we decree by this irrefragable edict that anyone coming to our aforementioned courts for the solicitation and pursuit of their causes shall not be arrested or seized on the day of assignment made to them on which they shall appear, unless it be for criminal cases or for a matter adjudged and judicially confessed, or for our fiscal monies, or unless he is a fugitive whose flight is to be immediately proven, or unless they maliciously delay coming to the city; and if anyone happens to be seized, except for the aforementioned cases, they shall be released immediately, and we command that they be released.

¶ The mode of proceeding to examinations by commissioners to be deputed for taking them.

¶ Item, we establish and ordain that it shall not be lawful for any commissioner deputed or to be deputed regarding the examination of witnesses to proceed to the examination of those same witnesses unless he has first been chosen by the judge of the cause and has obtained from him a legitimate citation, duly executed as is fitting, signed and sealed, and the adverse party or the master of the litigation of the aforementioned cause has been duly summoned; and he shall be bound to hand over a copy of said citation, in which citation the place and day of the examination shall be openly declared; and the party warned or summoned shall have, after the execution of this citation, a term of three days to be administered for additions or interrogatories, if he so wishes and deems it in his interest, unless by chance the witnesses to be examined were about to depart, for which reason or other legitimate cause the witnesses were to be examined immediately, and this shall be established by oath or otherwise legitimately in the hands of the vicar, official, or another of our judges.

¶ That the attestations of witnesses shall not be extended, and concerning the salary of commissioners.

¶ Item, and that in any causes whatsoever pending before the aforementioned dispensers of justice, the attestations of witnesses shall not be drawn up or extended to the form of the statute now enacted, except in minutes, for the examination of which the commissioner shall have, for each witness examined within the city with interrogatories and additions, five shillings, and without them, four shillings. Outside the same city, however, he shall receive six shillings beyond one florin for each day that he shall be occupied in the exercise of his commission. If, however, the commissioner deceitfully delays in the examination outside the city of Geneva, such expense shall be moderated by the judge of the cause. If, indeed, an assistant be given in the aforementioned city, he shall receive two shillings for each witness; outside the same, however, three shillings, with one florin for each day as the commissioner.

¶ Concerning the holidays to be observed.

We establish also and decree that the holidays which have been accustomed to vary on account of the reverence for the most sacred Nativity of the Lord, as is known to us by worthy report, shall take their end on the day of the Epiphany itself, up to the Monday after the octave of the feast of the Epiphany, so that it may be lawful on the following day, namely the eighth of January, to hold causes and for judicial acts to be performed on said eighth day with the following juridical days in said courts, and we decree that they shall be valid. The holidays for harvests and the second-time vintages shall begin at the discretion of the vicar or official and shall last for four weeks each, and no longer.