Σχετικά με την απονομή της δικαιοσύνης την εποχή των Παλαιολόγων: Τὸ (εὐαγὲς) σέκρετον

Αfter the restoration of the Empire in 1261 the term imperial or katholikon sekreton designated the supreme judicial court, the decisions of which could not be appealed. Later, after the reformation of 1329, the imperial sekreton is identified as the tribunal of court of the “General Judges of the Romans” (katholikoi kritai ton Romaion).
Aim of the present study is to discern the imperial sekreton that was placed in Konstantinople from the (evages) sekreton, which was situated in Thessalonike. The latter seems to have been instituted by the Empress Yolanda – Ιrene Montferrat (1284-1317), shortly after she decided to take up residence in 1303 in Thessalonike, which she considered her ancestral domain. Irene sought equal shares for her own sons and she desired that each of them should rule in the Latin fashion, each over the cities and regions distributed as his portion. She herself seems to have been allowed to establish a separate court of her own in Thessalonike, from spring 1303 to her death in 1317. It is argued that the provincial General Judges that appeared later in the region of Thessalonike replaced or substituted the (evages) sekreton that preexisted.