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BAJULUS

Volume 3 · 215 words · 1815 Edition

an ancient officer in the court of the Greek emperors. There were several degrees of bajuli; as, the grand bajulut, who was preceptor to the emperor; and the simple bajuli, who were sub-preceptors. The word is derived from the Latin verb bajulare, "to carry or bear a thing on the arms or on the shoulders;" and the origin of the office is thus traced by antiquaries. Children, and especially those of condition, had anciently, beside their nurse, a woman called gerula, as appears from several passages of Tertullian; when weaned, or ready to be weaned, they had men to carry them about and take care of them, who were called geruli and bajuli, à gerendo et bajulando. Hence it is, that governors of princes and great lords were still denominated bajuli, and their charge or government bajulatio, even after their pupils were grown too big to be carried about. The word passed in the same sense into Greece.

BAJULUS is also used by Latin writers in the several other senses wherein BAILIFF is used among us.

Bajulus was also the name of a conventual officer in the ancient monasteries, to whom belonged the charge of gathering and distributing the money and legacies left for masses and obits; whence he was also denominated bajulus obituum novorum.