Definition
An archaic Latin term meaning a discourse, oration, or sermon. In legal usage, the term appears in historical pleading contexts rather than as a substantive legal category. Its appearance in legal sources is largely incidental — a borrowed Latin word used to describe a public address or ecclesiastical speech, carrying no specialized legal doctrine of its own.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering CONCIO in historical legal texts should treat it as a descriptive term rather than a term of art. Its appearance in Townshend on Pleading signals that it was used in the context of pleading practice — likely in describing the subject matter of a defamatory statement or the occasion of a publication, rather than as an element of pleading doctrine itself. A researcher working through ecclesiastical law materials, early defamation cases, or historical pleading records may encounter the term when a sermon or public oration is the vehicle for the alleged wrong. The term does not carry forward into modern legal usage and will not appear in contemporary case law or statutes. Its value is almost entirely interpretive: knowing it means "discourse" or "sermon" allows a researcher to parse a historical Latin passage or pleading without mistaking it for a term of legal significance.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides a spare but accurate entry: "Lat. A discourse or sermon. Towns. Pl. 212." The citation to Townshend on Pleading locates the term in the procedural literature of the common law, where Latin descriptive terms were routinely used to identify the subject matter of a pleading. Burrill adds nothing beyond the basic gloss, which is appropriate given the term's limited legal function. No other major historical legal dictionaries — including Black's, Bouvier's, or Jacob's — appear to have carried a separate entry for CONCIO, suggesting it was recognized as a borrowed Latin descriptor rather than a term warranting doctrinal treatment. The term's presence in Burrill reflects his broader practice of cataloguing Latin words found in legal sources, including many that operate as ordinary vocabulary rather than technical terms.