Definition
A writ that lay for spiritual persons — clergy and ecclesiastical officeholders — who were distrained upon their spiritual possessions for payment of a fifteenth (a tax assessed at one-fifteenth of the value of movable property) along with the rest of the parish. The writ provided relief from such distraint, recognizing that spiritual possessions occupied a distinct legal position from ordinary temporal property subject to common lay taxation.
The term appears in historical English law as a writ of protection for ecclesiastical parties facing collection of a lay subsidy through seizure of church property.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Dari" refers primarily to the variety of Persian spoken in Afghanistan, and historically to a court language of the late Sasanian Empire or a dialect spoken in the Yazd and Kerman regions of Iran.
Historical common usage: No entry in Webster's 1913.
The gap here is complete and unrelated. The legal term DARI shares no linguistic or conceptual connection with the language called Dari. The similarity is coincidental. Researchers encountering "Dari" in a historical English legal context should not assume any connection to the Persian language or its variants.
Common Confusion
DARI is a highly obscure writ, and its name invites confusion with the modern language of the same spelling. The two are entirely unrelated. Additionally, researchers may confuse DARI with other ecclesiastical writs addressing distraint — particularly writs protecting clergy from secular taxation more broadly. DARI is specifically concerned with the fifteenth, a particular form of lay subsidy, assessed parish-wide, where ecclesiastical persons claimed exemption or protection from collection through seizure of spiritual possessions.
Why It Matters in Research
DARI is a narrow, archaic writ found almost exclusively in pre-modern English sources. Researchers working in medieval or early modern ecclesiastical law, tax history, or the history of writs will encounter it rarely, but its appearance in Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium (cited by Bouvier as Fitz. Nat. Brev. 175) anchors it in the practical writ literature of the period. Bouvier reproduces it without elaboration, which is itself diagnostic: this is a writ that had largely ceased to be practically relevant by the time American legal dictionaries were compiled, included for completeness rather than active utility.
The key research trap is terminological: a keyword search for "Dari" in any modern database will return overwhelmingly linguistic, geographic, or Afghan legal and policy materials, not this writ. Historical searches must be conducted in context — within ecclesiastical law collections, writ registers, or sources treating medieval English taxation. Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium is the primary access point.
The writ also sits at the intersection of two bodies of law that researchers sometimes treat separately: ecclesiastical law and English fiscal/taxation history. The fifteenth was a secular tax; its application to parishes created friction with the protected status of spiritual possessions. DARI was one mechanism for resolving that friction in favor of the clergy.
No American jurisdictional analog exists. The writ is entirely a creature of English ecclesiastical and common law history, with no survival into American practice.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's is the sole dictionary source for this entry, and its treatment is minimal — a single sentence definition with a citation to Fitzherbert. This brevity reflects the writ's obsolescence by the nineteenth century rather than any deficiency in Bouvier's coverage; writs of this character had long been superseded by statutory mechanisms for resolving disputes between ecclesiastical and secular fiscal authority.
Bouvier embeds DARI in the same entry block as QUOD PROSTRAVIT, a structurally unrelated judgment form for nuisance indictments, which suggests the entry was part of an alphabetically arranged catchall block rather than a thematically grouped discussion. Researchers using Bouvier should not read any substantive connection between the two terms.
No other historical dictionary in the Law Mind corpus elaborates on DARI beyond what Bouvier provides. The Fitzherbert citation is the most useful pointer for deeper research.
Jurisdictional Note
DARI has no American jurisdictional application. It is purely an English ecclesiastical writ with roots in medieval parish taxation practice. Researchers in U.S. law will not encounter it in operative legal contexts.