Definition
In old legal practice, *vocatus* is a Latin term with two distinct meanings depending on context:
1. **Vouchee (common law procedure)**: In old common law real property practice, the person who was called or vouched in a writ of right or a fine and recovery proceeding — that is, the person summoned to warrant title to land on behalf of the tenant. The vocatus was the one vouched to warranty, obligated to defend the tenant's title or provide equivalent land in exchange if defense failed.
2. **Advocate or patron (old European law)**: In continental medieval legal usage, an advocate or legal patron — a person who appeared or spoke on behalf of another in legal proceedings. This meaning corresponds to the broader Roman and civil law tradition of the *advocatus*.
Common Confusion
*Vocatus* (vouchee) should not be confused with *vocans* (the voucher — the party who initiates the vouching). The two are paired opposites in the same procedural transaction. *Vocatus* is also etymologically close to *advocatus* (advocate, counsel), and the second meaning of *vocatus* overlaps conceptually with *advocatus*, but they are not identical terms even in continental usage. *Advocatus* is the more general and durable term; *vocatus* in the advocate sense is narrower and more archaic.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *vocatus* in historical legal documents must determine which meaning applies before proceeding. The two meanings belong to entirely different legal contexts — English common law real property procedure on one hand, and continental or ecclesiastical legal practice on the other — and conflating them leads to serious misreading of historical instruments.
In English common law sources, *vocatus* will almost invariably appear in the context of voucher to warranty in real actions. The term is functionally synonymous with *vouchee* in those proceedings. When scanning Bracton or glossed pleading records, the presence of *vocatus* alongside terms like *vocans* (the voucher, i.e., the person doing the calling) and references to warrantia chartae or the writ of right signals this procedural usage. The procedural relationship between *vocans* and *vocatus* is the operative pair; neither term makes full sense without the other.
In continental European charters and ecclesiastical records — particularly those drawn from Alamannic or Frankish sources — *vocatus* signals the advocate or patron meaning. Here, the term intersects with the civil law tradition of the *advocatus ecclesiae*, a lay protector of a church or monastery who acted as its legal representative. Researchers working in ecclesiastical or continental medieval primary sources should be alert to this meaning.
Law Mind corpus researchers should note that Bracton's *De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae*, folios 381–382, is the principal English authority Burrill cites for the vouchee meaning. Researchers needing to reconstruct the procedural mechanics around *vocatus* in that context should consult Bracton directly, as the surrounding folios develop the full voucher-to-warranty procedure. Spelman's *Glossarium Archaeologicum* is the supporting authority for the continental advocate meaning.
Because *vocatus* is pure Latin procedure-era terminology, it drops out of English legal usage with the abolition of real actions and the forms of action generally. Modern sources will not use it; its habitat is entirely within medieval and early modern legal Latin texts, Year Books, Bracton, and comparable instruments.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary historical dictionary source for this entry. Burrill correctly identifies both meanings and cites appropriately to Bracton for the English procedural meaning and to the Chartae Alamanniae (via Spelman) for the continental advocate meaning. The entry is compact but accurate, and there is no meaningful divergence among historical dictionaries on this term — it is narrow enough that most dictionaries either omit it or track Burrill's formulation.
What Burrill does not develop, and what researchers should supply independently, is the procedural architecture within which the *vocatus* functioned in English real actions: the voucher, the essoign, the warranty obligation, and the ultimate exchange of land if defense of title failed. Burrill's entry identifies the actor but not the mechanism.