Reichsunmittelbarkeit
The tithe courts originally had Imperial immediacy. Chairmanship was held by a tithe count chosen to serve for one year. Each village supplied, commensurately with each one's number of freemen, "Schöffen" (roughly “lay jurists”) whose job it was to mete out justice. In 1500, the tithe courts lost their Imperial immediacy along with its attendant privileges. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction was thereafter exercised by the Archbishopric of Mainz.