Exercitus

In Old European Law. An army; an armed force; a collection of thirty-five men and upwards. Laws Inae, apud Spelman. A gathering of forty-two armed men. Laws Boior. tit.

3, c. 8.

A meeting of four men. Laws Longobard, lib.

1, tit. 17, c. 1. Spelman.

In Roman Law. See Grotius de Jure Belli, lib.

2, c. 16, § 3.

EXETER (or EXON) DOMESDAY. The name given to a record preserved among the muniments and charters belonging to the dean and chapter of Exeter cathedral, which contains a description of the western parts of the kingdom, comprising the counties of Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. The Exeter Domesday was published, with several other surveys, nearly contemporary, by order of the commissioners of the public records, under the direction of Sir Henry Ellis, in a volume supplementary to the Great Domesday, folio, London, 1816.

Wharton.

EXFESTUCARE (Lat.) To abdicate; to resign by passing over a staflf.

Du Cange

To deprive oneself of the possession of lands, honors, or dignities, which was formerly accomplished by the delivery of a staff or rod. Said to be the origin of the custom of "surrender" as practised in England formerly in courts baron.

Spelman.

See, also, Vicat; Calv. Lex. EXHAEREDATIO (Lat.) A disinheriting; the act by which a forced heir is deprived of his legitimate or legal portions; a disherison. Occurring in the phrase, in Latin pleadings, ad exhaeredationem, to the disherison, in case of abatement. EXHAERES (Lat.) In civil law. One disinherited. Vicat; Du Cange.