FROM THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

January 5, 1984

Changes to Corpora are being considered in the areas of Royal Peerages, the Order of the Rose, and requirements for registration of SCA names. The intent of the changes, and the rationale, are discussed below, although the exact text of the changes has been omitted to save space. Members are requested to send their written opinions of these changes to the Board no later than August 1, 1904, so that the Board may consider them at the next Board meeting following. Commentary and opinions should be sent to the Corporate Secretary, SCA Inc., PO Box 743, Milpitas, CA 95035-0743. Please identify your comments as referring to "Proposed Corpora Changes: Peers and Names".

When Corpora was rewritten in A.S. XIV, an attempt was made to incorporate and regularize Royal Peerages and the Order of the Rose. The rewrite had the inadvertent effect of making Royal Peerages and the Order of the Rose non-armigerous, unless a Kingdom explicitly wrote into its laws that they carry a Patent of Arms, in which case the holder must satisfy the general requirements for Patents of Arms (despite the fact that the actual requirement for a Royal Peerage, as stated in Corpora, is to have reigned). This has resulted in situations like non-armigerous Royal Peers or testing of Royalty to see if they satisfy the requirements for other Patents. In any case, it requires kingdoms to make changes to their laws solely to satisfy Corpora, and which would be better served by Corpora. Hence, the Board of Directors is considering changing Corpora such that:

Royal Peerages would once again receive arms by Patent. The general requirements for Patents of Arms would become the general requirements for membership in the Orders of the Peerage. Royal Peers and the Orders of the Peerage would constitute the holders of Patents of Arms. The Order of the Rose would be considered a non-armigerous order with membership automatic for all Countesses unless a kingdom chose to make it law that the Order of the Rose was an Order of the Peerage in that kingdom. In that case, the laws would have to contain provisions, as in the case of the other Orders of the Peerage, that the general requirements were met by a Countess before she was admitted to the Order. As all Countesses would already have a Patent of Arms as Royal Peers, membership in the Order of the Rose would not confer a second Patent. In such a kingdom, the Order of the Rose would rank and march equal to the other Orders of the Peerage.

Corpora, Section IV.C.3.b. states: The College of Arms is entitled and required to establish and make known rules to ensure the uniqueness and historical validity of the names and devices used by members and groups, and the historical validity of titles of office. These rules shall include regulations protecting the right of each member to the name and devices which he or she has registered for use within the Society. It is the feeling of the Board of Directors that this Corpora requirement has resulted in the College of Arms adopting very strict rules on names. In an attempt to ensure validity by trying to regulate accuracy. This has created unhappiness in some parts of the SCA. Moreover, the Board feels that attempting to ensure historical accuracy by regulation rather than education and encouragement does not generally further the aims of the Society.

It is the intent of the Board of Directors to change Corpora to require instead that names be historically appropriate. A name shall be deemed to be historically appropriate if it is not clearly inconsistent with period naming practices or current SCA usage, and is not such that its use would interfere with the enjoyment of the Current Middle Ages by other members. The College of Arms would be encouraged to continue to strive towards validity and accuracy, but via education rather than regulation.