BAN. This word occurs in most of the modern languages of Europe, and its primary signification appears to have been, "to make a signal" (see BANNER), proclaim" or " publish." This meaning it retains In the phrase. bans or banns (q.v.) of marriage. In Germany, the ache or bannum was a sentence of outlawry pronounced in the middle ages against those who escaped from justice, or refused to submit to trial. We often read of refractory princes, and even cities, being placed under the ban of the empire. The following are the terms of banning used in an old formula: "We declare thy wife it widow and thy children orphans; we restore all thy feudal tenures to the lord of the manor: thy private property we give to thy children; and we devote thy body and flesh to the beasts of the forest and fowls of the air. In all ways and in every place where others find peace and safety, thou shalt find none; and we banish thee into the four roads of the world—in the devil's name." Besides these sentences of outlawry, many other announcements were accompanied with denunciations and imprecations. When grant of land was made for a religious purpose, or when it charter of liberties was granted, the transaction was proclaimed in public with certain ceremonies, and curses were denounced against any one who should violate the decd. Thus banning. or publishing, came to he associated with cursing; and hence the origin of the popular use of the word. It occurs in this sense in Shakespeare and Milton, and other old writers.
BAN, or BA'Nlat, supposed by some to be a contraction of the Illyric word bojan, i.e., lord, but more probably another form of the Slavonic word pan, which possesses the same signification. Formerly, it was it title given to some of the military chiefs who guarded the eastern boundaries of the Hungarian kingdom, and was therefore synonymous with the German tnarkgraf. The ban, who was appointed by the sovereign, but not for life, and whose appointment had to be ratified by the national originally very exten sive, in fact almost unlimited powers. In political, judicial, and military affairs, he
was the supreme authority. Within his own territory, he exercised an influence similar to that of the palatine in Hungary, and only lower than a king. In time of war, he headed the troops of his banat (q.v.), and if the campaign occurred within its limits, it was lib duty invariably to occupy the post of danger. Ile led the van to battle, or covered the rear in retreat. For these services, he was recompensed partly in ready money, and partly by a monopoly of salt. The most important banats were those of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia, Maehow, and Szoreny, but their boundarieschang(al so frequently, that at the present day it is impossible to ascertain what they originally were. The encroachments of the Turks in the 1Gth c. rendered the union of the various hanats necessary; and after some time, the whole were formed into the double banat of Dalmatia and Croatia. A. still more complete unity was subsequently obtained by centralizing the military power. In 1723, the authority of the II. was made entirely subordinate to that of the supreme government of Hung,ary. After numerous vicissi tudes, his powers, rights, and titles were strictly defined during the reign of Maria Theresa. He was then acknowledged to be the third dignitary of the Hungarian kingdom, appointed a member of the Hungarian council of governnient, and president of the council of the banat, and at the coronation of the Hungarian king went before him, bearing the golden apple, the symbol of sovereignty. Such was the position of the ban until the 4th of Mar., 1849, when Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia were transformed into Austrian crown lands, and the ban made wholly independent of Hungary. In 1808, Croatia and Slavonia were reunited with Hungary. One of the Hungarian ministers superintends the affairs of the " kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia;" while there is a special local administration for internal affairs. The head of this administration is called the ban.