notary public

in the middle ages, almost invariably a churchman who had been admitted to practice by the authority of the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor.  But there seem to have been little to stop anyone who could write from setting himself up as a notary, and the authority of some them to do so and their trustworthiness were, to say the least, doubtful – Scottish parliaments were much concerned about ‘false notars’.  After the Reformation, they were regulated to become public functionaries who, on passing an examination and trial were admitted by the Court of Session to the power of making instruments which had ‘faith in law’; these could be about any ‘lawful and honest business’ but in practice were usually instruments of sasine.