tribute from each of the provinces within their Diocese, and the submission of the support levies from the Great Houses They also served as judges heanng those cases that had been directly referred to them by the provincial governors and those that had dmved at their level an appeal Appealed cases were divided into financial and non-financial, finanual cases were heard first by the Diocesan financial secretary the Ratior while non financial cases were sent to the Cogmtor, the legal secretary Each of these officials presided over a sizable bureau of civil servants who were career professionals within their specialities Each Diocese was in turn part of a Sector under the command of a Vicar, whose authonty was again both financial and legal The Vicar s responsibilities were great, his decisions could not be appealed A Vicar would either decide to pass a case on to the IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION 336 IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION level of the Imperial court or render his decision If he refused to pass a case on, the matter ended there, right of appeal was not automatic from the decision of a Vicar The offices of Vicars were also staffed with professionals who had special expertise in the many areas within which the Vicar might be asked to judge The decision, however, was always his The justification tor this power lay in the contention that they were the last officials who might have some knowledge of the regional factors that might come into play in the cases which arose under then: jurisdiction An equally important consideration was the argument of the jurat Mekdun "Even die emperor cannot decide everything, some cases mast have a stop * Compensation for (he great power given the Vicars was attempted through die staffing of his office and through the various sorts of inspections to which ah1 imperial officials were subject Each of the main secretaries working under a Vicar was appointed by the emperor, rather than being chosen by the Vicar These men were responsible to the emperor for feports on the performance of their superior which were to be submitted no less frequently than each ninety days standard In addition, there were the normal inspections from the imperial court which examined the worfc of all officials, not only those at the Sector level Finally, there were the irregular, and often secret, inspections by those runcaoflanes known as * Imperial hunter-seekers " These agents were sent out from the court with carte blanche from the emperor to investigate anything mat caught their eye Sometimes they were instructed to make themselves known to the officials whose administrations they were investigating, more often, they remained unknown At the level of the Imperial court, all issues came together in ate person of the emperor, who acted with the advice of his chief counselors In fiscal matters the Irape rial advisor was the Ehocetes, the Imperial jurist was the Prefect The commander of the Sardukar, the Hegemon, also served as mill tary chief of staff Each of these powerful Imperial servants oversaw the day-to-day business of the Imperial administration within their special purview as well as recommending courses of action to the emperor in any such cases that came before him While the reform and evolution ol the Imperial administration did disengage the emperor from the direct government of the planets, some control of local government was exercised by House Comno The most important means of this lay in the emperor s control over any change of government, a power founded in the Treaty of Comn That agreement had recognized the su premacy of the emperor over any and all of the various governments of the inhabited worlds This statement was promptly-and permanently-interpreted bv the Imperial house as meaning that all power was held as a grant from the emperor While these grants were to Houses the emperor reserved the right to approve choices of heirs The hereditary rights of the Great Houses, then, were not unrestricted Though the emperor would normally approve the choice of heir by a Great House as long as local law had been obeyed, he was not bound to do so Houses which he felt might be contemplating actions of which he might disapprove were often reminded of his veto B> natural extension of this power the emperor also had the right to approve or disapprove any change of power over any planet, whether occasioned by heredity, war or other cause In each of these ces the change of fief-holder was supervised bv an official called a 'Judge of the Change These officials were appointed by the Lands-raad High Council and the emperor jointly and answered to both of these institutions once the change was completed One should not be misled by the participation of the High Council in this matter, however The Great Houses were naturally concerned m these instances that the forms be obeyed and wished to keep an eye on all changes of fief in order that they might be aware of any significant shifts of power But the legal power here was the emperor s, for it was he who granted fiefs and legally bestowed nobility This power was never expressed more clearly than in the ceremonies which accom pamed grants of newly conquered worlds to new lords Behind all the endless panoply the almost limitless trains of Landsraad lords IMPERIAL MONETARY SYSTEM IMPERIAL MONETARY SYSTEM the regal to-ing 'and fro-ing of court officials, lay one hard fact: the emperor was granting a new fief, and the emperor was creating a new noble.