Besides the three Councils, there were a number of special bodies appointed for different purposes. Thus there was the _Corte Maggiores_ or _Major Curia_, already alluded to, whose sentences in civil matters were without appeal until 1440; the _Minor Curia_ or Lower Court, with special advocates attached to each; the _Advocatores Comunis_ or Public Prosecutors, and many other functionaries. The three _Camarlenghi_ kept the public accounts, and the _Doanerii_ supervised the customs. The four Treasurers of Santa Maria had important fiscal duties in guarding the State treasury and paying out the public money according to the decrees of the Senate. They also had certain charitable duties, and spent the income of invested surpluses in providing poor girls with dowries, and later in ransoming Christian slaves from the Turks or the Barbary pirates. Private citizens, and even foreigners from Slave lands, often appointed them executors of their wills. Originally they had been the guardians of the relics and treasury of the Cathedral, but as they gradually came to have so large a share of the financial business of the Republic on their hands, in 1306 another board, called the _Procurators Sanctæ Mariæ_, was instituted to manage the affairs of the Church, and act with powers of attorney for various religious confraternities. A similar body was formed when the church of St. Blaize was erected in 1349. The notary of the Republic, who drafted all public acts, patents, diplomas, &c., was usually an expert Italian lawyer. There were numbers of other officers for different departments of the administration and for the purposes of defence, such as those _super sale_, _super blado comunis_, _super turribus_, the _capitani di custodia_, who were elected every month, and the captains of the _sestieri_ or six wards, into which Ragusa was divided. All the citizens in turn had to bear arms for the defence of the town, and certain nobles, who were changed very frequently, commanded the guard, and saw that the gates were securely fastened at night. The rest of the Republic’s territory was ruled by officers appointed by the Grand Council, called counts, viscounts, or captains. They governed despotically, and no native of the territory had any voice in the administration. In many cases the Government was very tyrannical and arbitrary. Ragusan ideas of liberty were not only restricted to a limited class, but did not extend a yard beyond the walls. Only the island of Lagosta, purchased in 1216 from Stephen Uroš, King of Servia, was permitted to retain its own customs and laws.