Ecclesiastical Benefices

Este es un estudio sobre un fenómeno de enorme repercusión en los territorios hispanoportugueses y en la Roma de la Edad Moderna, un fenómeno al que llamo mercado curial en las páginas que siguen. Creo que su importancia fue trascendental, y creo no exagerar lo más mínimo en lo que respecta a la historia de la Iglesia y a la del marco geográfico que nos ocupa, pues condicionó la estructuración y la dinámica de sociedades católicas meridionales como fueron las ibéricas. La pretensión de esta obra es darlo a conocer. Con ella, también la de ofrecer una lente nueva con que reenfocar el análisis de multitud de aspectos sociales y eclesiásticos y sus consecuencias globales. 
El libro se estructura en cinco capítulos y un epílogo, todos con un mismo formato de ensayo, que parte de un documento histórico vehicular y, en cierta forma, singular, a manera de ventanas al pasado. A través de ellos exploraré una faceta distinta de la realidad en estudio. Esos documentos son, por orden: un memorial escrito por la viuda de un banquero para proponer un arbitrio fiscal, una lista de gastos remitida por unos curiales desde Roma a su cliente en Portugal, una letra de cambio que sirvió de medio de pago a un testaferro, una carta de la correspondencia del agente portugués de Felipe II en la curia romana, unos versos anónimos de sátira contra los curiales de la nunciatura de Madrid y una novela postcervantina, que narra la historia de un labrador rico estafado con falsas promesas de resignas de prebendas para su hijo, un matrimonio ventajoso para su hija y la promoción social para toda la familia.
Así, el primer capítulo presenta el mercado curial y caracteriza a sus agentes, a la par que intenta bocetar la evolución de la articulación personal y territorial de este espacio de intermediación y negocios. El capítulo segundo ofrece una panorámica de los negocios curiales y las formas de contratación y tramitación de éstos, un universo de enorme complejidad que apenas si queda presentado en sus rasgos generales; algunos de ellos, como las dispensas matrimoniales o las pensiones eclesiásticas, bien merecen y han merecido tesis doctorales en exclusiva. El capítulo tercero se adentra en el lado oscuro y, por tanto, fascinante del mercado curial: la esfera de la venalidad encubierta, las operaciones especulativas, la extorsión y los testaferros, designación, por cierto –testa di ferro–, al parecer surgida por vez primera en este contexto. El capítulo cuarto se centra en la respuesta del poder político a esta realidad, con medidas legales y diplomáticas, pero especialmente a través de una red de técnicos especializados. Me refiero al sistema de agencias de negocios curiales de la Monarquía Católica. El capítulo quinto analiza cómo se percibía el mercado curial, esto es, intenta reconstruir la opinión y la reacción social recurriendo a fuentes cruzadas de diversa tipología: teatro, literatura espiritual y picaresca, crítica erasmista, correspondencia privada, poesía satírica, obras de índole jurídica y moral, testificaciones en pleitos, reclamaciones en cortes, memoriales, etc.
Queda pues hasta ahí explicado, a grandes rasgos y con trazo grueso, el mundo de los negocios curiales, pero no sus repercusiones. Para hablar de las consecuencias socioeconómicas que tuvo, que trascendieron, con mucho, el espacio acotado a la expedición de letras apostólicas, hace falta otro libro. No obstante, el epílogo de éste es, más que una recapitulación conclusiva, que también, un boceto de ese otro cuadro aún por pintar.

The system of papal provision – through which medieval clergy were appointed to ecclesiastical benefices across Christendom – has remained controversial ever since its inception in the 12th century. Xenophobic contemporary commentators, such as the 13th-century English chronicler Matthew Paris, lambasted the appointment of large numbers of foreign clergy to church livings through papal intervention – criticism that has endured in the modern historiography on papal provisions. The predominant historiographical interpretation remains that popes proactively developed an autocratic and nepotistic system of provision, expanding their own powers to reserve benefices through encyclicals such as Licet ecclesiarum, so as to increase their authority over the western Church, and to finance the curia by rewarding cardinals and kinsmen with valuable benefices in local churches throughout the West. An unresolved tension in the historiography has been created, however, by a newer approach that emphasises the importance of petitioners, rather than the popes, in fuelling the development of curial institutions. This article maps the state of the historiography, synthesises the differing scholarly traditions and suggests avenues for future research.

This article is the first to analyse the role of papal executors in scrutinising the veracity of petitions for papal graces (such as provision to a Church benefice, or dispensation from illegitimate birth) in thirteenth-century England. It sheds light on the office of executor – the linchpin of the papal provisions system – which has traditionally remained obscure for this period. By demonstrating that executors could and did refuse papal mandates for provision, this article draws into question the arguments of scholars who claim that swathes of illiterate foreign providees were crippling English pastoral care and exporting huge sums of ecclesiastical revenue from England.

The System of Benefices in the Chełm Diocese in the years 1600-1621

The organization and functioning of  dioceses  in  modern-day  Poland  were  based  on  the  system of benefices formed by  the  feudal  regime  and  drawn  on  the  lay  feudal  system.  The  paper  depicts,  on the basis of  the  church  sources  and  the  literature  on  the  subject,  the  structure  of  benefices  in the Chełm diocese, the diocese which belonged to the Lvov metropolis in the beginning of the  seventeenth century (the time when bishop Jerzy Zamoyski 1600-1621 was in  office).  The  subject matter of our analysis  is  the  number  and  location  of  the  benefices,  the  time  of  their  foundation,  the formal-legal situation (especially the duty of  residence  and  ban  on  hoard),  patronage  and  the  state of property.
The organization of the Chełm diocese in the  years  1600-1621  was  based  on  127  benefices  placed in 64 places. the unequal distribution of benefices (half of them were concentrated in three centres  –  Krasnystaw,  Zamość,  and  Uchanie)  affected  the  insular  distribution  of  the  laity  in  the diocese.
The most numerous group is made up of the benefices connected with a  pastoral  activity  –  parochial churches (62), cathedral  and  collegiate  curacies  (in  total  21).  The  cathedral  chapter  with its see in Krasnystaw had not changed its form from  the  time  of  its  foundation  in  1429,  and  consisted in the beginning of the seventeenth century of 10 canonries and 2 prelacies. The organization  of  the  collegiate  chapter  in  Zamość  took  place  when  bishop  Zamoyski  was  in  office.  The chancler Jan Zamoyski founded in it 3 prelacies and  4  canonries.  A  small  number  of  simple  benefices (hospital provostries and altaries) is a  result  of  poor  condition  of  the  Latin  nobility  in  those territories, diverse with regard to religion and ethnic roots.
Most  of  the  benefices  in  the  Chełm  diocese  demanded  a  permanent  residence  and  excluded    a possibility of hoard  (beneficia  residentaria  et  incompatibilia).  The  legislation  of  the  Chełm  diocese considerably limited the strict Tridentine constitutions, providing  access  for  canons  and  prelates to other benefices, and limiting the requirement to reside near the cathedral.
The benefices  in the  Chełm diocese  are characterized  by a  constant  increase of the  importance    of the nobility patronage. Despite that the best endowed benefices (we mean here mainly parishes)          in the beginning of the seventeenth  century  are  the  benefices  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries founded in the royal towns. An exception here is the newly erected collegiate chapter in Zamość, founded by Jan Zamoyski. Its endowment excelled the incomes of the cathedral chapter.

Canonries and Prelacies of the All Saints’ Collegiate Church in Cracow in the second half of the 18th century

Die Prälaturen und Kanonien der Allerheiligen-Stiftskirche in Krakau in der 2. Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Zusammenfassung

Der vorliegende Artikel behandelt die Frage nach dem Präbendalsystem der Allerheiligen-Stiftskirche in Krakau in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Neben einer Analyse der Entstehung der einzelnen Prälaturen und Kanonien wird auch deren Besetzung sowie der Charakter des Patronats behandelt. Die Allerheiligen-Stiftskirche entstand im Jahre 1490 und bestand ursprünglich aus 2 Prälaturen (einer Dekanei und einer Präpositur) sowie aus 6 Kanonien. Das Patronat der meisten Präbenden der ursprünglichen Stiftung befand sich in den Händen der Familie Melsztyński, die über die Besetzung der einzelnen Prälaturen und Kanonien entschied. Im Laufe der Zeit wuchs die Zahl der Präbenden (1787 gab es schon 7 Prälaturen und 16 Kanonien), und damit änderte sich auch der Charakter des gesamten Kapitels und der Stiftskirche. Eine entscheidende Rolle spielten dabei die Krakauer Akademie und ihre Kollegien. Die natürliche Konsequenz dessen war, dass die Prälaturen und Kanonien fast ausschließlich durch Personen besetzt wurden, die mit der Universität verbunden waren, d.h. hauptsächlich durch ihre Professoren.

La naturaleza y evolución de los grupos sociales inferiores que constituyeron los cabildos de las catedrales continúa siendo un aspecto poco conocido de la España medieval. Esta evidencia no ha impedido a la historiografía advertir el papel determinante que los oficios y beneficios disfrutados por este amplio sector del clero jugaron en las carreras eclesiásticas y en la configuración de las fortunas de los miembros capitulares de mayor rango. El presente artículo pretende arrojar luz sobre el estatus del numeroso grupo de los prebendados menores que componían la estructura del cabildo burgalés durante la primera mitad del episcopado de Luis de Acuña (1456-1495). Para ello se analiza el sistema de provisión y permutas de beneficios eclesiásticos menores; primer eslabón de importancia en la cadena de promociones que constituía el cursus honorum de los capitulares burgaleses.
Además, se examina el protagonismo del Obispo Acuña como impulsor de una red clientelar entre el clero catedralicio.

Łaski’s Liber beneficiorum: A monographic article on the source criticism of  the Gniezno Book of Benefice
There has been almost no source research on the books of benefice (libri beneficiorum) of Polish dioceses dating back to the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the early modern period in Polish historiography, the only exception being Jan Długosz’s book of benefice. Given the significance of these sources for studying a wide array of historical problems, the lack of research on those mentioned above is a serious omission. The article attempts to fill this gap, focusing on a text about the archdeaconry of Kalisz (the creation of this document, its storage and function) included in liber beneficiorum of the diocese of Gniezno, drawn up on the orders of Archbishop Jan Łaski in the 1520s and early 1530s. The paper is narrow in scope and only attempts to address certain basic issues. The study of the problems mentioned above was based on the well-known description of the archdeaconry of Kalisz and information from other sources: consistory and chapter records, and the other volumes of Jan Łaski’s Liber Beneficiorum, including the Łęczyca and Łowicz draft. In addition, other essential sources for the following study are the copies of the description relating to St Michael’s Parish in Dobrzec (currently part of Kalisz), coming from the hitherto unknown description of the Kalisz archdeaconry of the Gniezno Book of Benefice. These copies are discussed more extensively and their edition is included in the appendix.
The article proposes hypotheses regarding the organization of work on Łaski’s book of benefice, the methods of the text’s preparation, and the function of the book over the first hundred years of its existence.

El período comprendido entre 1416, año de la sustracción de Fernando I a la obediencia del papa Benedicto XIII, y 1429, año de la liquidación del Cisma en la Corona de Aragón y de la vuelta a la normalización de las relaciones con el papado, se caracteriza por un alto grado de intervencionismo regio en los asuntos eclesiásticos, sobre todo gracias a la apropiación de los derechos de la Cámara Apostólica. En este artículo se pasa revista a la política beneficial y fiscal desplegada por la monarquía aragonesa a lo largo de este período en base a las instrucciones dadas a los comisarios encargados de gestionar aquellos derechos y la promulgación por parte de Alfonso V el Magnánimo de una serie de edictos o pragmáticas, al mismo tiempo que se intentan despejar algunas dudas planteadas en torno al Concordato con la nación hispana de 1418 y su incidencia en la Corona de Aragón.

The Size and Geography of the Royal Patronage in the Chełm Diocese during the Reign of King Sigismund III Vasa

The article is an attempt at presenting the size and distribution of the king’s patronage in  Poland with a special emphasis on the situation in the Chełm diocese. Zygmunt III Vasa (1588-1632) had the right of patronage from which the right of presenting a candidate  for  benefices  (the  right  of presentation)  issued with  respect to  the  most important  Church offices  in Poland. This first of all concerned the benefices  of  higher  categories  that  gave  a  considerable income.
Zygmunt III was the patron of all the bishoprics in Poland as well as  of  the  important  prebends in cathedral and collegiate chapters. The cathedral chapters in the Lvov province, established mostly in the 14th and 15th centuries are characterized by  a  considerably  higher degree of participation of the king’s patronage than the chapters in the old  dioceses  in  the  Gniezno province. Also a big part  of  the  parishes  (25.4%  in  the  Chełm  diocese)  were  under the protection of the king and his officials.
In the case of the cathedral chapters  of  the  Gniezno  province  the  number  of  prebends  under the king’s patronage was smaller than of those under the bishop’s one, whereas in the case of parishes the king’s patronage was smaller than the nobility’s  one.  Only  in  a  few  situations can one come across the king’s right of patronage with respect to lower benefices, eg. hospital provostries.
The benefices under the king’s patronage in Poland were connected with  the  ruler’s  ownership. Hence their distribution resulted both from political events (the shape of political borders, wars) and from the social-economic situation (the  course  of  settlement  process,  economic attractiveness) of particular areas which influenced  the  possession  structure  and  defined the percentage of crown lands in the total area of land.
The distribution  of the king’s  patronage in the Chełm  diocese in that  period can  be defined  as regular (1-2 royal churches in a deanery). It usually included old towns in  which  parish  churches were founded as the first ones in the diocese.
During the more  than four  centuries of  the Chełm  diecese’s  existence the  participation of  the king’s patronage gradually decreased in favour of that  of  the  nobility  and  clergy.  A  detailed analysis of the changes in the Chełm diocese shows that in the  years  1588-1632  21  churches were first built or renovated, of which  only  three  were  connected  with  royal  ownership. The question remains  open  if  this  process  was  typical  of  this  one  diocese,  or  of all the dioceses in Poland.

This paper presents the results of a case study on a phenomenon hitherto neglected by historiography: curial business management companies. The analysis considers the structure and operations, in Early Modern Spain, of professional intermediation whereby requests for graces of all kinds were submitted on behalf of individuals to the papal administra- tion in Rome. These activities were conducted by agents known as curi- ales in a huge international market that moved large amounts of capital. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Seville was one of the most active hubs in this market, and Fonseca y Rojas one of the major companies in Castile.

Article publié dans l'ouvrage collectif "Les sources au coeur de l'épistémologie historique et littéraire" (Paris, Ecole nationale des chartes, 2016).

Au commencement était la source... Puis vinrent les difficultés. Chaque source pose en effet des problèmes spécifiques. Le présent recueil, issu de deux journées d'étude organisées à l'Institut catholique d'études supérieures (La Roche-sur-Yon), s'efforce d'en brosser un panorama, à partir de cas relevant de disciplines, de périodes et de corpus suffisamment variés pour présenter au chercheur en sciences humaines une vue générale des questions que suscitent ses propres pratiques en lien avec de telles sources. À la lumière de ces études, des questions récurrentes déterminent la recherche documentaire: ce que sont les sources, par quel examen critique les évaluer, comment les organiser, enfin comment élaborer un récit scientifique fidèle, autant que possible, à leurs enseignements.
La source est-elle intègre, authentique, sincère, représentative? Son témoignage, parfois polémique, est lacunaire aussi, parce que séparé de la culture dans laquelle il s'intégrait et que cherche à reconstituer le chercheur, à la manière d'un puzzle dont il ne subsisterait que quelques pièces. La critique des sources navigue entre une lecture littérale et une lecture hypercritique. Cette dernière risque de disqualifier par principe tout récit historien fondé sur des sources qui ne seraient jugées ni sûres, ni vérifiables, ni exploitables, comme les récits légendaires de la fondation de Rome. L'esprit critique, pourtant nécessaire à la déontologie scientifique, peut paralyser le discours savant quand il est systématisé. Mais comment apprécier un degré approprié de critique et un degré excessif ? La question des sources en vient à en ouvrir une autre, une interrogation de nature épistémologique et philosophique: comment fonder le savoir ?

François Ploton-Nicollet — Avant-propos

I. Identifier, décrire et étudier la source

Jean-Pierre Deschodt — Les sources à l'épreuve de l'histoire

Madalina Vârtejanu-Joubert — L'entrée des sources inédites dans le circuit scientifique : les manuscrits de Qumran

Valérie Fauvinet-Ranson — La réception variée des Variae de Cassiodore au Moyen Âge

Alain Lanavère — Théophile de Viau et son inspiration virgilienne

François Ploton-Nicollet — Les sources poétiques du Grand Siècle. Quelques citations et emprunts méconnus autour de 1660 (Gilles Ménage, les jetons de la monarchie française et Madame de Villedieu)

II. Construire la source

Christelle Chaillou-Amadieu — Chansons du Moyen Âge et traditions populaires

Guillaume Bernard — Le concordat de Bologne : un texte « introuvable » ?

Simon Icard — Réflexions sur l'étude des sources théologiques

Jean-Baptiste Amadieu — Les archives de la censure : choisir entre déontologie scientifique et éthique citoyenne??

Jean-Marc Joubert — Revisiter les sources. Les textes de jeunesse de Maurras, ou Maurras versus Mourras

Beatriz Figallo — Recent history in Latin America : between complexity and uncertainty.

III. Penser la source

Alexandre Grandazzi — Hypercritique ou littéralisme : comment penser les origines de Rome ?

Olivier Hanne — Le Coran à l'épreuve de la critique historico-philologique. Écueils de l'hypercritique, impasses de la littéralité

Enrico Castelli Gattinara — Le problème de la vérité en histoire et le statut du fait historique à la lumière de la philosophie de Paul Ricœur;

Jean-Baptiste Amadieu — Le grand récit émancipateur chez Lyotard entre validité et invalidation

Serge Bardet — Pour une théorie rationnelle et militante de l'hypercriticisme

Jean-Baptiste Amadieu et Madalina Vârtejanu-Joubert — Synthèse

Thanks to some classical and recent studies, we know the main features of the huge structure that served as financial support to the secular clergy in the Ancien Régime, the system of benefices. However, almost nothing has been said yet about the process that made possible the conformation around these benefices of a market of transnational nature, controlled by the Holy See, to which outflowed a great amount of capital from the Iberian Peninsula. So these pages are intended to sketch a research line, that of the commodification of ecclesiastical benefices, virtually unattended so far. It will be examined the instruments of this market, its practices and the comparative evolution of the phenomenon in cathedrals of Castile and Portugal.

Th e article discusses the geographical aspects of the use of papal provisions by Polish clergy in the late Middle Ages. It analyses how
often papal favours were used in eff orts to obtain local or distant ecclesiastical benefi ces. It is shown at what distance from the place of origin of the benefi ciaries were the benefi ces sought, and it is
discussed to what extent papal favours allowed the clerical careers to cross the administrative borders of provinces, voivodeships, districts, and dioceses.

The paper presents preliminary results in the area of ontological engi- neering for historical research. Historical information systems are still in the initial stage of development. Our experience hitherto shows that the decisive stage in the development of such systems is a conceptual model and ontological engineering seems to be the right tool to build it. Our particular aim is to develop a database system for the history of the administrative structure of the Catholic Church in Central-Eastern Europe in the so-called pre-statical period, i.e. roughly from XII to XIX century. We use DOLCE as a foundational ontology, especially its part con- cerning social objects. We build an axiomatic system that formally defines the basic notions of those structures and may be interpreted as the conceptual scheme of this database.

This article analyzes the role of the curial in the early modern period. The curial was a professional and highly specialized intermediary between the Portuguese society and the offices of the Roman Curia, quite often integrated into companies with correspondents in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. These curial companies managed thousands of requests of Catholic believers to the papal grace (e.g. matrimonial dispensations, provisions of ecclesiastical benefices, resignations, pensions, indulgences), offering even financing to their clients. This intermediation space became a very lucrative market, thanks to which families of Portuguese businessmen like the Nunes Sanches (a case study examined here as an example) accumulated an enormous patrimony that would serve as the basis for their upward mobility.

The article addresses the question of the fall of the Latin parish in Chorupnik that belonged to the former diocese of Chełm. The parish church in Chorupnik was taken over by Protestants in the second half of the 16th century. Unsuccessful attempts at recovering its property were made by incorporating it into the neighboring parish in Gorzków. The actions taken by the Gorzków parish priest and the bishop together with his chapter failed, too. A detailed study of such attempts to recover the property of one of the parishes that ceased to exist during the Reformation falls within the context of the relations between the nobility and the clergy in the period of Counter-Reformation. Studying the social, legal, and economic relations in a local dimension is important for understanding the mechanisms of the mass transition of the nobility to reformed denominations, and then of their return to the Catholic Church.