Some time before late 943, the priest Adulfo killed a man called Leo in what is now northern Portugal. He paid Leo's family compensation (pectavi) for that homicide, but he did not have enough for the full compensation that was due. So the family took him for death (pro ad morte), and he came before his lord Assur Godesteoz and his wife. Adulfo asked the boni homines (worthies, elders) to intercede for him with the lord, requesting him to provide some capital (literally ‘send some stock’), so that he would be freed from the homicide, because he (Adulfo) did not have enough to complete the payment; and he offered to give Assur his entire property in order that he could be free of this homicide for the rest of his days. And the lord did it. Adulfo therefore gave Assur the church of Luzim and appurtenances. The rest of the charter relating this story records the gift and the witnesses of the transaction, which was completed on 18 October 943.

This interesting charter, which survives on a single sheet, offers an instructive cameo of the way family structures could operate within a wider social network. It has several points of interest, but in the present context I want to emphasize the role of the lord. This lord seems to be the holder of a judicial court, for boni homines commonly feature in court proceedings, and rogare bonos homines is a standard phrase in northern Iberian charters recording a request for mediation in narratives of such proceedings.