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The Organization of a Mediaeval Cathedral Community: The Chapter of Valencia (1238–1280)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

R. Ignatius Burns S. J.
R. Ignatius Burns S. J.
Affiliation:
University of San Francisco
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Extract

In recent years, more and more American readers have been entering the delightful world of Anthony Trollope's novels—the world of Barchester Towers, of the intrepid Archdeacon Grantly, of the absentee prebendary Doctor Vesey Stanhope and the over-burdened vicar of Puddingdale, Mr. Quiverful. Such a reader often finds himself confused, as he is intrigued, by the commnual background of that world, the cathedral chapter. Historians indeed, who have read considerably in mediaeval secular history, have remained puzzled as to the precise nature of the cathedral chapter. Travelling abroad, one is struck by its continuance as an institution, by its colorful robes and insignia, and by the liturgical splendor of its worship at the great continental cathedrals. Even here at home, at the chancery of Archbishop Mitty or in the cathedral of Bishop Pike, one can find at least vestiges of this institution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , March 1962 , pp. 14 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1962

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References

2 Rashdall, Hastings, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, ed. Powicke, F. M. and Emden, A. B., 3 vols. (Oxford, 1936)Google Scholar, I, 3.

3 For an historical survey of chapters, their evolution, powers, internal organization, and relations to the bishop, see Torquebiau, P., “Chapitres de chanoines,” Dictionnaire de droit canonique, III, 530–95Google Scholar; cf. his articles, “Chanoines” (ibid., pp. 471–88) and “Curie diocésaine” (IV, 961–71); and Mollat, G., “Bénéfices”Google Scholar (I, 406–48). The Valencian chapter would receive a separate invitation from the king to participate in the parliament of the kingdom of Valencia in 1301 (Documenta selecta mutuas civitatis aragocathalaunicae et ecclesie relationes illustrantia, ed. Vincke, J., Barcelona, 1936Google Scholar, doc. 94).

4 Archivo de la catedral de Valencia, cited hereafter as Arch. Cath. For the careers of individual canons, the Archivo de la corona de Aragón at Barcelona is useful. Details can also be gleaned from the Archivo de la catedral de Toledo (see below n. 8) and the Archivo histórico nacional at Madrid. On the crusade and the problems of establishing the church among the conquered Moslems, see my recent articles, “Social Riots on the Christian-Moslem Frontier, Thirteenth-Century Valencia,” American Historical Review, LXVI (1961), 378–400Google Scholar; “Journey From Islam: Incipient Cultural Transition in the Conquered Kingdom of Valencia,” Speculum, XXXV(1960), 337–56Google Scholar; and my forthcoming article in Speculum, “The Parish as a Frontier Institution, in Thirteenth-Century Valencia.” Background information on the early diocese is supplied by Llorens, Roque Chabás, Episcopologio Valentino (Valencia, 1909)Google Scholar and Sivera, José Sanchís y, La Diócesis valentina, 2 vols. (Valencia, 1920–1921).Google Scholar Invaluable for a picture of the interior life of the chapter, especially in its developed phase, are the documents in, Constituciones sive ordinationes insignis metropolitanae ecclesiae valentinae, ed. Miguel Pérez de Miedes (Valencia, 1546).

5 Arch. Cath., perg. 2,309 (June 23, 1240),

6 Colección diplomática de Jaime I el conquistador, ed. Huici, A., 3 vols. (Valencia, 1916–1922)Google Scholar, doc. 989 (February 26, 1274).

7 Ibid., “tune temporis de curia nostra erant.”

8 “Ordinatio ecclesiae valentinae”: “creavit ad vii vel octo canones.” An original of this trial record is in the Toledo cathedral archives, a copy in the Madrid national archives, and a different version in the Vatican archives. Citation here is from the transcription of the Madrid copy by Sivera, Sanchís y in his Diócesis valentinaGoogle Scholar, II, 320.

9 Ibid., p. 233. Chosen and installed by the metropolitan, their names were given in this trial record by his procurator.

10 Arch. Cath., perg. 1,312 (November 2, 1241); cf. perg. 589, and Aureum opus regalium privilegiorum civitatis et regni Valentie, ed. Luís de Alanya (Valencia, 1515), fol. 4 r, v, doc. 12. The purchase permit was confirmed again in 1265 (Arch. Cath., perg. 1,339; cf. Colección diplomática, doc. 918, December 19, 1265).

11 Ibid., perg. 1,325 (January 29, 1257).

12 Constituciones, fol. 67 (1259).

13 Arch. Cath., perg. 1,356 (February 22, 1279). And see the constitutions of Bishop Jazpert in perg. 289 (August 13, 1277).

14 Doc. above in n. 10: “domos sive hospicia que sunt de realencho ad habitaciones vestras proprias.” On the canons' houses, also see the episcopal regulations of 1286 in Constituciones, fols. 36–39.

15 A charter of protection (guiage) from the king included the households (Arch. Cath., perg. 2,394; codex Liber constitutionum, fols. 61v-62r). In the first visitation and organization of the diocese by the metropolitan, the members of the canons' households were declared to be above the jurisdiction of the archdeacon (perg. 2,310, June 14, 1242).

16 Arch. Cath., perg. 4,614 (February 19, 1248): “Dominicus Mathei clericus nobis exposuit conquerendo, et cum olim per capcionem Civitatis Valencie in ordinacione ipsius Ecclesie inter ceteros canonicos ipsum creavimus in canonicum ecclesie antedicte, et ipsa canonica optinenda ad Episcopum et Capitulum valentinum multocies institisse placuit Episcopo et Capitulo quod res in iudicium duceretur et per negacionem re in dubium revocata …”; “per nos fuisse receptum in canonicum Ecclesie valentine in prima creatione canonicorum quam fecimus in eadem.”

17 Ibid., perg. 2,309.

18 Lib. III, tit. xxvii, no. 5: “non prosequor quia circa eorum officia et potestates fere quot sunt Ecclesiae tot sunt consuetudinum varietates.”

19 For mediaeval Spain, each of these offices is analyzed from contemporary documents by Reoyo, D. Mansilla, Iglesia castellano-leonesa y curia romana en los tiempos del rey San Fernando (Madrid, 1945); on the sacristan see pp. 203–204.Google Scholar Also useful here is the monograph of Heintschel, D. E., The Mediaeval Concept of an Ecclesiastical Office, an Analytical Study of the Concept of an Ecclesiastical Office in the Major Sources and Printed Commentaries from 1140–1300 (Washington, D. C., 1956).Google Scholar Some would refuse the name “dignity” to capitular officials who lacked an administrative, especially a jurisdictional function; a further distinction of “personage” and “office” is provided for these latter.

20 “Ordinatio ecclesiae valentinae,” p. 250.

21 Constituciones, fols. 57–58r. This decree also gave the sacristan and the archdeacon of J´tiva the first stalls in the choir, facing one another. The precentor and the archdeacon of Valencia were similarly honored.

22 Arch. Cath., pergs. 2,309 and 2,310.

23 Ibid., perg. 4,616 (June 4, 1247).

24 Rationes decimarum hispaniae (1279–1280), ed. Rius, Serra J., 2 vols. (Barcelona, 1946–1947)Google Scholar, I, 259, 264.

25 Iglesia castellano-leonesa, pp. 203–204 and notes; cf. Rashdall, Universities, I, 279–82 and notes. Two officers may be distinguished here, but at Valencia their functions seem to have been combined at first.

26 Arch Cath., perg. 2,310.

27 Rationes decimarum, I, 259, 263.

28 Arch. Cath., perg. 2,408 (June 23, 1260).

29 Llorens, Peregrin L., “El Deanato de la catedral de Valencia,” Anales del centro de cultura valenciana, n. s. XV (1954)Google Scholar, 9–11, 16–17, transcribing the documents.

30 Arch. Cath., perg. 2,418.

31 Rationes decimarum, I, 255, 262. The duty was apparently recompensed by an exemption, as is the case with the dean of Barcelona on p. 19; on p. 32 reasons for such exemption are given for a collector.

32 Moorman, J. R. H., Church Life in England in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, England, 1946), p. 209Google Scholar. Cf. Reoyo, Mansilla, Iglesia castellanoleonesa, pp. 204–205Google Scholar, Heintschel, Mediaeval Office, pp. 62–64, and Amanieu, A., “Archidiacre,” Dictionnaire de droit canoniqueGoogle Scholar, I, 948–1004.

33 “Ordinatio ecclesiae valentinae,” pp. 233, 319–320; cf. p. 250.

34 Heintschel, Mediaeval Office, p. 62.

35 Arch. Cath., perg. 2,310.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid., perg. 2,312 (February 11, 1243 or 1244): “finem litibus et discordie imponere cupientes.”

38 Rationes decimarum, I, 258, 264. On p. 267 we find him adding 269 solidi, to make good his default in 1277–1278, and 40 more to supply for a similar defect in his prepositura revenue, plus 200 more.

39 Gudiol, Antonio Duran, “El Derecho capitular de la catedral de Huesca desde el siglo xii al xvi,” Revista española de derecho canonico, VII (1952)Google Scholar, 483, 486.

40 Published by Sanchís y Sivera in his “El Obispo de Valencia Arnaldo de Peralta,” Boletín de la real academia de la historia, LXXXII (1923)Google Scholar, 47–48 (July 22, 1247). The Constituciones mention some of these for Valencia—in 1259 for example the campanarius, scholares, and four hebdomadarii (fols. 66v-67).

41 Arch. Cath., leg. XXXV, no. 9 (October 1, 1255).

42 Rationes decimarum, I, 263–65.

43 Constituciones, fol. 1: “ubi moris (sic) est capitulum celebrari.” A much later document (1409) has them called by a bell, “ut moris est” (fol. 62r). Each canon also had to purchase, by a decree of 1282, “honorabilem cappam sericeam …valentem, ad minus decem libras” (fol. 24v).

44 Barraclough, G., Papal Provisions, Aspects of Church History Constitutional, Legal and Administrative in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1935), p. 54.Google Scholar