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The Earliest ‘Difiniciones' of the Order of Calatrava, 1304–1383

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Joseph F. O'Callaghan*
Affiliation:
Fordham University

Extract

The major sources for an inquiry into the customs of the Spanish military Order of Calatrava are the difiniciones or statutes enacted in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The difiniciones were formulated by the Cistercian abbots of Morimond, or by their representatives, and, on two occasions, by the masters of Calatrava.

The legislative authority of the abbots of Morimond resulted from the incorporation of Calatrava into the Order of Citeaux in 1187. At that time, the Cistercian general chapter affiliated Calatrava with the abbey of Morimond. Henceforth, the abbots of this monastery possessed the right of visiting the knights and of regulating their observances. Oftentimes this right was delegated to the abbots of Spanish Cistercian monasteries affiliated with Morimond.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Bullarium ordinis militiae de Calatrava (Madrid 1761) 21. This work will be cited hereafter as BC. See my article ‘The Affiliation of the Order of Calatrava with the Order of Cîteaux, Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis 15 (1959) 161–193; 16 (1960) 3–59; 255–292.Google Scholar

2 For example, the abbots of Sacramenia, Valbuena, Bujedo, etc. The abbot of San Pedro de Gumiel, who was authorized to visit Calatrava in 1195, claimed it as his filiation but the general chapter of 1235 rejected the claim. See Statuta capitulorum generalium Ordinis Cisterciensis 2 (ed. Canivez, J. M., Louvain 1933–1941) 145.Google Scholar

2 O'Callaghan, J. F., ‘Difiniciones of the Order of Calatrava enacted by Abbot William II of Morimond, April 2, 1468,’ Traditio 14 (1958) 231268.Google Scholar

4 Madrid. Archivo Histórico Nacional (abbr. AHN), Sección de Códices, Sign. 1341 C-1349 C, Registro de Escrituras de la Orden de Calatrava TV, fols. 219r-222r. This work will be cited as REC.Google Scholar

5 REC V, fol. 1r.Google Scholar

6 Memorias de Don Fernando IV (ed. Benavides, Antonio, Madrid, 1860) II 241–242.Google Scholar

7 AHN, Documentos particulares de Calatrava 172. REC V, fols. 2r-3r.Google Scholar

8 AHN, Documentos particulares 171.Google Scholar

9 REC V, fols. 26r-27v. For the text see herein infra, document I.Google Scholar

10 REC VII, fols. 31r-31v.Google Scholar

11 BC 160.Google Scholar

12 AHN, Documentos particulares 185.Google Scholar

13 REC V, fol. 27v. For the text see infra, document II.Google Scholar

14 Marañon, Miguel, Libro del origen, difiniciones y actos capitulares de la Orden de Calatrava (Valladolid 1568) fol. 10r.Google Scholar

15 REC V, fols. 98r-99v.Google Scholar

16 REC VI, fols. 16r-17r.Google Scholar

17 Cronica de Don Alfonso XI, 33, 43 (Biblioteca de Autores Españoles [abbr. BAE], 66.195–196, 200).Google Scholar

18 REC VI, fols. 25r-26r. For the text see infra, document III.Google Scholar

19 AHN, Documentos particulares 224.Google Scholar

20 Crónica de Don Alfonso XI, 83 (BAE 66.224).Google Scholar

21 Ibid. 151 (BAE 66.271).Google Scholar

22 REC VI, fols. 85r-86v. For the text see infra, document IV.Google Scholar

23 Benedict XII, Epistolae Patentes et Clausae, Annus II, 1009, 1035 (ed. Vidal, J. M., Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome,3 2 [Paris 1913–1935] 266–267, 277).Google Scholar

24 AHN, Documentos eclesiásticos de Calatrava 89, and Crónica de Don Alfonso XI, 178 (BAE 66.288).Google Scholar

25 BC 756–760.Google Scholar

26 REC VI, fol. 34r. For the text see infra, document V.Google Scholar

27 REC VII, fols. 42r-44r.Google Scholar

28 REC VIII, fols. 16r-17v.Google Scholar

29 REC VIII, fols. 12r-13r. For the text see infra, document VI.Google Scholar

30 Excerpts from these difiniciones are given in Difiniciones del Rdo. Guillermo, Abad de Morimundo, AHN, Sección de Códices, Sign. 1270G.Google Scholar

31 Although the text of Abbot John's difiniciones is faulty I hope to be able to reconstruct it for publication.Google Scholar

32 AHN, Sección de Códices, Sign. 1341C – 1349C. Indice, Sign. 1350C. A copy of this collection exists in the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Sign. 12-4-3-I-37 to 12-4-3-I-41, Escrituras del Archivo de Calatrava.Google Scholar

33 The difiniciones of Abbot John II of Morimond, 1383, are the first in the series surviving in Latin. The fifteenth-century difiniciones are all in Latin.Google Scholar

34 AHN, Sección de Códices, Sign. 1270C. A copy of this work exists in the library of the University of Salamanca, Sign. 1737, Varias bulas y definiciones de Calatrava, fols. I-LXXX. I have used the copy in AHN.Google Scholar

35 REC VIII, fols. 16r-17v. Marañon, op. cit. (n. 14), fol. 9v, and Angel Manrique, Annales Cistercienses 1 (Lyons 1642–1649) 522, erroneously dated these difiniciones in 1283. Probably for this reason DG cited them as las primeras difiniciones. Google Scholar

36 The difiniciones of Montesa, 1326 and 1353, are found in the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Sign. 12-4-2-I-5, Visitas de Montesa, fols. 1r-5v, 10r-13v. I have used this text. Other copies are found in AHN, Sección de Ordenes militares, Sign. 877C, Libro de visitas generales de Montesa, and in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Sign. 845-D-133, Libro de las visitasa la Orden de Montesa. Google Scholar

37 My references are to the edition by Aurea Javierre Mur, La Orden de Calatrava en Portugal (Madrid 1952). This work also appeared in the Boletín de la Real Academia de la Listoria 130 (1952) 323–376.Google Scholar

38 Manrique, op. cit. 1.522–524. In the manuscript catalogues of El Escorial only the difiniciones of 1468 are listed. The manuscripts of San Bartolome, now conserved in the library of the University of Salamanca, have not been catalogued. Manrique gave no further information concerning these texts.Google Scholar

1 The campo de Calatrava in the modern province of Ciudad Real.Google Scholar

2 This probably means that the subclavero is to be subject to the prior and subprior.Google Scholar

3 This probably refers to the conventual mass and the masses of the Blessed Virgin and the Dead.Google Scholar

4 Moradores, knights and others living in an encomienda under the authority of a comendador.Google Scholar

5 This probably means that no one from Ciudad Real (which did not belong to the Order) was to be appointed montaraz or steward, nor was any woodland pertaining to any encomienda to be rented to anyone from Ciudad Real to payoff debts, or for any other reason.Google Scholar

1 Marañon, op. cit., fol. 10r, dates these ditiniciones April 20, 1307. Documents indicate the abbot's presence in the convent of Calatrava on April 20 (REC VII, fols. 31r-31v) and at neighboring Villarrubea on April 24 (AHN, Documenlos particulares de Calalrava 185).Google Scholar

2 Something seems to be omitted in the text of REC. Perhaps it may be the following text, attributed to the difiniciones of 1307, in DG, fols. 16r-16v : ‘E si por ventura algun freile jugare dados como sea cosa mui deshonesta, si privado Ie fuere, sea encarcelado por un año, e por dos meses ultimo de todo’, E como sea vedado por orden traer nobles e preciosos vestidos, mandamos que no vistan pafios, sino mui ordenados i honestos.’ Cf. the difiniciones of 1325, ch. 15, 17.Google Scholar

3 This probably means that the difiniciones of 1304 and 1307 were to be read on the feasts of Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas, when the knights were obliged to receive the sacraments (1304, ch, 1), or whenever the master or prior thought it useful to read them.Google Scholar

1 Although the text cited by Manrique (AC, I 523) attributes these difiniciones to Friday, October 28, the date Friday, October 18, given in REC, is correct. October 18, 1325 fell on Friday, whereas October 28 fell on Monday.Google Scholar

2 3 Reg. 3.7: ‘Domine, Deus, tu regnare fecisti servum tuum.’Google Scholar

3 Cf. Regula sancti Benedicti 6–7.Google Scholar

4 Provo 10.19; St. Bernard, Tractatus de interiori domo 28 (PL 184.537); Vilis myslica seu tractatus de passione domini 27 (PL 184.687–688); Liber de modo bene vivendi 30 (PL 184. 1254–1255); Sermo II, Dominica prima post octavam Epiphaniae 7 (PL 183.161).Google Scholar

5 Juan González, master of Calatrava, 1267–1284.Google Scholar

6 The meaning of this chapter is not at all clear.Google Scholar

7 This probably means that the clavero and other comendadores were to keep in good repair the houses in which the brethren were to be received and maintained.Google Scholar

8 The meaning of this chapter is not clear.Google Scholar

9 Garcia López de Padilla, elected 1298, was deposed by Abbot Juan in 1325, but he continued to call himself master in Alcañiz until his death in 1336.Google Scholar

1 Since Alfonso Perez was master in Alcañiz, but not in Calatrava, where Juan Núñez de Prado was recognized as master, Abbot Renaud could not have been visiting the convent of Calotrava.Google Scholar

2 Benedict XII's ordinance was the bull Fulgens sicut stella (July 12, 1335): Statuta capitulorum generalium Ordinis Cisterciensis III 410–436.Google Scholar

3 See note 2.Google Scholar

4 See note 2.Google Scholar

1 Although Marañon, op. cit., fol. 10v, dates these difiniciones in 1328, I believe the correct date is 1338. The text in REC does not give the name of the abbot of Morimond who commissioned Abbot Guillen, but the excerpt from the preamble cited by Manrique (AC, I 524) gives the name as Arnaldo, l.e., Renaud. Since he was abbot from 1331 to 1354, these difiniciones must have been enacted in 1338.Google Scholar

2 This probably means that the difiniciones were to be read on one or more occasions during the year.Google Scholar

1 The text is not clear, but the name appears to be Caamaño. Juan de Caamaño appears as comendador del Collado in documents of June 30, 1392, and August 8, 1392. Be 223–224; AHN, Documentos particulares de la Orden de Calatraoa 274.Google Scholar

2 No one of this name appears in the list of those present given in the preamble. Could this be Gutierre Diaz de Sandoval, the comendador mayor?Google Scholar

3 Juan Arias, comendador of Almodovar. Seven other names followed but the scribe could not decipher them.Google Scholar