eclesiásticos - History Lab

Provision of Charles III on the riots that occurred in the town of Madrid between 23rd and 26th March

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:51 +0000

The Esquilache riot was the most important social, economic and political revolt of the 18th century (1766). The shortage of basic foodstuffs, including bread, and the speculation of hoarders were two of the reasons that led the lower social classes to riot against the rulers. In the case of the Motín de Esquilache, the revolt ended with the march, via Cartagena, of the Marquis, who had to leave the peninsula in the face of the events and the demands of the lower social classes.

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Evolution of the proportion of those sponsored by an ecclesiastic in the diocese of Lugo. 16th-19th centuries

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:48 +0000

Patronage was used as a strategy to create and strengthen the social networks of families. After the Council of Trent, two models of godparenthood were allowed by the Church: individual, or in pairs, the latter consisting of a man and a woman. The Council itself intended to discourage godparents from being clerics; however, there was no rejection of ecclesiastics in the diocese of Lugo; on the contrary, their election increased during the following centuries. The period with the highest percentage was in the transition from the 17th to the 18th century, when ecclesiastics were the godparents of 12% of the total number of the baptised. Subsequently, the levels of spiritual affiliation decreased to 1% at the end of the 19th century. The author argues that, during the peak years of godparenting, parish clergy were seen as equals in the community where two factors converged: they could benefit from mutual agricultural help and religious training. The decline is explained by demographic and sociological factors: first, as the population increased during the 18th century, families had more options to build neighbourly relationships of fidelity, to the detriment of the clergy. Second, the number of ecclesiastics also increased, causing them to be viewed negatively as the number of burdens increased and they were perceived as agents who no longer belonged to their social group.

The post Evolution of the proportion of those sponsored by an ecclesiastic in the diocese of Lugo. 16th-19th centuries first appeared on History Lab.

Genealogy of a family of bureaucrats: the Asenjo de Alcaraz family (1688-1814)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:36 +0000

Enrichment and social advancement were the leitmotiv of many families. Although social mobility was very controlled in the Ancien Régime, it did exist. An example of this is the Asenjo family of Alcaraz (Albacete). The genealogy of this family shows us how marriage strategies, social networks and kinship helped to achieve patrimony. Beginning with the union of Isabel Galdón, a native of Alcaraz, with Pedro Asenjo, a native of Las Navas del Marqués (Ávila) in 1688, the family created parallel branches that intertwined throughout the 18th century. Pedro Asenjo was notary public of Alcaraz in 1703; his first son Juan was also a notary public, while the second, Pedro, was a clergyman of minors. It was Juan who married into the well-positioned Vargas Machuca family, and by 1753 he had accumulated a large amount of wealth that made him one of the leading cattle ranchers and farmers in the region. Based on their good social and economic status, the Asenjo family’s marriage policies were oriented in three directions: to get closer to public offices and positions; to reinforce those already established within the family; and to place some of their children in the clergy. This last route had a twofold objective: to ensure that the children would pursue a career within a privileged estate and that, with celibacy, the assets of the same would return to the family nucleus, thus concentrating the patrimony once again and avoiding its atomisation.

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Beneficiaries of the wills of the Murcian prebendaries (1743-1820)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

The resource deals with the inheritance strategy of the prebendados of the cathedral of Murcia between 1743 and 1820. Despite what the ecclesiastical literature proposed (that the clergy’s assets should be destined to the Church and the poor), the high clergy of Murcia returned the benefits they obtained to their families. In fact, of the 46 wills studied, 52% (24 cases) had the clergyman’s family as the main beneficiary; 24% (11 cases) the Church; and another 24% the family-Church binomial. Overall, the burden of family obligations was the main motivation for making a will. The possible inheritance received and the patrimony to be ordained clergy subject to celibacy dispersed the family assets among the offspring; the return of the assets to the family meant, once again, the concentration of patrimony. However, the author warns, the tendency to put the family as the main beneficiary decreased by 9% compared to the period from 1591 to 1746.

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Typology of testamentary beneficiaries according to the groups of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Murcia (1743-1820)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

All the clergy did not have the same concerns or strategies of social reproduction. The resource shows us the differences in the wills of the cathedral chapter of Murcia between 1743 and 1820. Although there were common tendencies, such as favouring the family lineage through patrimony against the moralistic treatises of the Church, the strength with which these policies of inheritance transmission were perpetuated differed according to the ecclesiastical grade. The most family-conscious group in the chapter was the Dignities. The author identifies the trajectories of each of the members and reveals that, in contrast to the traditional idea of belonging to the nobiliary estate, and thus being imbued with the idea of lineage, the members were made up of families who had recently joined the local oligarchies in a process of social ascent. Their arrival in the upper strata gave rise to the need to consolidate their position there, so that nurturing the family through patrimony was one of their concerns. The rest of the groups, both canons and racioneros, also underwent this process. Many of these family estates led to the entry of another generation into the clerical estate, a fundamental issue within the strategies of social reproduction and perpetuation of the lineage.

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Amount and distribution of the mandas to the Church of the prebendados of the cathedral of Murcia (1743-1820)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

The concerns of the transmission of the patrimony for the members of the cathedral chapter of Murcia were their own families. Between 1743 and 1820, 52% of the main beneficiaries of the testamentary mandates of the chapter testify to this. However, the moralist treatises and the doctrine of the Church tried to ensure that the distribution favoured the ecclesiastical institution itself and the poor. How was the distribution and amount of the mandates for these items? As a minority with respect to the total inheritance, the main beneficiary was the cathedral factory with 37,700 reales. The hospital of San Juan de Dios also benefited with 13,220 reales and the Casa de la Misericordia with 9,870 reales. All these institutions had in common the assistance to the poor. Below 9,000 reales, we find ecclesiastical entities: convents, parishes or confraternities, the latter with the lowest contribution: 528.

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Income from the chaplaincies of the diocese of Salamanca (1779-1783)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:07 +0000

The resource shows the incomes that the chaplaincies in Salamanca had in the late 18th century, between 1779 and 1783. But what was a chaplaincy? It was a perpetual foundation endowed with material goods with which to cover annual spiritual expenses. Like an entailed estate, the lands of the chaplaincies financed the masses that the founders stipulated, and which had to be officiated by a chaplain, normally a direct member of the founding family who was chosen to enter the clergy as a form of social reproduction. In return, the chaplain received a benefit and financial support, either directly or through the lease of the endowed land. The table shows the importance of land in the income of the foundations: 51.56% in the form of wheat and rye income, far from census income (14.06%), money (11.71%) or urban properties (6.25%). Within these general data for the diocese of Salamanca, there were areas in which, depending on their economic activity, the foundations received different levels of income: in the vicariate of Miranda del Castañar, census revenues accounted for 41.86% and wine income 34.88%, while wheat and rye accounted for a low 2.33%.

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Typology of offences committed by the clergy of the diocese of Barcelona (1570-1650)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:07 +0000

The diocese of Barcelona was the second most important and oldest ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the ecclesiastical province of Tarragona during the modern period. The bishops of Barcelona, like their counterparts in other parts of the monarchy, were important agents of cohesion and loyalty to the Crown. The good harmony between the throne and the altar fostered social order, an order in which litigation and crime were not exempt. Analysing the latter, we place ourselves in the period of the Counter-Reformation, after the Council of Trent (1545-1563). The author specifies 873 diocesan processes between 1570 and 1650, of which 106 belonged to the clergy of the diocese of Barcelona. The majority of the offences were for physical aggression (21.69%), followed by adultery (15.09%), carrying weapons (14.15%) and verbal aggression (8.49%). The typological distribution of offences may be related to the structural nature of violence in the Principality of Catalonia in the early modern period. The clergy, no stranger to these dynamics, trained and sometimes collaborated with bandits. This led to the appearance of crimes of assault, rape, fraud and robbery. Also, within the clergy themselves, they had disputes over issues related to parish benefices or the non-return of ornaments and sacred vestments left on loan. Despite the provisions promulgated at Trent, the parish clergy were more immersed in local than doctrinal issues.

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Distribution of the population according to social groups in Navahermosa (Toledo) in 1752

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:52 +0000

Navahermosa formed part (1243-1837) of the Montes y Propios de Toledo, a lordship in the hands of the city, which appointed the authorities and administered justice through the Fiel Juzgado. Its population experienced a notable quantitative growth in the little more than one hundred years between 1752 and 1877. From the 1,874 inhabitants recorded in the Ensenada Cadastre, it grew to 3,217 in the 1877 census. The growth, which must have been vegetative in the first instance, was due to the arrival of immigrants, whose presence is common in the parish registers from the second decade of the 19th century. The existence of the social division of labour within a society meant that, on occasions, certain members of a family were involved in different productive processes. Each family unit occupied a place in the social division of labour determined by the head of the family, even if some of its members had a different activity. In functionalist terms, we assume that the social position of a family was primarily determined by the socially ascribed valuation and the social role played by the head of the family. The category of farmers is the result of an aggregation of neighbours to whom the Cadastre of 1752 gives various designations. In its conformation, everything indicates that, in the majority of cases, the day labourers cultivated their own land, alternating this work with the work they carried out as wage labourers. These circumstances placed them in a somewhat precarious position. The day labourers were able to find relief from their situation thanks to the exploitation rights of the inhabitants of the villages in the mountains and in the city of Toledo. The group of craftsmen was made up of potters, wheelwrights, tailors, masons, shoemakers and weavers, among others; under the term “professionals” we have gathered together eight residents who worked as doctors, surgeons, apothecaries, surveyors, notaries, teachers of the first letters, sacristans and sacristans. Within the group of the poor, widows without property were added to those classified as the solemnly poor.

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