Provedorias das Comarcas (late fifteenth century-1832)

The institutionalisation of jurisdictional domains and royal officials with competence over pious obligations was the result of the crown’s reforming intentions, from the end of the fourteenth century, with regard to the good management of chantry properties and the supervision of funeral suffrages¹Rosa, 2012, p. 165.. King Duarte sustained a conflict with the Church over the wills of the deceased and proceeded to reform hospitals and residuary estates²Rosa, 2012, p. 179-229.. Afonso V consolidated the previous royal interventions in “pious works” with the reform of the system for the redemption of captives, the management of residuary estates, and the hospitals and hostels in Évora³Rosa, 2012, p. 204-216.. His successor, João II, asked the Pope to reform the kingdom’s welfare institutions, which was granted by a bull in 1479. According to the chronicler Rui de Pina, this monarch proceeded, within the scope of the Cortes of 1481-1482, to reform the officials of residuary estates, resulting in the creation of a system of officials attached to legacies and pious institutions and bequests⁴Rosa, 2012, p. 223.. During King Manuel’s reign, the latter was organised around a provedor with jurisdiction over Lisbon (and the surrounding area) and a contador in each district (comarca), the latter subordinate to duly authorized desembargadores (1498-1515), responsible for the registration of pious institutions and empowered to supervise all matters related to chantries, pious institutions, residuary estates, and orphans in the kingdom of Portugal⁵Rosa, 2012, p. 230-231, 270-275, 251-258.. This system of organisation introduced in Lisbon was then extended to the rest of the kingdom, with the establishment of provedorias responsible for managing, among other aspects, all matters related to pious institutions⁶Rosa, 2012, p. 223-224., endowed with a territorial jurisdiction that did not always coincide with that of the comarcas⁷Although the provedores and the corregedores could exercise an action over the same geographical territory, the jurisdiction of the former included areas exempt from royal correction and, therefore, outside the action of the latter (Hespanha, 1994, p. 101; Monteiro, 1996, p. 88)..

The institutional functioning of the provedorias during the early modern period is largely unknown, with the few studies that use the documentary collections generated by their activity almost exclusively focusing on the persons of the provedores and other senior officials, from the perspective of studying the local elites and municipal governance⁸Amorim, 1997; Silva, 1988, vol. 1, p. 980-984; Fonseca, 2005, p. 55-68.. The study by Ana Margarida Trigo de Sousa on the Juízo dos Resíduos and Provedor das Capelas in Madeira remains the only general study on the institutional history of the provedorias and the relevant legislation from the fifteenth century to their abolition⁹Sousa, 2019.. In addition to the types of analyses found in previous studies, of the most important legislation and the insertion of the senior officials within the local elite, the author traces the activity of the Juiz dos Resíduos and Provedor das Capelas in Madeira, with the following elements worth highlighting: the verification of testamentary dispositions related to pious legacies, the auditing of the administration of chapels, hospitals, confraternities, and hostels founded by laymen with the respective accounting and the relationship with local judicial authorities, especially in terms of appeals against their decisions to the Madeiran corregedores (local magistrates) and donatory captains¹⁰Sousa, 2019, p. 139-144.. Without denying local specificities, such as the very frequent aggregation of different functions by individuals, due to a relative scarcity of qualified candidates, the characteristics outlined here may be common to the remaining provedorias of the kingdom, as regards institutional activity; it is certain, however, that only studies drawing on the vast trove of extant documentary materials will enable a clearer picture to emerge.

The Liberal reforms, carried out in 1832, resulted in the dismantling of the previous administrative and judicial systems of the kingdom, which included the regional officials (provedores) and their domains (provedorias), until then responsible for the management of affairs related to entails¹¹This matter is clarified in Sousa, 2019, p. 117-118; Manique, 2014.. There are two decrees in question, both dated 16 May of that year: Article 2 of Decree No. 23, on the administrative organization of the kingdom, abolished the previous territorial jurisdictions, which included the provedorias¹²Ed. Colecção de Decretos, 1st series, 1834, p. 76-90, with the edition of art. 2, p. 76: “Ficam abolidas todas as outras divisões territoriais [com a exceção provisória de Províncias, Comarcas e Concelhos] de qualquer natureza e denominação que sejam, e não obstante quaesquer Privilégios dos mais altos Donatários”. This formulation leaves no doubt that the “provedorias” would be part of the aforementioned territorial divisions then abolished. The new administrative organisation of the kingdom provides for the existence of provedores, now responsible for the execution of municipal decisions and with competences “in the areas of civil registration, police surveillance, supervision of abuses of authority in tax collection, inspection of schools and recruitment of the army and enlistment of the national guard”. (Manique, 2014, p. 249).. Decree No. 24, on the new judicial organisation of Portugal and the Algarve, abolished all previous “tribunals, courts, and justice officials” (article 38), with the competences of the former magistrates to be assumed by “judges of Law” (juízes de direito), with authority to judge all types of cases, “without regard to the quality of persons, only the satisfaction of justice” (article 272)¹³Ed. Colecção de Decretos, 1st series, 1834, p. 90-135, specifically p. 99 which edits the article 38 (“Da publicação desta Lei em diante não haverá mais Foro algum privilegiado, além dos excetuados na mesma (…). Os Juizes de segunda instancia no Círculo Judicial, e os de primeira nas suas respetivas Comarcas, são competentes, estes em primeira, e aqueles em segunda instancia, para julgarem o direito em todas as Causas, em que forem os Réos domiciliados nas respetivas jurisdicções, ou as ditas Causas sejam de interesse particular, ou público, sem atenção á qualidade das pessoas, mas sim á satisfação da justiça”) and pp. 133-134 which publish the art. 272 (“Ficam extinctos todos os Tribunais, Logares, e Officios de Justiça que não forem os creados, ou conservados pela presente Lei”)..

• Regimento das capelas e dos hospitais, albergarias e confrarias de Lisboa e do seu termo, in a letter sent to the provedor Estêvão Martins, on 14 January 1504¹⁴ R1504, ed. PMM3, p. 107-118. There are references to versions prior to the existence of this regiment between 1494 and 1503, according to the systematic survey of the documentation of the Provedoria in that period carried out in Rosa, 2012, p. 269, nt. 369.;
• Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas, ospitaaes, albregarias, confrarias, gafarias, obras, terças e residos, dated 27 September 1514¹⁵R1514, ed. Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas, ospitaaes, albregarias, confrarias, gafarias, obras, terças e residos, Lisboa, João Pedro de Bonhominis de Cremona, 1514, reedited Luís Rodrigues, 1539. We follow the latest edition: PMM3, p. 152-197.;
• Regimento dado aos Vedores da Fazenda, integrated into the Regimento e ordenações da Fazenda, dated 17 October 1516, with provisions for the duties of the provedores and provincial contadores, but without reference to entails (ch. 1-59)¹⁶Ed. Regimento e ordenações da fazenda, ff. 1-27v.;
• Regimento dos Contadores das Comarcas, integrated into the Regimento e ordenações da Fazenda, dated 17 October 1516, with provisions for the duties of the provedores and provincial contadores, but without reference to entails (ch. 60-99)¹⁷Ed. Regimento e ordenações da fazenda, ff. 27v-44.;
• The Ordenações Manuelinas establish the duties of the provincial contadores (Book 2, tit. 35) with regard to the residuary estates (Prologue-29), orphans (§30-39), and chantries (§40-51)¹⁸OM, bk. 2, tit. 35.;
• The Leis extravagantes compiled by Duarte Nunes de Lião, published in 1569 and revised in 1796, contain two specific titles on provedores and a title on the “Ecclesiastical Estate” with a law referring to the provision of chantries by this official:
  • Title 15 of Part One on the provedor of the chantries and residuary estates of Lisbon, with three laws:
    • Law 1 – Regimento do Provedor das capelas e resíduos de Lisboa, dated 6 December 1564, with provisions related to entails (§1-3, 7, 10)¹⁹Ed. Lião, 1569, ff. 39-40; Lião, 1796, p. 132-138; PMM4, p. 119-121 (from Lião, 1569).;
    • Law 2 – Warrant (alvará) of 16 March 1566, which partially abrogates the provisions of the previous statute (regimento) on appeals against the decisions of these officials²⁰Ed. Lião, 1569, f. 40v; Lião, 1796, p. 138-139.;
    • Law 3 – Warrant of 15 December 1566, which adds provisions to the previous statute without any additions on the subject of entails;
  • Title 16 of Part One on the provincial provedores, with two laws²¹Ed. Lião, 1569, ff. 40v-41v; Lião, 1796, p. 139-142; PMM4, p. 99-100 (from Lião, 1569).:
    • Law 1 – Warrant of 23 August 1564 on providing for the absent, without provisions related to entails²²Ed. Lião, 1569, ff. 41v-42v; Lião, 1796, p. 142-146.;
    • Law 2 – Lei como proveerão as cappellas e confrarias per as informações dos Prelados, dated 24 November 1564, referring to the obligation of the provedores and contadores of the residuary estates, hospitals, chantries, hostels, and confraternities to be informed about the foundational dispositions of these institutions and to report to the respective administrators, in accordance with what had been stipulated by the Council of Trent²³Ed. Lião, 1569, ff. 42v-43; Lião, 1796, p. 147; PMM4, p. 97.;
  • Title 2 of Part Two on the “Ecclesiastical Estate” contains:
    • Law 13 – Provision of 2 March 1568, on the implementation of the Council of Trent, which contains dispositions on the responsibilities of prelates and vicars-general, on the one hand, and of the provincial provedores, on the other hand, on the provisioning of hospitals, chantries, hostels, confraternities, pious places, and on the execution of their respective pious obligations by the prelates (§7-9)²⁴Ed. Lião, 1569, ff. 81-84, specifically  ff. 82v-83; Lião, 1796, p. 279-288 e p. 283-286 for the specific articles; PMM4, pp. 100-104 (edition of the specific articles from Lião 1569, but without reference to the division into articles introduced by Duarte Nunes de Lião).;
• Lei sobre a alçada e assinaturas dos corregedores, e provedores das comarcas & Ouvidores dos Mestrados & juyzes de fora, das terras de S. A., dated 18 April 1570, without any provisions regarding the actions of the provincial provedores and contadores relating to entails²⁵Ed. Leys, 1570, p. 137-147. It was subsequently integrated into the OF, bk. 4, tit. 96, §15-26.;
• Law on the accounts that the provincial provedores have to take of the rents of the municipal councils of the cities and towns of the kingdom, dated 6 July 1596, without any normative provisions regarding the actions of the provincial provedores and contadores relating to entails²⁶Ed. Leis, 1596.;
• The Ordenações Filipinas enshrine the responsibilities of officials, designated as the provincial provedores and contadores (“Provedores e Contadores da Comarca”, Book 1, tit. 62), in relation to the residuary estates (Prologue 27), orphans (§28-38), the “absent” (no §), the chantries, hospitals, hostels, and confraternities (§39-66), the terces and expenses of the councils (§67-75), prelates’ visitations (§76-77), tax (sisa) collectors (§76-77), and the chancery (§80)²⁷OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §1-80..
• Regimento de como se há de tomar residência aos Provedores das comarcas with versions printed during the reigns of King João IV (1640-1656)²⁸The Biblioteca Pública e Arquivo Regional de Ponta Delgada holds a copy of this regiment (JC/A Misc.651/101 RES), with a prologue in the name of  King D. João, attributable to King D. João IV –  Regimento de como se há de tomar Residência aos Provedores das Comarcas ([1640-1656]); King Afonso VI (1656-1683)²⁹Simão de Oliveira da Costa published, in a truncated version, a copy of this regiment attributed to  king Afonso VI (Costa, 1688, p. 109-120)., and King Pedro II (1683-1706), the latter dated critically from the years 168[…]³⁰Ed. Regimento de como se há de tomar Residência aos Provedores das Comarcas (ca. 1686). The site of the Biblioteca Nacional de  Portugal dated this document “according to other Regiments of D. Pedro with the same typographical characteristics”. (http://catalogo.bnportugal.gov.pt/)., always with the same device.
  • Contains provisions relating to the duties of these officials in the keeping of accounts for chantries and hospitals, the keeping of chantry register books, and the obligations associated with morgadios.

General

The competences of the contadorias (accountants’ offices) in the Manueline period, and later the provedorias may be deduced from the regulations referring to the officials in charge, namely the contadores (Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…)  (1514), Ordenações Manuelinas) and later provedores (Ordenações Filipinas and Regimento de como se há de tomar residência aos Provedores das comarcas). These corresponded to a broad set of duties associated with the defence of the interests of individuals and collectives, under royal favour and incapable of administering their assets and ensuring their respective financial regulation⁴³Hespanha, 1994, p. 206-209; Hespanha, 2015, §182., namely the oversight and rectification of the functioning of different institutions and activities related to welfare and charitable practices (hospitals, hostels, confraternities, leprosy hospitals, and misericórdias), the defence of the property rights of orphans, overseeing the execution of wills, supervising the collection and allocation of rents belonging to the king at the municipal level, maintaining common public assets (walls, fortresses, and bridges), as well as sharing jurisdiction with the religious sphere, in accordance with the rules on the division of responsibilities established with the Church regarding the provisioning of hospitals, chantries, hostels, confraternities, pious places, and on the execution of the respective pious obligations by prelates.

In addition to institutional intervention, the contadores (and later provedores) were involved in ascertaining the functioning of the jurisdiction that they were in charge of overseeing:

• They managed the activity of subordinate officials (receivers, scribes, porters)⁴⁴R1514, tit. 68-69, ed. PMM3, p. 186-187; OM, bk. 2, tit. 35, §25-28; OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §68-70, 78, 92; Regimento e ordenações da fazenda, cap. 88.;
• They enforced the provisions on the salaries of their officials⁴⁵R1514, tit. 70, ed. PMM3, p. 187.;
• They enforced the provisions on the application and collection of chancery rights⁴⁶R1514, tit. 70, ed. PMM3, p. 187; OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §80; Regimento e ordenações da fazenda, cap. 97..
• They were responsible for the creation and maintenance of written records within their jurisdiction:
  • The Regimento dos Vedores da Fazenda (1516) refers to the contadores’ responsibilities:
    • to keep the “record books of the places and almoxarifados (fiscal districts) of each contadoria” and “the [books] that are of the accounts [of the comarcas]”⁴⁷Ed. Regimento e ordenações da fazenda, chap. 18.;
    • to prepare and provide their “record book that they will have in the [provincial] cassa dos contos” with a listing of the crown assets and the registration of the concession documents of said assets, and a copy of this book should be sent to the royal treasury to copy what has been accomplished⁴⁸Ed. Regimento e ordenações da fazenda, chap. 18: «em ho qual assentaram e escreveram todolos beens propryos que em cada huum lugar ouvermos e todalas rrendas dereytos rregengos foros trabutos e cousas que nos pertençam que sejam da Coroa de nossos rreynos (…) E as cartas per que tais beens ou rrendas assy forem dadas mandaram rregistar os ditos contadores em os mesmos livros»; chap. 94-95.;
  • The Regimento dos contadores da comarca (1516) refers to the accountants’ responsibilities:
    • to prepare, with the scribe, each September his “livros dos lanços in which all the revenues and rights of his district would be written down and documented”⁴⁹Ed. Regimento e ordenações da fazenda, chap. 60.;
    • To be present in the district casa dos contos three days a week to give audience and to do everything pertaining to the king’s service⁵⁰ Ed. Regimento e ordenações da fazenda, chap. 79.;

On entails

As for the residuary estates, terces, and orphans, the competences of the contadorias in the Manueline period and afterwards of the provedorias with regard to chantries and morgados maye be deduced from the attributions of the officials in charge of them. The Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…) (1514) systematised the prerogatives and functions of the contadores with regard to the following topics associated with chantries⁵¹R1514, tit. 1-3, 5-7, 11-12, 15-16, 18, 24-25, ed. PMM3, p. 153-160, 165-166. (See heading “Institutional organisation and the roles of its agents” for the respective specification):

• To know the number of lay chantries existing in the places under his jurisdiction (tit. 1);
• Relations with the chantry administrators (tit. 1, 3, 14);
• Patrimony of the chantries (tit. 2-3, 11-12, 16);
• Relations with chaplains and the state of chapels (tit. 5, 7);
• Provision of male and female inmates of mercearias (tit. 15)
• Jurisdiction over chantries (tit. 18);
• Taking of accounts (tit. 24);
• Preparation of tombos (tit. 25).

The Ordenações Manuelinas added provisions on morgadios, the competences of contadores, and the application of the Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…)  (1514) as subsidiary legislation of the aforementioned Code⁵²OM, bk. 2, tit. 35, §48-51..

The Ordenações Filipinas retained provisions from the two previous compilations and added provisions promulgated in the meantime on the jurisdiction of the chantries (see the detailed comparison under the heading “Institutional organisation and the roles of its agents”)⁵³OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §41-44..

The provedor could also intervene in the process of registering chantries and morgados, following orders from royal officials commissioned, from the seventeenth century onwards, to register the chantries belonging to the crown (see heading Juízo das Capelas da Coroa, subheading “Competences”).  Likewise, in the context of the registry of the chantries and morgados of his district, he could substitute the juiz de fora (in the localities where this office did not exist), fulfilling his own mandate granted by royal provision, receiving a specific salary for this⁵⁴According to a practice mentioned in three royal provisions sent to the Provedor of the region of Elvas in 1625: one so that he could make the tombos in the places of that region where there were no exterior judges (1625.11. 21), and two so that he could receive a salary for the days he would be measuring the estates of  entails  with mass obligation (1625.1.31) and for the days he would be “tombing” the chapels of that parish (1625.12.4), all recorded in the  Tombo 1º de capelas e morgados (ff. 481v, 482, 482-482v) (ADPTG, Provedoria da Comarca de Elvas, cx. 6)..

Institutional organisation

The contador (in the Manueline period) and later the provedor supervised a group of officials responsible for the operationalisation and administrative management of the activities that fell within their areas of competence.

Recebedores and tesoureiros (receivers and treasurers)
Recebedores were responsible for financial management in each area of the contador’s work, so the regulations refer to recebedores with specific responsibilities in the areas of works, residuary estates, terces, and export duties (sacas)⁸⁵R1514, tit. 33-37, 50, 57, 62-63, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 81, 83-85, 89, ed. PMM3, p. 172-174, 182-189, 191-194..

Scribes
The scribes were responsible for the bookkeeping of the administrative actions carried out generically in the contador’s areas of competence, as stated in title 92 of the Statute on how the provincial contadores shall oversee the chantries (…) (1514), with provisions that were later integrated with some alterations in the Ordenações Filipinas⁸⁶R1514, tit. 30, 47, 57,  62, 68, 70, 72, 74, 79-81, 87, 89, 92, ed. PMM3, p. 171, 177, 182-183, 186-189, 191, 193-194, 196; OF, bk. 1, tit. 64; Regimento de como se há de tomar residência aos Provedores das comarcas ([1640-1656]- ca. 1686), p. [2]..

Promotor or procurador, later solicitador dos resíduos
The Manueline regulations refer to the existence of a promotor or procurator with judicial functions in the sphere of residuary estates, called solicitador dos resíduos in the Ordenações Filipinas⁸⁷R1514, tit. 42, 50, ed. PMM3, p. 175, 178; OM, bk. 2, tit. 35, §26; OF, bk. 1, tit. 64, prologue..

Porteiros
The porteiros were executive officers involved at the level of summons and judicial execution⁸⁸R1514, tit. 32, 50, 68 e 70, ed. PMM3, p. 172, 178, 186-187..

Contadores das custas
This officer was involved in the taxation related to the judgement of the cases before the contador. The regulations consulted only refer to his responsibility regarding the delivery to the scribe of the money from the proceedings and lawsuits between parties drawn up before the contadores⁸⁹R1514, tit. 92, ed. PMM3, p. 196..

The roles of its agents

Contador da comarca and later provedor
In the Manueline reign, competence over entails was assumed by the contador das obras, terças e resíduos (accountant of works, terces, and residuary estates), as indicated in the Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…) (1514)⁹⁰R1514, prologue, ed. PMM3, p. 152., and detailed in titles 1 to 25:

• To know the number of lay chantries existing in the places under his jurisdiction (tit. 1);
• Relationship with the chantry administrators
  • To inspect the wills, institutions, ordinances, and record books presented by the administrators (tit. 1);
  • To audit the work of the administrators (compliance with the institutions of the chantries, possession by the chantry of all its patrimony, good management of the same) (tit. 1);
  • To suspend the administrators who do not administer the chantries well, nor show the respective institutions and ordinances, and to notify the king of the said suspension (tit. 1);
  • To determine the salary of the chantry administrator, if this is not fixed in its institution (tit. 3);
  • That the administrators of chantries, hospitals, confraternities, and hostels may go to court on account of unfavourable leases (tit. 14);
• Patrimony of the chantries
  • To return to the chantries unduly alienated assets (tit. 2);
  • To know the income of each chantry (tit. 3);
  • To leave in the chantries, hospitals, hostels, confraternities, and leprosy hospitals a copy of this chapter [on leases] of the Statute (tit. 11);
  • Execute the debts owing to the chantries (tit. 16);
• Relations with chaplains
  • To authorize the provedor to appoint chaplains for the chantries that the administrators did not appoint (tit. 5);
  • Ascertain the condition of your appointment (tit. 7);
  • Provide for their remuneration in specific cases (tit. 7);
• State of the chapels
  • Inspect the material state of the chapels (ornaments, cleanliness) (tit. 7);
• Merceeiras and merceeiros (female and male inmates of the mercearias)
  • Check the provision of merceeiras and merceeiros in the chantries, hospitals, hostels, or confraternities (tit. 15);
• Jurisdiction over chantries
  • To exercise jurisdiction over hospitals, chantries, and hostels, whether secular or founded and authorized by ecclesiastics (tit. 18);
• Taking of accounts
  • To receive a salary for keeping the accounts of chantries, hospitals, hostels, confraternities, and leprosy hospitals (tit. 24).
• Keeping of tombos
  • Order the tombo of the chantry to be made (tit. 25);

The detailed comparison of these regulations in subsequent legislation, elaborated in the table below, reveals that the regimento legislation was partially included in the Ordenações Manuelinas, which maintained the designation of the official in question (contador da comarca) and organised his competence over entails in 12 articles (§40-51):

• Eight of these articles were derived from the Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…) (1514): they reproduce titles 11-13 and 18⁹¹OM, bk. 2, tit. 35, §40-41, 43-46.; update tit. 1, by introducing the possibility of proof of ownership of a chantry by “immemorial possession”⁹²OM, bk. 2, tit. 35, §47. and extend to chantries tit. 10 of the Regimento of 1514⁹³OM, bk. 2, tit. 35, §42., dedicated to hospitals, hostels, and confraternities.
• Four articles are not included in the aforementioned compilation, referring to the morgadios, the jurisdiction of the contadores, and the subsidiary application of the provisions of the Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…) (1514)⁹⁴OM, bk. 2, tit. 35, §48-51..

This last provision indicates that the two compilations remained in force concurrently, the Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…) (1514) becoming subsidiary to the Ordenações Manuelinas: “And we command that all the contents of this title shall be fulfilled, notwithstanding the fact that in the Regimento das Capelas, which is outside this book, it may be arranged in another way in some parts; and that what is not provided for here shall be fulfilled as contained therein.”⁹⁵OM, bk. 2, tit. 35, §51..

The competence over entails that belonged to the contadores of the terces, works, and residuary estates in the Manueline period were subsequently associated with the figure of the provedor⁹⁶Hespanha, 2015, §182.. A precise date for this change is not known, although it appears in a royal reply in the Cortes of Lisbon of 1538, in which the monarch ordered that the corregedores in the comarcas (districts) act as provedores with regard to the residuary estates, chantries, and orphans and as contadores in the affairs of the treasury⁹⁷Ed. Capitolos de cortes e leys que se sobre alguuns delles fezeram, 1539, ff. 13-13v; Cruz, 2001, p. 237-239, doc. XXVII. This chapter proves that the offices of corregedor and provedor could then have been concentrated in the same person. António M. Hespanha also points out that the  provedores accumulated their functions as contadores (Hespanha, 2015, §182).. Even so, in the Ordenações Filipinas, the term “comarca” is used to signify the territory under the jurisdiction of both provedores and corregedores⁹⁸Silva, 2005, p. 78..

The Ordenações Filipinas eventually took account of this change, by integrating the competences of the Manueline contador of the terces, works, and residuary estates in a title called “Provedores e Contadores das Comarcas”⁹⁹OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, prologue., under which were gathered the titles of the Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…)  (1514) (tit. 1-9, 13, 15, 17-19)¹⁰⁰OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §41, 50, 54-66. and articles from title 35 of the Ordenações Manuelinas (§40-41, 42-49¹⁰¹OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §39-40, 45-49, 51-53.):

• The Ordenações Filipinasretain the articles about the knowledge of the existing chapels in the comarca and the relations with the administrators, with the exception of the provisions of the Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…) (1514), which became obsolete with the updating of §47 of the Ordenações Manuelinas;
• With regard to the patrimony of the chapels, they retain §42-45 of the Ordenações Manuelinas and title 2 of the Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…) (1514), not adopting from the latter the competences of the contador over knowing the income of each chantry and executing the debts owed to the latter (tit. 3 and 16)¹⁰²OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §45-48, 54..
• Regarding the relations with the chaplains, titles 5-7 and 15 of the Statute on how the provincial contadores shall oversee the chantries (…) (1514) on the relations with the chaplains, the state of the chapels, and the provision of merceeiras and merceeiros are retained without alterations¹⁰³OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §56-61..
• Concerning the jurisdiction of the chantries, they retain title 18 of the Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…) (1514) (= OM, bk. 2, 35, §40-41)¹⁰⁴OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §39-41. and integrate the legislation promulgated in the meantime: the Lei como proveerão as cappellas e confrarias per as informações dos Prelados (1564)¹⁰⁵OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §44. and §7-9 of the Law on the implementation of the Council of Trent (1568)¹⁰⁶OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §41-43..

Finally, the Regimento de como se há de tomar residência aos Provedores das comarcas ([1640-1656]), although mainly concerned with the regulation of the activity of the syndic during the inspections of the provincial provedores, refers to some of the latter’s competences, missing in the previous compilations: the obligation of the provedores to keep the “registries (tombos) of chantries [of the Provedoria]”¹⁰⁷Regimento de como se há de tomar residência aos Provedores das comarcas ([1640-1656]- ca. 1686), p. [2]., the “Livro das capelas e  morgados”¹⁰⁸Regimento de como se há de tomar residência aos Provedores das comarcas ([1640-1656]- ca. 1686), p. [6]: «E vereis se tem o livro assinado, & numerado, & nelle lançados todos os lugares da Provedoria, & no titulo de cada lugar se estão nomeadas todas as Capelas, que ha nos ditos, & os seus encarregos & quem são os administradores: & se nelle estão lançadas as instituições & tombos das propriedades, que tiverem as ditas capelas. E alèm disto, se estam declaradas as obrigaçoens dos morgados que ouver em cada hum dos lugares, & os nomes dos administradores: & se estam tresladadas as instituiçoens, ou testamentos por onde se poseram os encargos nos bens dos ditos Morgados»., and to keep the accounts of the obligations and income of the chantries in accordance with the documents related to their establishment¹⁰⁹Regimento de como se há de tomar residência aos Provedores das comarcas ([1640-1656]- ca. 1686), p. [3]. The accounts of the revenues of the chantries s shall be drawn up annually and verified by the syndicator through the examination of the «livros das rendas das capelas e hospitais»..

Scribe of the chantries and hospitals
According to title 25 of the Regimento de como os contadores das comarcas ham de prover sobre as capellas (…) (1514)—which was not included in the later Ordinances—this official was responsible, together with the contador, for the preparation of a tombo geral of the assets and inheritances of each chantry, hospital, hostel, confraternity, and leprosy hospital, “each one under its own title”, with reference to the “names”, confrontations, associated pious obligations, and including copies of its founding documents¹¹⁰R1514, tit. 25, ed. PMM3, p. 166..

The Regimento de como se há de tomar residência aos Provedores das comarcas ([1640-1656]) obliges these officials to present the books of their income and expenses¹¹¹Regimento de como se há de tomar residência aos Provedores das comarcas ([1640-1656]- ca. 1686), p. [2]. to the syndics in charge of the inspection.

Scribe of the Provedoria
In the case of the Provedoria of Elvas, its scribes accompanied the respective provedores when they undertook the registry of the chantries and morgados in their jurisdiction¹¹²According to a practice mentioned in a royal provision sent to the provedor da comarca de Elvas in 1626.4.29, by which the monarch attributed a salary to the clerk of the provedoria who accompanied the provedor “in the measuring of the chantries possessions”, recorded in Tombo 1º de capelas e morgados (ff. 482v-483) belonging to the Provedoria da Comarca de Elvas, Arquivo Distrital de Portalegre (ADPTG, Provedoria da Comarca de Elvas, cx. 6)..

Comparative table of the regulations concerning entails and the competences of the provedores in the main legislative compilations (1514-168-)

The contadores, then the provedores, had the duty to inform the king about the suspended chantry administrators so that he could proceed with their replacement¹¹⁵R1514, tit. 1, ed. PMM3, p. 153; OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §51.. In terms of drawing up the registries of the chantries and morgados, the provedores were in contact with the authorities that could authorise their preparation (the king and the royal magistrates commissioned for this purpose) and with the respective administrators, whom they could sanction for delays in their preparation¹¹⁶According to a provision sent by the monarch to the provedor da comarca de Elvas, dated 1625.11.21, authorising the latter to make the tombos in the places of that region where there were According to a provision sent by the monarch to the provedor da comarca de Elvas, dated 1625.11.21, authorising the latter to make the tombos in the places of that region where there were no exterior judges, registered in the juízes de fora, registered in  Tombo 1º de capelas e morgados (f. 482) (Provedoria da Comarca de Elvas, do Arquivo Distrital de Portalegre (ADPTG, Provedoria da Comarca de Elvas, cx. 6)..

The Ordenações Manuelinas established that the appeals of the sentences promulgated by these officials would be received by the superior judges of the Casa do Cível, with respect to the administration of the chantries, and by the desembargadores of the chantries attached to the Casa da Suplicação, in cases related to the patrimony and other matters related to these institutions (see heading Casa do Cível, subheading “Competences”, and Casa da Suplicação (1440s-1582), subheading “Competences”)¹¹⁷OM, bk. 2, tit. 35, §50.. These provisions were not adopted into later legislation.

The contadores, then provedores, also had to deal with the prelates and vicars-general of the prelates, as part of the sharing of jurisdiction over pious places between the crown and the Church¹¹⁸OM, bk. 2, tit. 35, §40-41; OF, bk. 1, tit. 62, §39-44..