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General analysis of the legislation on entails in diocesan constitutions (sixteenth-seventeenth centuries)

The regulatory norms on chantries inserted in the diocesan constitutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are limited to thematic nuclei, essentially related to the preservation of the memory of the founders and the pious obligations associated with the respective foundations. This remained relatively stable throughout the sixteenth century until it was updated and complexified in the following century, namely in the second third and the last years of the seventeenth century.

1. Diocesan archives
The seventeenth-century diocesan constitutions included provisions on the constitution, organisation, and functioning of the archives established (Portalegre, Lamego, Guarda, Porto, and the archdiocese of Lisbon).

The regulations generally concerned the need to build furniture for the conservation of documents (cabinets with drawers), their identification in the form of labels (signs), and the preparation of research aids (inventory and general index of books and documents). Likewise, it was required that the documentation of the churches of the diocese be transcribed into books and documents to be kept in the said archive.

The provisions on these central archives of the diocese generally contained various rules for controlling access, and there were penalties for those who removed books. Such rules extended to the need to petition for the transfer of documents, the visitation of the archive by the prelate, and the need for episcopal authorisation for the loan of documents.

2. Parochial archives
The subject of archiving documentation belonging to parish churches appeared in diocesan constitutions from the beginning of the sixteenth century, with the establishment of the obligation to make a specific piece of furniture for its conservation: a chest with two locks, to be installed in the church within a period that could vary between three months and a year. This requirement was generally accompanied by the obligation of placing the papers in the chest (within fifteen to thirty days) and the preparation of an inventory of the documentation kept there. From 1537 onwards, the removal of documents was controlled by placing an “acknowledgement” (reconhecimento) in the chest, and the loan of documents was subject to the presentation of a pledge.

These regulations were further clarified in the course of the seventeenth century. On the one hand, it was specified that the furnishing should be a cabinet with drawers (or at least a chest), also with two locks, to be placed in sacristies or in the main chapels of churches within a year. From the end of the century, it was decided that the “books and papers” of the church would remain separate from the books of the baptized, confirmed, married, and deceased and that of the visitations, by filing them in another drawer, or in a specific partition, with its own lock and with access reserved exclusively to the parish priest.

3. Registry books
The obligation to keep a parchment registry book appeared in the diocesan constitutions from the beginning of the sixteenth century, the only difference being that the time allowed for its preparation varied between two months and three years. In these registers, prepared in duplicate (one copy for the church and another for the respective cathedral), the unabridged copies (word for word) of the documentation of all the chantries in the church were to be included. The work was to be done within a year and at the expense of the respective administrators, so that the number of chantries, the identity of the chaplains serving in them, the pious obligations celebrated, and the associated patrimony were recorded.

The seventeenth-century provisions established several particulars. First of all, the registry could be made on paper, which had to be “large and thick” to ensure its conservation over time. The use of paper became standard from 1632 onwards, along with the indication that it should be bound with durable material (wood or paper pulp). The tombo (registry) should contain copies of the documents related to the fulfilment of the pious duties, and the diocesan constitutions were specific about the making of these copies, sometimes including the diplomatic model to be followed by the scrivener or the public notary.

In the same way, it was specified that the information related to liturgical expenses (registry of masses, services, anniversaries, responses, commemorations, etc.) should be recorded in a specific book (or notebook), drawn up by the parish priest in duplicate (one copy for himself and the other for the archives of the respective cathedral), within a period that could vary between thirty days and six months. The register should contain the provisos (verbas) of the documents that stipulated the said obligations (founding documents, donations, wills), and the making of their copies should follow specific procedures, as shown by the diplomatic models to be used by scriveners and public notaries in the Constitutions of Lisbon (1656) and Guarda (1686).

4. Tablets
The preservation of the memory of the pious duties in each church was also patent in the obligation to make a tablet (tábua), intended to receive its register (perpetual chantries, anniversaries, and remembrances). This specific regulation remained very stable throughout the sixteenth century. Referenced from 1534 onwards, the tablets would have to be placed in the church choir (or in its sacristy if there was no choir), within six months. To ensure control, the tablets had to be signed by the visitator and the scribe at the time of the canonical visitation. From the second third of the sixteenth century onwards, the option was introduced of replacing them with a book or notebook specifically drawn up for this purpose.

Provisions on this subject became much less frequent in the seventeenth century. Only the constitutions of Lamego (1683) make some reference to their functionality: they had to be visible (patentes) so that they could be consulted (read) and thus obviate the need to consult the register books.

5. Visitations of property (provisions concerning entails)
The norms concerning inspections of the patrimony of the chantries remained fairly stable throughout the sixteenth century, in terms of their frequency (annual or biannual) and the agents involved (two beneficed clerics). Less frequent in the diocesan constitutions of the seventeenth century, the provisions in this period exhibit greater flexibility, both with regard to the agents (now one or two persons, knowledgeable of their office, and not necessarily beneficed clerics), and the time limits for carrying out the inspection, now fixed to a maximum of three years.

6. Chaplains and apontadores
The diocesan constitutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries contained few provisions on this subject, generally restricted to the obligation of recording the celebration of masses by specific officials (apontadores). From the end of the sixteenth century, the chapters on this specific question began to refer to the obligation of chaplains to declare the remuneration for masses celebrated.

7. Insignia in chapels
Provisions on this specific issue appeared in the Constitutions of Porto (1585), which prohibited the placement, in chapels, of cloths bearing representations of heretics. The question of the existence of “insígnias” in chapels reappeared in the seventeenth century, through the prohibition of placing coats-of-arms and other insignia in churches and chapels, without the necessary and special authorization of the bishop. The visitators could order the removal of unauthorized insignia. Founders of chantries were exempted from this provision. Various constitutions state that the documents relative to this matter (the autos) are to be sent to the archive of the bishopric.

Statutes on the visitators.

In addition to the constitutions, diocesan norms provided for the inspection of pious and religious institutions through the canonical visitation mechanism. The latter had its own regulations, compiled in the statutes (regimentos) on the visitators, which could be published independently, incorporated into the Regimentos dos Auditórios Eclesiásticos, or appended to the diocesan constitutions.

Most of the compulsory statutes refer to the obligation to carry out the visitations of chantries founded in churches and hermitages, even if the question is framed in a rather generic way, around the duty of the visitator to review their accounts and verify the fulfilment of the liturgical duties that their founders had established (Portalegre, 1632; Lamego, 1583; Porto, 1690). These statutes could also contain rare provisions about the visitator’s duty to inspect the written records belonging to the chantries (Portalegre, 1632; Coimbra, 1674-1700) and to verify that they were transcribed into a book (Évora, 1598).