[282] King James had circled his new city with religious houses. He had dotted its interior with small churches. To each religious Order, each type of ministry, he had assigned a post. Proud of these foundations, he kept a patriarchal eye upon their affairs through the years. But the jewel and crown of all, with a special claim to kingly patronage, was the royal foundation of St. Vincent of Valencia.

Foundation: Shrine, Monastery, Hospice, And Hospital

To King James, St. Vincent had done as much in conquering the kingdom as had any company of knights. The king proposed to tender a proper thanks. There was to be a monastery and hospital near the shrine "where blessed Vincent had been buried."⁽¹⁾ "Our conviction is that the Lord Jesus Christ subjected to us the city and whole kingdom of Valencia, and wrested it from the power and hands of the pagans, because of the special prayers of St. Vincent."⁽²⁾ James's son King Peter was similarly to acknowledge the crown's obligation to Vincent's shrine. Yet oddly enough the origins and early evolution of St. Vincent's in this century seem never to have been investigated in detail.⁽³⁾

The religious feelings of a medieval group could be focused effectively around a local shrine. There were Marian shrines in Valencia; Our Lady of Puig, for example, was the patronal establishment for the new kingdom. But something in the way of a resident saint was desirable. James's dominions in general were well populated by the bones of spiritual heroes. His subjects entertained no doubts but that there had even been a remarkable emigration of characters from the New Testament to the lands of the langue d'oc. The capital of James's newest kingdom unfortunately could boast no Lazarus nor Magdalene, much less those distinguished figures of Catalan folklore Salome's ghost and Adam. But it did have an authentic saint to rival the best. This was Vincent, deacon at the church of Roman Zaragoza, who had "been crowned with martyrdom hard by the city of Valencia."⁽⁴⁾

To Vincent's memory Emperor Constantine the Great had caused a church to be erected here at Valencia. Vincent's bones were apparently later spirited away by the Christians during the Moslem persecution of the eighth [283] century, either to Castres in France or to Cabo de San Vicente in Portugal. But his place of burial remained as a tangible relic to be cherished by native Christians through the dark night of Moslem rule.⁽⁵⁾ St. Vincent's church became the focus of devotion for the ever-diminishing Mozarabic community at Valencia.

Nor was it forgotten by the Christian north. As the Reconquest gathered strength in the twelfth century, Alphonse VIII of Castile made a demonstration of solidarity with the Christians in remote Moslem Valencia. He presented an elaborate grant of Fuentidueña and other properties to the church of St. Vincent in Valencia and "to all the brothers serving the church of the same martyr."⁽⁶⁾ In 1172 a raid in depth by Alphonse II of Aragon forced the Moslem ruler of Valencia to adopt a tributary policy; among his concessions to Aragon the Moslem yielded the church of St. Vincent with all its rights. Alphonse in turn, out of gratitude for material help in his adventure, handed these claims over to his monastery of San Juan de la Peña (1177). James's father, Peter the Catholic, confirmed this transfer in 1212.⁽⁷⁾ But James himself in a 1232 pre-grant assured the place and church of St. Vincent's "at Valencia that admirable city" to the powerful St. Victorian monastery in the diocese of Huesca.⁽⁸⁾

Neither place retained ownership. When James was concentrating his hosts at Puig for the final drive on Valencia city he had a charter drawn granting the church and place to the Languedocian monastery of St. Mary at Lagrasse -- situated halfway between, but to the south of, Narbonne and Carcassonne (1237). King James was a patron of Lagrasse, which had holdings and rights elsewhere in his realms. Its total holdings everywhere included five monasteries, two priories, one hundred and two parish churches, ninety-four castles and towns, and other properties, scattered in eight dioceses. James proposed to have Lagrasse establish a monastery at St. Vincent's, as soon as was feasible.⁽⁹⁾

Early the following year Lagrasse received papal confirmation for the lands involved in this grant, thirty jovates "around" the church or perhaps "near" it; but in the document nothing appears concerning St. Vincent's itself. This vigorous charter, so important to the early history of the place, is transcribed below in a note.⁽¹⁰⁾ The claim seems soon to have lapsed, or to have been waived in return for other properties. King James later, as patron and proprietor, several times confirmed the Lagrasse holdings in his realms, but St. Vincent's was no longer part of them. In practice, oddly enough, the monastery of St. Victorian seems to have taken charge here from the very beginning. This was apparently because of the scandals which rocked Lagrasse at precisely this time.

Benedictine monasticism in Languedoc was at a low ebb, and Lagrasse was particularly bad. An investigation of the monastery, ordered by the papal legate in 1236, found affairs "depraved." A papal commission in [284]1248 discovered even worse conditions; they removed twenty-eight monks to other monasteries as a punitive measure. Abbot Bernard, too often accused of unchastity, finally resigned in 1255. It is not hard to see why King James in 1238 preferred to honor, not his ill-advised pre-grant of 1237 to Lagrasse, but his pre-grant of 1232 to St. Victorian.⁽¹¹⁾

The church of St. Vincent stood just outside Valencia city. The eighteenth-century author Finestres loosely locates it as two arquebus-shots distant from the city walls, out on the royal road to Játiva. More precisely it was some 4,000 feet to the southwest of the city in the Rayosa suburb. A few Mozarab houses may have clustered at its skirts; more probably this Christian group had entirely disappeared. St. Vincent's may have been doing service as a mosque by 1238; according to the record of the trial between Toledo and Tarragona, the Tarragona archbishop felt it necessary to purify and consecrate it before offering Mass there.⁽¹²⁾

Even while it lay dangerously within the enemy zone, it had welcomed the crusaders. A small force had pushed up to the church to offer services.⁽¹³⁾ By his ius patronatus as crusader King James now assumed special responsibility for it. Before the city surrendered, he took care to petition Pope Gregory IX for its patronage specifically; Gregory's reply reveals that James already intended to have a hospital as well as a monastery here.⁽¹⁴⁾ As soon as Valencia fell, St. Vincent's was carefully fortified for protection against Moslem raiders.⁽¹⁵⁾ The special protection and proprietorship of the Holy See was sought and given; dues of one silver mark, to be sent annually to Rome, sealed the compact (January 1239).⁽¹⁶⁾ By this action St. Vincent's and its grounds became in effect exempt from diocesan control, much like the Templar or Dominican religious Orders. The king's prerogatives as patron were to be in no way impeded. A compromise was later worked out with the Valencia parishes and the metropolitan of Tarragona, as to fees, burial rights, and the like received at the shrine.⁽¹⁷⁾

The royal standard, which had been raised on the walls of the city to proclaim its surrender to the Christians, was to be kept at St. Vincent's.⁽¹⁸⁾ Later, on the recurring centenaries of Valencia's conquest, the Valencians would stage a formal procession to St. Vincent's to offer thanks for winning the kingdom.⁽¹⁹⁾ And in the first years after the conquest the townsmen are said to have paved part of the street where the martyr had walked, lest human feet defile the hallowed ground.⁽²⁰⁾ St. Vincent's and "the public road leading" there became landmarks in assigning post-crusade properties.⁽²¹⁾ In 1274, when King James received the king and queen of Castile in royal state at Valencia, the visiting party would first go to "the church of St. Vincent where they dismounted to pay their respects, as they approached" the city.⁽²²⁾

By mid-1240 the prior Bernard had broadcast an appeal for funds. He noted progress on the fortifications and on the refurbishing of the church, [285] and begged alms for the proposed hospital, "where the poor may find refuge, the thirsty be satisfied, the sick be most excellently cared for, and other works of mercy be exercised."⁽²³⁾ Pope Gregory IX, surely due to another request from King James, took St. Vincent's again under the special protection of the Holy See in 1242, exempting it from local excommunication and the like. Rome confirmed and spelled out the privileges again in 1245 and 1246.⁽²⁴⁾

As the symbol and center of Valencian spiritual life, St. Vincent's was planned on an elaborate scale even before Valencia fell. It was to be an ambitious complex of buildings housing three units: "a secular church,"⁽²⁵⁾ a hospital, and a monastery. The king began a new church; apparently the monastery assumed from this early period the Gothic aspect it was to bear, though at least one great door was Byzantine.⁽²⁶⁾ In this establishment the corporal and spiritual works of mercy were to be joined to the splendor of the liturgy. The buildings were all constructed and functioning within little more than a decade, though the establishment's considerable revenues became sadly disjointed in the process.⁽²⁷⁾ They were all one unit: "domus seu hospitalis" or "hospitalis sive monasterium" or "prior seu ecclesia." The income was for all elements of the complex but "especially for the support and use of the hospital."⁽²⁸⁾

Beneficiaries, Staff, Pensioners

The hospital included separate infirmaries for men and women patients, a handsomely endowed chapel, quarters for the domestics, and hostel for the poor. There may possibly have been provision for orphans.⁽²⁹⁾ Contemporary documents speak of the ill here, of the separate infirmaries, and of medical supplies. The "house" of St. Vincent, as distinct from "its hospital," had a threefold personnel: clergy, pensioners, and staff. There is no information as to who conducted the daily operations of the hospital, or how; probably neither clerics nor pensioners were involved but rather a hired or beneficed sub-staff.⁽³⁰⁾

Historical documentation survives in odd patterns; it may leave in obscurity whole areas of a subject, yet throw light into other hidden corners. From St. Vincent's records we are fortunate to have a series of charters illustrating a bizarre social phenomenon of the thirteenth century: the crown pensioners. As patron of a monastery, the king could lodge his retired functionaries there for life, with a corody of food and clothing. Though not properly a right, nor connected with the hospitality owed to a patron, the burdensome charge on monastic revenues could not effectively be refused. In fact, by this period it had come to be a natural form of taxation upon the monastic corporation in Christendom.

In contemporary England, for example, "this was among the services [286] most often required in the second half of the century by the king" from monasteries.⁽³¹⁾ A monastery thus became as well a retirement home for aging couples or civil servants, or an old soldiers' home. The institution assumed many ingenious forms. Laymen and women even purchased corodies outright at high prices; this was a popular version of annuity in the thirteenth century. Vicars of nearby parishes, or monastic employees, sometimes received such room-and-board pensions in lieu of salary.

A large number of dependents drew this primitive form of social security at St. Vincent's. All were crown appointees. "We and our successors," King James reminds the Mercedarians supplanting the monks as administrators here in 1255, "can establish and leave there corodians, [taken] according to our pleasure from our household and familiars, due regard being had for the capacities of the said place."⁽³²⁾ When reorganizing St. Vincent's in 1265-1266 and putting it on a more stable financial course, King James reaffirmed the crown's privilege of naming corodians; but he limited their number to twenty.⁽³³⁾ The twenty were to include both men and women, who had the choice of living within the wider monastic or religious family or else completely outside the house.⁽³⁴⁾ James's constitution of 1266 makes it clear that these people are not to be confused with the ordinary guests in the hospital; the poor sick were to be cared for at St. Vincent's just as "has been the custom heretofore."⁽³⁵⁾

Who were these pensioners? In 1267 a Peter Martin received his corody; he had been attached to the royal chancellor, the bishop of Valencia.⁽³⁶⁾ In 1277 King Peter assigned a pension to Andrew Almerich, "bearing in mind the many services you rendered the lord James of renowned memory, the king of Aragon my father, as a member of his household."⁽³⁷⁾ Almerich or Aymerich was falconer to James the Conqueror; in 1271 the king had given him a farm and tower at Valencia.⁽³⁸⁾

In 1262 King James conferred a pension on a family group, Michael of Spain and his wife Simone.⁽³⁹⁾ This, like some other corodian documents, was a confirmation of a previous gift already bestowed "with a charter." The yearly measures of grain and wine were specified. A similar confirmation, noting the more formal charter held by the grantee, went to Peter of Amaldán in 1268. As illustrative of a common formula, it is worth reading at length:

We and our successors give and grant you, Peter of Amaldán, for all the days of your life, food and clothing in the house or hospital of St. Vincent of Valencia, ordering the rector or procurator of the said house or said hospital, incumbent or to be appointed, that from now on they are to consider you a stipendiary of the said house or said hospital, and are to care for you in food and clothing as they are obliged to do for the other stipendiaries of the said house or said hospital, and that they are not to alter this for any reason.⁽⁴⁰⁾

A servitor of low estate might hope for a pension. In 1282 the crown "assigned a certain portion to Solarmunda, a woman of the household, both because of the service she gave as guardian and wet nurse for some time to our brother Peter, and also because she is poor and in need."⁽⁴³⁾ In 1268 King James gave Bernard of Calatayud "food and clothing in the hospital of St. Vincent's of Valencia all the days of your life"; the formula of the gift was that of "the other beneficiaries of the same hospital."⁽⁴⁴⁾ In 1277 Raymond of Torroella acquired a crown pension.⁽⁴⁵⁾ A document of 1279 spells out its details: a yearly four cafizes of wheat, 100 solidi for wine and food, and 50 solidi for clothing.⁽⁴⁶⁾

A special case is the maiden Floreta. King James apparently gave Floreta's father, Dominic of Montearagón, a small estate at Navarrés; he is probably the Dominic Gómez of Montearagón appearing in the Book of Land Division. James granted a corody to the daughter in 1268, to become effective when Floreta reached the age of fifteen. It was apparently a substitute or compensation for the Navarrés estate, because later King Peter extended her stay at St. Vincent's until she was satisfied in connection with the Navarrés affair.⁽⁴⁷⁾

Besides Michael of Spain there were other family groups. Frederick of Alessandria, from Lombardy, with his wife, Sybil, and daughter Blanche, received a pension from James. This included a yearly allowance of grain, 60 "quarterios" of wine, and 80 solidi paid out in pennies.⁽⁴⁸⁾ Later, when Blanche married and was no longer a charge on the hospital's revenues, the king reduced this grant by a third (in 1278). At the same time, however, the money allowance was increased 200 solidi for clothing. This pension was confirmed by King Peter and again by King Alphonse.⁽⁴⁹⁾ A certain Martin and his wife, apparently connected with King James but now fallen on poor times, got a corody at St. Vincent's from King Peter; Alphonse confirmed this again in 1283.⁽⁵⁰⁾ William Oller and his wife were awarded in 1263 their gift of board and lodging for life "just as the other beneficiaries of the said monastery."⁽⁵¹⁾

Among the clergy serving St. Vincent's it is not always easy to distinguish a proper foundation or benefice from a corody upon the general revenues. In the original establishment of St. Vincent's, as reflected in a 1255 [288] document transferring its administration, King James required the liturgical services of "five priests continually and five other clerics [divided] between deacons and subdeacons." These five were Mercedarians; presumably they replaced the Benedictines previously at worship here; they seem to have been supported from the general funds but without the intervention of corodies.⁽⁵²⁾ When the hospital returned under the administration of St. Victorian in 1259, however, secular clergy were appointed and corodies granted.

One of these appeared in 1258, perhaps because the Mercedarians were already preparing to withdraw, or perhaps as part of a long-range plan which would have gone into operation anyway. "William of Aymeric, cleric" received his grant of "board and keep in the house of St. Vincent" in 1258.⁽⁵³⁾ In 1259 a similar grant went to "Peter Gros, priest, for a personal benefice."⁽⁵⁴⁾ King James awarded another in 1259 to Bernard of Caldes or Calvó, who owned houses in Murcia and who had been one of the group granted a settlement charter in the city of Valencia in 1239. The formula is a common one: "We grant you Bernard Caldes, priest, food and clothing in the monastery of St. Vincent of Valencia, all the days of your life, so that from now on you are to receive in the said monastery food and clothing as the other canons of the same place."⁽⁵⁵⁾ In 1264 James gave "to you Ferdinand of Vilella, cleric, all the days of your life, a daily portion in the monastery" with the perquisites of a canon.⁽⁵⁶⁾

Then, in 1266, the crown had to reorganize St. Vincent's thoroughly. King James published a constitution regulating its internal structure. He allowed six chaplaincies plus three minor clerics, all of them to praise God in worship by day and by night.⁽⁵⁷⁾ In 1269 he broadened this, substituting for the minor clerics two deacons, two subdeacons, and a scholar. Each priest was to receive 70 solidi (soon raised to 80) and his clothing, a deacon 60, a subdeacon 50, and a scholar 50.⁽⁵⁸⁾ The king included in the constitution a rule for clerical decorum: the clergy of St. Vincent's might walk into the city only by pairs and only in clerical dress.

Meanwhile the priest William of Apiera received his "canonry of the monastery of St. Vincent's" on corodian terms.⁽⁵⁹⁾ (He acquired the crown chaplaincy of the cathedral five years later also, with an annual income of forty-four morabatins.)⁽⁶⁰⁾ William may have belonged to an influential family of the kingdom of Valencia.⁽⁶¹⁾ The roll call of canons at St. Vincent's in 1269 appears in a document of that year. They were Dominic, John, William, Aymeric, Bernard, and another Bernard. James and Bonanatus were the subdeacons, William Bernard the scholar.⁽⁶²⁾ As late as 1283 there were still only six canons at St. Vincent's.⁽⁶³⁾ And in that year William Bernard, the scholar of 1269 now became a priest, received one of the canons' corodies.⁽⁶⁴⁾

When the crown surrendered the administration of St. Vincent's to the care of Poblet in 1286, it agreed to waive the royal right to name pensioners. [289] But the king retained a patron's corrective control. Thus, in 1290 King Alphonse noted that pensioners had been added at St. Vincent's in such numbers as to strain its finances; he ordered the number in the 1263 constitution of James I to be respected.⁽⁶⁵⁾

While the monastery itself was under the charge consecutively of St. Victorian's and Merced, there was presumably a body of religious resident in that part of the St. Vincent's complex. Besides, there were the domestics and staff as well as the transient poor and the ill. Together with the body of pensioners and corodian secular clergy, this amounted to a heavy charge on the revenues of St. Vincent's. In all, with building and furnishing the place, St. Vincent's required of the Conqueror a formidable output, and at a time when he was heavily involved in other ecclesiastical and civil projects. But the expense was minimal for the effect achieved; St. Vincent's did more to make Valencia a Christian kingdom than James could have done with a similar outlay in any secular project.

Gifts and Legacies

King James generously endowed his central shrine at Valencia city. The appeal to the public in 1240 probably brought sufficient contributions to begin the rebuilding. Then, in 1244 James handed over the castle and village of Cuart de Poblet, a little over two miles west of Valencia city, along with the hamlet of Aldaya just south of Cuart.⁽⁶⁶⁾ These places seem to have come to St. Vincent's fully, without an intervening feudatory. (Raymond of San Ramón nominally held Aldaya, and in 1245 acquired the fief of the third-tithe; but the king had actually recovered title before that date.)

The inhabitants here remained mostly Moslem for many years afterward; they paid St. Vincent's a third of all their produce, one penny annually for every animal, and two lesser services. Only in 1303 would the crown yield criminal jurisdiction over these Moslems to the monastery, and even then cases involving death or loss of a member were retained. And only in 1334 would St. Vincent's issue a settlement charter for Cuart, though James the Conqueror acquired and populated lands in this area. When the Aldaya country was being settled by Christians in 1279 King Peter ordered all farmers taking up irrigated lands to pay St. Vincent's as rent a fifth of their produce.⁽⁶⁷⁾

King James also turned over to St. Vincent's in 1244 a most valuable source of revenue: a tenth of the king's tenth on the Albufera, the great fresh-water lagoon near Valencia city, and his tenth on the nearby saltworks. This had nothing to do with the diocesan tithe but was simply a tenth of all the rents and profits from this important crown property, especially the fishing and salt industries. The money was to be paid promptly each year, even before the king received his own nine-tenths. This gift James [290] reconfirmed in 1255 when the Knights of Mercy briefly took possession of St. Vincent's.⁽⁶⁸⁾ And, in 1253, when turning over the Albufera revenues to his son Prince Alphonse, the king carefully reserved "the tenth of the church of St. Vincent."⁽⁶⁹⁾

The hospital-monastery had begun the year 1244 with a solid endowment. That fall the king added another valuable property: "the town and castle of Castellón de Burriana" with its countryside and villages.⁽⁷⁰⁾ There is something strange here. Less than a month before, James had given this place to his relative the Prince of Portugal in fief; the prince had promised, in the event of his dying without issue, to restore this completely to the crown. Prince Peter still retained lordship in 1249 and 1250. One hesitates to seek refuge in the theory of a scribal misdating; perhaps the case is analogous to that of Montornés, with the monastery as Prince Peter's overlord for this one place or else as holding castellan rights under the prince. Certainly the king retained residual rights; their exercise led to a quarrel between king and prince, issuing in favor of the crown in 1251.⁽⁷¹⁾

King James promptly moved the town down onto the Castellón plain, incorporated some local settlement into it, and started it on its way to being a major town. If St. Vincent's had not owned it before, or at least had not held for the full civil seignory and revenues, it received them now. St. Vincent's was in control at least by 1255, when Castellón was included among the holdings of St. Vincent's being transferred to a new administration. And, in November 1260, the Moslem subjects of St. Vincent's successfully concluded an appeal against the monastery concerning rents.⁽⁷²⁾

King James considerably amplified the revenues of St. Vincent's in 1245-1246, as part of his penance for cutting off the tongue of Bishop Castellbisbal. The king gave enough in properties to guarantee annually an extra 600 marks of silver, or 23,000 solidi. He also founded an extra chaplaincy.⁽⁷³⁾ In 1259 he yielded title to 600 solidi annual income from the hamlet of Benimargo in the Castellón countryside.⁽⁷⁴⁾ The Benimargo money and the full control of Castellón might have been part of James's penitential obligation, or they may be wholly separate.

Despite these considerable holdings, financial difficulties multiplied for the monks of St. Vincent's; possibly due to an injudicious building program. For a single "signum crucis" the monastery had paid out 1,000 solidi. St. Vincent's was "burdened with debts, [its] revenues diminished." King James reorganized the finances and added further grants. The most important of the new estates came in 1268. James made over to the monks "the whole feudal jurisdiction and lordship and power" of Montornés castle and village.⁽⁷⁵⁾ Its lord, Peter Simon of Arenós, continued to hold the place well into the next reign, but only as a fief of St. Vincent's; all the crown seignory and revenues went to St. Vincent's, which held them until 1295 when they were resold to James II.⁽⁷⁶⁾ Montornés was located "before Castellón [291] de Burriana" and should not be confused with the castle and fief of the same name near Montblanch.⁽⁷⁷⁾

The next sizable gift came eight years later, in the form of Almonacid, Sollana, and Benizaron (1276).⁽⁷⁸⁾ Almonacid was a valley north of Segorbe, boasting a castle and town and prosperous Moslem settlements. The bishop of Barcelona received it in 1238 for his crusading services; the diocese of Barcelona was still trying to vindicate his claim as late as 1272. King James had given it in fief to William Montclús (1241) and then to Peter Martin of Luna from at least 1259 to 1276; after 1280 Peter Cornel held it. Thus St. Vincent's had overlord rights here without direct jurisdiction, much as at Montornés. Perhaps the monastery possessed this only briefly. Sollana and Benizaron were strongholds with small settlements annexed. The first is probably Sollana near the west coast of the Albufera; the second name is susceptible of several interpretations, from the castle of Benasal to Benasa below Denia.

The last of the major acquisitions appeared shortly after the death of James. This was the castle and town of Chirello, and at about the same time the castle and town of Cortes or Cotes.⁽⁷⁹⁾ Only the revenues were included, not the seignory; and at a change of administration in St. Vincent's in 1282 these two places would be specifically excepted from doing homage. Chirello was more important, appearing a number of times in the documents of King Peter. It is not easy to identify these two places. There was a castle at Chirivella near Valencia city, for example, held for a time by Calatrava, while both Cotes and Cortes can be suggested for the second castle. At any rate the castellan of Chirello in 1278 was Arnold of Gloria, who drew from St. Vincent's his yearly expenses plus 3,000 solidi salary.

The crown gave other holdings and privileges, smaller in scope but nonetheless valuable. Thus, in 1273 King James transferred one of the important irrigation canals of the Valencian huerta, along with the rent owed by its users.⁽⁸⁰⁾ He allowed to "the procurator of the hospital or monastery" and his successors "annually a fair in the town of Castellón"; it was to last ten days (1269). The most important fair of that area, it meant extra profit for St. Vincent's as secular lord.⁽⁸¹⁾ This privilege he protected when granting subsequent fairs in the region.⁽⁸²⁾ In 1279 King Peter ordered the highway from Valencia toward Requena to be rerouted through the town because travelers were "damaging" the hospital's lands at Cuart.⁽⁸³⁾

In 1261 James conferred a charter protecting their property from violence and rendering the hospital immune from official harassment in connection with debts.⁽⁸⁴⁾ James also transferred to St. Vincent's his hospitality tax of 400 solidi a year owed by the citizens of Castellón (1271).⁽⁸⁵⁾ Similarly he freed the establishment from a number of taxes. In 1269 he allowed St. Vincent's to share with Benifasá the privilege of selling produce in Valencia city at times when such sales were restricted.⁽⁸⁶⁾ In 1244 he decreed that "all [292] the flocks of St. Vincent's can pasture throughout the whole dominion of the king free, without payment of carnage or herbage."⁽⁸⁷⁾ For one of the pensions at the hospital the crown in 1278 assigned 200 solidi, to be drawn from the municipal tax for weighing at Valencia city.⁽⁸⁸⁾ In 1263 James consigned to St. Vincent's all the furnishings of his own chapel, including crosses, chalices, pictures, tabernacles, relics, and ornaments; this, which seems to be the chapel he carried along on his interminable wanderings, was given to the hospital on his death.⁽⁸⁹⁾

Other small possessions are indicated. Some are at Alcira and Játiva.⁽⁹⁰⁾ A farm in the Valencian huerta brought a yearly rent of 90 fanecates of wheat.⁽⁹¹⁾ A property in the Patraix countryside turns up in a dispute between St. Vincent's and Raymond of Berga; an arbitration in 1272 awarded it to Raymond but with a rental to St. Vincent's.⁽⁹²⁾ In 1262 a settler in the Cuart area promised to pay a yearly rent of four pounds of wax. And in 1282 the hospital leased a vineyard to the pastor of St. John's of Valencia city, in return for a share of the yield.⁽⁹³⁾ Finally, in 1280 the crown confirmed all these accumulated properties and privileges.⁽⁹⁴⁾

Lay people added their bit to swell the income of St. Vincent's. To facilitate this further, King James in 1260 chartered the monastery with a privilege by which it could acquire or inherit Valencian lands, houses, and rents up to a total of 2,000 morabatins -- some 17,000 solidi.⁽⁹⁵⁾ In 1241 a small contribution of 12 pence came all the way from Tarragona, at the village of Santa Coloma de Queralt, from one who had crusaded to Valencia.⁽⁹⁶⁾

Maria, the wife of the porter Martin, asked to be buried here in 1241, leaving 5 solidi to its "hospital of the poor" and 25 solidi more.⁽⁹⁷⁾ In 1242 Martin of Sicily the holder of Argensola castle, and his wife Madonna, with mills and other property established chaplaincies for "two secular priests."⁽⁹⁸⁾ An annual gift of grain came in 1243 for the poor, from Peregrin of Atrosillo, one of the most important barons of Aragon and a member of King James's entourage.⁽⁹⁹⁾ In 1244 William of Espailargas contributed a plot of land at Campanar to finance a perpetual lamp at the altar of St. Vincent.⁽¹⁰⁰⁾ In 1247 the official of the queen, Aparisi, arranging to be buried at St. Vincent's, established a chaplaincy with a vineyard on the Melilla road; his brother John was to retain and pass on the patronage of this post.⁽¹⁰¹⁾ In 1249 the draper of Valencia Peter Oller left an impressive 3,000 solidi to the monastery. He added 50 more for his "honorific" burial there, "if I die in the kingdom of Valencia," and 100 solidi for the chapel, with another 550 for Masses, 100 for alms here, and 140 for his tomb. The Masses were for himself, his mother, sister, three brothers, uncle, and relatives.⁽¹⁰²⁾

Queen Violante in 1251 willed two silk cloaks, or perhaps coverlets, which had belonged to the lord king, "as she had promised."⁽¹⁰³⁾ In the same year Raymond of Morella, who left 1,600 solidi to his parish of St. Bartholomew, willed a modest 10 solidi to St. Vincent's.⁽¹⁰⁴⁾ In 1254 Arnold Cardona gave [293] the hospital his bed.⁽¹⁰⁵⁾ William Ochova Alemán in 1255 left 200 solidi to St. Vincent's, as contrasted with 100 to his parish of St. Lawrence.⁽¹⁰⁶⁾ Peter of Barberá in 1258 gave 2 solidi for work on the buildings.⁽¹⁰⁷⁾ A parishioner of St. Mary's died at St. Vincent's hospital and was buried there in 1262, leaving benefactions.⁽¹⁰⁸⁾ In 1263 the notary and citizen of Valencia, William of Jaca, left "properties, rents, possessions," establishing a chaplaincy with his Fortaleny land and his rents, naming to the post a priest of his choice, and bequeathing a sizable alms for inmates and staff here.⁽¹⁰⁹⁾

In 1262 a noble in the south, Arnold of Puig Monzón, left all his honors and possessions in and around Játiva, except a single piece of land, to establish a chaplaincy at the hospital. The prior was to have in his gift the patronage of the altar.⁽¹¹⁰⁾ Like a number of such property donations, it was buttressed with a confirmatory charter from the crown.⁽¹¹¹⁾ In 1267 Bernard Zamora of Castellón, asking burial at St. Vincent's, made two bequests. The first was 300 solidi; there was a temporary charge on this fund, however, the care of his son Bernard "until he has grown up." The second bequest was a full chaplaincy to support a priest at St. Vincent's; for this he provided buildings in Castellón, a half-interest in a mill, and some vineyards and farm lands.⁽¹¹²⁾

A lady of high family in 1272 willed two beds with their furnishings, one for the men's infirmary and one for the women's.⁽¹¹³⁾ At this period women not uncommonly willed beds to hospitals as men willed armor or saddles to military Orders. In 1276 the wife of Blaise Peter of Fuentes left St. Vincent's 10 solidi.⁽¹¹⁴⁾ The wealthy Berengar of Conques and others loaned, to their subsequent fiscal regret, funds for advancing the work on the church, and for its current expenses, in 1278.⁽¹¹⁵⁾ García Chicot, a "resident and inhabitant of the parish of St. Bartholomew of Valencia," left 12 pence for the hospital in 1279.⁽¹¹⁶⁾ Among continuing gifts was the grant of May 1282 by King Peter of a town named Araunost, near La Ainsa, northwest of Barbastro in Aragon. It was given in frankalmoin from piety; all the surrounding countryside was frank and free, though the crown retained certain taxes and jurisdiction mero imperio.⁽¹¹⁷⁾

Bit by bit, a box full of deeds and charters accumulated, witnessing to the esteem of the settlers, until their value required that the procurator James Sarroca seal and deposit them in the strongroom of the Valencia Templars.⁽¹¹⁸⁾ This action reminds us of another social service the religious houses provided in their communities in that century. People used them as strongboxes. Examples come to light only incidentally, as in this Valencian document where the crown is ordering the surrender of such a "box" of St. Vincent's papers. All legacies -- presumably money, small movables, and papers -- in the diocese of Valencia were to be deposited "in a religious building" by the lawyers or executors, by a law of 1262, to safeguard them until the testament of the deceased could be processed.⁽¹¹⁹⁾ Similarly, the [294] crusade tithes collected at Valencia and elsewhere in the realms of Aragon were partially deposited in 1280 with the Hospitaller castellan of Amposta. Temptation in this case overcame the good religious; he "converted the money to the payment of debts, out of urgent necessity," and tried to flee the country under pretext of business in the Holy Land.⁽¹²⁰⁾ In 1240 the Dominican house at Valencia city was used as depository for a particularly valuable document; the friars were ordered to guard it, allowing neither king nor Templars to repossess it until the Templars paid the crown a 48,000-solidi debt.⁽¹²¹⁾

Similar examples can be cited, though from elsewhere in James's realms. King James kept the original of the Majorca record of land division at the local commandery of the Templars. He filed the most important state documents for his kingdoms in the convent of the Hospitaller nuns at Sigena.⁽¹²²⁾ And he recounts how the magnates of Montpellier, facing public wrath, "carried possessions from their houses at night, and put them in religious houses and in other places of the town," and ran away.⁽¹²³⁾

What was the total worth of St. Vincent's holdings? It is not easy to declare the value, but some general idea can be formed. A tax farmer paid 10,000 solidi in 1279 for the privilege of farming the revenues for one year; this undoubtedly represented a far lower figure than he eventually collected. In 1284 the Cuart revenues were assessed at 3,000 a year. And, when the crown bought back Castellón and Montornés late in the century, the price was 170,000 solidi outright plus a steady 6,500 solidi annually from Valencia city revenues.⁽¹²⁴⁾

The Throne And The Shrine

Because of its central importance St. Vincent's was exempted from episcopal control and placed directly under the protection of the Holy See. The bishop did not always remember this. In 1278 the king had to warn him to "desist" from his attentions; the bishop apparently was interfering in matters of dress at St. Vincent's and had "intruded himself into the governance of the said house."⁽¹²⁵⁾ Again, in 1282 the bishop acted badly, "seizing clerics of that house and inflicting a number of other injuries." Letters were therefore sent by the authorities to the justiciar of Valencia and to the Official of the diocese.⁽¹²⁶⁾

King James himself chose the monastic group who administered the shrine. Dissatisfied with them after a decade or so, he unceremoniously ejected them, with a certain amount of spirited recrimination all around (1255). To replace the St. Victorian monks, he brought in a favorite Order ("of which I am patron and founder"), the Mercedarians.⁽¹²⁷⁾ The motive for this "reform" seems to have been maladministration, probably resulting in financial loss; in context of the circumstances, there seems to be no need [295] to conjecture a spiritually lax community here as do Sanchís Sivera, Teixidor, and others.⁽¹²⁸⁾

The monks threw themselves into a lawsuit to recover ownership. There were high words; some slanders by the monks stung King James to reply. He sent an account of the quarrel to each of the bishops of his kingdom (1257). "Led by a spirit of malice they slander the Mercedarian master and brothers throughout provinces and places," he protested resentfully; "they do not leave our person immune from this slander, publicly saying and firmly asserting that the aforesaid [Mercedarians] got the monastery by purchasing it from us."⁽¹²⁹⁾ To terminate the unseemly tussle, King James appointed Gonzalvo Pérez, archdeacon of Valencia, to pass final judgment. The victory went to St. Victorian (1259). The vindictive monks then sought further judgment, in connection with debts incurred on the property and furnishings carried off by the retreating Mercedarians. But the king cleared the latter of any obligation.⁽¹³⁰⁾

A scant five years later King James again had to interfere at St. Vincent's. The establishment was tottering toward financial ruin in 1265 because of "senseless, useless, and extravagant spending."⁽¹³¹⁾ His was the hand which steadied it. But the monks were a litigious lot. They drew up an appeal against the king, had it notarized by "the notary public Peter of Paul," and dispatched it to Rome. Somehow James felt the notary at least should have requested "my permission"; he had acted "to the prejudice of my jurisdiction." The breach was healed, nevertheless, the king supplying a document absolving the hapless notary from any legal consequences of the action.⁽¹³²⁾

Still, the crown seems not to have been satisfied with the St. Victorian monks. Two decades later, another transfer of jurisdiction occurred. The process began on James's deathbed, when the king became a Cistercian monk as an act of piety. In recompense for properties promised to the Cistercians but never delivered, the dying king willed the castle and town of Piera to Poblet, the premier Cistercian abbey of his realms. This castle, however, the only real stronghold between Barcelona and Cervera, was strategically too valuable to alienate. King Peter hung on to it. On his own deathbed Peter, perhaps in a fit of conscience, ordered his successor to surrender Piera to Poblet,⁽¹³³⁾ so that finally in 1286 the castle was tardily and reluctantly delivered. Almost immediately James's grandson Alphonse III took steps to recover it. He could offer in exchange an irresistible plum, the prestigious and well-endowed complex of St. Vincent's "in the suburbs of Valencia." The transfer, arranged in December 1287, carried with it title to Castellón, Cuart, Aldaya, Montornés, and other holdings.⁽¹³⁴⁾ The folk of Castellón now offered their homage, formal and fully documented, to the new masters of St. Vincent's.⁽¹³⁵⁾

The monks of St. Victorian sued. They adduced the 1232 grant, the 1280 confirmation, and undoubtedly the legal dossier of the fight during the [296] fifties against the Mercedarians. A compromise solution was worked out in March 1288 and recorded in a further document of May 1289.⁽¹³⁶⁾ It fully confirmed Poblet in possession of St. Vincent's, while amply compensating St. Victorian's with valuable properties outside the kingdom of Valencia. From now on, the Cistercians administered St. Vincent's. In 1297 Pope Boniface VIII would approve and confirm this conveyance.⁽¹³⁷⁾ As early as 1301, however, the crown found it necessary to reproach Poblet for its neglect of the poor at St. Vincent's. This is in itself a commentary on the problems of monastic administration in a nonfeudal world, and on the close surveillance the crown gave its shrine.⁽¹³⁸⁾

The esteem James the Conqueror felt for St. Vincent's is mirrored especially in two actions. First, he saw to it that the place enjoyed the right of asylum in Valencian law, applying this generously to monastery, hospital, church, odd buildings, and adjacent land.⁽¹³⁹⁾ This is a remarkable privilege, allowed by the king sparingly only to the "major church" of each geographical unit. At Valencia city St. Vincent's shared the distinction only with the cathedral. The concession naturally attracted malefactors -- too many of them eventually, so that St. Vincent's renounced it in 1329.⁽¹⁴⁰⁾

King James thought of St. Vincent's especially as his own end approached. One of his last actions was to insert a codicil into his will, providing for an elaborate expansion of facilities. Five new buildings were to be added to the existing one, each to be the equal of the latter. These were to face one another and be connected by covered bridges. An endowed altar was to be situated on each bridge, "in such wise that the sick people who lie in the hospital can watch" the daily celebration of Mass. A cloister was to be erected beside the church, and a refectory, and a "fairly long" dormitory. There were to be four additional walls, besides the walls now guarding the hospital grounds, to insure privacy. The codicil also provided for two crosses and some vestments for the church, and gave to the hospital the king's clothes and his own bed with its furnishings. The document containing all this testifies to the king's attachment for St. Vincent's; other important business he covers summarily, but the hospital he discusses at length and with enthusiasm.⁽¹⁴¹⁾

The crown had a great deal to do with the officers conducting the affairs of the monastery. There were two principal officers, a prior or general director and a procurator or treasurer. It is not always easy to distinguish the two functions, and in fact a prior could act for a time as his own procurator. The first prior or rector was Bernard. Little is known about him except that he was not the Lagrasse abbot suggested by Sanchís Sivera. Nor is there any reason for thinking that he was the abbot of St. Victorian insisted upon by Teixidor; very definitely he was not the Bernard whom Teixidor had in mind. He appears as fund-raiser for the building program in 1240 and again in official documents of 1243 and early 1244.⁽¹⁴²⁾

[297] Prior Ferrer replaced him very soon, his appointment being confirmed by the pope in November 1247. Ferrer was involved in a rental in 1248, was rewarded with a life pension from St. Vincent's revenues in 1259, and appeared in another rental in 1253.⁽¹⁴³⁾ He may have been supplanted by a Mercedarian during the brief take-over and reform by that Order (1255-1258). The St. Victorian monks resumed control in 1259, but King James had already appointed his own prior. This was the king's chaplain Berengar of Prats or of Prades. His appointment came in July 1258 when he was given full power over "all affairs" of the establishment. He is prior in a series of documents in 1259, 1260, 1262, and 1263, and then in a will of 1267.⁽¹⁴⁴⁾

The next appointee is a figure of mystery. Named Peter of the King, he was installed for life in 1269. An inscription from the old cathedral of Lérida used to mark the burial place of "Peter of the King, canon and sacristan of this see, who was the son of the illustrious lord king Peter of Aragon." Acting upon this evidence, which included a burial date of 1254, the historian Prosper de Bofarull made him a brother of James I. Miret y Sans accepted this and even incorporated it into his genealogical chart of the royal family; later he wavered in his belief sufficiently to suspect that the epitaph was miscopied.⁽¹⁴⁵⁾ Others have doubted any royal connection. The name de Rege alone of course cannot advance the argumentation.

Fortunately, other evidence is at hand. In a document of 1248 Peter described himself: "I, Peter, brother of the lord king of Aragon and sacristan of Lérida."⁽¹⁴⁶⁾ The pope characterized him in a 1274 document as King James's "nepos," a nephew or vaguely a relative.⁽¹⁴⁷⁾ In 1269 he was prior at St. Vincent's. In 1276 "Peter of the King, sacristan of Lérida" was with the mortally ill King James at Alcira, according to the king's will as read by Tourtoulon and Miret y Sans from a later transcription; Soldevila corrects their "de Rege" to "de Roca" (brother of James Sarroca and royal clerk in documents of 1264-1269). Far from solving the problem, this change raises the wider question of confusion by copyists, medieval and modern, in the other records.⁽¹⁴⁸⁾ When the crusade tithe was collected in the diocese of Lérida in 1279 and 1280, the chief collector was "Peter of the King, sacristan of Lérida."⁽¹⁴⁹⁾ Peter of the King turns up two decades later as bishop of Lérida (1299-1308); his episcopate was an important one for that diocese. Possibly there were two men of the same rather uncommon name successively occupying the honorific post of sacristan at Lérida; if the first died in 1254, the two could be father and son. If he is one man, however, and the son of King Peter the Catholic (he could hardly be the son of Peter the Great), then he enjoyed an unusually long and vigorous life, some ninety-five years of it.

Whatever way the mystery is resolved, this royal relative did receive in 1269 "the priorate of the house or hospital of St. Vincent's," with control over "the regimen and administration of that house or hospital as well as [298] its priorate for your whole life." Subsequently he was prior in documents of 1274, 1276, 1281, and indeed up to 1286.⁽¹⁵⁰⁾ The new prior was open to easy attack by those who might covet his job. He was a pluralist, already holding positions as sacristan in the cathedral chapter of Lérida and as prior of another secular church in Lérida. The fact that St. Vincent's carried no obligation for the parochial cure of souls, however, must have made it easier to secure a dispensation now from Rome. Pope Gregory allowed Peter to remain as prior by a special privilege in 1272. Criticism apparently continued, for shortly afterward Peter fortified himself with a second such approbation from Gregory.⁽¹⁵¹⁾

Bernard of Biela, elected abbot of St. Victorian in 1276, seems to have decided to take more direct control sometime around 1280, for in that year he fortified himself with a royal confirmation of the monastic ownership.⁽¹⁵²⁾ And from 1281 he appears as prior, though acting at times through a vicar Peter Marqués.⁽¹⁵³⁾ This Peter March, not to be confused with the secretary of James II, was a notary of Barcelona often called upon to draw important state documents. He seems to have been a kind of assistant to Prince Peter (for example, in documenting claims to Navarre in 1274). He held a minor office in Valencia city (1280), owned lands in Pego and Villarreal in the new realm, acted here as agent in crown affairs sometimes, and is described at least once as a crown secretary.

But Peter of the King refused to be supplanted in his life-office. Forcibly removed by King Peter, he took his case to law. Soon King Alphonse committed the problem to the procurator of the realm of Valencia; the procurator's decision early in 1285 favored the ex-prior against the crown. The judgment involved restoration of priorate and of holdings except for Castellón; Alphonse soon restored Castellón as well. As a result, Peter of the King appears as prior once again in 1285-1286. He was involved in the negotiations to transfer St. Vincent's from the Benedictines of St. Victorian to the Cistercians of Poblet (1286-1287). A month later he quietly sold his revenues and rights here to the new administrators, in return for a large biannual pension.⁽¹⁵⁴⁾

The procurators resembled tax farmers. Men high in official circles could buy the office at a flat sum, retaining all surplus profit as salary. The procurator himself probably acted through a staff of bailiffs and ad hoc tax farmers. Perhaps the device of a single such farmer or procurator over all the revenues was resorted to only occasionally. There was none at St. Vincent's until 1258 when Berengar of Prats became prior under the designation of "special and general procurator" over all business.⁽¹⁵⁵⁾ In 1268 James Sarroca (or de Roca), one of the king's most important counselors and soon to be bishop of Huesca (1273-1277), was procurator. He may be the first true procurator, distinct from the prior; he may also be part of James's financial reform at St. Vincent's, which was specifically directed [299] against the mismanagement of the priors.⁽¹⁵⁶⁾ Peter of the King succeeded him but, like Berengar of Prats, he was primarily prior.

For almost a decade Berengar of Conques was closely involved in the hospital's finances.⁽¹⁵⁷⁾ He was a trusted crown agent and sometime bailiff of Valencia. Berengar of Conques did not always act as procurator, but he held that office at least from late 1279 to 1283. In October 1279 he paid 10,000 solidi as the price for the procuratorship for one year.⁽¹⁵⁸⁾ In November 1280 he extended this for two years more. King James licenced him in the contract to provide for the hospital ill and for the clerics, beneficiaries, and servitors.⁽¹⁵⁹⁾

During the closing months of his second tenure, Berengar of Conques resisted the efforts of Abbot Bernard of St. Victorian to control the finances. In April 1282 King Peter notified Berengar that when his term was up he must relinquish his office to the abbot. As late as December 1282 the king had to command him to restore the procuratorship to St. Victorian.⁽¹⁶⁰⁾ The king commissioned the procurator of Valencia, Raymond of Sanllei, to enforce the removal order, and the lawyer Raymond of Sales to settle the quarrel between procurator and abbot. Perhaps Berengar felt he had not realized a sufficient profit from his investment, and suggested a compromise. A royal functionary took over the office briefly in 1282 or 1283; this was Peter of St. Clement, secretary to Peter both as prince and king.⁽¹⁶¹⁾ The last of the procurators took office for a year in 1284; his name significantly was Nadal of Conques.⁽¹⁶²⁾

Even as a scheme of patronage to reward the meritorious, the king's control of St. Vincent's was not without economic advantage. Not only would the procurators and priors reap their comfortable profit, however; the crown itself took some of the revenues. Prior Peter of the King exemplifies this, a member of the family being provided for. King Peter also helped his uncle Ferdinand study at Paris with revenues in large part from St. Vincent's. (Of the 10,000 solidi demanded from the hospital, only 2,000 seem to have been needed for the education itself.)⁽¹⁶³⁾ Again, as an institution exempt from episcopal control even in its properties and revenues, St. Vincent's collected its own tithes and turned a full half over to King James and King Peter.⁽¹⁶⁴⁾

Property and administrative documents have survived where the deeper story of St. Vincent's has gone unrecorded. These elements, while telling something of St. Vincent's, are subordinate to the less complicated but overriding function of St. Vincent's as a symbol of local antiquities shared by the newly arrived settlers, of suffering to be borne, and of ultimate triumph. The king in his piety had poured money into the institution. He had constructed for it an admirable setting, and had seen that it was properly staffed. But its core he had been lucky enough to find, ready and at hand.

Once again, we see the institution serving James the Conqueror. Deep in an alien land, he had at hand a genuine tradition and a hallowed relic, to [300] intensify and draw together the region's religio-patriotic feelings, and to create a local esprit, a sense of age-old community among the Christian minority. The land was theirs; it had only been abandoned for a bit and now reclaimed. They were neither an occupying army nor brash colonizers. They had come home.

In a land where arabesqued mosques for a time had to serve as churches, and where the Moslem tongue and ways were oppressively ubiquitous, it was most important to cultivate this spirit of identification, of being the dominant culture, the true heirs. This spirit of identification would be fostered to some degree by every religious establishment or institution in the new kingdom of Valencia, but especially by the shrine of St. Vincent.

1. Itinerari, p. 319 (Mar. 17, 1262), a later privilege by James: "monumentum sive locum in quo beatus Vincencius fuit positus in tormento."

2. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Cane. 12, fol. 79v (May 17, 1263): "quia fides nostra talis est quod dominus Ihesus Christus ad preces speciales [?] Sancti Vincentii nobis civitatem et totum Regnum Valentie subiugavit et eripuit de posse et manibus paganorum."

3. See, for example, the short letter of King Peter ordering municipal authorities to defend St. Vincent's (Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 59, fol. 40v [July 22, 1282]). A chapter is devoted to St. Vincent's in Diócesis valentina (II, 149-170), brief, jejune, and not free from serious inexactitudes of detail. Much the same ground had been previously covered by Chabás in his Episcopologio valentino (chs. 5-6). Underlying both is the work of Teixidor in the Antigüedades de Valencia (II, ch. 4, and I, 403-410); he devotes considerable attention to correcting the inexactitudes of Escolano. Jaime Finestres includes a dissertation on St. Vincent's in his Historia del real monasterio de Poblet, III, diss. 2. Sarthou Carreres touches only slightly on the place in his Monasterios valencianos (pp. 21 ff.). Two codices of St. Vincent documentation in Arch. Nac. Madrid deserve notice: (1) the medieval collection of thirteenth-century materials, Privilegia et scripta S. Vincentii Valencie; and (2) the compilation by P. F. Lluch in 1763, Repertori de tots los privilegis, y gracies reals, ê indults ô bulles apostolics, i demes escriptures y papers que se encontren en lo arxiu de este real priorat de San Vicent.

4. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab. 1 (April 17, 1239): "beati Vincencii martiris qui iuxta Civitatem Valencie martirio extitit coronatus."

5. On Vincent see the Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis, ed. the Bollandists, 2 vols. (Brussels, 1898-1901), II, 1,247-1,250; and the life as understood by contemporaries of King James I, in Jacobus da Voragine's Golden Legend (I, 114-117).

6. Doc. in González, Castilla en la época de Alfonso VIII, II, 162-165 (an. 1167), but see I, 102, with the more probable 1179 date.

7. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Repertori, fol. 43, grants of 1177, 1212.

8. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Privilegia, fol. 1 (era 1270): "apud Valenciam laudabilem civitatem." See the Antigüedades de Valencia, I, 406-407 and II, 272; Colección diplomática, doc. 106; El archivo, IV (1890), 292-293 (Mar. 19, 1232). Miret y Sans argues that the date (era 1270) is a scribal error for era 1271, our 1233 (Itinerari, p. 101). See the confirmation of this charter, under changed circumstances, in Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 44, fol. 190 (Aug. 26, 1280). St. Victorian began as St. Martin of Asán (ca. 506) in the diocese of Huesca (now of Barbastro) between the rivers Esera and Cinca; it emerged again at the beginning of the eleventh century to become one of the most powerful Aragonese monasteries; see A. Lambert, "Asan," DHGE, IV, cols. 867-870; Répertoire topo-bibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, ed. L. H. Cottineau, 2 vols. (Macon, 1939), I, 169-170, sub "Asan," with bibliography.

9. Itinerari, p. 128 (July 9, 1237). On James's patronage see, for example, the document of January 7, 1254 (p. 235). Sanchís Sivera notes the existence of a grant to the monastery "Crassensis" but confuses this with St. Victorian itself, and even supposes that its abbot Bernard is to be identified with Bernard the first prior at St. Vincent's (Diócesis valentina, II, 151-152 and n.). On Lagrasse see the Répertoire des abbayes, I, 1,334-1,335; on its jurisdictional penetration into the realms of Aragon and its importance there, see Vincke, "Kloster und Grenzpolitik," pp. 141-143, 156.

10. Bibl. Nat. Paris, MSS Latin, no. 5,455, Chartae monasterii S. Mariae crassensis, no. 7 (June 20, 1238). "Gregorius episcopus servus servorum dei, Dilectis filiis Abbati et Conventui de Crassa Carcassonensis diocesis salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Cum a nobis petitur quod iustum est et honestum tam vigor equitatis quam ordo exigit rationis ut id per sollicitudinem officii nostri ad debitum perducatur effectum. Eapropter dilecti in domino fui nostri iustis postulationibus grato concurrentes assensu, Triginta Iovatas terre circa ecclesiam Scti Vincentii prope Valentiam quas Carissimus in Christo filius noster [Jacobus] Rex Aragonum Illustris vobis ut asseritis pia et provida liberalitate donavit, prout in eiusdem litteris asseritis plenius contineri ac alia bona vestra sicut ea omnia iuste ac pacifice possidetis vobis et per vos monasterio vestro auctoritate apostolica confirmamus et presentis scripti patrocinio communimus. Nullo ergo omnino hominum liceat hanc paginam nostre confirmationis infringere vel ei ausu temerario contraire. Si quis autem hoc attemptare presumpserit, indignationem omnipotentis dei et beatorum Petri et Pauli apostolorum eius se noverit incursurum. Datum Laterani, xii kalendas Iulii, pontificatus nostri anno duodecimo."

11. James confirms Lagrasse holdings for example in 1229 and 1265 (ibid., no. 6 [Jan. 25, 1229]; and Collection de Languedoc [Doat], 67, fol. 33 [Sept. 22, 1265]). There was a charter of protection issued by James I on January 6, 1254 (Itinerari, p. 235). On Languedoc Benedictinism in the thirteenth century cf. R. W. Emery, Heresy and Inquisition in Narbonne (New York, 1941), pp. 115-116; and cf. note 142. Bernard was "multipliciter diffamatum de vitio incontinentiae."

12. Ordinatio ecclesiae valentinae, p. 369. Sanchís Sivera speaks of St. Vincent's hermitage as being in Boatella (Diócesis valentina, I, 285), but it was in the Rayosa of King James's day, just south of Boatella. Part of the old site of the church and shrine is now occupied by the nuns of St. Thecla (cf. Nomenclátor de Valencia, p. 422).

13. Ordinatio, p. 832. The witness, John the Painter [Pintor] of Teruel, says: "milites armati erant ibi cum eo [episcopo] quia alias non esset ausus celebrare ibi."

14. Arch. Vat., Reg. Vat. 19 (Gregory IX), fol. 68r, ep. 365 (Jan. 9, 1239); noted by Auvray in Registres, II, no. 4,705; published in Documenta selecta, doc. 6.

15. The project is referred to in Prior Bernard's document of 1240 cited below in note 23.

16. Arch. Vat., Reg. Vat. 19 (Gregory IX), fol. 68v, ep. 366 (Jan. 9, 1239); Auvray, Registres, II, no. 4,706. Le Liber censuum de l'église romaine, ed. L. Duchesne and P. Fabre, 3 vols. (Paris, 1901-1952), I, 214-215 and note. M. Michaud has a long discussion of the nature and historical evolution of this exemption, with much incidental information, in his "Censuum, liber," DDC, III, cols. 234-253. See too the papal document of April 17, 1239 in the Arch. Nac. Madrid above in note 4; documents of protection for St. Vincent's from Pope Innocent are cited in note 24.

17. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab. 1, doc. of March 20, 1259. Besides the direct exemption proper to St. Vincent's, the monastic groups controlling it brought their own. This date seems more plausible than that of March 19, 1239 for a metropolitan statute of similar import, connected with a dispute over burial rights, ibid., Codices, Poblet cartulary, doc. 2.

18. Diócesis valentina, II, 163 (until 1835); Finestres, Poblet, III, 69.

19. Finestres, Poblet, III, 73 (the "Fiesta del Centenar").

20. Escolano, Décadas, I, 527; this was the Street of St. Vincent from St. Martin's church; heavy traffic eventually broke up and destroyed the paving. Chabás ridicules the tradition, however.

21. For example in Colección diplomática, doc. 894: "in via publica que vadit ad Sanctum Vincencium."

22. Muntaner, Crònica, ch. 23. When leaving the city, on their way north to the council of Lyons, the Castilian royalty also visited another Valencian shrine of note, Our Lady at Puig (on Puig see Chapter XIII, section 4, "The Knights of Mercy, Ransomers").

23. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab. 1 (July 2, 1240); in Diócesis valentina, II, 154 ff.

24. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Repertori de San Vicent, fol. 15v, doc. 2 (June 5, 1242); Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm 45, fab. 1 (April 28, 1245 and September 10, 1246).

25. Arch. Crown, Bulas, leg. IX (Innocent IV), no. 34 (Nov. 29, 1247): "secularis ecclesie."

26. Diócesis valentina, II, 163. Teixidor says James built a new church here this early (Antigüedades de Valencia, II, 272).

27. Colección diplomática, doc. 520 (Sept. 30, 1255): "predictum monasterium et ecclesiam,...domum...cum hospitali ibidem edificato et constructo"; this seems more definite than the wording in the papal document ("ius patronatus quod in ecclesia sancti Vincentii et hospitali iuxta Valenciam") above in note 14 where an official foundation plus an inchoate beginning might satisfy, especially since the latter document does not deal with St. Vincent's alone. On the financial difficulties, see text p. 295.

28. Antigüedades de Valencia, II, 276 (1255 explanation to new administrators); previous phrases are samples from other documents.

29. The work for orphans is mentioned only much later, in a document of 1357, though as an established and primary work of St. Vincent's ("infantium expositorum educationis"). Whether this, tradition extended backwards seventy-five or a hundred years it is impossible to say. Earlier (1338) a municipal functionary called the Father of Orphans had been created to seek out and collect orphans and abandoned children (Diócesis valentina, II, 160-161 and n.).

30. The supply of medicines at St. Vincent's is spoken of in a document of 1269. The separate infirmaries for men and women are in the legacy quoted in note 113. The infirmi are noted in a number of documents, one of which divides the personnel of St. Vincent's into clergy, corodians, servants, and ill (quoted in note 158); servitores is a wider term than "servants" or "staff" (see Chapter II, notes 101-102 and text). The first three classes belong to the "house" of St. Vincent's, the ill to "its hospital." Both peregrini and pauperes are mentioned as residents, in the papal document of 1239 cited in note 16.

31. Susan Wood, English Monasteries and their Patrons in the Thirteenth Century (London, 1955), pp. 3, 90-92, 107-111, 114-115. Cf. Moorman, Church Life, pp. 46-47, 269-271, 356. See the thorough treatment of corodies in Jean Marchal's Le "droit d'oblat," essai sur une variété de pensionnés monastiques, Archives de la France monastique, no. 49 (Ligugé, 1955), esp. chs. 1, 2, 6; on p. 176 corodians by purchase; on pp. 20 ff. the needy pensioners. Further background, mostly on allied practices in Spain, may be found in J. Orlandis Rovira, "Traditio corporis et animae: la 'familiaritas' en las iglesias y monasterios," AHDE, XXIV (1954), 95-279.

32. Antigüedades de Valencia, II, 276-277: "nos et successores nostri possimus ibi instituere et destituere Portionarios de Domo et Familia nostra ad nostrum arbitrium, loci facultatibus iam dicti pensatis."

33. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,080, arm. 45, fab. 1 (Mar. 30, 1266); cf. codex Repertori de San Vicent, doc. 11 and Itinerari, p. 385.

34. This is stated as a general principal for all pensioners here in Martin's document and in the specific case also of Raymond; cf. Arch. Crown, Liber patrimonii regni Valentiae, fol. 300, docs. 14, 19 (and below, notes 45, 46, 50).

35. Document in note 33: "hactenus est consuetum."

36. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 15, fol. 78v (Jan. 26, 1267): "pro ut alii porcionarii eiusdem hospitalis."

37. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 39, fol. 212v (June 25, 1277): "Petrus dei gratia, etc., attendentes quod tu Andreas Almerich domino Iacobo inclite recordationis Regi Aragonum patri nostro plura servitia intulisti essendo [eundo?] in domo sua, ideoque damus et concedimus et assignamus tibi in tota vita tua porcionem victus et vestitus...consuetam." Victus may be "board" or "living" or "pension," though perhaps only "food"; probably the double term was a legal convention.

38. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 16, fol. 244v (July 15, 1271).

39. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 12, fol. 62v (June 1, 1262); "eum carta nostra."

40. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 15, fol. 90 (April 10, 1268). "Per nos et nostros damus et concedimus tibi P. de Amaldano diebus omnibus vite tue victum et vestitum in domo seu hospitali Sancti Vincentii Valencie. Mandantes Rectori seu procuratori dicte domus seu dicti hospital[is] presentis videlicet et futuris quod de cetero habeant pro portionario dicte domus seu dicti hospitalis et tibi provideant dum vixeris in victum et vestitum prout aliis porcionariis dicte domus sive dicti hospitalis facere tenentur. Et quod hoc non mutent aliqua racione. Datum Valencia iiii Idus Aprilis." Amaldán may stand for La Ametlla (de Mar) near Tarragona; the name Ametlla (or Samenla) is found both in the Repartimiento and the Llibre dels feyts, but not this man.

41. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 40, fol. 42 (Nov. 11, 1277): "noverint universi quod nos Petrus dei gratia Rex Aragonum damus et concedimus in beneficium personale tibi Petro de Foresio in tota vita tua racione servicii quod nobis diu fecisti, victum et vestitum in domo sancti vincencii valencie...sicut uni de porcionariis dicte domus." A Peter of Fores, crossbowman to Prince Peter, received a building site from him near Valencia in 1273; the same name appears in the Repartimiento. Possibly the Peter of Fores who is justiciar of Gandía from 1279 to 1281 is a son or relative.

42. Antigüedades de Valencia, II, 277: "quod solvistis et satisfecistis mihi. pro Portione mea."

43. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 60, fol. 18 (Jan. 25, 1282): "assignavit quandam porcionem Solarmunde mulier de domo sua tum propter servicium quod eidem...fecit quando nutrivit et lactavit per aliquod tempus Petrum fratrem nostrum tum etiam quia pauper est et indigens."

44. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 15, fol. 90v (April 15, 1268). "Concedimus tibi Bernardo de Calatayub victum et vestitum in hospitali Sancti Vincentii Valencie diebus omnibus vite tue. Ita quod in dicto hospitali habeas victum et vestitum dum vixeris prout alii porcionarii eiusdem hospitalis habent et habere debent. Mandantes prioribus...presentibus et futuris..."

45. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 40, fol. 30v (Oct. 24, 1277).

46. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 44, fol. 172 (Mar. 18, 1279). See also Liber patrimonii regni Valentiae, fol. 300, doc. 14, where the name is Raymond of Turrisella; Toralla, Torayla, Torrella, Toroella, Turricela, Torrohella, Turriles, etc. are variants of a name common to a number of families in contemporary documents.

47. The story may be reconstructed especially from Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 46, fol. 119v (Nov. 17, 1283).

48. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 40, fol. 93 (April 15, 1278); the previous grant is now to be diminished. A document of April 15 (ibid.) grants him also two hundred solidi a year from crown rents in the city of Valencia.

49. Arch. Crown, Liber patrimonii, fol. 300v, doc. 22.

50. Liber patrimonii, fol. 300, doc. 19 (Nov. 17, 1285). The corody came from King Peter, Martin being poor at the time; this document from Alphonse III in 1285 is confirming the gift.

51. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 12, fol. 91 (June 26, 1263): "prout aliis porcionariis ipsius monasterii." A part of the document is cut away, down the left side.

52. Antigüedades de Valencia, II, 275: "continue quinque Presbiteros...et quinque alios Clericos inter Diaconos et Subdiaconos, Ordinis vestri"; they were to pray for the souls of the king and his ancestors.

53. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 10, fol. 100 (July 4, 1258): "damus et concedimus et affirmamus tibi G. Aymerici elenco diebus omnibus vite tue victum et vestitum in domo sancti vincencii Valencie que habeas sicut unus de aliis elericis dicte domus." See the allied document in Reg. Canc. 19, fol. 84 (Dec. 17, 1273).

54. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 10, fol. 144v (Sept. 15, 1259): "damus concedimus et assignamus in presenti...Grossi presbitero in beneficium personale...victum et vestitum in monasterio sancti Vincentii de Valentia." He was to have an income equivalent to that of the other clerics in service here.

55. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 10, fol. 132 (Mar. 16, 1259). "Concedimus tibi Bernardo de Calvis [Caldis?] presbitero victum et vestitum in monasterio Sancti Vincentii de Valencia diebus omnibus vite tue [sic]. Ita quod de cetero recipias in dicto monasterio victum et vestitum sicut alii canonici eiusdem loci..." Cf. Itinerari, pp. 141 (Dec. 29, 1239), 493 (Jan. 27, 1274).

56. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 13, fol. 196v (July I, 1264): "damus [et] concedimus tibi Ferrando de Vilella clerico diebus omnibus vite tue portionem cotidianam in monasterio Sancti Vincentii Valentie."

57. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,080, arm. 45, fab. 1 (Mar. 30, 1266). Also in the codex Privilegia S. Vincentii, fols. 2r-3v. Cf. Itinerari, p. 385.

58. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 16, fol. 181 (June 29, 1269). Copy in Arch. Nac. Madrid, ibid. The "scolaris" of the first document, called "scolarius" in the second, may be a scholarship boy chosen from the cathedral school; it was a common minor benefice in Spain then. Sanchís Sivera puts him down as a sacristan, probably due to a misreading (Diócesis valentina, II, 156). For other scholares in Valencia at this time, see above, Chapter VI, note 47. The document assigns each priest-canon: "singulis annis de cetero unusquisque" eighty solidi "pro vestitu"; but "scolarius quadraginta solidos [habeat 1". See note 64 and text, on this scholar's subsequent career.

59. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 13, fol. 286v (Dec. 21, 1265): "per nos et nostros damus et concedimus tibi G. de Piaria [Apiaria?] clerico Canoniam monasterii Sancti Vincentii Valencie...dum vixeris annuatim victum et vestitum."

60. Arch. Crown, Reg. Canc. 16, fol. 231v (Feb. 12, 1270). "Concedimus vobis Guillelmo de Apiaria presbytero capellaniam nostram quam nos in altari Sancti Iacobi Ecclesie Sedis Valentie duximus statuendam. Et tunc Capellanie erat Capellanus Jacobus de Terolio [?] nunc defunctus. Et vos in capellanum nostrum eiusdem capellanie constituimus toto tempore vite vestre. Ita scilicet quod vos in tota vita vestra sitis capellanus eiusdem capellanie et celebretis in dicto altare Sancti Iacobi assidue divina Officia ad honorem eiusdem sancti et in remedium anime nostre. Et sic habeatis dictam capellaniam quamdiu vita fuerit vobis...Et habeatis et recipiatis vos et quos volueritis loco vestri singulis annis decetero in tota vita vestra illos quadraginta et quattuor morabatinos alfonsinos annuales quos eidem Capellanie quam ipsam hedificavimus assignavimus super quibusdam operatoniis nostris sitis in Civitate Valencie...."

61. Raymond of Apiera and the lawyer Francis of Apiaria were substantial citizens in the new realm; an A. de Apiera had been a vassal of the viscount of Béarn, and both G. and Ferrer de Apiaria (later a magistrate of Valencia city) are in the Valencian Repartimiento. Apiaria would be Piera, involved in St. Vincent's story in 1286 (see below, note 133 and text); its Carthaginian name had been Apiara.

62. Document in note 58.

63. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 46, fol. 121 (Nov. 19, 1283). Published in Documenta selecta, doc. 30.

64. Ibid.; "sicut alii presbiteri"; see above, note 58. Did he own the Játiva buildings, apparently an expensive property, which passed from William Bernard to Count Denis of Hungary in 1276 (Reg. Canc. 39, fol. 58, docs. of Feb. 3)?

65. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Repertori de San Vicent, fol. 4v, doc. 19 (Oct. 1, 1290).

66. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab. 1 (Jan. 7, 1244); also in Poblet cartulary, doc. 6; and in Codices, Privilegia S. Vincentii, which misdates it as 1264. Itinerari discusses another dating problem for this document -- 1244 against 1243 (p. 165). See the Colección diplomática, doc. 265. Repartimiento de Valencia has, under 1244: "Sanctus Vincentius: castrum et villam de Quart et alqueriam de Ladea." On Cuart see Nomenclátor de Valencia, though it should not assume the rector here was a religious (p. 202). Aldaya (Ladea, Ladera, Rahalladea, Raalludea) and Cuart are also in the Repertori manuscripts, fols. 22, 24, 39 ff.; the 1303 extension of jurisdiction for Cuart is on fol. 5r, doc. 23; a 1282 rental by the prior here is on fol. 121v, doc. 2.

67. Arch. Crown, Liber patrimonii, fol. 300, doc. 12 (July 13, 1279).

68. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Repertori de San Vicent, fol. lv, doc. 4; in Colección diplomática, doc. 265 (Jan. 7, 1244) and doc. 520 (Sept. 30, 1255). Cf. Itinerari, p. 248. Momblanch y Gonzálbez, Historia de la Albufera, pp. 43-44.

69. Arch. Crown, James I, perg. 1,346: "salva tamen Ecclesie Sancti Vincentii decima."

70. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero, Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab. 1 (Sept. 12, 1244): "Castrum et villam Castilionis de Burriana et eum alqueriis."

71. The Privilegia S. Vincentii dates this 1264 (fol. 1); the Repertori gives it as 1245; cf. the Poblet cartulary. The Itinerari refers to the 1244 grant, and has the pertinent documents for Prince Peter; see esp. pp. 169-170, 194. Traver Tomás' Antigüedades de Castellón, though it has a chapter of general background on this century, does not advent to the problem (cf. pp. 35-44); non are the articles of Betí, García, Martínez Fernando, and others concerning Castellón origins more helpful here. On Montornés see below, notes 75-77, with text.

72. Itinerari, p. 308. The 1255 transfer document is cited below in note 127.

73. Arch. Crown, James I, perg. 1,059 (Oct. 20, 1246): "tot et talibus possessionibus dotetis ut reddituum sexcentarum marcharum argenti annuatim habeat complementum."

74. Arch. Crown, Liber patrimonii regni Valentiae, fol. 77, doc. 2 (Sept. 13, 1259).

75. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Repertori de San Vicent, fol. 43. Colección diplomática, doc. 1,290 (June 15, 1268): "ius feudatarium totum et dominium et potestatem." And confirmatory document 1,296 (Nov. 6, 1268). Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 17, fol. 98 (Mar. 5, 1268-1269): "prout in dicta canta," says Prince Peter, "lacius dignoscitur contineri." See too the document infeudating castle and town for the monastery's gain, in Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab. 1 (Nov. 9, 1268). St. Vincent's was still in possession in 1281, when Peter Simon was ordered to deliver the castle to the new prior, Bernard the abbot of St. Victorian (Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 50, fol. 162 [July 31, 1281]). King Peter confirmed the gift of Montornés again in 1280 (codex Repertori, fol. 43). See also the Poblet cartulary in Arch. Nac. Madrid, fols. 16A to 16E. The "signum crucis" purchased is in the Repertori, fol. 44, doc. 4 (April 1, 1264).

76. Arch. Crown, Liber patrimonii, fol. 77, doc. 4.

77. Itinerari, p. 154 (1242): "quod est ante Castilionem Burriane"; cf. p. 198, and on the other Montornés pp. 73, 207, 223, 389.

78. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Privilegia, fols 3r-4r, and Repertori, fol. 3r, doc. 12 (June 13, 1276); Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 22, fol. 42; see the Liber patrimonii, fols. 19v, 260r, 299v. "Concedimus...monasterio...castrum nostrum et villam de Almoneçir situm in Regno Valencie," and "turrem et alqueriam de Siyllana [Suylana in Privilegia, Soyllana in Repertori, Sullana in Liber patrimonii]...et turrem et Alchariam de Beniçeron [Binazeron, Binasexon]." Sanchís Sivera incorrectly gives this as Benidorm and misdates it 1273 (Diócesis valentina, II, 157); a settlement charter was granted here, October 22, 1277 (Nomenclátor de Valencia, p. 391). Benisa was a hamlet with tower stronghold annexed.

79. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 40, fol. 95 (April 20, 1278): "castrum de Chirello quod est domus sancti Vincentii." The prince here orders the procurator of St. Vincent's to pay the castellan Arnold his salary. On Chirivella see Chapter X, notes 37, 44 and text. Both Chirello and Cortes are in a document of 1280: see below, note 159.

80. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 21, fol. 97v (Jan. I, 1273); this was in the Cuart grant and included a rent by the users to the monastery: "viginti et octo [or septem: "xxti et viijem"?] cafizas ordeorum quas pro cequiatico percipit ab illis qui rigant de cequia antedicta."

81. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 16, fol. 162v (May 9, 1269). See Colección diplomática, doc. 1,319, from the municipal archives there. "Per nos et nostros damus et concedimus vobis dilecto et fideli nostro Iacobo de Rocha procuratori hospitalis sive monasterii Sancti Vincentii Valencie et vestris successoribus procuratoribus ipsius monasterii et ipsi monasterio imperpetuum ac etiam statuimus quod...annuatim celebrentur nundine in villa castilionis de Burriana...et durentur per decem dies..."

82. Traver Tomás, Antigüedades de Castellón, p. 42 (Villarreal fair of 1273 and others).

83. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 41, fol. 104 (July 12, 1279); the road from Valencia to Requena was involved: "intellecto quod transeuntes per caminum Regne quod est per ortam de Quart dampnificent dietam ortam...volumus ut dictum caminum predictum transeat per villam de Quart."

84. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Repertori de San Vicent, fol. 2r, v, doc. 8 (Mar. 19, 1261).

85. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 14, fol. 130 (Dec. 10, 1271): "in villa castillionis...cenam"; see the Liber patrimonii regni Valentiae, fol. 299v, doc. 9.

86. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Repertori, fol. 6v, doc. 35.

87. Repartimiento de Valencia, p. 287: "totum bestiare Sancti Vincentii possit pascere per totam dominationem regis franchum sine carnagio et herbagio monetatico." See also the travel toll and market dues for their Castellón subjects in Colección diplomática, doc. 1,283 (Jan. 13, 1264); and on the hospitality tax and coinage fee of Cuant and Aldaya, doc. 265 (an. 1244).

88. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 40, fol. 93 (April 15, 1278): "super tabula nostra pensi Valencie."

89. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 12, fol. 79v (May 17, 1263); Liber patrimonii, fol. 299n, doc. 5; Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Repertori, fol. 2v, doc. 9.

90. Antigüedades de Valencia, II, 276.

91. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, and leg. 2,078, arm. 45, passim.

92. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Repertori, fol. 61r, doc. 1.

93. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 12, fol. 55 (June 10, 1262) for the Patraix property. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Repertori, fol. 121v, doc. 2 (1282).

94. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Privilegia, fol. 5r, v. Sometimes St. Vincent's was overzealous in collecting fees and had to be rebuked (Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 43, fols. 81v, 114v [Dee. 9, 1284 and Jan. 27, 1285]).

95. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab. 1 (Aug. 17, 1260); Poblet cartulary, doc. 10; Repertori, fol. 2, doc. 7; Itinerari, p. 304.

96. "Repàs d'un manual notarial del temps del rey En Jaume I," ed. Joan Segura, in Congrés I, p. 325, doc. 36 (1241).

97. See Chapter XI, note 11: "hospitali pauperum."

98. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab. I: "Martinus de Cecilia et Domina Madona uxor eius...duos Sacerdotes seculares." Also in Repertori, fol. 181 (Aug. 12, 1242), confirmed by the king again in 1260. The two priests comprised the benefice named after the Holy Spirit. Each was to get 60 solidi for "vestitum," and sustenance such as the other canons here got. The Repertori has Martin of Cilia, but Martin of Sicily was an important person who appears in the Repartimiento; in 1258 after his death King James paid his widow 740 morabatins to purchase their castle of Argensola (Itinerari, p. 271).

99. Antigüedades de Valencia, II, 275. Atrosillo (Otrocello, Troxillo, Datrocillo, etc.). In the Llibre dels feyts the king begins a small feudal war for his interests, talks with him at the moment of victory on Majorca, and entrusts captured Bayren to his care (chs. 15, 67, 310-314). He was at the siege of Valencia. His wife Sancha was the daughter of the baron Lope de Alvaro; his brother Gil was lord (from 1250) of Montclús; he himself had lands at Pina, then at Ança, and at Huesa and elsewhere with knight service "sicut ricihomines Aragonum nobis tenentur servire." See also Itinerari, docs. of 1232-1257, pp. 99, 112, 122, 131, 139, 164, 180, 181, 194, 220, 248, 259, 551.

100. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Repertori, fol. 43v, doc. 1.

101. Will cited in Chapter XII, note 12; copies in Arch. Nac. Madrid, Poblet cartulary, doc. 9, and St. Vincent's codex, Repertori, fol. 43v, doc. 2 (1247): "apparicius porterius domine Yoles Regine Aragonum...in cimiterio Sancti Vincencii Valencie...honorifice." Yoles (Hyolenz, Yolanda, etc.) is Violante of Hungary, queen of Aragon.

102. Will cited in Chapter XI, note 13: "Petrus Allerii draperius Valencie"; the prior is to conduct the corpse there and bury it "honoriffice"; "si obiero in Regno Valencie."

103. Will cited in Chapter XI, note 15: "item duos mantellos de seda, qui fuenunt domini regis, dimito ecclesie sancti Vincencii de Valencia, cui eos reservabam."

104. Will cited in Chapter VII, note 56. Also in 1251, Peter Armer willed: "pauperibus hospitalis eiusdem loci ad refficiendum eos y solidos" (cited in Chapter VII, note 53).

105. Antigüedades de Valencia, II, 278. He was a settler at Peñíscola (Itinerari, p. 210, Jan. 28, 1251).

106. Will cited in Chapter VII, note 62. On the word "opus" see text, p. 98.

107. Will cited in Chapter XI, note 21: "item dimitto operi Sancti Vincentii Valencie ii sols."

108. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab. 1 (B. of Teruel). Because no notary was present at the first draft, litigation was going forward before the justiciar of Valencia.

109. A confirmatory document regarding those goods left to St. Vincent's for a chaplaincy was issued by the crown in 1263 (Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 12, fol. 119v). "Confirmamus et concedimus...domo et monasterio beati Vincentii de Valentia stabilimentum quod Go. de Jacca notarius et Civis Valentie...mandavit in ecclesia et monasterio predicto de quadam capellania pro remissione peccatorum suorum ..Concedentes imperpetuum quod prior et monasterium habeant teneant et possideant hereditates censualia possessiones et omnia alia que dictus G. dimisit dedit et assignavit p[ro] constitutione et stabilimento dicte capellanie p[er] hereditatem propriam francham et liberam prout praestamentum ab eodem G...continet sine aliqua retentione nostra et nostrorum et cuiuslibet alie persone." Also in Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Repertori de San Vicent, fol. 2v, doc. 10; cf. fol. 43v, doc. 3 (1263). See will above in Chapter XI, note 24.

110. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab. 1 (docs. of Nov. 12, 1262 and April 15, 1264 by Arnold of "Podio Monzo" and "Podio Monsone"). See the documents of the same date in Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 12, fols. 35v and 73v (April 22 and Nov. 12); and the codex, Liber patrimonii regni Valentiae, fol. 299r. This does not seem to be the Arnold of Monzón, bailiff for the kingdom of Valencia below the Júcar River, who died about 1267 or 1268 -- unless there is question of two men, perhaps father and son, both dying in the same decade.

111. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 12, fol. 73v (Nov. 12, 1262) confirms the legacy: "attendentes piam et laudabilem ordinationem quam Arnoldam de Podio monço fecit in suo testamento in quo legavit hospitali Monasterii Sancti Vincentii omnes honores et possessiones quas habet apud Exativam excepto Regali quod est prope murum ipsius ville...et mandavit quod in Capella dicti hospitalis institueretur unus presbyter qui celebraret ibi divina officia...et haberet honores predictos."

112. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Poblet cart., doc. 12, "quousque sit nutritus" (copy of 1272).

113. Willelma, cited in Chapter VII, note 60: "duos lectos paratos pannorum unum videlicet domui ubi iacent homines infirmi et alium domui ubi iacent femine infirme."

114. Arch. Cath., perg. 1,354 (Sept. 30, 1276); her name too was Willelma.

115. See note 157.

116. Will of Xicot on Jicot cited in Chapter VII, note 94: "vicinus et habitator parrochie Sancti Bartholomei Valencie."

117. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 44, fol. 229v (May 2, 1282); Teixidor gives this as Araost (Antigüedades, II, 276). Cf. also codex, Liber patrimonii regni Valentiae, fol. 300, doc. 16.

118. As is later noted by King Peter (Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 50, fol. 223v [Jan. 3, 1282]): "fuit deposita quondam caxia in domo vestra [Templi] in quo sunt privilegia...domus sancti Vincencii "; in connection with a legal dispute over St. Vincent's, the king now ordered this box brought from the Temple and unsealed in his presence: "coram nobis defferi faciatis et in presencia vestri faciemus ipsam aperiri." On the Templars in thirteenth-century England as depositaries, see Parker, Knights Templars in England, pp. 59-63.

119. See Chapter VII, note 21; cf. Chapter VIII, note 21.

120. Rationes decimarum, II, doc. in appendix, pp. 320-321; cf. pp. 31-32.

121. Itinerari, p. 146.

122. E. G. Hurtebise, Guía histórico-descriptiva del archivo de la corona de Aragón en Barcelona (Madrid, 1920), p. 8.

123. Llibre dels feyts, ch. 304.

124. See note 158 and text, for 1279 farming. Cuart is farmed for five years at 15,000 solidi in Arch. Crown, Reg. Canc. 46, fol. 180 (April 10, 1284). For Castellón-Montornés see Arch. Crown, Liber patrimonii, fol. 301, doc. 29; see the even higher figure in Arch. Nac. Madrid, Repertori de San Vicent, fol. lv-2, doc. 5.

125. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 41, fol. 11 (Nov. 3, 1278): "quod desistat," "si quid fecit clericis domus sancti vincencii super ordinacione vestium suarum et quod non intromittat se in ordinacione dicte domus."

126. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 59, fol. 40v (July 22 and 23, 1282): "capiendo clericos ipsius domus et alia plura gravamina inferendo."

127. Colección diplomática, doc. 520 (Sept. 30, 1255); cf. codex Repertori, fol. 43: "nos qui eiusdem ordinis patroni et fundatores sumus...concedimus...in perpetuum predictum monasterium et ecclesiam, locum sive domum sancti Vinceneii cum hospitali ibidem edfficato et constructo." Cf. above, Chapter XIII, note 85.

128. Ibid.: "volentes insuper monasterium...in melius reforman." Sanchís Sivera, Diócesis valentina, II, 154 Teixidor, and Briz, in Antigüedades de Valencia, II, 273. Cf. Itinerari, p. 248.

129. Gazulla, "Don Jaime I de Aragón y la orden de Nuestra Señora de la Merced," p. 380 (Feb. 1257) "maligno spiritu ducti Magistrum et fratres ordinis de mercede per provincias et loca multipliciter diffamarunt a qua diffamacione personam nostram non relinquerunt inimunem dicentes publice, et firmiter asserentes quod predicti...monasterium habuerunt a nobis pecunia mediante." Cf. Itinerari, p. 255.

130. Arch. Crown, Reg. Canc. 10, fol. 143 (two documents of Sept. 10, 1259, connected with the recent decision). And see Itinerari, p. 292; Colección diplomática, doc. 1,109 (same date); Antigüedades de Valencia, II, 273. Cf. also the list by Amerio Sancho Blanco of unedited bulls of Clement IV (1266-1267), in the Catalogus documentorum ordinis Beatae Mariae Virginis de Mercede quae in archivo coronae Aragoniae asservantur (Rome, n.d.), p. 16.

131. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 15, fol. 12 v (an. 1265): "quod cum domus Sancti Vincencii Civitatis Valencie propter plurimas vacuas et inutiles ac immoderatas expensas quas priores et dicte ecclesie domus eiusdem fecerunt acthenus [sic] in ipsius domus maximum detrimentum, domus ipsa in suis sit redditibus diminutta et debitis honerata" -- the exact nature of the king's gift is illegible, obscured by damp or by water-damage.

132. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 15, fol. 33v (Oct. 1266), a pardon for the notary: "per nos et nostros absolvimus et difinimus atque remitimus vobis Petro Pauli notario publico Valencie omnem petitionem...pro eo scilicet quod vos sine licentia nostra suscepistis et confecistis appellationem pro clericis domus seu hospitalis sancti Vincentii Valencie...ad summum pontificem...in preiudicium nostre iurisdictionis."

133. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Repertori de San Vicent, fol. 3r, doc. 13 (April 3, 1286). Cf. above, note 61.

134. Ibid., fol. 3v, doc. 16; codex Privilegia S. Vincentii, fols. 5v-8r (Dec. 12, 1287). See Arch. Crown, Liber patrimonii, fols. 300-301, doc. 26, confirmed by James II (June 2, 1293). The Répertoire des abbayes incorrectly assigns St. Vincent's to Poblet from 1237 (II, 3,274, 2,917). Poblet already owned property on its own account in Valencia; besides the grants in connection with Benifasá, it received in 1238 buildings in Valencia city and four jovates in Mislata (Repertori, fol. 1). The quote here is "in suburbio Valencie." Teixidor has some odd argumentation concerning the diminution of hospitality at this period, and its functioning only by freewill legacies; there is no real evidence for either thesis (Antigüedades, II, 277-278).

135. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Poblet cartulary, 19d.

136. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Repertori, fol. 4r, v, docs. 17-18 (May 24, 1289).

137. Ibid., fol. 16r, doc. 8 (April 1, 1297).

138. Arch. Crown, Liber patrimonii regni Valentiae, fol. 301v, doc. 31.

139. Furs, lib. I, rub. IX, c. 4. And the document of March 17, 1262 about "causa extrahendi inde aliquem vel aliquos homines vel personas qui ibi fuerint propter maleficia perpetrata" (Itinerari, p. 319). See too Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab. 1 (April 20, 1255); and Codices, cartulary of Poblet, doc. II (1261); also the privilege of March 17, 1262 in Itinerari, p. 319.

140. Arch. Nac. Madrid, codex Repertori, fol. 6r, doc. 30; the Poblet abbot as administrator of St. Vincent's agreed to surrender asylum.

141. Arch. Crown, James I, perg. 2,287 (July 20, 1276): "opus Sancti Vincensi quod nos emparavimus et facimus fieri ita quod fiant quinque domus similitudinis illius domus que iam est ibi facta...unum claustrum in Corrallo prope Ecclesiam unum Dormitorium aliquantulum longius sicut fit et construitur in Domibus ordinum...[parietes in orto] ob hoc ut nemo possit ibi entrare...lectum nostrum et cortinas..." The full will is published in Tourtoulon, Jaime I, II, app. 21, and in excerpted sections in Diócesis valentina, II, 157n.

142. Prior in document of 1240 cited above, in note 23; documents of 1243 and 1244 cited in Antigüedades de Valencia, II, 275. On the Lagrasse abbot of dubious reputation, who resigned in 1255 there, cf. above, note 9 and text. Teixidor actually puts a single prior from 1243 to 1284, confusing the first Prior Bernard with the abbot of St. Victorian who assumed the priorate much later.

143. Arch. Crown, Bulas, legajo IX (Innocent IV), no. 34 (Nov. 29, 1247), papal confirmation. Sanchís Sivera dates this incorrectly as 1248, and by copying "est" for "ut" rather obscures the meaning (Diócesis valentina, II, 155n.). Pension in Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 10, fol. 143 (Sept. 13, 1259). Rental doc. in Arch. Nac. Madrid, Repertori, fol. 121, doc. 1 (1253).

144. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,079, arm. 45, fab., (July 8, 1258), making Berengar "speciale et generale procuratore," over "omnia negotia." Another document here, but misplaced under a later dating as 1239, is of June 25, 1259, allowing Berengar as prior to survey and check all Burriana properties: "licentiam...sogueandi omnes hereditates et possessiones terminorum Castillionis de Burriana," with special reference to the holdings of St. Vincent's. Documentation involving Berengar as prior of St. Vincent's may also be found in Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 10, fol. 132 (Mar. 16, 1259); Reg. Canc. 11, fol. 187 (Dec. 18, 1260); Reg. Canc. 12, fol. 35v (April 22, 1263) and fol. 79 (May 17, 1263). The Zamora will of 1267 gives him as prior (Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Poblet cart., doc. 12).

145. Ricardo del Arco copies the inscription in full in his Sepulcros de la casa real de Aragón (Madrid, 1945), p. 180. Miret y Sans's opinions are in Itinerari, pp. 17, 428-429, and chart facing p. 545. The partial epitaph is "Petrus de Rege canonicus et sacrista istius sedis, qui fuit filius ilmi. domini regis Petri Aragonum." See also text, p. 34.

146. Itinerari, p. 429: "nos Petrus frater domini regis Aragonis et sacrista ilerdensis." The name "de Rege" (or Rey, Rex, Reg, Reig) was held by other men; thus a Peter de Rege was master of works in the repair of the royal palace at Barcelona early in the next century; a P. dez Rech, citizen of Valencia, was carried into slavery by the Moors at that same time; a Bartholomew Reg was building near the port of Valencia in 1271; a Bononato Rey was a merchant on the coasts of Aragon in 1312; and an Alphonse Pérez de Rege was involved in an inheritance case at Játiva in Valencia in 1271. Serious search would undoubtedly turn up other holders of the name, and of approximations to it.

147. See document in note 151 (June 13, 1274).

148. Arch. Crown, James I, perg. 2,287 (July 20, 1276) and perg. 2,289 (July 23, 1276); both published in Tourtoulon, Jaime I, II, apps. 21, 22: "P. de Rege Sacrista Ilerde." Llibre dels feyts, ch. 563; cf. ch. 489. Itinerari, pp. 17, 41, 368, 535, 539n. Soldevila, Pere el Gran, I, 419 and n. On Peter de Roca see Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 13, fol. 264 (April 9, 1265), Reg. Canc. 14, fols. 61 (July 25, 1264) and 79 (Feb. 6, 1266), Reg. Canc. 15, fols. 97 (April 30, 1268) and 99v (April 9, 1268), and Reg. Canc. 17, fol. 48 (June 30, 1268).

149. Rationes decimarum, I, 107, 145; and cf. II, 54.

150. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 16, fol. 185; also in Arch. Nac. Madrid, codex Privilegia, fol. 4r (July 21, 1269). "Concedimus vobis Petro de Rege Canonico Illerde et Valentie prioratum domus sive Hospitalis sancti Vincentii Valentie in Regimen ac administracionem ipsius domus sive Hospitalis ac prioratus in tota vita tua." He is to care for affairs as have the previous priors. Places held by St. Vincent's -- "tam christianis quam Sarracenis presentibus et futuris" are to acknowledge him as prior and pay to him the customary revenues. An example of later documents is Reg. Canc. 22, fol. 42 (June 13, 1276): "vobis Petro de Rege priori."

151. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Privilegia, fol. 4v, documents of Gregory's first and third years. The second dispensation is also in Arch. Vat., Reg. Vat. 37, Gregory X, fol. 141 (June 13, 1274), published in Guinaud, Registres, doc. 370.

152. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 44, fol. 190 (Aug. 26, 1280). See also fol. 225 (two docs. of April 10, 1282); and Reg. Canc. 50, fol. 162 and 162v (two docs. of July 31, 1281). Biela may be Bielle in the Pyrenees or perhaps the commune of Biella near Vercelli or Biel near Huesca.

153. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Clero: Valencia, St. Vincent, leg. 2,080, arm. 45, fab. 1 (Jan. 24, 1282). Royal confirmation of his election is in Documenta selecta, doc. 14 (Nov. 22, 1276). On Peter March, or Marqués, see the documents in Itinerari, pp. 213, 231, 233, 299, 303, 307, 327, 343, 362, 390, 455, 510. His last testament, favorable to religious institutions in Valencia, is cited above in Chapter VII, note 54 (June 4, 1275). Five solidi were left to St. Vincent's. He asked to be buried in the cathedral close of Valencia, near his brother; his wife was still living in 1275.

154. On Peter's 1285 restoration see Arch. crown, Liber patrimonii regni Valentiae, fol. 301, docs. 20-21; the Poblet transfer is given below; the pension and sale document is in Arch. Nac. Madrid, Privilegia S. Vincentii, fols. 8v-11r. Owing to the difference in incarnational and nativity calendars, one cannot be certain that Peter did not sell his rights in January 1287 and then under his abdicated title of prior join in the December 1287 agreement between Poblet and Alphonse III; he is in both documents, for 19 kals. of January 1287 and for pridie idus in December 1287.

155. See document in note 144 (with quotes). The multiple ownership of revenues, by tenants and farmers, is suggested in a document of 1283 (cited in note 63) to the prior "et quibuscumque aliis tenentibus domum sancti Vincencii."

156. Cf. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 17, fol. 98 (Mar. 5, 1268), and Reg. Canc. 16, fol. 162v (Jan. 25, 1268). On Sarroca see above, Chapter II, note 109. James blames the priors in the document cited in note 131 above.

157. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 40, fol. 103 (May 7, 1278): "concedimus vobis Berengario de Conquis et quibuslibet aliis qui mutuaverint ad opus ecclesie Sancti Vincentii sive ad missiones et expensas domus et hospitalis Sancti Vincentii quod illud quod vos et ipsi ad opus predicte ecclesie faciendum...habeatis et recipiatis de redditibus hospitalis." The name probably does not derive from Cuenca but from Conques-en-Rouergue in Languedoc.

158. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 42, fol. 158v (Oct. 21, 1279); "et provideas clericis, porcionariis, et servitoribus dicte domus et infirmis hospitalis eiusdem, bene et condecenter prout ondinatum est per dominum Iacobum inclite recordationis patrem nostrum et hactenus est melius...consuetum."

159. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 48, fol. 184v (Nov. 18, 1280); exclusive of Chirello and Cortes this time. Cf. Reg. Canc. 49, fol. 33v (Feb. 18, 1280-1281).

160. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 44, fol. 125 (April 10, 1282); cf. Liber patrimonii, fol. 300, doc. 15. Reg. Canc. 59, fol. 189, 189r, v (two docs. of Dec. 19, 1282): "ad restituendum...domum Sancti Vincencii et castrum de...Quart et alia bona."

161. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 46, fol. 121 (Nov. 19, 1283); published in Documenta selecta, doc. 30. King Peter recalls that Peter had recently assigned a priest to one of the crown chaplaincies there, Peter "tune tenentem dictam domum sancti Vincencii." With both Prior Peter of the King and Procurator Berengar of Conques opposing the claims of Abbot Bernard at this time, Peter may have administered both offices for the crown.

162. Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 43, fol. 21v (two docs. of Aug. 15, 1284).

163. A document of 1283 ordered Benengar of Conques to stop delaying his payment of the 10,000 solidi (Reg. Canc. 61, fol. 121, May 3, 1283); "ex parte nobilis dompni Ferrandi fratris nostri propositum extitit coram nobis quod vos non solvitis...illa decem millia solidorum quos sibi vel procuratori suo tenebamini solvere quolibet anno de redditibus domus Sancti Vincentii Valencie, quare mandamus vobis..." See the similar document of May 6, on fol. 122. Prince Alphonse in November 1282 spoke of the crown grant to Ferdinand of "decem mille solidos regalium quos idem Fernandus debet percipere et habere in redditibus domus Sancti Vincencii et monasterii Sancti Victoriani" and other places each year (Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 71, fol. 127v [Nov. 14, 1282]). Another document (ibid.) tells us he was studying at Paris ("qui stud[et] parisiis"). See too the document in Documenta selecta, doc. 29 (Oct. 6, 1283). Ferdinand was to be allowed to seize St. Vincent's priorate and the revenues of St. Victorian if the yearly sum was not paid. The Paris studies would consume only a small part of this money; in 1308 James II could send his illegitimate brother John to the University of Montpellier for two thousand solidi.

164. Arch. Crown, James I, perg. 2,148 (Mar. 27, 1273); cf. Liber patrimonii, fol. 287v, doc. 6, excluding lands held by St. Vincent's in the Tortosa diocese from the king's agreement to reduce his tithe-share from a half to a third. In the Valencia diocese the tithe question was only finally settled with the bishop in 1308 (Diócesis valentina, II, 160). After an earlier accommodation, St. Vincent's remained in control of a number of ex-mosques and Moslem cemeteries (cf. Arch. Nac. Madrid, Codices, Repertori de San Vicent, e.g. fols. 22v, 24).