[65] Guillem de Montcada's aristocratic heritage was evident in the early eleventh century both in his family's possession of noble domains and in its hold on ecclesiastical office in Barcelona. The governing elite of that episcopal see paralleled the hierarchy of the secular world. Among the Montcadas who held ecclesiastical office was Ramon -- brother of the future Guillem de Montcada -- who in 1010 launched a dynasty of archdeacons that endured throughout the century.

The possible reasons for Ramon's selection as archdeacon in 1010 were clear to members of the Barcelona aristocracy: he would have been chosen because other members of his family had held the office before him, because it was the will of the count of Barcelona, who acclaimed himself "supervisor by God's gift of the episcopal see belonging to our dominion,"⁽¹⁾ or because he was acceptable to the new bishop (and the previous archdeacon), Deodat. For any or all of these reasons, Ramon was brought to a key post in the Barcelona cathedral chapter, which only a year before had undergone significant "reform."

This reform had resulted primarily from the efforts of canons to make the cathedral chapter less financially dependent upon the [66] bishop, and to acquire certain lands for their individual use.⁽²⁾ Both objectives were permissible under the Rule of Aix, which had governed the church since its reorganization in the ninth century under Carolingian influence.⁽³⁾ They reflected common interests of the canons, whose number had swelled from a mere half-dozen in the late tenth century to seventeen "brother canons" in 1005, during the episcopacy of Eci (995-1010).⁽⁴⁾ The growth of the cathedral chapter paralleled events outside the church in the early eleventh century, when more and more castellan families sought to profit from the increased prosperity brought by a surge in the flow of gold into Barcelona. The church participated in this heightened economic activity, and as its wealth grew the canons of the cathedral chapter demanded from the bishop a larger share of ecclesiastical revenues. They also asked for lands on which to construct houses, an expression no doubt of their desire for some measure of personal independence.⁽⁵⁾ A charter of 1009 fulfilled their requests [67] and at the same time helped to prevent a conflict over material resources within the church. The charter's adoption enabled the bishop and canons to exploit together the economic opportunities that arose during the eleventh century.

The office of archdeacon had afforded ecclesiastical careers to various members of prominent lay families in recent times, among them Arnulf, son of the viscounts of Cardona and Guadalt, and Liobet, or Seniofred, probably of the line of Barcelona viscounts.⁽⁶⁾ Llobet, a distinguished scholar, was acclaimed in 1004 as "omni scientia litterali pleniter instructus", and Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II) turned to him with a request for a book of astrology.⁽⁷⁾ Liobet later became abbot at Arles-sur-Tech and was succeeded as archdeacon by his nephew Deodat de Claramunt.⁽⁸⁾ When Bishop Eci died during a campaign against Muslims in the south in 1010, Deodat was elected bishop. His incumbency (1010-1029) foreshadowed an era of close cooperation between bishop and canons: he started off a period of frenzied activity in property transactions for the see, all carried out with the approval of his canons, establishing a spirit of common purpose that continued throughout the century.⁽⁹⁾

From his first mention in Barcelona cathedral documents, Ramon appeared as archdeacon, like his predecessor Deodat. His name was frequently in charters ratifying the sale or exchange of property belonging to the See of Barcelona. These transactions were typically made by the bishop "with his brother canons" or "with the college of canons."⁽¹⁰⁾ Ramon's name appeared right after the subscription of the prelate whose rights to church property [68] came "through his function as chief."⁽¹¹⁾ Was Ramon's subscription placed second because he was the bishop's agent, or because he was first among the canons? No text provides a clear answer; but some kind of role as "vicar of the bishop"⁽¹²⁾ may explain his presence at an assembly to reform the chapter in Girona⁽¹³⁾ and his repeated appearances in judicial suits concerning the monastery of Sant Cugat, a dependency of the see. In theory, the leading position in the chapter, when not directly assumed by the bishop,⁽¹⁴⁾ was reserved for an "abbot" or "provost" whose election had been provided by the reform charter of 1009. In practice, however, a number of canons seem to have formed a leadership group, among them Bonuci, leader of the reform movement.⁽¹⁵⁾ Another member of the group was Ramon, who in 1023 called himself both archdeacon and sacriscrinius.⁽¹⁶⁾

Ramon's activity as a churchman is most visible in documents from Barcelona, though the traditional duties of his office would have taken him to local churches throughout the diocese, especially for consecrations and visitations.⁽¹⁷⁾ Among the documents from Ramon's archdeaconate that attest to his travels is one from [69] Vacarisses in 1014, when he was present at the consecration of an altar and another from Santa Coloma (de Gramanet) in 1032.⁽¹⁸⁾ In 1033 he appeared in the Vallès and at Muntanyola.⁽¹⁹⁾ Though in all these instances the written record concerned matters other than visitations, Ramon probably combined his supervision of the clergy with other business, thus profiting from the prerogative of an archdeacon and his retinue to be entertained at the expense of the parish. There is no reason to believe that Ramon eschewed this perquisite -- the abuse of which was decried as early as the ninth century by Hincmar of Reims.⁽²⁰⁾ The Frankish bishop, in response to conditions prevalent at the time in northeastern France, had warned archdeacons to avoid imposing the maintenance of their horses and those of their friends upon local clergy. Was this injunction needed in Barcelona in the eleventh century? No documents from the period lament the practice, but the potential clearly was present: in 1019 Ramon came to a judicial hearing accompanied by three mounted followers (equites).⁽²¹⁾

Ramon Archdeacon's presence at a judicial hearing conducted in the name of the count of Barcelona suggests another field of activity for this brother of Guillem de Montcada and Bernat Ruvira. In addition to fulfilling his duties as a ranking church official, Ramon frequently attended important judicial proceedings. In 1025 a hearing before Countess Ermessenda and Berenguer Ramon I was conducted in the presence of Ramon and his brothers, Guillem and Bernat.⁽²²⁾ In 1028, the three brothers witnessed a hearing given by Bonfill March, palace judge.⁽²³⁾ Throughout the brief episcopate of Guadal (1029-1035) and during the early years of the episcopate of Guislabert (103 5-1061), Ramon participated in five major judicial confrontations pitting the monastery of Sant Cugat against the vice-comital family of Barcelona.⁽²⁴⁾ In such appearances [70] with other leading figures of Barcelona society (twice including his brother Guillem), Ramon supported the forms of a judicial system that was coming under increasing attack.⁽²⁵⁾

Ramon's career brought him more than prominence in ecclesiastical and secular affairs.⁽²⁶⁾ He also possessed some key properties near the cathedral in Barcelona, including the two towers of the bishop's gate and an adjacent courtyard. His control of this area reaffirmed the tradition that the city's portal fortifications were to be administered by members of great families.⁽²⁷⁾ But Ramon's control of the towers may have come to him late in his career: the archdeacon's office was not positively identified with the portal area until 1039, when a neighbor described the border of his own property as touching on the west "the tower and court of the archdeacon of Barcelona."⁽²⁸⁾ This reference and another of the same month referring to houses of the archdeacon on the same site,⁽²⁹⁾ were followed by two in 1040 that confirm Ramon's possession of the tower and court and of a "mansion" there.⁽³⁰⁾ If this real property of the church of Barcelona had not previously been attached to the lineage or function of the archdeacon, it now was. This occurred around the same time that viscounts and vicars were [71] dissociating castles from the counts' possession to make them the centerpieces of territorial patrimonies.

Without further evidence, it is impossible to determine whether Ramon acquired his rights to this key site from the bishop, from the count, or as the heritage of one of his ancestors -- though a reference of 1035 describes his courtyard plot as belonging to the see, suggesting that these rights may have come from the bishop.⁽³¹⁾ In any case, the archdeacon's possession remained in the hands of two of his nephews until nearly the end of the century and as part of the office of the archdeacon much longer. Cited as Turres Archidiaconales by Pope Alexander III in 1169,⁽³²⁾ the name -- if not the possession of the area -- has remained associated with the archdeaconate to this day. Nine and a half centuries after Ramon, the Institut Municipal de Història holds forth, adjacent to the bishop's gate, in the Casa de l'Ardiaca.

Other documents further illustrate Ramon's economic activities. He owned another house in the same area; and he collaborated with his brother Guillem in the purchase in 1029 of allods near Montcada.⁽³³⁾ Four years later the two brothers exchanged with their brother Bernat patrimonial land for allods, and in 1036 Ramon purchased an allod near Muntanyola for the price of a mule valued at eight ounces of gold.⁽³⁴⁾ Such small parcels of land were often used as pious donations at the time of one's death. But this was not without risk to the recipient. Nearly ten years after the death of Bernat Ruvira, for example, the bishop of Vic was still hearing protests by Bernat's relatives. They contested his testamentary donation of lands in Súria to the see in spite of the fact that Ramon Archdeacon, one of Bernat's executors, had subscribed an act in September 1040 officially transferring the land to the church.⁽³⁵⁾

[71] The last known act of Ramon's career was his appearance as executor of his brother's will in Vic in 1040. He probably died by the end of that year, judging from his absence as a subscriber in three donations by Bishop Guislabert in December 1040-January 1041 to which the canons of the see consented.⁽³⁶⁾ This is not to imply that Ramon had been conspicuous in diocesan affairs since the bishop's consecration in 1035; indeed, his sole appearance was in a final compromise between the monastery of Sant Cugat and Viscount Bernat Udalard in 1037. In that year his subscription was missing from an act that recapitulated donations made to the chapter in 1009, 1036, and 1037.⁽³⁷⁾ Prominent instead was the subscription of the sacriscrinius Ermemir, whose name followed Guislabert's in acts of the bishop and canons in 1041 and 1042, filling the place of honor that had by custom belonged to Ramon during the episcopates of Deodat and Guadal.⁽³⁸⁾

The archdeaconate of Barcelona remained in Montcada hands, however. It was vacant for three years following Ramon's death, and then it passed, in 1044, to Guillem de Montcada's second son, Berenguer.⁽³⁹⁾ His succession followed resolution of the conflict between Count Ramon Berenguer and Bishop Guislabert and other members of Barcelona's vice-comital family. While Berenguer bided his time, he prepared for his church career by learning grammar and observing firsthand the workings of the cathedral chapter. He became associated with the chapter by January 1044, at about the age of twenty.⁽⁴⁰⁾ In the course of that year he became Barcelona's new archdeacon. [73] Berenguer was less in evidence in the chapter's affairs in the early part of his career than in the decade of the 1050s, when the chapter demonstrated an increased ability to attract property donations. Pious donations, which had reached a low for the century in the decade of the 1030s, increased considerably during the first decade of Guislabert's episcopate and attained a high point in the 1050s. Nearly one of every five charters of that decade preserved in the cathedral's cartulary recorded a gift to "Lord God and the chapter of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia." The bequests typically included an allod or piece of land in the territory or county of Barcelona.⁽⁴¹⁾ This influx of land intensified the activity of the bishop and canons in property management. One of their goals, the extension of vine-planting in the region, reawakened interest in the donation in precaria -- a lifetime lease of land granted in return for a share in the harvest -- which the church had hardly used in the first half of the eleventh century. A number of these contracts, which provided the see as much as one half of the new grapes, were let by Bishop Guislabert with the consent of the canons, including Berenguer Archdeacon.⁽⁴²⁾

The bishop and canons as a group also received cultivated lands in donation. These were sometimes retroceded to their donors for the payment of a rent (the proportional tasca or a fixed amount).⁽⁴³⁾ Or they were granted to clerics or canons of the see for their use.⁽⁴⁴⁾ In both cases the see retained rights of lordship over the land, which normally reverted to the church after one or two generations.⁽⁴⁵⁾ Other acts subscribed by the bishop and canons were [76] donations to the see and chapter and sales and purchases of church property.⁽⁴⁶⁾ As acts of the see, these charters were generally issued in the name of the bishop "together with the consent and advice of [his] canons" and were subscribed by a significant number of the canons. In most cases the subscription of Archdeacon Berenguer figured prominently, and in one case in which Bishop Guislabert's name did not appear, the charter included the name of the archdeacon.⁽⁴⁷⁾

Another area of concern for the bishop and his canons was the protection of the chapter's rights. Thus in March 1052 the bishop, the archdeacon, and twenty-two canons concluded a convention with Pere, Bonuci, and Bonfill (sons of the late provost Viva), who held the right to supply a priest to the ecclesiola of Sant Martí in Provensals, a parish dependent upon the canons' church of Santa Maria del Mar.⁽⁴⁸⁾ The three brothers agreed to follow certain practices in replacing priests and not to diminish in any way the rights in the "tithes, visitations of the sick, and the sprinkling of salt" of the church of Santa Maria del Mar.⁽⁴⁹⁾ Though the bishop was not directly affected by the terms of this convention, he nonetheless underwrote the agreement in order to maintain the integrity of fiscal rights that were specifically earmarked for the chapter. Similarly, in 1059 he scrupulously compensated the canons, in land, for six measures of barley "which have been used in the dedication of our mother church in necessary expenses."⁽⁵⁰⁾ This kind of cooperation was commonplace. In 1054, when Bishop Guislabert began a proceeding to restore to the church of Barcelona the sanctuary [75] of Sant Boi, which was held by a layman, he sent Archdeacon Berenguer and Vivà to poll the parishioners on their knowledge of the rights of both claimants. Though the decision went against the see, the inquiry gave evidence of concerted action by all leading officials of the church.⁽⁵¹⁾

Berenguer Archdeacon took part in other acts of the period. Early in his career, in 1048, he appeared with his brother Ramon Guillem de Montcada at a hearing that proved Bernat Ermengol's will.⁽⁵²⁾ A dozen years later, he participated with bishops, abbots, judges, other officials of the chapter, and laymen in adjudicating a disputed inheritance.⁽⁵³⁾ He was named in December 1061 as an executor of the will of Bishop Guislabert; but he also became a beneficiary, receiving a fur coat.⁽⁵⁴⁾ Berenguer played a more singular role, however, after Guislabert's death, when he prosecuted a claim of the church of Sant Just and Sant Pastor against the sons of the late cathedral school master, who had retained a plot of land for planting vines that had been granted to their father in precaria. Once "good men" had intervened, the church agreed to accept half of the land and to grant the other half to the sons and their posterity, subject only to payment of the tithe.⁽⁵⁵⁾

Though Berenguer succeeded to the archdeaconate during a period of political unrest, and though he figured in few acts before 1050, he appeared more frequently during the decade of the 1050s and worked with apparent harmony with Bishop Guislabert until the bishop's death in 1061. The entry into the cathedral chapter of Berenguer's younger brother Bernat, who inherited the archdeaconate in 1063, was no doubt facilitated by this relationship. But preparations for the succession had been under way well before that date. In June 1056 Berenguer and Bernat, who was then subdeacon, subscribed Adelaida de Montcada's substantial donation of land in the territory of Barcelona to the chapter.⁽⁵⁶⁾ This act stipulated that Adelaida during her lifetime, and her son Bernat [76] during his lifetime, would hold the property from the chapter for an annual rent, or "recognition," of six pounds of wax. Although no mention was made of the archdeaconate, the donation established sufficient endowment for Bernat to pay the price that was necessary to succeed to high ecclesiastical office.⁽⁵⁷⁾ For the absolution of her misdeeds and those of her husband Guillem, Adelaida also donated to the see her copy of the so-called "Book of Charles."⁽⁵⁸⁾ These donations not only served a pious purpose, they contributed to keeping the archdeaconate in the Montcada family's hands.

Bernat acceded to the archdeaconate in 1063, at a time of economic initiative in the church of Barcelona. Bishop Berenguer (1061-1069) and his canons -- who were profiting from donations by the faithful of land in the territory and county of Barcelona -- were extending the lordship of the "mother church" over lands whose richness had been recovered a few generations earlier through the toil of enterprising free peasants.⁽⁵⁹⁾ These church officials established the bases for what became in the twelfth century a regularized system of rents apportioned in prebends to individual canons of the see. They did this by intensifying management practices of the 1050s employed under Bishop Guislabert that had included [77] the donation in precaria and the commendation of land against payment of annual rent. Grants of land donated for the planting of vines increased after 1060, perhaps because a standardized share (one-quarter of the harvest after payment of the tithe) had been adopted for the church. Nine such transactions in the archive of the Barcelona cathedral chapter bear Bernat's subscription, all but one with those of the bishop and other canons as well.⁽⁶⁰⁾ Commendations of property were common during this period: rural land was let against an annual rent payable in grain⁽⁶¹⁾ and lots in Barcelona were ceded for the construction of houses, gardens, and walls.⁽⁶²⁾ Income for the chapter from these lots came from annual rents of two or three pigs and, in one case, from payment of a sum in gold for establishing the lease. Finally, the bishop and canons exchanged parcels of land to consolidate holdings and facilitate management.⁽⁶³⁾

Bernat Archdeacon also subscribed donations to the church. Two of these, one to illuminate the cathedral and the other to aid the hospital, brought allods in Caldes and Reixac to the see.⁽⁶⁴⁾ In another case, a donation by the provost Vivà to the chapter of Barcelona was witnessed by a certain "Joan Arnau de archidiacono," who followed Ramon Mir Montiscatani, castlà of Montcada, on the list of subscribers and who may well have been in the service of Bernat Archdeacon and have signed on his behalf.⁽⁶⁵⁾ In a related role, Bernat and another cleric witnessed the redrawing of a charter of donation to the see because the old one had been damaged.⁽⁶⁶⁾

The extension of ecclesiastical lordship over lands throughout the territory of Barcelona increased the number of dealings between the church and laymen. Bernat Archdeacon sometimes represented [78] the interests of the chapter, for example, when donors died and their successors attempted to inherit land given to the see, as in two cases of 1093 and 1095 that were resolved in the cathedral's favor.⁽⁶⁷⁾ Similarly, he presided at a judicial hearing in 1092 when a Barcelona cleric objected to the sale of a modiata (a unit of measure) of vineyard on the grounds that it belonged to the church of Santa Maria of Urgell.⁽⁶⁸⁾

In contrast to the rights of territorial lordship in the Penedès that had been the cause of his uncle Ramon Archdeacon's involvement in judicial contests between Sant Cugat and the vice-comital family of Barcelona, the stakes that occupied Bernat seem small. But the interest of the see in each case was great, and the geographical location of contested holdings was significant: the bulk of church lands were concentrated in the territory of Barcelona, where the see was a major landlord. There even small parcels, valued collectively for the rents and incomes they generated, were worthy of exploitation and, if necessary, litigation.

Because they were intimately involved with landholding in the cathedral's back yard, representatives of the church grew increasingly visible in local transactions, including those between private parties. Bernat's position in the church may explain his appearance at a sale of land between individuals in 1074 and his participation in the conclusion of a sale involving the appraisal of movable goods given in lieu of fifty ounces of gold.⁽⁶⁹⁾ His subscription figured in a sale of houses in Barcelona between two private parties in 1073, in the donation by a cleric of houses in Barcelona and other property to the monastery of Sant Cugat, and in the sale of an honor in Barcelona's "suburb" by the executors of the will of a Guillem Sendred.⁽⁷⁰⁾

Aside from his involvement in the affairs of the see and as a public figure in the city and territory of Barcelona, Bernat acquired and maintained properties in and near Barcelona. As archdeacon, he controlled the towers and land adjacent to the bishop's gate as his brother Berenguer and uncle Ramon had before him.⁽⁷¹⁾[79] In addition, he owned houses just beyond the towers in the present Plaça Nova⁽⁷²⁾ and a garden in the nearby Jewish quarter.⁽⁷³⁾ Near Montjuïch and the port of Barcelona Bernat received from Bishop Umbert the allod of Cercols -- which included a house, courtyard, land, fields, and orchards -- obtained through gifts of the faithful, to hold in service to the see following the death of a certain Bernat Ramon.⁽⁷⁴⁾ Presumably he acquired this land with the intention of leasing it to local viticulturists who would share the proceeds with him, providing an annual return on his investment.

A similar motive may have prompted Bernat to advance the sum of 200 sols of silver to Bishop Berenguer of Vic. In return for the loan, the bishop pledged to Bernat rights to the fruits of a manse at Palomar in the territory of Barcelona on each feast of Saint Andrew (1 December) for five years until the principal of the loan came due and was repaid.⁽⁷⁵⁾ But this venture did not develop as foreseen in the agreement. In January 1090, a little more than a year after the loan had expired, Bernat, still unpaid, assigned the land to one Ermengol Bernat in return for 130 sols.⁽⁷⁶⁾ He did this because the bishop and canons of Vic had refused to pay the debt and would take no action in response to his complaints about Ermengol Bernat, who had already seized the land and killed a pair of Bernat Archdeacon's oxen. The transaction gave the archdeacon five months to repay the 130 sols and recover his charter of donation, or the land would remain with the new lessee until redeemed by the bishop of Vic. The aging archdeacon thus recovered 130 of the 200 sols he had originally lent to the bishop of Vic, and closed his eyes to the aggressive tactics of Ermengol Bernat.

Earlier in his career, Bernat's response might have been different. During the countship of Ramon Berenguer I, the archdeacon, along with one Renard Ramon, concluded a convention in 1069 in which Ramon Hug promised to provide military service in return for Bernat's concession to him of the churches of Marata [80] and Palau. Ramon Hug would provide this military service either "to his best lords" (Bernat and Renard Ramon) if the archdeacon departed on a campaign, or to Bernat's brother Renard Guillem de La Roca with Renard Ramon if the archdeacon stayed behind.⁽⁷⁷⁾ Bernat's participation in bellicose actions was mentioned here as if such occurrences were routine. Nor was Bernat without powerful friends: he is cited in 1072 as a member of Ramon Berenguer I's retinue,⁽⁷⁸⁾ and he remained on good terms with his brother Renard Guillem de La Roca. This period of visible strength extended from Bernat's first years as archdeacon to the mid-1080s, when he and Renard Guillem agreed to the terms by which their nephew Berenguer Ramon would succeed to the Montcada patrimony.

In the last ten years of the archdeacon's life, there were indications that Bernat's resolve in dealing with secular matters was weakening. Even after he had proved in a tribunal his rights of possession against a claimant whose parents had sold land to Adelaida de Montcada, Bernat, in 1087, "wanting to retain said Gerbert in his service," gave "out of his love" two modiata of vineyard to the plaintiff.⁽⁷⁹⁾ Perhaps affected by the death of Renard Guillem in 1088, Bernat prepared for his own end in 1089 by giving one-third of the castle of Muntanyola and a manse at Gramanet to the See of Barcelona because "it is declared through the words of the holy fathers that sins may be redeemed through donations and gifts."⁽⁸⁰⁾

Bernat's death in March or early April 1095 brought an end to nearly a century of Montcada tenure of the second most prestigious ecclesiastical office in Barcelona.⁽⁸¹⁾ The new archdeacon was Ermengol, who first appeared three years after Bernat's death in a document recording the granting of lands once held by Adelaida [81] de Montcada to a canon of the cathedral chapter.⁽⁸²⁾ This act reveals that property probably controlled by Bernat during his lifetime had begun to find its way into new hands.⁽⁸³⁾It also suggests that by 1098 problems of succession to the Montcada office and to the temporal goods associated with it had finally been resolved.

Were it not for the preservation of one particular parchment document in the archives of the counts of Barcelona, there would be little basis for reconstructing the probable sequence of events that surrounded the succession of Bernat Archdeacon. By extrapolating from clues provided by this document, it can be hypothesized that the bishop of Barcelona successfully thwarted an attempt to ensure that the archdeaconate would remain in Montcada hands.⁽⁸⁴⁾

Not quite a month after Bernat's death, Bishop Bertran of Barcelona (1086-1095) summoned Berenguer Ramon de Montcada to a judicial hearing in which Berenguer Ramon's clerical status was reexamined.⁽⁸⁵⁾ This was a key element in Bertran's effort to forestall a bid by the lord of Montcada for the office of archdeacon. The possibility of combining ecclesiastical and secular roles was not, after all, unthinkable. Earlier in the century Bishop Guislabert had acted for a time as viscount of Barcelona.⁽⁸⁶⁾ And in fact, within a year the man chosen to succeed Bertran as bishop would be Folc, viscount of Cardona and archdeacon of Sant Vincenç de Cardona.⁽⁸⁷⁾ Nonetheless, the bishop apparently opposed the succession by Berenguer Ramon de Montcada to his uncle's post. His objections could have included reservations about Berenguer's [82] moral fitness for ecclesiastical office, as well as awareness of the risks inherent to the see in Berenguer's control over the archdeacon's towers, adjacent lands, and other properties in and out of Barcelona -- lands that literally stretched north from the bishop's gate to the castle of Montcada. Fortunately for Bishop Bertran, the very reasons upon which Berenguer Ramon based his claim provided the opposing side with grounds to reject it.

Berenguer Ramon was the second son of Ramon Guillem de Montcada. His elder brother died in adolescence, enabling Berenguer Ramon eventually to become lord of Montcada. But in the meantime his father purchased the archdeaconate for him, probably during Bernat Archdeacon's term of office, and Berenguer Ramon took minor orders. Shortly after Berenguer Ramon had succeeded to his secular inheritance, in 1085, this new lord of Montcada managed to end disputes over his heritage between himself and his uncles Renard Guillem de La Roca and Bernat Archdeacon by pledging to defend their honors against anyone except the bishop of Barcelona and his successors.⁽⁸⁸⁾ The bishop was excluded because Berenguer Ramon expected one day to assume the office purchased for him by his father.

Between 1065 and 1095, however, the ecclesiastical hierarchy of Catalonia had begun to be influenced by the rising tide of church reform. Legates had appeared to preside over reform-inspired synods at Girona in 1068 and 1078 that legislated against a variety of clerical abuses, mainly simony. Clerical marriage (above the rank of lector), the bearing of arms by clerics, and gambling, hunting, and the holding of church lands through hereditary succession were also attacked.⁽⁸⁹⁾ Though the first synod was boycotted by Bishop Berenguer of Barcelona, his successor, Umbert, attended the second. Under Umbert and his successor, Bertran, the newly founded monastery of Sant Adrià de Besòs flourished with canons-regular called in from Saint Ruf, and Barcelona church politics began to take on a new mien. In an atmosphere of increasing receptiveness to reform, legates returned at intervals to apply personally the directives of Rome. One of them was Gualter, bishop of Alba, who visited Catalonia in 1092.⁽⁹⁰⁾ Before him was [83] brought the case of Berenguer Ramon de Montcada, who by now found his future promotion to the archdeaconate in jeopardy. Accused of simony, Berenguer Ramon defended himself by claiming innocence of his father's action. The argument may have saved him from stiffer consequences, but it did not prevent him from losing the office of archdeacon.⁽⁹¹⁾

Three years' time drew a partial veil over this sentence, and Berenguer, emboldened by the lack of further sanctions against him, decided to make a final attempt to succeed to the office. Bishop Bertran vigorously counterattacked by reopening in his own court the case made against Berenguer Ramon before the papal legate. Placed on the defensive, and convinced that access to the post he sought was now barred effectively, Berenguer Ramon fell back on the position he had maintained in the earlier case. But Bertran pursued the matter, prompting Berenguer Ramon to produce witnesses who testified that he had neither been tonsured nor had he been a canon before his father's purchase of the archdeaconate. At this point Bertran ordered the clergy of Barcelona to decide the matter. The clergy pursued a conciliatory course, referring to the case made before Gualter and maintaining that its sentence should be valid. They noted that the affair had been heard in the presence of the abbots of Ripoll and Banyoles, and because monks are men of their word, their testimony ought to be accepted and believed. Finally, the clergy suggested that if the two abbots could not be present at the hearing, the testimony of other free men should be admitted, accepted by the bishop, and confirmed by oath if that would please the bishop.⁽⁹²⁾

In exchange for allowing the prior agreement to stand, the bishop bargained for assurance that the lord of Montcada would not prevent the temporal goods of the archdeaconate from reverting to the See of Barcelona. This was agreed, but not without a gesture of compromise: the church would give up the Vallès churches of Marata and Palau, identified as part of the archdeaconate by Bernat in 1069⁽⁹³⁾ but claimed by Berenguer Ramon de Montcada as early as 1085.⁽⁹⁴⁾ The bishop also turned over to Berenguer [84] Ramon's cousins Ramon Renard and Guillem the donation Bernat had made in 1089 of one-third of the castle of Muntanyola.⁽⁹⁵⁾ In return for these concessions, evacuation of the remaining properties proceeded promptly and was complete by 1098, when a new archdeacon entered the office vacated three years earlier by Bernat, the last Montcada archdeacon of Barcelona.

The Montcada dynasty of archdeacons in the church of Barcelona, which came to an end in 1095, was well suited to conditions prevailing before the Gregorian reform. Montcada archdeacons, descended from an important aristocratic lineage but unrelated to those who occupied the bishop's chair, contributed to the maintenance of a political and social equilibrium within the ecclesiastical hierarchy that resembled the balance operating in secular society. This similarity was a natural but not an accidental consequence of comital control over personnel in the cathedral church. Membership in this community was limited to members of aristocratic families for whom the Rule of Aix -- which permitted the attenuation of communal living, sharing of the ecclesiastical fortune with each member of the chapter, and the individual exercise of lordship by canons over domains under their control -- was well adapted.⁽⁹⁶⁾ For the sake of stability, offices (and property attached to them) could be passed from uncle to nephew, subject to the payment of a gift or price to the ultimate overseer of the church, the count of Barcelona.⁽⁹⁷⁾ The system responded both to the needs of second sons of leading families and to the requirements [85] of the church for a socially stable and economically balanced relation to the aristocracy surrounding it.⁽⁹⁸⁾

The reform ideals of the late eleventh century forced churchmen to sever, at least in theory, the ties that bound them to the secular world. With simony, marriage, and the transmission of ecclesiastical patrimonies no longer tolerated openly among the clergy, churchmen became more circumspect in relations with lay members of the leading families from which their ranks continued to be filled. The new atmosphere could not have come at a worse time for Berenguer Ramon de Montcada -- whose accession to an ecclesiastical role would have broadcast the message that the church of Barcelona had really not changed after all. His failure to gain the archdeaconate, which was a cleansing cause célèbre for Bishop Bertran, signaled the end of a century of ecclesiastical preferment for the Montcada family.

It might not have been thus if Berenguer Ramon's brother had lived to become lord of Montcada. In other regions, the Gregorian reform came and went, and the same families that had supplied archdeacons before it continued to supply them afterward. The manner of succession may have changed, but the substance remained the same.⁽⁹⁹⁾ Nor was the rupture in Montcada family occupation of church office only a momentary loss. The Ramon de [86] Montcada whom Villanueva cited as abbot of Sant Cugat del Vallès for a brief period in 1104 certainly did not exist.⁽¹⁰⁰⁾ Further, no other family members advanced to ranking positions in the church until two Montcadas were named provincial master of the Knights Templar and bishop of Lleida in the thirteenth century.

Berenguer Ramon's failure to succeed his uncle therefore dealt a real loss to the Montcada family in terms of control of lands and their incomes and in terms of influence in Barcelona. That influence was partly requited in the early twelfth century by the new role of Berenguer's cousins as lords at Castell Vell of Barcelona; but this development occurred outside the church in which the direct voice of a Montcada no longer could be heard. Perhaps in the end, however, benefits accrued to the family through the close of its tenure of the archdeaconate. For one thing, the reversion to the see of property temporarily retained in the service of family members meant that these pious donations might finally begin to pay their full spiritual dividends. Further, perhaps Berenguer Ramon and his descendents were better off personally out of the archdeaconate. For it was precisely in the twelfth century that someone corresponding with John of Salisbury complained that

to the race of men who were reckoned under the name of archdeacons, in the church of God the way of salvation was wholly barred: they loved bribes, they followed after rewards, were quick to do wrongfully, rejoiced in false accusations, the sins of the people were their meat and drink on which they lived by robbery, so that no host was safe from his guest.⁽¹⁰¹⁾

1. Ramon Borrell, quoted by Anscari Mundó in "Monastic Movements in the East Pyrenees," in Clunaic Monasticism in the Central Middle Ages (London, 1971), ed. Noreen Hunt, p. 103.

2. The reform charter, published in MH 968-71 : 159, is discussed in Johannes J. Bauer, "Die Vita canonica der katalanischen Kathedralkapitel vom 9. bis zum ii. Jahrhundert," in Homenaje a Johannes Vincke (Madrid, 1962-63), 1:81-112. Bauer's analysis of the regularization of property-holding relations, and its connection to a grant by the counts and a provision made for greater autonomy of the chapter, is particularly good (pp. 101-02). But because the charter emphasizes the canons' role in bringing about the reform, I would question whether Bishop Eci should be considered as the "treibende Kraft" of the movement.

3. A discussion of the living arrangements permitted by the rule of Aix is in Charles Dereine, "Chanoine," in Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris, 1953), col. 369.

4. Barcelona's cathedral chapter during the tenth century was small, probably similar in size to that of Vic, which in 957 had an archdeacon, seven priests, and three canons without further title (VL 6:245-48). This size was comparable to chapters in Languedoc during the tenth century (see Elisabeth Magnou-Nortier, La société laïque et l'église dans la province ecclésiastique de Narbonne [Toulouse, 1974], p. 418). In Barcelona, two documents of the late tenth century (974 and 987-95) provide the subscriptions of the bishop and, respectively, six and eight canons (Mas 9:22-23:51; 9:63:147).

5. The vita communis remained an ideal throughout the tenth century and may have prompted Count Sunyer and Countess Riquilda in 944 to donate a tax earmarked "for the construction of a chapter house" (Sebastián Puig y Puig, Episcopologio de la sede Barcinonense [Barcelona, 1929], 360-61:21). Though the beginning of a refectory in Barcelona sometime around the year 1000 seems to provide further evidence for sentiment in favor of communal life, references to such institutions are rare in the eleventh century.

6. On Arnulf, see Puig, Episcopologio, p. 97. Llobet's brother was "Geribert" (ibid., 366:26), who, I suspect, was the son of Viscount Guitard. (A simplifled genealogy of the vice-comital family is in Catalogne, p. 626.)

7. Paul Kehr, "El papat i el principat de Catalunya fins a la unió amb Aragó," trans. Ramon d'Abadal i de Vinyals, in Estudis universitaris catalans (Barcelona, 1927-30), 12:331.

8. Puig, Episcopologio, p. 101.

9. Nearly all the eleventh-century Barcelona ecclesiastical documentation focuses on property rights, so that historians of the period might well wonder how much these matters pushed into the background the spiritual concerns of the church.

10. For example, Mas 9:133-34:310; 9:142-43:322; 9:145:326; 9:137-38:314; 9:150-51:338; in documents dating from 1012 to 1014.

11. Mas 9:133-34:310. Ramon's name appeared fourteen times from 1010 to 1033 in acts of the bishop and canons recorded in the cartulary of the see.

12. The archdeacon, for centuries one of the highest dignitaries of the episcopal church, was considered vicar of the bishop and depicted as one of the episcopal see's three pillars of support, along with the archpriest and sacristan. These descriptions and other historical attributes of the office, and their evolution, are discussed in A. Amanieu, "Archidiacre," in Dictionnaire du droit canonique (Paris, 1935), 1:948-1004, esp. 959-60.

13. VL 12:312: "Assistentibus archidiaconis atque canonicis ejusdem sedis Gerundensis et Barchinonensis."

14. The canons in general looked to the bishop for leadership. See Bauer, "Vita canonica," p. 97.

15. Bonuci appeared in a charter of 1022 copied into the "Libri antiquitatum" (ACB Lib. ant. 3:22:55 [Mas 9:185-86:406]) with what Mas misread as the cognomen Albati. This certainly should read abbati, indicating that the head of the reform movement of 1009 continued as leader of the chapter for some time afterward. Ponç Bonfill March appeared later with the title of "provost."

16. Mas 9:188-89:412. Sacriscrinius is defined by Niermeyer as "churchwarden" (Mediae latinitatis lexicon minus, p. 928).

17. Visitations were triennial in the Carolingian period, becoming annual by the twelfth century. The importance of the archdeacon increased overall in Western Europe during this period. See Arnanieu, "Archidiacre."

18. Pasqual, "Sacra," 3:14; Mas 9:210-11:456.

19. Mas 9:214:462; ACV Lib. dot., 138r-v.

20. Abuses of hospitality were a common theme in the twelfth century as well and resulted in a limit of one annual visitation per parish. See Amanieu, "Archidiacre."

21. ACA BR I:13.

22. CSC 2:146-48:496.

23. Mas 9:204-05:444. Published in MH 1045-46:204.

24. CSC 2:165-66:512; 2:174-75:523; 2:184-89:529; 2:180-83:527; 2:203 -06:545.

25. After years of contention, for example, the abbot of Sant Cugat had to accept a compromise based on the outcome of a trial by ordeal that had been demanded by his opponent. See CSC 2:203-06: 545 and Catalogne, pp. 560-62.

26. Ramon's status in society is indicated by his attendance at the recording of acts by important persons, such as a donation by Count Berenguer and Ermessenda to Sant Llorenç del Munt in 1032 (ACA S. Llorenç: 105).

27. For the history of Barcelona's gate castles, see Els castells catalans, I:516-31; in the view of the editors, the archdeacon's towers were not a castle in the same sense as were the towers at the other three gates. This opinion is contested by Philip J. Banks, author of a study of Barcelona's medieval topography (see n. 30 below), who believes that the bishop's gate resembled closely the south castle ("Regomir") gate, and that both were somewhat less fortified than the east (Castell Vell) and west (Castell Nou) gates.

28. Mas 9:240:513.

29. ACB Div. C/b/121.

30. Mas 9:242:518; ACB Div. C/b/123. The Latin word is mansio where one might expect to see domus. The houses in this section of Barcelona -- just north of the cathedral and the thirteenth-century chapel of Santa Llúcia -- were, according to a recent study, among the best in the city. See Philip J. Banks, "The Topography of the City of Barcelona and Its Urban Context in Eastern Catalonia from the Third to the Twelfth Centuries," 5 vols. (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Nottingham, 1980), 2:666-68.

31. Mas 9:226:485.

32. VL 17:325. I should like to express my appreciation to Philip Banks for bringing this reference to my attention, as well as for helping me locate other documents bearing on the career of Ramon Archdeacon.

33. Mas 9:239-40:512; ACA BR I:68.

34. ACV Lib. dot. 138r-v; ACV C.6:933.

35. ACV Lib. dot. 142r-v. This document is dated 12 Sept. 1039 but should be considered as dating from 1040, because in May of that year Bernat Seniofred made a donation to the chapter of Vic.

36. Mas 9:242-43:519; 9:244:521; 9:245:524.

37. Mas 9:229-32:493.

38. Mas 9:247-48:530; 9:250-51:535; 9:254-55:545.

39. From the end of 1040 to late 1044 only one subscription of an archdeacon appears in the cartulary of the see, that of a "Guillem" in Apr. 1042 (Mas 9:256:547). It is tempting to assume that this refers to the archdeacon of Vic, but this explanation is unsure.

40. The first appearance of a "Berenguer" in subscriptions to cathedral documents from the period after Ramon's death is in Jan. 1044, in a copy of a sale by Ató Ermemir and his wife to Adelaida de Montcada. This would be inconclusive but for two coincidences: the copyist transcribed the name in all capital letters, in imitation of the autograph of Berenguer Archdeacon, and the document directly concerns Berenguer's mother. It is likely that Berenguer had not yet reached the legal age for ordination as deacon (canon law prescribed the age of twenty-five years). See ACB Lib. ant. 2:51v:137 (Mas 9:262:562).

41. One donation was made so that the donor could be interred in the cloister of the chapter (Mas 9:300-01:656), and another so that each year the canons would hold a service for the benefit of the donor's soul (Mas 9:308:674).

42. Mas 9:298:649; 9:313:682; 10:43-44:777.

43. Mas 9:318-19:694; 10:37:765; ACB Div. B:741.

44. Mas 9:273-74:590; 9:279-80:604; ACB Lib. ant. 2:114v:340 (Mas 10:45:781).

45. One person who received an allod from the see was enjoined not to subject it to any other bailiff or lord (ACB Lib. ant. 2:114v:340 [Mas 10:45-46:781]).

46. Mas 10:9:704; 10:32-33:754; Puig, Episcopologio, 385-86:44; 387:45.

47. Mas 10:24-25:736.

48. ACA RB I:121.

49. The canons shared the tithes with the holder of the church, perhaps in equal parts (as in Santa Maria de Comella; see Mas 9: 199-200:433). Their right to visit the sick may have been linked to an interest in promoting bequests to the see, whereas their reservation of the right to sprinkle salt could have had its origins in rural practices of using consecrated salt for healing and as protection against the devil. Adolph Franz, Die kirchlichen Benediktionen im Mittelalter, 2 vols. (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1909), 1:221-29, reviews liturgical and popular uses of salt and observes that "im Felde und Stalle spielt unter der bäuerlichen...Bevölkerung das Salz eine grosse Rolle" (p. 227).

50. Puig, Episcopologio, 391:48.

51. Mas 9:310-12:678.

52. ACA RB I:96.

53. ACB Lib. ant. 1:122v-23r:308 (Mas 10:47-48:785).

54. Puig, Episcopologio, 391-93:49.

55. ACB Div. C/b/225 (formerly capsa 3, a document of 1063).

56. ACB Div. A:287. A copy in ACB Lib. ant. 2:52:141 (Mas 10:1112:710). The original parchment bears a twelfth-century dorsal identification of the act as the "carta Adaladis Montiscatani."

57. The practice of making payments in the eleventh century to secular rulers for episcopal office is well known; see Catalogne,p. 639. For a more general discussion, see Magnou-Nortier, Société, pp. 351-53. Direct evidence for the purchase of the archdeaconate of Barcelona by members of the Montcada family is discussed below.

58. The book was the "Librum Charoli sancte ecclesie utillimum in tribus corpomibus diuisum." Balan considered this to be a "life of Charlemagne" (Orígenes, p. 614), but the recent explanation of Miquel Gros and Anscani Mundó is more probable. They believe that the work is Paul the Deacon's Homilies, a collection of sermons divided into three parts and often referred to as the Carolus because of the prominence given by copyists to that name in an original dedication to Charlemagne. See J. P. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series latina, vol. 95 (Paris, 1861), cols. 1159-60ff.

59. Catalogne, p. 832.

60. ACB Lib. ant. 3:23v-24r:62 (Mas 10:52:794); Div. B. 720, 1004, 812, 1306; Lib. ant. 1:169v-70r:446 (Mas 10:111-12:926), 1:206r: 557 (Mas 10:155:1022); Div. B:737, 1225.

61. Mas 10:61:817; 10:75:849; 10:89-90:879.

62. ACB Div. A:716; Lib. ant. 1:143r-v:372 (Mas 10:94:889), 1:116r: 289 (Mas 10:124-25:955).

63. ACA RB I:389; ACB Div. B: 1403; Lib. ant. 2:150r-v:392 (Mas 10:80-81:860), I:291v:791 (Mas 10:186-87:1091).

64. ACA Lib. ant. 3:2v-3r:6 (Mas 10:141:989).

65. ACB Lib. ant. 1:199v-200r:537 (Mas 10:73:845); 1:299r-v:824 (Mas 10:186:1090).

66. ACB Lib. ant. 2:116v-17r:346 (Mas 10:181:1077).

67. ACB Lib. ant. 2:70v-203 (Mas 10:195-96:1110); Div. A:2306.

68. ACB Lib. ant. 1:352v:1008 (Mas 10:191:1101).

69. Mas 10:109:920; ACB Lib. ant. 2:122v-23r:365 (Mas 10:90-91:881).

70. ACB Div. C/b/260; CSC 2:348-49:687; ACB Lib. ant. 1:87v-88r:205 (Mas 10:165:1040).

71. The towers are said to belong to the archdeaconate of the see in a document of 1078 that granted to a canon of the chapter an easement permitting the construction of an arch that would lean against the towers. This act was issued jointly by Bishop Umbert (1069-1086) and Archdeacon Bernat Guillem, with the body of canons (ACB Div. B: 1688).

72. Mas 12:283-84:2674. My thanks to Philip Banks for bringing my attention to this reference.

73. ACB Lib. ant. 1:27r:49 (Mas 10:150:1013).

74. ACB Div. A:2245.

75. ACA BR II:9.

76. ACA BR II:65.

77. ACA RB I: 12.

78. ACA RB I:444.

79. ACB Div. B:593.

80. ACB Lib. ant. 3:92r:239 (Mas 10:178:1071).

81. Bernat's death can be placed between 3 Mar., the date of his last known appearance in a document, and 17 Apr. 1095, the date of a legal proceeding brought by Bishop Bentran against Berenguer Ramon de Montcada.

82. Mas 10:221:1165.

83. Though this piece of land was not specifically reserved in Adelaida's donation of 1062 for Bernat's use during his lifetime (ACB Lib. ant. 2:51r-v:136 [Mas 10:46:783]), it lay in the same general area as the land that she gave the see in 1056 with such a condition attached. It was common practice for sons to exercise lifetime rights oven property donated to the church by their parents.

84. This document is ACA RB III:33, dating from 17 Apr. 1095; see Appendix. The hypothesis which this document suggests cannot be proven on a point-by-point basis and therefore remains tentative. In the interest of style, I have omitted to the greatest possible extent adverbs and verb forms that express possibility, probability, or doubt.

85. See Appendix.

86. Sobrequés, Barons, p. 38.

87. Puig, Episcopologio, p. 134.

88. ACA BR II:19.

89. VL 13:261-66.

90. Gualter's activity is attested in a document of 1092(?) published by Paul Kehn, Papsturkunden in Spanien...i: Katalanien, Abhandlungen den Gesellschaftder Wissenschaften zu Götingen, Philogisch-historische Klasse, n.s., 18:2 (Berlin, 1926), pp. 293-96.

91. See Appendix.

92. See Appendix.

93. ACA RB I:412.

94. ACA BR II:19.

95. ACB Lib. ant. 3:92r:239 (Mas 10:178:1071). The cousins would have had a claim through their younger brother, Renand, mentioned in the donation as a possible future candidate for a post in the chapter. Renard may have died at an early age in the meantime, because there is no other known reference to this third son of Renard Guillem de La Roca.

96. See Georges Duby, "Les chanoines réguliers et la vie économique des XI^e et XII^e siècles, in Hommes et structures du moyen age (Paris, 1973), p. 205.

97. This practice was not viewed as corrupt in the pre-reform church: "When all allowance has been made for differences in individual practice, the general attitude was the same everywhere: the filling of ecclesiastical offices was the responsibility (or the privilege or the perquisite, according to the point of view) of the secular ruler. It was difficult to keep the matter of appointments free from family and monetary considerations -- indeed, in general, they saw no necessity for trying to do so" (Richard Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages [New Haven, 1953], p. 124). See also Magnou-Nontier, Société, pp. 353-56, for the distinction between lay supervision of the function of ecclesiastical office and of its honor.

98. Duby, "Chanoines," p. 205: "Cette participation des principales familles chevaleresques au patrimoine capitulaire était comme la matérialisation du lien spirituel entre l'aristocratie des environs de la cité et la cathédrale. Elle assurait l'équilibre entre la seigneurie de l'Eglise et celle des laïcs, facilitait les donations pieuses et la sauvegarde du patrimoine ecclésiastique."

99. After the Gregorian reform in Soissons, the family of Quierzy-Bazoches continued to obtain ecclesiastical offices for its members. However, the initiative for nepotism now came from family members already occupying church office rather than from secular heads of lineage. Although the change may have made some difference to the canonists, the results for the family were the same. See William Mendel Newman, Les seigneurs de Nesle en Picardie (Paris, 1971), pp. 106-07: "Notes sur les archidiacres du chapitre de Soissons."

100. VL 19:33. Villanueva's list was compiled from lists of earlier historians of the monastery and, he said, compared with documents included in the cartulary. But the published cartulary does not mention an Abbot Ramon de Montcada in 1104. Moreover, no member of the family known to me bore this name in the early eleventh century. The reference to a Ramon Abbot, whom Mas assumed (5:1,8-19:653 and n. 44) was Villanueva's Ramon de Montcada of 1104, is a misreading for Renard (printed correctly by Rius in his edition of the cantulary [CSC 2:436-37:778]), abbot from 1099 to 1106.

101. Quoted by A. Hamilton Thompson in "Diocesan Organization in the Middle Ages: Archdeacons and Rural Deans," in Proceedings of the British Academy (1943), 29:153.