Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain:
The Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic Frontier
***
James William Brodman
CHAPTER FOUR
Mercedarian Life
Merced's officers and the chapter comprised only a small proportion of the Order; the majority of members consisted of laic and clerical brothers who assisted their commanders in patrimonial administration, staffed churches, preached and collected alms, and ransomed captives. Here we wish to examine this general body of brothers by inquiring into their numbers and the nature of their religious life and discipline. Not surprisingly, evidence for the study of the average Mercedarian is scanty. The parentage of only two pre-1317 brothers, for example, can be identified.(1) Those brothers who are known to us exist only as names included in subscription lists to extant documents. Yet, on the basis of the discipline outlined in the Constitutions of l272, the requirements indicated in the few surviving professions, and our own effort to approximate the size of Mercedarian communities, a broad outline of redemptionist life in the thirteenth century can be reconstructed.
The names of some five hundred Mercedarians who had joined the movement before 1317 can be counted, but, given the lacunae in the sources, the actual total must have been significantly higher. Thus, an attempt to determine the Order's size merely by tallying the known brothers, decade by decade, would yield an underestimate.(2) A better method of judging Merced's actual size and relative growth is through a calculation of its physical expansion, since some approximation can be made of the size of individual communities. These were, we can be certain, never large. In 1317, for example, when some two hundred brothers can be identified by name, the average complement of a house could not have been more than five; in the thirteenth century, this would certainly have been even less. Some general assessment of the size of each community can be gained from the examination of subscription lists. These show, for example, that Barcelona had four members in 1249 and 1276, eight in 1300, nine in 1307, and fourteen in 1317; lists from Puig range in size from five names in 1273 to nineteen in 1317. At Perpignan, for which unusually ample documentation has survived, two or three names are typical in the [62] early charters; this grows to between five and eight during the 1270s and 1280s; in 1317, the house had seven inmates. A similar pattern is detected at Gerona, where two or three names are appended to thirteenth-century charters, and about five in those of the early fourteenth century. At Játiva, the range is between three and nine; at Tarragona, three and eight. Smaller houses, however, like those at Montblanch, Bell-lloc, or San Pedro de los Griegos never had more than one or two members.
Consequently, the adoption of an average of three brothers per house for the thirteenth century cannot be too wide of the mark. After correlating this average with the totals of known houses, the following estimates would result. In 1245, when there were upwards of fifteen redemptionist houses, the figure would be forty-five, very close to the total of forty-six Mercedarians actually identifiable for the decade 1240-1249. The thirty houses of 1263 give us a membership estimate of 90, in 1268 of 105, both now substantially larger than the total of 63 Mercedarian names that survive from the 1260s. The 1291 figure is close to 125, compared with the 60 who can actually be named for that decade. Since we know that the Order had grown to at least 200 members in 1317, these enlarged estimates appear to give us a more realistic picture of the membership than would a mere headcount. Nevertheless, even these expanded figures reinforce the impression that Merced remained in the thirteenth century a small order.
The Mercedarian Constitutions, in describing the ceremony of initiation for new brothers, give us a glimpse of the ideals that the Order sought to embrace. Novices here were first to be quizzed concerning their eligibility, namely that no debt or financial obligation or prior vow of religion stood in the way of their reception. Then, after being warned of the rigor of the life upon which they were about to enter, each, by placing his hands in those of the master, would swear for the love of Jesus Christ to live a life of hardship, in observance of the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the master and the Constitutions. With this done, these new Mercedarians were to be invested in the habit by all of the brothers present.(3) Individual professions add some detail to the ceremony thus sketched in the Constitutions. Those of Ramon de Talavera and Domènec de Vilavenut, for example, confirm the clasping of hands; that of Martí de Balaguer provides a more detailed description of the ceremony as it was performed in 1314. Here the entrant began by offering his person and his property to his prospective commander, [63] the vicar of Puig, swearing before the altar of Santa Maria to observe the vows of stability, conversion of life, obedience, and continence. Then, the vicar accepted Martí as a brother and invested him in the habit while the Veni creator was solemnly sung.(4) What follows is a discussion of how these promises shaped the lives of Mercedarians.
The Brothers of Ransom, despite their churches and lands, displayed few external signs of wealth. In embracing the virtue of poverty they in fact conform to their contemporaries' penchant for equating the renunciation of material goods with the imitation of Christ. This spirit of poverty and of asceticism can be found in the Constitutions. Here the master, as we have stated, was to inform novices that they were about to enter upon a life of hardship and to warn them of Merced's poverty and "toughness." The brothers' life of self-denial was used by both pope and king to recommend the Order to the generosity of the faithful.(5) Indeed, Mercedarians were probably associated in the popular mind with mendicants and with those other religious who solicited alms for the pauperes Christi. That Mercedarian houses in Barcelona, Gerona, and Tarragona were adjacent to those of the Franciscans, and in Valencia next to the house of the Sack Friars, could only strengthen such an association.(6)
The style of life observed by Mercedarians, while not as strongly rooted in the ideal of evangelical poverty as that of the mendicants, nonetheless reflected something of the same rigor and simplicity. While Merced itself had no ban on its own corporate ownership of possessions, the brothers as individuals were expected to practice the virtues of the simple life. The Constitutions enjoined a vow of poverty, and this, with certain exceptions, appears to have been observed. Thus, it was the custom of new members to forsake their worldly possessions, typically by yielding these to the Order. Pere Capdebou, upon his reception at Majorca, for example, gave the Order land that Jaume I had given him there in 1234. In 1293, Andreu Vayà, as a new brother at Tortosa, promised his commander "all of my goods and rights ... that I have and own and have a right to own by reason of my inheritance from the aforesaid lord, my late father, or for whatever other reason, in the city of Tortosa and its district, and in all other places."(7) The same year Ximén Pere de Novella gave his commander 1,000s. for the redemption of captives.(8) When the brothers Pere and Ramon Ricart became Mercedarians, their father was still alive, but at his death their share of his estate was claimed by Pere and Ramon's commander, Brother Nicolau Avinent of Puig.(9) Ramon de Talavera in 1268 yielded his inherited property to the [64] house at Puig and delegated its commander to collect his due from the executors of his father's estate.(10) The Order, however, would not necessarily receive everything, for there are instances of reservations permitted to members. Ramon de Talavera, for example, was allowed to purchase a personal breviary from his funds. The Ricart brothers were able to set certain revenues aside for the support of their widowed mother. Andreu Vayà in 1293 reserved "for his own wishes" a field in Tortosa's district that had belonged to his father's wife.(11) With these few exceptions, however, entering brothers were expected to yield to the Order not only their bodies and souls -- to use the phrase typical of the entry charters -- but also their material possessions.
Thus stripped of their former wealth, Mercedarians had to rely upon the Order for their maintenance, and this at least in theory was austere. The Constitutions, for example, prescribe a simple habit, not made of Narbonnese cloth or other fine fabrics but of rough white wool, or floc. This garment, mandatory for both officers and brothers, was to be emblazoned with Merced's seal depicting the cross surmounting the royal shield of Aragon. The brethren were also permitted linen breeches, a tunic, simple stockings, and shoes in the style of the Templars, but not aristocratic mantles. The sturdy shoes were necessary for a life of travel, but such itinerant brethren do not appear to have been armed. The Constitutions permit only the carrying of a blunt knife, which, lacking a point, could not have been a weapon.(12) The prescribed diet seems to have been hardy, as would be necessary for those engaged in arduous work. Brothers ordinarily were permitted meat three days a week, with fish, cheese, and eggs on three other days. Only Friday was a total and permanent day of abstinence. Travelling brothers and the sick were exempted from all of these restrictions. General fasting was confined to the period from All Saints' Day (November 1) to Christmas.(13) There were no limitations on the consumption of wine, except that none could be drunk after compline, or nightfall, and drunkenness was to be avoided. Offenders were sobered up with a regimen of bread and water lasting eight davs.(14) Brothers were also permitted to take meals as guests outside of the residence, provided that proper decorum was observed. This would mean wearing the habit and being clean shaven, presumably to maintain their identity as religious persons subject to the Rule, and avoiding the company of dishonest persons. In deference to their hosts, the brothers were permitted to eat meat, even on days of abstinence, but were warned against excessive drinking and gossiping, especially in the presence of women.(15)
[65] Since Mercedarians would thus spend at least some time outside of their own houses, the Constitutions had to deal with such topics as modes of travel and lodging. As preachers and collectors of alms for poor captives, the brothers themselves had to present simple and humble faces to the world. Thus, to prevent excessive show, they were forbidden to travel accompanied by an entourage; instead, each had to be content with a single horse or mule.(16) Travel itself was to be as expeditious as possible. To discourage leisurely peregrinations, the Constitutions limited the hospitality that a local house had to provide for travelling brothers to two nights, unless of course they were sick or had business to conduct locally.(17) Whenever the absence of a Mercedarian residence necessitated the use of private lodgings -- a frequent enough occurrence for wandering preachers -- the brothers were warned above all to avoid the company of women. Off-limits were houses owned by women; a brother could at most accept a cot in the servants' quarters. Brothers were also advised not to permit their heads or feet to be washed by women; the ban against eating in their presence was seemingly absolute.(18) The specific situations discussed in the Constitutions are evidence that there were temptations for Mercedarians to abandon chastity. To discourage possible failings of the flesh, the Constitutions meted out severe penalties for sexual transgressions. Transient dalliances with women that went no further than casual fornication were serious but pardonable offenses, but only after the errant brother had served six months in confinement and a year of twice-weekly fasts.(19) Running off with a woman, however, was unforgivable and meant permanent banishment from the Order.(20)
Other worldly but nonsexual vices were also addressed in the Constitutions. Playing with dice, given its association with blasphemy, and gambling with counters were regarded, for example, as crimes equivalent to fornication.(21) Physical violence directed against another brother was even more serious and thus merited double that penalty, or a year in confinement followed by whatever penance the master cared to impose.(22) Commanders whose mistreatment of a brother in their care caused him to abandon the Order would themselves be expelled, while anyone who brought a false accusation against another would himself be liable to the punishment appropriate to the alleged crime.(23)
The separation from the world enjoined upon the brethren went beyond affairs of the flesh. Mercedarians were members of an exclusive institution to which they were expected to pledge their complete [66] loyalty. This meant not only honest conduct toward fellow brothers but also circumspection in all dealings with outsiders. Merely discussing the Order's business with a non-Mercedarian merited eight days of penance.(24) For this reason, commanders were empowered to monitor all communication between brothers and outsiders.(25) To let others, on the other hand, learn of and report improper conduct meant for the guilty brother a year's confinement.(26) Even parents and confessors were not to be trusted. Brethren were warned against discussing any complaints about the Order with their families, and they could not use non-Mercedarian confessors except in cases of grave emergency.(27) Conspiracy or outright disobedience to superiors meant six months in confinement and a year's fast.(28) Evidence for instances of rebellion comes from the requests that the master would make to the king for the apprehension of rebels. So in 1313 Master Arnau Rossinyol, unable to force Brother Berenguer de Queralt to yield his commandery, asked Jaume II for his arrest on the grounds that Berenguer "had become disobedient to the commands of the master, . . . had absented himself from the Order," and now "wandered through the land as a vagabond."(29) Brothers responsible for any of the Order's property were forbidden to entrust it, even temporarily, to the care of a secular person.(30) Personal ties with outsiders were likewise banned. Brothers, for example, could not testify in lawsuits on behalf of a friend or an enemy, for money or out of kindness. That Mercedarians could not become godparents is suggestive of the extent to which they had to sever prior secular associations.(31) In so circumscribing a brother's external contacts, the Constitutions were attempting to strengthen the bond of community within the Order's very small houses. The Mercedarian style of life made daily exposure to secular influence, even perhaps to that of one's family, inevitable; if unchecked, such contact could well tempt a brother to play loose with the Order's property and money, or to undermine its morale through gossip and quarreling, or to damage its reputation through gambling, drinking, or womanizing.
Such wariness toward outsiders undoubtedly explains the restrictions placed on the reception of brothers who had belonged to other religious orders. In most cases, before such a transfer could be effected, the approval of the chapter general was necessary; but, if the candidate were a former Trinitarian, his entrance was forbidden under any circumstances. Similarly, any Mercedarian who defected to the Trinitarians could never return.(32) Such rigor was probably designed to prevent any novice from exploiting the developing rivalry between the only two religious redemptionist orders.
[67] The Mercedarian separateness from the world was also marked by a specific regimen of religious devotions required of all members. Such prayers, however, as befitting an uncloistered and generally laic congregation, were not long or elaborate. Probably because priests still constituted a minority, the Constitutions say nothing of the clerical office, but undoubtedly the clerical brethren said a version of the canonical hours. The office of the lay brothers is described, however, and this consisted of a series of paternosters, ranging from five to thirty, that substituted for the hours.(33) In like manner, for the anniversaries of the king, benefactors, and deceased brothers, priests said from one to three masses each, and lay brothers between fifty and one hundred and fifty paternosters.(34)
The Constitutions also discuss the process of becoming a Mercedarian. Section five deals with the reception of novices. In theory, these were to be initiated during the second day of the annual chapter meeting. Evidence suggests, however, that most such ceremonies were conducted before local commanders, and not at the general chapter. That a new constitution of 1304 required that commanders obtain the master's license prior to enrolling a novice indicates that up to that point they routinely initiated new members.(35) In fact, as we have already seen, Brother Bcrnat de Sanromà, by his commission as commander of Játiva in 1267, was explicitly permitted to receive two novices per year.(36)
No extant profession, on the other hand, reveals an entry at the annual meeting. Instead, these were executed before the commanders of Majorca (1234), Gerona (1269), Tortosa (1293), and Játiva (1293 and 1298 ).(37) Fragments of evidence, furthermore, indicate that novices usually entered the Mercedarian establishment closest to their own home. Thus, for example, Berenguer Pic, who became a Mercedarian at Játiva in 1298, was the son of Pere Pic of Játiva and the brother of one Joan, the owner of a local vineyard. Another Pere Pic, perhaps a kinsman, was a notary of Játiva in 1303.(38) Several brothers of the its Hostoles clan were associated with the Gerona house. Arnau was commander in 1254 and 1265; Berenguer resided there in 1293 and was its head between 1317 and 1325; Bernat belonged to the community in 1307; Pere was there in 1257; and Ramon was commander in 1279.(39) Two other of the Hostoles, Ferrer and Guillem, who do not seem to have been Mercedarians, witnessed a confraternal charter at Gerona in 1265.(40) On Majorca, Pere Capdebou of Barcelona, perhaps a crusader rewarded with a land grant on the island on January 10, 1234, became a Mercedarian before 1243 and was still a member of the Majorcan house on April 20, 1249. The future master, Arnau Rossinyol, was [68] first a brother at Castellón in 1306, where one Guillem Rossinyol would in 1309 endow the Order.(41) The Ricart brothers, Pere and Ramon, were the sons of a Valencian lawyer, and they joined the nearby community at Puig. Finally, the important de Bas clan, two of whose members served as preceptors of Perpignan, seems to have had roots in that city. A charter of 1268, witnessed by Master Guillem de Bas and Berenguer de Bas as preceptor, recorded the purchase by another Guillem de Bas and his wife of a tenement held there under Mercedarian lordship.(42)
If Mercedarians then tended to be recruited locally, to what extent were these local ties maintained in spite of efforts to sever them? The answer to this question requires more of an analysis of these communities than our fragmentary evidence would allow. The bits and pieces of what has survived, however, yield an impression of what was happening on the local level. Of the approximately five hundred Mercedarians who can be identified, over three-quarters appear too infrequently in the charters for us to have any insight into their careers. The activities of seventy-two brothers, however, can be traced for a period of a decade or more, and this information provides us with some measure of the relative stability of a thirteenth-century Mercedarian. The sample itself is biased in favor of those who held office -- fifty-eight to fourteen -- because important figures are more likely to receive notice in the documents. Of those who appear to have been without position, six were stable within a single community, seven are found in two different houses, and the other was a member of three communities. Mobility among commanders was greater. Only eight of the fifty-eight known superiors had a single residence. Of those who had, three - Joan de Llaés, Bernat de Tonyà, and Bernat de Corbera -- were the first commanders of their houses and seem to have held office until death. Two others, Pere Gualber at Vich and Guillem Bover at Bell-lloc, were longtime superiors of minor establishments. The overwhelming majority of commanders, on the other hand, lived or served at several houses. Berenguer de Bas, whose career is exceptionally well documented, resided at Castellón, Valencia, and Játiva, and commanded at Valencia, Gerona, Perpignan, and again at Gerona. Arnau de Gascó, one of the first priests known to have been a Mercedarian, appears at Valencia, Puig, Olivar, and Saragossa within a fourteen-year period. On the basis of this evidence, the stable Mercedarian would seem to have been exceptional; members could expect several transfers in the course of their careers. This surely shows an effort to control the danger of local ties.
[69] The picture of Mercedarian customs that emerges from this discussion is one that combines elements of the caritative and mendicant life. Communities were small, at first generally laic, and somewhat mobile. Residences were located either in the commercial quarter of towns (the marketplace at Gerona and Valencia, the port in Barcelona) or outside the walls, as in Toulouse. While Mercedarians ordinarily did not beg their sustenance,(43) the brothers were nonetheless products of an age that equated poverty with sanctity. Thus, residences were small, habits of rough wool, lives without ostentation. Like military and hospitaller brothers, their office of paternosters lacked sophistication or liturgical grandeur. The brethren's life in the world forced the Order to face problems of greed, violence, sex, and nepotism. In all of this, Merced seems to be very much part of the religious-social milieu of the thirteenth century.
Another characteristic that Merced shared with contemporaries was its recruitment of both lay and clerical brothers. Such combinations of ordained and secular brothers in a single order already had many precedents. Twelfth-century Cistercian monasteries were comprised of generally clerical monks and lay conversi; the military orders joined lay knights with chaplains. The Franciscans, despite their rapid clericalization, began with an important lay element. Among Merced's fellow caritative orders, the intermingling of laics and clerics was also common. Such mixed communities included the Trinitarians, the hospitallers of Aubrac, Roncesvalles, the Holy Spirit, and St. Anthony, and the myriad of local hospices, hospitals, and maisons-Dieu. In some communities -- like that of the Trinitarians, for example -- the clerics dominated, but in others, such as the military orders, lay brothers ruled. Among hospitallers, lines of distinction between clerics and laics, at least during the thirteenth century, tended to blur, in part because the attraction of the opera caritatis was to a specific work of mercy, not to a way of life. Thus, the service to the poor could be equally performed by lay or clerical brothers, or by both together.
Mercedarian lay brothers, despite their designation as laic, were not laymen. Bound by vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, they sought a state of perfection and were thus religious in the full sense of the term. The only important distinction between the laic and clerical brothers in the Mercedarian Order before 1317 is that the latter had been ordained as subdeacons, deacons, or priests, while the former had not. All were otherwise bound to the same communal life, to the same discipline, and, with the exception of purely sacerdotal functions, to the same work. In the thirteenth century, far [70] from being a subordinate or auxiliary group within the Order, lay brothers constituted the majority of its membership and held virtually all of its offices.(44)
In contrast, the position occupied by clerics during the thirteenth century was generally inconspicuous. Few brothers can be identified as such before 1250, and the priorate did not exist before 1255 or 1260. Thus, Merced was already thirty years old before its clergy emerged as a distinctive element. Apart from the prior, furthermore, few clerics held any position of authority during this period. Exceptions were the vicar-commanders of Puig (Guillem d'Isona, Guillem de Castellfollit, and Pere d'Alòs); Ramon Galard, who commanded Perpignan from 1271 to 1272; and Arnau de Gascó, who headed the houses of Valencia (1255) and Saragossa (1269).(45) In fact, the sole tangible indication we have that the clergy were in fact growing in numbers and importance is the provision in the Constitutions that gave clerics parity with the lay brothers in the organization and administration of the annual chapter.(46)
The Mercedarian Order, however, would partake of the tendency toward clericalization of religious movements that is apparent within the thirteenth-century Church. In the end, this resulted in the removal of lay elements from positions of authority in religious movements. This general phenomenon has yet to receive adequate study, but it does appear to reflect the development among the clergy of a caste mentality. Its practical effect was the clerics' attempt to bring all aspects of popular spirituality under proper clerical scrutiny and discipline. Within the Mercedarian Order, the process of clericalization became apparent early in the fourteenth century, but here, given this order's especially strong laic traditions, a prolonged and acrimonious struggle would preface the clerical triumph.
The battle between clerics and laics began as a rebellion led by the prior and his community at Barcelona. As we have already seen, after the death of Master Pere d'Amer in 1301, the prior-commander of Barcelona, Guillem d'Isona, refused to acknowledge the election of the new laic master, Arnau d'Amer, on the grounds that the electoral chapter had lacked his sanction. While Brother Guillem now disappears, presumably because he died, his supporters at Barcelona held a separate election, at which a priest named Pere Formiga was acclaimed master. When Brother Pere himself died, somctime between April and September 1302, a third election then chose another priest, named Ramon Albert. That this clerical master was generally unsuccessful in winning support outside of the Barcelona [71] community is clear from a number of sources. Brother Ramon, for example, never seems to have ventured out from his Barcelona base. It was from here that he launched his appeal for papal recognition on December 26, 1302. His continued residence here is attested by his subscription to a local charter signed on May 11, 1307.(47) On the other hand, the acta of the 1303 chapter show that the commanders of such important houses as Gerona, Tarragona, Saragossa, Valencia, and Puig were supporters of the lay master.(48) The only community to join with Barcelona at this time was that at Perpignan.(49)
Why did the brethren at Barcelona, contrary to tradition and against a majority of both lay and clerical commanders, refuse to acknowledge the authority of another lay master? In a general sense, their attitude is a reflection of the growing strength of the Mercedarian clergy. Their numbers and position in the Order were being advanced by several factors: the Order's continued acquisition of churches, demands from confraters and other patrons for liturgical services, a perhaps-deliberate attempt by clerics to recruit others who were destined for holy orders, and a seemingly diminished respect for the vocation of lay brother within the late medieval Church. Certainly the preponderance of clerics in the Barcelona community that is evident by 1302 made this a natural center of resistance to laic control.(50) The consequent clerical revolt, based upon the assumption of the superiority of this estate, seems to have had a dual rationale: a growing consciousness of a distinctive clerical identity, and the rivalry for power and position. Both forces can be documented during the sixteen-year duration of the battle; they are also apparent in the realignment of personnel that followed its resolution.
Ideologically, the Mercedarian clergy were asserting the inappropriateness of laic control over persons in holy orders. A direct parallel of this principle can be found in the Rule of the Hospitaller Order of the Holy Spirit, where it states: laymen cannot correct clerics.(51) The same sentiment was expressed in the new Mercedarian Constitutions of 1319, promulgated soon after the clerical victory. In establishing new procedures for the election of the master, ostensibly to avoid future double elections, the Constitutions made holy orders requisite not only for future masters, but also for those brothers who served as their electors. These were to "be of the sort who know and can freely ministrate and have care in spiritual and temporal matters."(52) The unspoken reality was that only clerics could possess such a dual jurisdiction.
The ultimate success that the clergy of Barcelona had in [72] forwarding their claims was due in large measure to the support of the papacy. The parties to the 1301/1302 elections themselves had invited such intervention through their separate appeals for papal confirmation. A ruling in the Mercedarian case was delayed until February 12, 1308, when the pontiff, Clement V, at last issued his judgment and verdict. This had a clear proclerical bias. The summary of the facts contained in the papal bull, for example, failed to notice that in 1301 the clerical dissidents comprised a small minority; that several clerics, led by the powerful vicar-commander of Puig, had endorsed the laic candidate; or that the legal issue underlying the double election was the prior's alleged right to convene an electoral chapter. Pope Clement, in fact, chose to ignore the merits of the cases presented by both parties and instead imposed a settlement justified only by the plenitude of papal power, and perhaps by a papal desire to weaken the laic Order's affiliation with the House of Barcelona. The verdict thus not only ignored, to the advantage of the clerics, the traditional role that lay brothers had played in this order, but also created a new regime that could only further exacerbate the rift between the two factions. Papal favoring of the clergy is seen in the contrasting treatment accorded the rival claimants to the mastership. Arnau d'Amer was simply dismissed from office, while Ramon Albert, praised for his "zeal of religion, moral purity of life, circumspect prudence and his other virtuous merits," was elevated to the priorate. Presumably because the time was not yet ripe for a clerical master, Clement V appointed to that office Brother Arnau Rossinyol, a lay brother of no known distinction and one who also merited none of the papal praise that had been accorded Brother Ramon. Finally, the pope sought to enhance the clerical position by formally dividing authority within the Order into two distinct spheres -- the master now being limited solely to supervision of temporalities, while the prior acquired absolute authority over all spiritual matters. In short, the principle that laymen cannot correct clerics became firmly established.(53)
Laic resistance to this new and imposed regime,(54) as well as ambiguities as to what constituted the precise boundaries between the master's and prior's new jurisdictions, prolonged the first phase of the conflict until 311. In that year, both parties submitted their differcnces to Archbishop Guillem of Tarragona and Bishop Ramon of Valencia for their arbitration.(55) The resulting agreement, which remaincd true to the spirit of the 1308 papal bull, so rigidly segregated the functions of the master and prior, and of their respective subordinates, that the clergy became a virtually autonomous unit within the [73] greater whole. For example, in mixed houses, commanders, whether they be cleric or laic themselves, could now rule only the lay brothers; the clerics were subject only to the mandates of the prior. Similarly, the lay master and his commanders could discipline lay brothers, but offending clerics could be punished only by the prior or local bishop. So again the clerical exemption from lay authority was reinforced, and, not surprisingly, this ruling received Pope Clement's prompt endorsement.(56)
To this clerical claim of independence the laics responded with an appeal to tradition and experience. In the midst of the original crisis, for example, the vicar of Puig, Brother Pere d'Alòs, deposed before a notary at Valencia that the master had always been a layman; the question of his spiritual jurisdiction, the vicar testified, was an irrelevant issue, since in the Mercedarian Order such authority had always resided in local bishops.(57) The argument from expedience was pursued by Jaume II in his letters of 1302 and 1306 to the pope. He emphasized that a lay master was necessary for an order that fought barbarians and handed out alms to captives. The pope, furthermore, was reminded of Merced's lay origin; of the long history of papal, royal, and popular support of its work; and of its own Rule, itself conferred by the papacy, which established the principle of election by the larger and wiser part. Since the clerics' candidate had the support of only "a small minority," the king requested that the papal verdict uphold tradition and the laic candidate.(58) A similar utilitarian argument was presented by the municipal council of Segorbe in its letter of May 11, 1303. Here the consuls argued that the redemption of captives required the use of arms and the commission of enormities of the sort not befitting clerics.(59)
Besides the principle of clerical autonomy, the issue of place, namely control of important office, also played a role in the conflict. Underlying this must have been a marked increase in the proportion of clerics joining the Order at the beginning of the fourteenth ccntury, which made them by 1317 an absolute majority of the brothers. Understandably, as their numbers grew they would seek to break the laic monopoly of office. At the schism's onset, most commanderies and the mastership were in firm laic control. Of the sixteen superiors present at the chapter of 1303, for example, only the commander of Olivar was identified specifically as a cleric; most if not all of the others were laic.(60) In contrast to this ratio, at the chapter of 1320 under the new clerical regime, only seven of the thirty-two commanders who subscribed to the acta were lay brothers.(61) By 1320, [74] therefore, the character of Merced's officeholders had changed radically, and this in turn was itself a product of the schism. Evidence for the clerics' desire for office can be seen in various edicts issued by Jaume II at the onset of the original schism. These were orders to royal officials to protect the properties of Brother Arnau d'Amer and his partisans from seizure and to prevent the alienation of any Mercedarian lands.(62) Thus, from the beginning, at least in Jaume's judgment, the laic hold over property was under challenge.(63) The 1311 document of arbitration itself betrays a concern with position and place. To calm the clamor for office, a freeze on the transfer of commanderies from one faction to another was imposed for the periods between sessions of the annual chapter. Thus, when vacancies occurred in the interim, the master would appoint the successor of a lay commander, and the prior that of a clerical commander. Lest either side try to alter the composition of any existing community to its own advantage, this agreement also divided the authority to transfer brothers equally between the master and the prior.(64)
The limitations on the alteration of the balance of power that were imposed in 1311 were effective only between sessions of the chapter general. At these annual meetings, however, commanderies could be reassigned, and the impression that emerges from King Jaume's correspondence with the Order during 1313 and 1314 is that, with a growing clerical majority, these were being redistributed to clerical commanders. Thus, on April 20, 1313, the king wrote to Master Arnau of his intelligence that the upcoming chapter intended to enact certain things that would cause great harm to the lay brothers, scandal throughout the Order, and a reduction in the alms collected for captives. The master was then reminded of the laics' traditional position within the Order and of the 1311 agreement that was meant to defend that position; violations of that pact, Jaume threatened, would be reported to the pope.(65) Perhaps to place some prcssure on the delegates, the king also requested Bishop Ramon of Valencia to attend this meeting at Puig and there to uphold the 1311 agreement, of which he was coauthor.(66)
Although the king's warnings to the chapter are annoyingly vague, the damage that he sought to prevent was surely the removal of additional laics from their commanderies. Appointments to this office were, after all, the principal recurring itcm on the chapter's agenda. That this was in fact the case is also indicated by records of lay commanders who resisted removal. One such case is that of Brother Joan d'Estella, the commander of Sarrión, who appealed to the king for assistance. On March 23, 1313, Jaume responded by [75] appointing Bishop Eximén of Saragossa as a mediator between the master and the commander; the prelate was instructed to maintain Brother Joan in his property (undoubtedly meaning his commandery) until the issue was settled.(67) In anothcr example, Master Arnau Rossinyol was ordered by Jaume II to cease action against the lay brother Ramon Postales, who seemingly had offended Brother Arnau through a vigorous defense of lay rights. In his lettcr, the king had to remind the master that lay brothers deserved to be treated as religious and honest persons.(68)
This royal effort to persuade the chapter to respect the position held by lay brothers and to halt the now-rapid clericalization of the Order's offices was futile. Jaume himself acknowledged on July 21, 1313, his failure to alter the outcome of the Puig chapter, held during the previous May, when he had again to command his officials to defend and maintain the lay brothers in their property and goods.(69) Then, on the next day, July 22, he rather curtly summoned both the master and the prior to court for the entire month of August "in order to protect against the scandal of dissension in your order and to reform the situation of your order." (70) That these leaders were also told to bring with them various documents -- including Merced's charters of foundation and endowment, its papal confirmations, and the 1311 agreement-- indicates that Jaume intended to make a final plea on behalf of the lay brothers and their traditional position within the Order.(71) This too failed, for as early as September 6 we see him again lodging a complaint with the master concerning the mistreatment of a lay brother, in this instance the removal of Brother Berenguer de Queralt from his command in the diocese of Valencia. During the next year, Jaume again wrote to the chapter in support of the lay cause and also asked the local bishop, Guillem of Lérida, to attend as a protector of the lay brothers, but already the royal tone is less forceful.(72) There is no indication that King Jaume bothered to try again in 1315 or 1316.
Consequently, when the last lay master, Arnau Rossinyol, died on May, 22, 1317, clerics already controlled a majority of the commanderies. Documents of 1317 show that these brothers commanded twenty-six houses;(73) those still in lay hands are more difficult to ascertain, but of the major houses, only Gerona still had a lay commander.(74) Thus, the electoral assembly that convened on July 12, composcd as it was of commanders and their companions, had a clerical majority. When these refused the laic demand that, according to tradition, only laic candidates be considered, the lay brothers refused to participate in the election and withdrew. In a complete reversal [76] of the double election of 1301, as we have seen, the clerics now exploited their new majority and elected their longtime leader, Brother Ramon Albert, as the Order's sixth master, while the laics, meeting apart, chose as their leader the only important lay commander to have survived the recent purge, Brother Berenguer d'Hostoles.(75) In light of the clerics' majority, calculated at 114 votes to 70 for the laics, Pope John XXII tendered a prompt decision to the appeals that both candidates had made to the Holy See. On the following November 17, Brother Ramon was declared to be master but, as in 1308, by papal appointment, and not for reason of his valid election.(76) As we have seen, Brother Ramon then moved quickly to consolidate his victory by barring, in the Constitutions of 1319, his new office to future laic candidates.(77) Thus the lay era of Mercedarian history was brought to a conclusion.
This overview of thirteenth-century Mercedarian life has pointed out some of its significant characteristics. The brothers wore habits of cheap cloth, lived in close proximity to secular society with its temptations of wealth and pleasure, travelled with some frequency, and quarrelled among themselves over the issue of laic-clerical equality. Communities were small and their religious office was simple and informal. All of this might set Mercedarians apart from the cloistered orders, but certainly not from the myriad of caritative, military, and mendicant communities that gave the thirteenth-century Church much of its color and diversity. With these, Mercedarians shared a profound respect for the virtue of poverty, a belief in the importance of serving Christians in need, and a religious vocation that demanded a life in or near the secular world. Consequently, Merced's constitutions are an amalgam of the discipline and institutional practices of the other orders, and original only in their particular configuration and application to the unique task of redemptionism. For the historian, the Brothers of Ransom then become an especially valuable exemplum of thirteenth-century religious life as it attempted the reconciliation of various internal conflicts: the maintenance of a stable religious discipline in a community of itinerants, the pursuit of simplicity and poverty amidst wealth and prosperity, and the balancing of the spontaneity of lay religious enthusiasm with the order demanded by a hierarchical church. The successes and failures of the Mercedarians, both of which we have now observed, in achieving working solutions to the problems posed by these diverse tendencies thus mirror the experience of the wider Church.
1. These are Pere and Ramon Ricart, who first appear in 1316 as members of the community at Puig. Their father, Berenguer Ricart, was a Valencian lawyer who in 1297 had been named by Jaume II to hear a suit between Puig and the heirs of a Mercedarian confrater: ACA, Monacales, 2676:246r-248v; Jaume II, Reg. Canc., 106:124v-125r.
2. The actual count of known members is: 1230-39 (7 brothers); 1240-49 (46); 1250-59 (38); 1260-69 (63); 1270-79 (67); 1280-89 (40); 1290-99 (60); 1300-09 (98); 1310-19 (248). The decline shown in membership during the 1280s is best explained, not in terms of falling numbers, but in the relatively small number of documents extant for this decade. For example, my calendar of Mercedarian charters for the 1270s contains seventy-eight items, in contrast to only forty-three for the following decade. The membership totals for the 1310s, on the other hand, should not be taken as proof of large gains for this period. Because of the intense conflicts of this era, there exist particularly full subscription lists for documents emanating from the 1317 electoral chapter.
4. ACA, Monacales, 2676:127r-128r; 2679:54r; AHN, Clero, carp.3194, no. 12.
5. On April 9, 1255, for example, Alexander IV told the faithful that Mercedarian brothers had cast off their secular desires and had given up their own property: Bullarium de Mercede, 6-7. Jaume II, in recapitulating Merced's history to Pope Boniface VIII on Januarv 4, 1302, testified that the first Mercedarians had sold their own goods to raise ransoms for captives: ACA, Cartas Reales, 1335.
6. Mercedarian houses at Gerona and Valencia were located in the marketplace; the house at Barcelona was at the port.
7. Diplomatari de Mallorca, 1: 321-22, no. 91; AHN, Clero, carp. 2900, no. 19.
8. ACA, Monacales, 2676:204r. See also the half of a vineyard that was turned over by Berenguer Pic in his profession of 1298: ibid., 2679: 160r.
11. AHN, Clero, carp. 2900, no. 19.
12. Constitutions, cap. 7. The Templar Rule permitted a tunic, scapular, pelisse, mantle, and cope, all of wool, in addition to linen breeches: Codex regularum, monasticarum et canonicarum, ed. Luke Holstein (1957-58 ed.; Augsburg, 1759), 6: 166, cap. 31.
13. Constitutions, caps. 8, 37.
15. Ibid., cap. 8. The restriction against growing beards was evidently designed to prevent a brother from assuming the guise of a secular person. A parallel prohibition against facial hair is found in the Trinitarian Rule, but it is applied to clerics only; lay brothers were permitted to sport modest beards: PL, 214.: 449. The latter also held true for the Teutonic Knights, who were warned against beards that were too short or too full: Indrikis Sterns, "Crime and Punishment among the Teutonic Knights," Speculum 57 (1982): 96. With regard to the license to dine outside the community, Mercedarian usage was more liberal than that of the more sedentary Hospitallers of the Holy Spirit, who punished such extramural dining with a three-day fast of bread and water, followed by a two-week banishment from the communal table: PL, 215:1142, cap. 15.
16. Constitutions, cap. 23. The Trinitarian Rule was more restrictivec in its complete ban upon the use of horses; only asses were allowed: PL, 214: 445. A similar prohibition against riding horses is found in the Second Rule of the Friars Minor (1223): Saint François d'Assise: Documents, Écrits et Premières Biographies, ed. and trans. Théophile Desbonnets and Damien Vorreux (Paris, 1968), 90, cap. 3.
18. Ibid., cap. 17. The Rule of the Temple expresses the danger of feminine associations in these words: "We believe that it is excessively dangerous for any religious person to look upon the face of a woman; likewise, let no brother dare to kiss either a widow, or a virgin, or a mother, or a sister, or a female friend, or any female figure. Let Christ's Militia, therefore, flee feminine kisses, through which men are frequently brought to the point of mortal danger, so that with a pure conscience and a safe life it may be converted in the sight of the Lord. Amen": Codex regularum, 2:440, cap. 72.
19. Constitutions, cap. 32. The Mercedarian punishment for fornication was less severe than that meted out by the Rules of Calatrava and of the Holy Spirit. The former prescribed a year's penance of fasting and weekly whippings; the latter mandated a year's imprisonment, fasting, and total abstinence from meat and wine. For Calatrava, see Joseph O'Callaghan, "The Affiliation of the Order of Calatrava with the Order of Cîteaux," Analecta sacri ordinis cisterciensis 16 (1960): 21; for the Order of the Holy Spirit, see PL, 215:1144, cap. 31.
21. Ibid., cap. 28. Various statutes of the Hospitallers of St. John forbade the playing of chess in the infirmary and of dice at all times, although no specific penalty for infractions was mandated: Rule of the Hospitallers, 64 ("Statutes of 1262," cap. 39), 78 ("Statutes Of 1270," cap. 21).
24. Ibid., cap. 31. In the Order of the Holy Spirit, such breaking of the Order's confidentiality meant for the offender a penance of seven days that included a regimen of only bread and water on Wednesday and Saturday: PL, 215:1153, cap. 91.
27. Ibid., caps. 41, 11. This is surely one sign of the growth of the clerical corps.
30. Constitutions, caps. 34, 40.
33. Ibid., cap. 49. For non-ordained brothers of the Holy Spirit, whose duties prevented regular attendance in church, 133 paternosters constituted their daily devotion: PL, 215:1144, cap. 33. Knights of Santiago were to say twenty-three paternosters daily for various intentions and another sixty-six in lieu of the canonical hours: Rule of St. James, 88, cap. 4.; 90, cap. 6. Cf. Saint François, Rule Of 1223, 90, cap. 3.
34. Constitutions, caps. 47, 48. These are the same as those said by the Knights of Santiago: Rule of St. James, 114- 15, cap. 36. The Hospitallers of St. John said 150 paternosters for deceased brethren, and Templars 100: Rule of the Hospitallers, 26, cap. 14; Codex regularum, 2: 433, cap. 3.
35. ACA, Monacales, Códice varia II, 53v. The impediments to entrance specified in the Mercedarian Constitutions are typical. The Rule of the Holy Spirit lists these barriers to membership: membership in another order, prior vows, and unpaid debts: PL, 215:1149-50, cap. 70.
36. ACA, Monacales, A Rollo 1, ORM, no. 23.
37. Ibid., 2679:38r (1234.); ibid., 2676:425v-426r (1269); AHN, Clero, carp. 2900, no. 19 (1293); ACA, Monacales, 2676:204r (1293); ibid., 2676: 160r (1298).
38. ACA, Monacales, 2676:203v. A Pere Pic, for example, was a prominent member of postconquest Valencian society: Repartiment de València, 252, no. 2691; 259, no. 2767.
39. For Brother Arnau, see ACA, Monacales, A Rollo 1, ORM, no. 11; and BC, Arxiu, no. 16l3. For Berenguer, see ACA, Monacales, 2676: 167r-169r; 2679:70v. For Bernat, see ibid., 2676:172r-173r. For Pere, see ibid., 157r. For Ramon, see BC Arxiu, no. 1662.
40. ACA, Monacales, A Rollo 1, ORM, no. 21.
41. Ibid., 2679:66v, 43rv; Diplomatari de Mallorca, 1: 190-92, no.9.
42. ACA, Monacales, 2676: 55rv.
43. The sole exception seems to be the permission granted by Jaume II in 1310 for the brothers of Barcelona to beg food and alms in the city's streets: ACA, Jaume II, Reg. Canc., 144:234r.
44. For a discussion of religious status, see A. Gutiérrez, "Istituti di perfezione cristiana," DIP, 5: 75-106.
45. For Guillem d'Isona, see ACA, Monacales, 2676:157v-158v (October 10, 1268); for Guillem de Castellfollit, see ibid., 2676:131r-32v (July 2, 1271); for Pere d'Alòs, see ibid., 2679:61r (August 8, 1298); for Ramon Galard, see ibid., 2676: 70r (June 7, 1272); and for Arnau de Gascó, see ibid., 2663:206 (March 16, 1255), A Rollo 1, ORM, no. 25 (May, 5, 1269).
47. Only brothers of the Barcelona house witnessed the document appointing procurators to the papal court: ACA, Monacales, 2679: 61r, 67rv.
48. AHN, Clero, carp. 3194, no. 8.
49. The adherence of the Perpignan house to Ramon Albert's cause can be inferred from the appointment of its commander, Bernat Girald, as his procurator in the papal appeal: ACA, Monacales, 2679:65r.
50. Three subscription lists of the early fourteenth century illustrate the clerical majority here. One, of December 19, 1300, shows at least three clerics (ACA, Monacales, 2676:62r-63v); another of December 26, 1302, has eight of nine brothers in orders (ibid., 2679: 65r); and a third of May 11, 1307, lists seven of nine brothers as clerics (ibid., 67rv).
51. PL, 2I5: 1143, cap. 26. For a discussion of the rift between clerics and laymen in general, see Caroline Walker Bynum, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley, 1982), 9ff.; and Chrysogonus Waddell, "The Reform of the Liturgy from a Renaissance Perspective," in Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, ed. Robert L. Benson and Giles Constable (Cambridge, Mass., 1982), 95-97.
52. ACA, Monacales, 2679:97v-98r.
53. Bullarium de Mercede, 35-37.
54. For example, the still-lay-dominated chapter on December 13, 1308, refused to acknowledge the new master's authority, citing a technical defect in the papal bull announcing his appointment: ACA, Monacales, 2676: 66v- 67r.
55. For the arbitration's text, see ACA, Monacales, 2676: 309r- 311v.
56. Papal confirmation for the agreement came on March 1, 1312: ACA, Monacales, 2679: 209r.
57. Merced never had the right of exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. For Brother Pere's statement, see ACA, Monacales, 2679:64v.
58. King Jaume also argued that the laic tradition was valid for Merced because a similar custom was followed by the Orders of the Hospital, Temple, Calatrava, and Santiago, whose Rules, the monarch affirmed, were like the Mercedarian: ACA, Cartas Reales, 1335. See also his letter to Clement V of August 20, 1306: ibid., Jaume II, Reg. Canc., 335: 321r.
60. AHN, Clero, carp. 3194, no. 8.
61. ACA, Monacales, 2676:334r-336r.
62. See the royal letters of January 24, 1303, and January 24, 1304.: ACA, Monacales, 2663: 35-36; ibid., Jaume II, Reg. Canc., 146: 960; 131: 38rv, 37rv.
63. The king issued no parallel protection for clerically held property, but did on March 30, 1311 condemn clerical alienations from the patrimony of Barcelona: ACA, Jaume II, Reg. Canc., 146:96v.
64. ACA, Monacales, 2676:309r-311v, caps. 9, 10.
73. These were those of Puig, Castellón de
Ampurias, Valencia, Pamplona, Tortosa, Monflorite, Agramunt, Lérida,
Aurignac, Majorca, Montpellier, Toledo, Fuente Dueñas, Burgos, Logroño,
Dalmaçan, Guadalajara, Huesca, Elche, Olivar, Tarragona, Arguines,
Perpignan, Barcelona, Teruel, and the diocese of Valencia. See the lists
contained in ACA, Monacales,
2679: 71v-72v and 73r-74v.
74. Vich, San Pedro de los Griegos, Daroca, and Calatayud also appear to have had laic commanders: ACA, Monacales, 2676: 319r- 324v.