Season 1, Episode 165

Joan tells the Bishop of Lleida that he still owes more money to the Crown for recent tithes and that he needs to keep paying Johan de Muntros.

Episode 165

Today’s Document

Subject: the new tithes authorized by the Pope for church institutions to pay the Crown
Date: June 7, 1387
Day of the Week: Friday
Language: Catalan
Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R1972 f121r
Link to PARES
Place: Barcelona
Sender: Joan
Recipients: Bishop of Lleida

Sourcing: the creator of this document, as a manifestation of the corporate monarchy, brings the full weight of the state apparatus toward getting compliance in the collection of this money from the bishop; the recipient, perhaps of lower status compared to other ecclesiastical leaders in the realm, likely did not feel he could resist this new financial imposition
Contextualization: in the fourteenth century, tithes knowns as ‘decimas’ were paid to the state by various ecclesiastical institutions within the realm¹

Corroboration: the thread of Johan de Muntros and the Pope’s authorization of this new tithe payment from ecclesiastical institutions to the royal treasury has been discussed in the document examined in Episode 90, Episode 137, Episode 138, Episode 139, and Episode 149; a corroboration of these documents would involve tracing the development of this new form of revenue for the Crown and noting any problems or obstacles at different stages of its implementation
Close-Reading: nothing in the word choices of this document suggests that the king is accusing the bishop of delinquency or an intentional refusal to pay; the document reads as a simple record-keeping measure

This document positions the bishop as a debtor to the king.
The document increases the power of Johan de Muntros over the revenue streams heading to the royal treasury.

Does the fact of this partial payment indicate that the Bishop of Lleida was having trouble coming up with the money for the new tithe?
How did this new tithe strain the relationship between ecclesiastical institutions and the state?
Were there any subtleties in this document that would have caused offense to the bishop?
Did Johan de Muntros come across to the Bishop of Lleida as a responsible and respectable representative of the king?

I gave an initial transcription by Gemini to Claude for a reconciliation. Claude then produced a translation with footnotes.

VanLandingham, Marta. Transforming the State: King, Court and Political Culture in the Realms of Aragon (1213-1387). Brill, 2002.

Marta VanLandingham, Transforming the State: King, Court and Political Culture in the Realms of Aragon (1213-1387), (Brill, 2002), 122. ↩