Assessing Consent through External Signs. Three Cases of Madness, Repulsion and Love before the Tribunal of the Roman Rota (1579-1619)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2017.014

Keywords:

Justice, Marriage, Religious Profession, Canonical Law, Confession, Nobility, Medicine

Abstract


How can it be assumed that an individual is incapable of giving consent or does not give it freely? This article analyses three cases handled by the Tribunal of the Roman Rota between 1579 and 1619: the case of a nun from the monastery of Odivelas (Portugal) suffering from mental disorders, and two demands for nullification of marriage based on the grounds of duress exerted by immediate family; the case of Doña Antonia Portocarrero y Cárdenas, of the diocese of Seville, married to Don Felipe de Guzman y Aragón; and the case of Manuel de Meneses and Branca de Baredo of the diocese of Coimbra. The testimonies on file relate the words and actions of the main parties involved, revealing affects and intentions. Auditors embarked on a complex operation to translate this information into the language of the law, in the light of legal experts’ theories on individual responsibility and the nature of violence or constraints that may alter freedom of consent. Yet this also encompassed social practices and representations in which individual behaviours exist. This study illustrates the contrast between judges’ know-how in assessing the absence of consent regarding marriage or religious profession and the fact that these notions were not taken into account regarding consent to baptism.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Alfieri, Fernanda (2010) Nella camera degli sposi. Tomás Sánchez, il matrimonio, la sessualità (secoli XVI-XVIII). Il Mulino, Bologna.

Balde de Ubaldis (1615) In Sextum Codicis Librum Commentaria. Haeredes Georgii Varisci, Venice.

Benítez Sánchez-Blanco, Rafael (2001) Heroicas decisiones. La Monarquía Católica y los moriscos valencianos. Institucio Alfons el Magnanim, Diputacion de Valencia, Valencia.

Bernard, Jean (1980) ?Le décret Tametsi du Concile de Trente: triomphe du consensualisme matrimonial ou l'institution de la forme solennelle du mariage". Revue de droit canonique, 30: 209-233.

Boari, Marco (1983) Qui venit contra iura. Il furiosus nella criminalistia dei secoli XV e XVI. Giuffré, Milano.

Bordoni, Francesco (1665) ?Tractatus de professione regulari". Operum tomus Quintus, quo continetur Praxis Criminalis et Tractatus de professione regulari. Apud Ioannis-Antonii Huguetan et Marci-Antonii Ravaud, Lyon.

Buratto, Matteo (1660) Decisiones cum annotationibus eruditissimis D. Ioan Francisci Ferentilii, t. 1. Sumptibus Ioannis-Antonii Huguetan et Marci-Antonii Ravaud, Lyon.

Cabreros Avenda-o, Antonio (1634) Methodica delineatio de Metu omnibus tam Iuris quam Theologiae Professoribus utiliter praescripta, et ad prime necessaria. Apud Franciscum Martinez, Madrid.

Carrera, Elena (2010a) "Madness and Melancholy in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-century Spain: new evidence, new approaches". Bulletin of Spanish Studies: Hispanic Studies and Research on Spain, Portugal and Latin America, 87, 8: 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2010.530832

Carrera, Elena (2010b) "Understanding Mental Disturbance in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-century Spain: medical approaches". Bulletin of Spanish Studies: Hispanic Studies and Research on Spain, Portugal and Latin America, 87, 8: 105-136. https://doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2010.530837

Cazzetta, Giovanni (1999) Praesumitur seducta. Onestà e consenso femminile nella cultura giuridica moderna. Giuffrè, Milano.

Chiffoleau, Jacques (2006) « "Ecclesia de occultis non iudicat". L'Eglise, le secret, l'occulte au XVe siècle». Micrologus. Natura, scienze e società medievali, 14: 359-481.

Cristellon, Cecilia (2010) La carità e l'eros: Il matrimonio, la Chiesa, I suoi guidici nella Venezia del Rinascimento (1420-1545). Il Mulino, Bologna (english translation, 2017: Marriage, the Church and Its Judges in Renaissance Venice, 1420-1545. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Dekker, Rudolf, (editor) (2002) Egodocuments and History: Autobiographical Writing in its Social Context since the Middle Ages. Verloren, Hilversum.

Diefendorf, Barbara (1996) «"Give us back our children". Patriarchal Authority and Parental Consent to Religious Vocations in Early Counter-Reformation France». Journal of Modern History, 68, 2: 265-307. https://doi.org/10.1086/600767

Fantappiè, Carlo (2008) Chiesa e modernità giuridica, t. I, L'edificazione del sistema canonistico (1563-1903). Giuffrè, Milano. PMCid:PMC2631994

Feci, Simona (2005) ?Cause matrimoniali nella documentazione del tribunale della Sacra Romana Rota (secolo XVII)". Annali dell'Istituto storico-germanico in Trento, XXXI: 189-224.

Flaiani, Enrico (2009) Sacra Rota Romana. Processus Actorum, Indice 1247/1, buste 1-100. Archivio Vaticano, Città del Vaticano.

Fosi, Irene (2011) Papal Justice: Subjects and Courts in the Papal State 1500-1700. Catholic University of America Press, Washington D.C.

Foucault, Michel (1972) Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique. Gallimard, Paris.

Harrington, Joel F. (1995) Reordering Marriage and Society in Reformation Germany. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Hoberg, Herman (1994) Inventario del Archivio della Sacra Rota Romana (sec. XIV-XIX) a cura di Josef Metzler. Archivio Vaticano, Città del Vaticano. PMCid:PMC483663

Lavenia, Vincenzo (2003) ?Martin de Azpilcueta (1492-1586), un profilo". Archivio italiano per la storia della pietà, 16: 15-144.

Lopez Poza, Sagrario (2006) Amentes, dementes, stulti (representaciones de los privados de razon en el siglo de Oro), Follia, Follie. Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Alinea Editrice, Firenze.

Ludovisi, Alessandro (1622) Sacrae Rotae Romanae decisiones coram Alexandro Ludovisio nunc Sanctissimo Domino Nostro Gregorio XV. Typographia Reverendae Camerae Apostolicae, Rome.

Madunic, Domagoi (2017) ?Conversion under the Threat of Arms: Converts and Renegades during the War for Crete (1645-1669)". In Conversion and Islam in the Early Modern Mediterranean World: The Lure of the Other, edited by Norton, Claire. Routledge, London: 30-49.

Marchetto, Giuliano (2001) «"Iustus est metus mortis et cruciatus corporis". Il matrimonium meticulosum in un consilium di Bartolomeo Cippola (ca. 1420-1475)». In Matrimoni in dubbio, unioni controverse e nozze clandestine in Italia dal XIV al XVIII secolo, edited by Seidel Menchi, Silvana, and Quaglioni, Diego, Il Mulino, Bologna: 247-278.

Marchetto, Giuliano (2006) "Il volto terribile del padre. "Metus reverentialis" e matrimonio nell'opera di Tomas Sánchez". In I tribunali del matrimonio, secoli XV-XVIII, edited by Seidel Menchi, Silvana and Quaglioni, Diego. Il Mulino, Bologna: 269-288.

Marmursztejn, Elsa (2016) Le Baptême forcé des enfants juifs: question scolastique, enjeu politique, échos contemporains. Les Belles Lettres, Paris.

Martin de Azpilcueta Navarro (1600) Consiliorum et responsorum libri quinque, juxta quinque libros et titulos Decretalium distincti. Apud Johannem Guerilium, Venice.

Miranda, Luis (1612) Manuale Praelatorum Regularium, primus tomus. Apud Bartholomaeum Zannettum, Rome.

Mogollón, Baltasar (1600) Tractatus de his quae vi, metusve causa fiunt. Apud Franciscum Rodriguez, Seville.

Nirenberg, David (2014) Neighboring Faiths. Christianity, Islam and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226169095.001.0001

Noonan, John T. Jr. (1972) Power to dissolve: Lawyers and Marriage in the Courts of the Roman Curia. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674183018

Paiva, José Pedro (2010) ?I vescovi portoghesi e il battesimo forzato degli Ebrei nel 1497". Rivista di Storia del Cristianesimo, 1: 11-22.

Pastore, Alessandro and Rossi, Giovanni [editors] (2008) Paolo Zacchia: alle origine della medicina legale (1584-1659). Franco Angeli, Milano.

Poutrin, Isabelle (2012) Convertir les musulmans. Espagne, 1491-1609. Puf, Paris.

Poutrin, Isabelle and Tallon, Alain [editors] (2015) Les expulsions de minorités religieuses dans l'Europe latine (XIIIe – XVIIe s.). Bière, Pompignac: 45-67.

Prodi, Paolo (2001) Una storia della giustizia: dal pluralismo dei fori al moderno dualismo tra conscienza e diritto. Il Mulino, Bologna.

Roger, Alexandra (2013) ?Contester l'autorité parentale: les vocations religieuses forcées au XVIIIe siècle en France". Annales de démographie historique, 1, 125 : 43-67 https://doi.org/10.3917/adh.125.0043

Roullet, Antoine (2015) Corps et pénitence. Les carmélites déchaussées espagnoles (ca. 1560-ca. 1640). Casa de Velázquez, Madrid.

Sánchez, Tomás (1602) Disputationum de sancto matrimonio. Apud Iosephum Pavonem, Genova.

Schutte, Anne Jacobson (2011) By Fear and Force. Taking and Breaking Vows in Early Modern Europe. Cornell University Press, New York. https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9780801449772.001.0001

Seidel Menchi, Silvana, Quaglioni, Diego, [editors] (2000) Conjugi nemici: La separazione in Italia dal XII al XVIII secolo. Il Mulino, Bologna.

Turrini, Myriam (1991) La coscienza e le leggi: Morale e diritto nei testi per la confessione della prima Età moderna. Il Mulino, Bologna.

Vallar, Sandrine (2016) Folie et droit romain - Quelques observations, Criminocorpus. Folie et justice de l'Antiquité à l'époque contemporaine. http://criminocorpus.revues.org/3146 [accessed 16/december/2016].

Zacchia, Paulo (1621) Questionum medico-legalium tomus primus. Anisson & Joannis Posuel, Lyon.

Published

2017-12-30

How to Cite

Poutrin, I. (2017). Assessing Consent through External Signs. Three Cases of Madness, Repulsion and Love before the Tribunal of the Roman Rota (1579-1619). Culture &Amp; History Digital Journal, 6(2), e014. https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2017.014

Issue

Section

Dossier