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Rural courts, notaries and credit in the county of Empúries, 1290–1348

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2014

XAVIER SOLDEVILA I TEMPORAL
XAVIER SOLDEVILA I TEMPORAL*
Affiliation:
Centre for Research in Rural History, University of Girona.
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Abstract

This article studies the role performed by local jurisdictional courts in private credit relations in medieval Catalonia. These courts and their officers were subject to the control of local feudal lords. The courts acted as a guarantor of credit contracts agreed before them in the form of ‘court obligations’, and also carried out procedures related to the enforcement of outstanding debts: prorogations; seizures and auction of goods; and imprisonment. The study focuses on the plain of the Lower Ter, on the northeast Catalan coast. It concludes that although the jurisdictional framework provided by the courts involved a number of different great lords, including the king himself, the juridical mechanisms and collaboration between different courts functioned well enough to sustain a dynamic, complex and widespread credit system.

Tribunaux ruraux, notaires et crédit dans le comté catalan d'empúries, 1290–1348

Cet article étudie le rôle joué par les tribunaux de juridiction locale dans les affaires de crédit privé en Catalogne médiévale. Ces tribunaux et leurs officiers étaient placés sous le contrôle des seigneurs féodaux locaux. Ils se portaient garants des contrats de crédit passés devant eux sous forme d’ «obligations judiciaires». Ils veillaient également aux procédures relatives à l'exécution des créances: prorogations; saisies et ventes de biens, emprisonnement. La recherche concerne la plaine de la basse vallée du Ter, sur la côte catalane, au nord-est. En conclusion, même si la législation touchant ces tribunaux impliquait l'intervention d'un certain nombre de grands seigneurs, y compris celle du roi, les mécanismes juridiques et la collaboration entre les différents tribunaux fonctionnèrent bien, au point même de soutenir un système de crédit dynamique, complexe et largement répandu.

Ländliche gerichte, notariate und kredit in der grafschaft empúries, 1290–1348

Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Rolle, die örtliche Gerichte in privaten Kreditbeziehungen im mittelalterlichen Katalonien spielten. Diese Gerichte und ihre Beamten waren der Kontrolle durch örtliche Feudalherren unterworfen. Die Gerichte dienten als Garant für Kreditverträge, die dort in Form von ‚Gerichtsobligationen’ abgeschlossen worden waren, und führten auch die Verfahren im Zusammenhang mit der Eintreibung ausstehender Schulden durch: von der Vertagung über die Beschlagnahme und Versteigerung von Hab und Gut bis hin zur Inhaftierung. Die Untersuchung, die sich besonders auf die Ebene des unteren Ter an der nordöstlichen Küste Kataloniens richtet, kommt zu folgendem Ergebnis. Obwohl der juristische Rahmen, den die Gerichte boten, auch verschiedene große Grundherren, und sogar den Königs selbst, mit einbezog, funktionierten die juristischen Mechanismen und die Zusammenarbeit zwischen den verschiedenen Gerichten gut genug, um ein dynamisches, komplexes und weitreichendes Kreditsystem aufrechtzuerhalten.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 29 , Issue 1: SPECIAL ISSUE: LAW COURTS, CONTRACTS AND RURAL SOCIETY IN EUROPE 1200–1600. , May 2014 , pp. 83 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

ENDNOTES

1 ‘…for that reason justice disappears and is lost for those who demand and ought to have it, and our jurisdiction is less feared and held in contempt.’ These Catalan words come from a letter sent by the bishop of Girona to his officers of La Bisbal asking them to improve judicial procedures concerning unpaid debts: Arxiu Diocesà de Girona (hereafter ADG), Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (14-II-1346).

2 Among recent works on medieval credit particular mention should be made of the books of Marsilla, Juan Vicente García, Vivir a crédito en la Valencia medieval (Valencia, 2002)Google Scholar and Sánchez Martínez, Manuel, El món del credit a la Barcelona medieval (Barcelona, 2007)Google Scholar. For the region of Girona there are very interesting sections on credit in Guilléré, Christian, Girona al segle XIV (Barcelona, 1993)Google Scholar. On Jewish credit, see Tov Assis, Yom, Jewish economy in the medieval crown of Aragon, 1213–1327. Money and power (Leiden, 1997)Google Scholar.

3 Sobrequés, Santiago, Els barons de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1980)Google Scholar.

4 Thus, lords issued prohibitions on movement into the lands of their rivals, which appear to have been particularly damaging. Pernicious effects were also brought about by uncertainty in the application of feudal rights over people or villages whose legal limits and geographical boundaries were frequently uncertain. Such rivalries explain the existence of frequent truces among the inhabitants of all these localities. Thus, since in June 1341 there had been struggles in Bellcaire between the people of this village and inhabitants of Ullà and Torroella de Montgrí, royal officers of Torroella de Montgri and county officers of Bellcaire forced people of all these places to lay down a fortnight's truce that was extended to the county villages of Verges, La Tallada, Albons and Empúries: Arxiu Històric de Gerona (hereafter AHG), Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 567 (24-VI-1341). Also, in 1344, people from Rupià, Parlavà and Ultramort assembled ‘as usual’, blowing the horn at the entrance of the castle of Rupià and tolling the bells in the squares of Parlavà and Ultramort, in order to choose syndics to negotiate an agreement among the rival villages of the county: AHG, Notarial, Rupià, vol. 472 (24-V-1344).

5 Epstein, S. R., Freedom and growth: the rise of states and markets in Europe, 1300–1750 (London, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, chapter 3.

6 Josep Maria Pons Guri, ‘Compendi sobre els drets dels castells termenats (segles XIII–XV)’, in Recull d'estudis d'història jurídica catalana, 4 vols. (Barcelona, 1989), III, 340–52.

7 See Rius, José Maria Font, Cartas de población y franquicia de Cataluña, 2 vols. (Madrid and Barcelona, 1983)Google Scholar, II, 258–61, for the area covered by this article. Such franchises usually gave extra securities to the inhabitants. For example, the franchises of the town of Palamós – not far from the Lower Ter plain – granted to the people of this town that all procedures issued by any court against them because of unpaid debts had to be preceded by a new term issued by the local court: Font Rius, Cartas de población, I, 497. When it is possible to identify the appointment of a judge, the lordly origin of his power is always clearly stated. It was one of the two major lords of Gualta who appointed the judge of this small village: AHG, Notarial, Resta del districte de La Bisbal, vol. 1 (18-V-1344); and a jurist was appointed judge of Torroella de Montgrí by showing a royal letter: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (9-II-1345).

8 A notarial book of the years 1342 and 1345 – AHG, Notarial, Resta del districte de La Bisbal, vol. 1 – ascribed to Palau sa Tor contains documents written up in Gualta (19-V-1344), Sant Feliu de Buada (7-VIII-1344), Torrent (20-IX-1344), Ullà (14-X-1344), Peratallada (31-X-1344), Esclanyà (November 1344), Palau sa Tor (16-VIII-1345) and Pals (3-X-1345). Some of these seem to have been recorded in the open air, such as that signed ‘beside the mill of Cascasolls’ (20-IX-1344).

9 See, for example, the case of Bonanat de Sant Joan, identified in the same years at different villages such as La Tallada; AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 564, separated sheet (about 1330); Torroella de Montgrí (30-III-1328); Ullà (16-V-1329); Sant Iscle (29-IX-1329); Fontanilles (6-XI-1329); and Albons (15-VI-1330).

10 In the other instances, criminal jurisdiction belonged to the count of Empúries: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (9-I-1345).

11 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U7 (19-III-1344).

12 Certainly the Usatges of Barcelona gave a certain pre-eminence to the king and his officers, but only in relation to affairs concerning feudal vassals that, in fact, were the supreme manifestation of feudal rather than public power: Rovira, Josep ed., Usatges de Barcelona i Commemoracions de Pere Albert (Barcelona, 1933)Google Scholar.

13 Jurisdiction over Gualta, for example, was for many years subject to litigation until a definitive sentence of 1314: Arxiu Històric Municipal de Torroella de Montgrí, parchments, number 4 (22-VI-1314).

14 Sometimes bailiffs were also helped by their ‘lieutenants’, as will be seen later in the article.

15 For example, see Torroella de Montgrí: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569, for the appointment of a sagio (19-IV-1345) and of a gaoler (25-V-1346), among others. It is not always clear which of these officers assumed the responsibility for each court procedure and why. In the court book of Torroella de Montgrí for the years 1344 to 1346, for example, most procedures – 472 – were undertaken simply by the gaolers, compared with 273 assumed by the bailiff and only 72 ordered directly by the local judge.

16 In 1344 in the court book of Torroella de Montgrí it was recorded that some jewels were delivered to the bailiff as security for a huge debt – 7000 sous of a dowry – but it was stated that this was done in the presence of the local notary: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (30-III-1344).

17 Just a few examples will be enough to illustrate such pre-eminence. Among 873 notices in the notarial book of Torroella de Montgrí of the years 1325–1326, 587 (67 per cent) directly concerned credit affairs; the same can be said for 231 (62 per cent) of the 373 notices written in the notarial book of Peratallada of the years 1332 and 1333; and for 282 (56 per cent) of the 504 recorded in the book of Ullà in the years 1344–1346. Notices about credit exceed 85 per cent in the two court books of Torroella de Montgrí.

18 Several of these records are published in Oliver, Jaume de Puig i and Planagumà, Josep Maria Marquès i, Lletres del bisbe de Girona. Segle XIV, vol. I (n. 1–620) (Barcelona, 2007)Google Scholar.

19 Soldevila, Xavier, Crèdit i endeutament al comtat d'Empúries (1330–1335) (Girona, 2008)Google Scholar, chapter 3, for the range of credit contracts.

20 Soldevila, Crèdit i endeutament, 103.

21 The currency used in this locality was that based on 1 pound (lliura) equivalent to 20 shillings (sous), with 1 shilling equivalent to 12 pennies (diners). The daily wage of a harvester was given in 1350 – at a time of high wages, after the Black Death – as 2 sous: ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U16 (25-V-1350).

22 AHG, Notarial, Ullà, vol. 170 (6 and 8-XI-1340). It is also possible to identify such obligations in an indirect way, as when a man from Mallorca commanded an inhabitant of Torroella de Montgrí to get a debt of 84 sous in his name recorded in the local court book: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 714 (7-X-1319).

23 La Bisbal was a chief episcopal town, as its name clearly suggests, but lay outside the plain of the Lower Ter.

24 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U6 (20-XI-1343). For the ‘penalty of the third’, see later in the article.

25 AHG, Notarial, Ullà, vol. 170 (31-VII-1341).

26 AHG, Notarial, Ullà, vol. 167 (22-IV-1341) and vol. 567 (22-IV-1341). We can also identify this practice in other localities as is shown by an agreement granted by a Jew of Girona to a man of Ullà who was absolved from his guarantee of a debt contracted in 1336 before a notary of Girona and with an obligation of the same day before the court of the veguer of that city: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (4-I-1345).

27 So far it has been impossible to match up a surviving ‘charter of debts’ with its original note in the notarial books since only charters related to rights over possessions, rents or people have survived. Thus, a purchase of land in La Tallada in the year 1312 is recorded both in a notarial book of Torroella de Montgrí and in a separate parchment: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 2 (7-II-1311) and Arxiu Històric Comarcal del Baix Empordà, parchments, Ullà (7-II-1311).

28 Soldevila, Crèdit i endeutament, 171–2.

29 An inventory dated 1356 of the goods belonging to the orphans of a Jewish moneylender of Torroella de Montgrí included 38 unpaid credit documents recorded between 1327 and 1342. It is worth remarking that five of these debts were in fact court obligations ‘written in public form’, that is to say, obligations with parallel notarial contracts: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 574 (1356).

30 On this point it is perhaps significant that the average number of obligations that can be matched with a parallel notary document increases up to 64 per cent when the creditors were Jewish moneylenders who possibly needed extra juridical protection: Soldevila, Xavier, La comunitat jueva de Torroella de Montgrí (Torroella de Montgrí, 2000), 62Google Scholar.

31 Josep Maria Pons Guri, ‘Taxacions dels salaris de notaris i escrivans en jurisdiccions baronals de les terres gironines (Palafrugell, Bàscara, Caldes de Malavella, Llagostera, Cassà de la Selva i Vescomtat de Cabrera)’, in Recull d'estudis d'història jurídica catalana, I, 95–159. These court fees were included in feudal rents and as such they were managed by the lords.

32 A very similar situation for medieval Valencia is described in García Marsilla, Vivir a crédito, 76–83. The impression that for small debts people preferred to avoid the notarial office is confirmed by some inventories of humble families, such as that of a woman of the village of Sant Feliu de Buada in which were recorded six small debts owed to her – of 12, 6, 50, 8, 21 and 9 sous – but all of them ‘without documents’: AHG, Notarial, Resta del districte de La Bisbal, vol. 1 (22-VII-1344).

33 At the moment our knowledge of the exact procedures of each court of the zone remains limited, basically because of the small number of court books available.

34 Soldevila, La comunitat jueva, 74; Soldevila, Crèdit i endeutament, 116–117, and Gómez, Maria Dolors Mercader, L'aljama jueva de la Bisbal d'Empordà abans de la Pesta Negre. Els ‘Libri Judeorum’ del segle XIV (Girona, 1999), 53–4Google Scholar.

35 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 564 (4-VII-1331), vol. 569 (23-VIII-1344) and ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (22-VIII-1345).

36 AHG, Notarial, Ullà, vol. 168 (16-III-1322); Rupià, vol. 472 (11-XI-1344); and Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (27-X-1346).

37 AHG, Notarial, Rupià, vol. 472 (28-IV-1344).

38 AHG, Notarial, Ullà, vol. 170 (12-III-1341).

39 Soldevila, La comunitat jueva, 85–6. For all sorts of credit contracts the usual terms were a half-year, or one year.

40 Ibid., 86.

41 Soldevila, Crèdit i endeutament, 163–4.

42 AHG, Notarial, Rupià, vol. 472 (12-XII-1344); and Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (1-X-1347). Further examples: a man from Ullà and his mother agreed to pay 450 sous to a Jew of La Bisbal who, if satisfied, was ready to return to them a document in which the debtors recognised a debt and to cancel an obligation written in the court book of Ullà: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (14-IX-1345); a Jewish moneylender of Girona agreed to hand over all documents and court obligations to a girl from Ullà when she paid him 83 sous several months hence: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (1-X-1347).

43 AHG, Notarial, Ullà, vol. 170 (16-XI-1340).

44 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (6-IX-1347).

45 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (17-VIII-1347).

46 The ‘penalty of the third’ – pena de terç in Catalan – was a fine equal to one-third of the sum sued for, and which was received by the judge if his intervention was required in cases of default.

47 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U6 (20-XI-1343). Irregular levying of the terç was a common abuse in medieval Catalan courts: Lourie, Elena, ‘Jewish moneylenders in the local Catalan community, c.1300: Vilafranca del Penedés, Besalú and Montblanc’, Michael 11 (1989), 36–7Google Scholar.

48 Thus, sometimes one discovers that while many claims were for standard debts such as loans or credit sales, others arose from unpaid rents, undelivered dowries, inheritances, or wages. For example, a man from Torroella de Montgrí claimed against a neighbour for a debt of 120 sous and a rent of 6 measures of barley: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (20-VIII-1345).

49 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (14-II-1346).

50 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (27-III, 31-V, 4-VIII, 6 and 21-IX, and 24-X-1344).

51 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (12-I-1345).

52 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (15-III-1344).

53 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (4-X-1344).

54 Soldevila, La comunitat jueva, 122.

55 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (27-IV-1346).

56 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U3 (21-X-1328).

57 The remaining seizures involved lands or houses (13 instances), cattle (11), other movable goods (5), wool (2), cash (2), rents (1), unspecified goods (10) and mixed seizures (19).

58 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (15 and 17-VII-1344); and ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U8 (June 1344). In 1347 a man of the village of Sant Sadurní indebted to his brother was only allowed to thresh his seized crops in the presence of the bailiff: in ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U11 (Spring 1347).

59 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (14-VI and 14-VII-1345). Even within the same family, the strictly observed division of conjugal goods could lead to some problems: in 1344 in the village of Crespià, not far from the county of Empúries, the seizure of a cape was revoked because the cloth belonged to the debtor's wife: ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U7 (22-III-1344).

60 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (16-IX-1345 and 29-IV-1346).

61 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (12-XI-1345).

62 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (31-I-1345 and 19-VIII-1345). Further examples: auction of two pieces of land of a pupil unable to pay 600 sous to a relative; of land belonging to a man owing 120 sous and 40 measures of barley; of a garden belonging to a man unable to satisfy a loan of 100 sous: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (28-I and 30-VIII-1345, and 6-V-1346).

63 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (29-VIII-1346).

64 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (3-III-1345).

65 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (17-X and 12-XII-1345).

66 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 564 (19-II-1329).

67 AHG, Notarial, Rupià, vol. 472 (20-II-1345); and ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (November 1345).

68 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (17-II-1345).

69 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U7 (30-III-1344).

70 This was exactly the function of imprisonment for debts in fifteenth-century Paris: Julie Mayade-Claustre, ‘Le petit peuple en difficulté: la prison pour dettes à la fin du Moyen Âge’, in Boglioni, Pierre, Delort, Robert and Gevard, Claude eds., Le petit peuple dans l'Occident médieval. Terminologies, perceptions, réalités (Paris, 2002), 453–66Google Scholar. In fact, further research is needed to determine why some failed debtors were imprisoned and others not. Perhaps the former were reluctant to have their possessions auctioned.

71 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (18-II-1345).

72 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U2b (30-I-1327); and vol. U6 (13-X-1338).

73 ADG, Visites pastorals, vol. 5 (c.1330).

74 AHG, Notarial, Resta del districte de la Bisbal, vol. 1 (14-X-1344) and Colomers, vol. 32 (9-IX-1347). Outside the Lower Ter plain, a priest from Viladesens was sanctioned – and later excused – because he had buried as a good Christian a man excommunicated because of his debts: ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U6 (14-XI-1343).

75 AHG, Notarial, Rupià, vol. 470 (25-II-1315) and Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (19-VI-1346).

76 In Torroella de Montgrí, for example, there was a warning against all those ‘doing any violence against the Jews and their properties’ during the Easter days: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (13-IV-1346); for a similar announcement in La Bisbal the next year, see ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U10 (19-III-1347).

77 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U2 (14-VIII-1326); vol. U3 (4-VI-1328 and 11-V-1339); vol. U8 (1-IV-1344); vol. U9 (31-I-1346).

78 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (August 1345, and 4 and 8-XII-1345). Further examples: the lieutenant of Ullà was threatened because he did not seize the goods of a man indebted to a Jewish moneylender: ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U10 (27-X-1346). The situation, however, did not change with his successor because in the next year the new bailiff was denounced before the bishop by a man of Torroella de Montgrí because he did nothing against his dilatory debtors: ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U11 (Winter 1347).

79 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U7 (1-X-1339).

80 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U8 (27-X-1344) and vol. U9 (22-VIII-1345). Some months later the notary was condemned and removed from office, only to be finally pardoned: ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (November 1345).

81 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (25-X-1345), and Soldevila, Crèdit i endeutament, 138–9.

82 A security given by some debtors was a promise to remain inside a village or town in case of default in order to prevent flight and allow court procedures to take place.

83 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (22-IV-1345).

84 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U2b (11-X-1326); vol. U6 (11 and 16-VIII-1343, and 25-VIII and 2-IX-1343); and vol. U11 (27-VII-1347). It should be borne in mind that the years between 1343 and 1347 were a period of bad harvests and high prices, in Catalonia and throughout the western Mediterranean area: Soldevila, Xavier, Alimentació i abastament al Baix Empordà medieval. Segles XII–XIV (Girona, 2004), 73–4Google Scholar.

85 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U3 (10-II-1328); vol. U10 (12-VII-1346 and 24-XI-1346).

86 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (30-XI-1345).

87 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U2b (5-II-1327) and vol. U3 (31-X-1327). Similarly, officers of La Bisbal were ordered to return seized goods to a man who had guaranteed two modest loans of 10 sous and 22 sous; in ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U3 (9-I-1328).

88 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U7 (18-XII-1343); AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (13-III-1344 and 17-I-1345).

89 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (31-I-1345). See a similar letter in the same volume (31-II-1345).

90 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 557 (8-V-1313 and 12-III-1314); vol. 558 (1-II-1315); vol. 564 (13-VII-1328, 31-X-1330 and 6-VIII-1331); Resta del districte de La Bisbal, vol. 1 (14-X-1344); and vol. 568 (25-I-1345). Further auctions: land sold in Ullà by the local court, the proceeds shared among claimant creditors: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (4-II-1345); in the same year the garden of a man of Ullà was sold because of an unpaid debt owed to a Jewish moneylender of Torroella de Montgrí, of which his father had been guarantor: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (8-VIII-1345); in the next year a couple of Fontanilles had their masada sold by the court of Torroella de Montgrí: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (19-VI-1346).

91 AHG, Notarial, Ullà, vol. 170 (23-III and 7-XI-1341, and 1-II-1342).

92 AHG, Notarial, Rupià, vol. 469 (16-XI-1310); Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 557 (3-VII-1313); vol. 564 (8-III and 16-XII-1328, 22-IX-1329, 24-II-1330 and 11-II-1331); ADG, Arxius Incorporats, Manuals, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 1 (6-III-1334); AHG, Notarial, Resta del districte de La Bisbal, vol. 1 (20-V-1344); and ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U10 (Spring 1346). Many further examples: after the sale of a piece of land in Ultramort the seller was forced to deliver the money to the court of Rupià: AHG, Notarial, Rupià, vol. 469 (23-XII-1311); a payment of 60 sous was forced by the court from a couple because they had guaranteed a debt: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 557 (13-II-1314); a woman of Ullà ‘forced by the court’ paid for the pork she had bought on credit: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 564 (25-II-1327); two debtors of Ullà were compelled by the local court to pay 135 sous to a Jewish moneylender: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 564 (29-III-1329); the judge of Ullà paid to a Jewish moneylender of Torroella de Montgrí 75 sous owed by a couple of the village: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 564 (14-X-1331); a Jewish moneylender of La Bisbal received from a widow of Ultramort part of the debt owed by her late husband by the order of the court of Rupià: AHG, Notarial, Rupià, vol. 472 (31-VIII-1344); a surgeon of Ullà who had taken care of an injured man was paid because the court of La Tallada had ordered it: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (19-XII-1346); the court of Ullà compelled a man to pay part of a loan contracted in 1344 to a Jew of Girona: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (10-VIII-1347).

93 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U2 (30-VII-1326) and AHG, Notarial, Rupià, vol. 472 (29-I-1345). Other examples: a couple of Llers – a village located inside the county – were also absolved from excommunication after having paid what they owed to a Jewish moneylender of Girona: in ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U2b (26-XI-1326); and a woman of Garrigàs – also a county village – was ready to cancel her debts to a cloth trader, and local priests had to absolve her from excommunication: in ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U3 (25-X-1327).

94 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 563 (17-IX-1327).

95 As has already been noted, several creditors preferred to grant prorogations or to make an agreement than to enforce payment from dilatory debtors. Equally, many creditors chose to exploit their ongoing rights over unpaid debts: Soldevila, Crèdit i endeutament, 171–2.

96 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (26-II and 13-III-1345).

97 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (25-III and 13-III-1345). An almost identical case: a letter from royal officers in Girona reported that three debtors of Torroella de Montgrí had in 1340 undertaken a court obligation to a Jew who was now suing for his money. Two weeks later, the debtors offered lands to the court in order to sell them, and to cancel the debt: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (28-II and 15-III-1345).

98 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U7 (19-VII-1341), vol. U8 (1-VII-1344) and vol. U11 (1 and 5-VII-1347). Further examples: the judge and the bailiff of Rupià were ordered to require some people to pay for the cloth they had bought from a merchant of Girona: ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U3(22-IV-1328); the bailiff of Rupià was required to compel a man to pay 43 sous owed to a cloth trader of Girona; and that of Parlavà was ordered to force three men of this village to satisfy 308 sous obligated to a Jewish moneylender before the bishop's court: vol. U8 (12-VIII-1344); the bailiff of Ullà ‘received a letter from our honourable officer in Girona’ about the claims of a local Jew against a widow, though he seems to have disobeyed it: vol. U8 (16-IX-1344); again, the bailiff of Rupià was ordered – because of his initial dilatory attitude – to force two neighbours to satisfy their debts to another Jewish moneylender: vol. U8 (16-XI-1344).

99 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U2 (7-V-1326), vol. U7 (19-III-1344) and vol. U11 (17-VII-1347). In 1326 the problem concerning citations issued by the county court of Bellcaire was dealt with by appointing a canon of Ullà as a representative of people from this village: ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U2 (6-VI-1326). In 1347 the bailiff of La Bisbal forbade those living in this town and its territory from claiming before any other court if the affairs concerned only local people, and seized goods of a Jew because he had claimed before the court of Gualta against a man of La Bisbal, but the bishop granted him a pardon: ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U11 (July 1347).

100 AHG, Notarial, Ullà, vol. 169, separated sheet (1322). For similar announcements about the auction of a masada issued by the court of Albons, see AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 169 (29-III-1322) and vol. 567 (16-IV-1341).

101 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (15-XII-1344).

102 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U6 (26-IX-1337), but also in vol. U6 (October 1336); and AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 567 (12-IX-1341).

103 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (3-VIII-1346).

104 ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. U9 (2-III-1345). The episcopal bailiff of La Bisbal was threatened by the bishop because he had neglected the demands from the veguer of Girona to act against neighbours owing money to Jewish moneylenders: ADG, Lletres episcopals, vol. 3 (3-II-1328); the bailiff of Parlavà received an order to enforce payment from persons of Ultramort indebted to a citizen of Girona, also after his initial negligence in response to the demands of the royal court of Girona: vol. U8 (21-I-1345).

105 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 568 (9-III-1345).

106 AHG, Notarial, vol. 569 (29-IV-1344).

107 AHG, Notarial, Peratallada, vol. 199 (8-I-1333). Further examples: sale of three pieces of land of an orphan of Torroella de Montgrí: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 556 (29-V-1310); of a vineyard belonging to a orphan of Ullà: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 564 (10-X-1329); of a quantity of good land – worth 1200 sous – of three children from the same town: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 567 (5-XII-1341); all with a judge's advice.

108 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (31-I and 22-XI-1345). Other examples: 20 sous placed on the board to pay a Jew of Girona: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (2-VIII-1346); and 500 sous owed to a local woman because of a maintenance agreement: AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (30-VIII-1346).

109 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (12-I-1346).

110 AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (19-I-1346). For a similar seizure of 11 sous, see AHG, Notarial, Torroella de Montgrí, vol. 569 (12-V-1346).