Obligationes et solutiones, 1295-1678.

ArchivalResource

Catholic Church. Camera Apostolica. Obligationes et solutiones, 1295-1678.

Obligationes et solutiones, 1295-1678.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/145567178

In these registers were copied formal bonds of debt to the Camera that were drawn up when the debtor recognized or confessed a debt and obligated himself (together with his heirs and his church) to pay it within certain set terms. As payments on an obligation were made these solutiones were recognized in instruments called quittantia, and likewise registered in this series. The debts could be for loans, spoils, the income of a vacant church, or for any settlement (compositio) reached in the court of the auditor of the Camera or of the chamberlain. Most frequently, however, and long after the inauguration of this registry system in the fourteenth century, the obligationes were for the servitia, taxes on major benefices (bishoprics and abbeys), which had to be settled by a new appointee before he could receive his bulls of appointment; usually he would make an obligatio for them. There were two groups of servitia: servitia communia which were equally divided between the College of Cardinals and the Camera; and servitia minuta, which went to officials in the curia (vice-chancellor, camerarius, clerks, etc.) and in the College of Cardinals. Boyle points out that the solutiones in the Obligationes et solutiones registers parallel the introitus of the Introitus et exitus, and both are needed to show the whole story of an appointment. The Obligationes et solutiones also overlap with the Camera Apostolica series Taxae but again the Obligationes et solutiones provide more informative and inclusive information. Various subtitles of the volumes, which are fully listed in Index 1036, include: Servitorium Communium, Provisionum, Obligationum Sacro Collegio, Divisionum, and Registrum Litterarum Camerarii Apostolici. According to MacFarlane, these registers contain much more material than their title suggests. For example, they name the cardinals living at the time of the appointments, since each had a share in the services; they record the recent deaths of cardinals, giving exact dates; they sometimes record current disputes over consistorial benefices; they note ad limina visits, and list other payments like annates and the census. In short, they are a mine of limited but precise information on cardinals, archbishops, bishops, abbots and their procurators, and as such the series has been carefully inventoried and widely used.

5 linear m. (91 v. nos.)

Bentley Historical Library