Death Commemoration Strategies in Medieval Portugal: A Mirror of Lay Participation in Religious Parochial Life (The Case of Coimbra)

Abstract

This article will, through the analysis of three parishes in Coimbra between the twelfth and the fourteenth century, investigate practices surrounding the commemoration of death. Through the study of extant wills, post-mortem donations, and necrological documents—such as Obituaries and Anniversary Books—this work seeks to describe the populations and communities who entrusted their final salvation to these churches. This characterization will allow a description of the typology of the suffrage ceremonies founded by these souls, meanwhile presenting an evaluation of the maintenance and management of these foundations by the churches and its chapters throughout the centuries. This paper intends to highlight what survives after death—not only in terms of memory, but also in light of social relationships, interpersonal and familial connections, and professional solidarities. Focusing on a population that is otherwise poorly documented—and moreover, represents a socio-professional background of a low echelon—this text intends to present a global characterization of the cult of the dead, with a further aim of drawing attention to the intervention and enrichment of parish pastoral care by the lay population in this Portuguese city.

1. Introduction

It is a relatively commonplace concept that, during both the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, the dead shared the daily lives of the living (Harding 2006, p. 46). In comparison to modern society, those who had passed away were nonetheless ‘present’ in the same, vital, communal spaces, being celebrated with continual remembrance in pastoral —their commemoration being the material responsibility of family members, friends, brotherhoods, and both secular and ecclesiastical authorities for multiple generations.

It was the Church’s responsibility, through its various institutions, to safeguard the perpetuity of this memory—and this role certainly guaranteed significant income throughout its ongoing history. This article aims to analyze how this presence was manifested in a medium-sized Portuguese city by characterizing the practices of commemorating the dead in three parishes of Coimbra in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries—urban, yet extramuralhas: outside the defensive walls of the city. This work is an output of the ongoing investigative project which intends to build a piece of research software with the aim of analyzing the commemorative strategies in medieval urban parishes.1 This project is focused on enriching the understanding of what survives after death, not only in terms of memory, but also in terms of relationships of sociability, familiarity, and solidarity, within a framework of urban research. This objective is especially relevant because the target is the population from labor groups and urban elite, for which we otherwise do not have abundant or detailed documentary evidence.

This work is not intended to analyze society’s fears of death (Delumeau 1978; Le Goff 1981; Vovelle 1990), or to count and characterize the commemorative foundations, nor to analyze the economics and accounting involved in maintaining the cult of the dead in the different institutions (Chiffoleau 1980). These aforementioned factors have been the subject of in-depth studies and reflections throughout the seventies, eighties, and nineties of the twentieth century. This topic of research was spearheaded by Francophone researchers in the history of the Catholic Church, religion, and mentalities (Ariès 1977). These studies continued at the end of the twentieth century and further broadened in scope with an emphasis toward analyzing group profiles. These included practices of association, collective solidarity (Vincent 1994; Crouch 2000; Harding 2019; Cevins 2018), and, furthermore, mechanisms for projecting and building social prestige (Renzi 2020; Miranda García and López de Guereño Sanz 2020; Lopez de Guereño Sanz et al. 2021). Burial practices have also been considered as defining elements of urban communities in comparative approaches, such as those carried out by Vanessa Harding (2006) in the case of Paris and London. The practices surrounding the commemoration of death have led historians to study the intercession of the laity in the pastoral care provided by the church, examining their effective and lasting presence in the medium and long term with regard to the management and maintenance of the religious service. Contextualized as such, this has been a persistent theme in European historiography, in studies on relations between lay and ecclesiastical groups (Massoni and Campos 2020), in works on civic religion (Richard 2010; Brown 2016), and in studies on the management of the religious service implicit in the commemoration of the dead (Burgess 2011, 2018).

The first major Portuguese works in this area were penned by Hermínia Vilar and José Mattoso (Vilar 1995; Mattoso 1996). This subject has also received several further contributions, namely from the study of wills (Coelho 1980; Ventura 1997; Coelho and Ventura 2008; Campos 2016; Ventura and Matos 2019), and the study and edition of other medieval documents produced for the management of suffrage ceremonies (Gomes 2004; Gomes 2016; Morujão 2010b; Nascimento and Catón 2008; Campos 2020a). Recently, the subject was revisited in the context of a work focusing on the history of private life in Portugal—even as it emphasized that there was nothing more public, collective, and collaborative in medieval society than death (Rosa 2010). Additionally, the study of the foundation and maintenance of chapels and chantries as institutions with specific heritage and administration, guaranteeing the memory of a founder and their lineage, initiated by Maria de Lurdes Rosa (Rosa 2012, 2020), is the main object of a European Research Council project, covering a period between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, led by the same historian.2 Finally, the study of inheritances and donations for the suffrage of the soul, considering an extensive chronology, which was also undertaken by historians of Early Modern Portugal, can be highlighted (Sá 2020).

The development of these topics has benefited from a progressive examination of the archives of ecclesiastical institutions: in the case of the analyses of English parish archives, the results have been particularly distinctive (Burgess 2018, chp. 9; Kümin 2016). For the French case, the edition and analysis of obituaries and other necrological sources allows for a deeper delve into the study of death and the interconnected religious services that its commemoration brought (see, among others, Lemaitre 1989; Chiama and Pécout 2010; Pécout 2020). Furthermore, privileged sources such as the architecture of churches and cloisters, as well as the tombs that filled these spaces and shared the secular and religious daily lives of medieval society, have been analyzed (García Álvarez-Busto 2012). Similarly, the archaeology and anthropology of burials are also shown to have played a crucial role (Cunha 1994; Dimas 2022). To conclude, it is imperative to highlight works emerging after the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, aimed at reassessing diverse facets of the ritualization of death through a diachronic lens (García Huerta 2023).

This article forms part of an innovative field of research that aims to deepen knowledge regarding strategies for commemorating the dead in urban areas, in secular and ecclesiastical communities, mostly from the urban society and working social groups. In this context, the parishes of Coimbra as communities with a bond and a lasting connection to the church can be considered privileged units of research. Thus, this study will encompass three parishes in Coimbra—Santa Justa, Santiago (Saint James), and São Bartolomeu (Saint Bartholomew)—throughout the Late Middle Ages, with the aim of characterizing the commemoration strategies implemented therein. These parishes were chosen because of the desire to understand the differences between three territorial units which, despite sharing the same location—the city outside the walls—were home to populations with different social profiles. Moreover, a deeper knowledge of the differences in the administration of the cult of the dead in three neighboring churches, characterized by a similar typology, was actively sought.

Taking this into consideration, this research aims to answer the following questions:

Is it possible to characterize parish communities from the documents produced and preserved, concerning the foundation and management of the cult of the dead?

Which parish communities are discernible in this way?

Is it possible to differentiate practices for commemorating the dead in different parishes, even when they are located in the same city?

How does the religiosity of the laity influence, condition, and intervene in pastoral care and daily parish life?

In order to address these questions, the founders of these suffrage ceremonies will be analyzed first; next, the details of the types of ceremonies and foundations set up in these parishes by their benefactors will be elaborated; and finally, a reflection upon which parish communities are discernible through this analysis will be explored. Despite being limited to the same urban space of ‘downtown’ Coimbra, the specificities of each parish nucleus will be problematized in a comparative approach. Utilizing this structure, it will become possible to demonstrate and reflect upon the lay intervention in the improvement of parish pastoral care in the Portuguese urban environment with a degree of certainty.

2. The Context: The City of Coimbra and the Parishes of Santa Justa, São Bartolomeu, and Santiago

Within the Portuguese urban network, Coimbra was a medium-sized city, with a walled area of 22 hectares (Gomes 1996, p. 393), and c. 1329 families identified in the first Portuguese general census in 1527 (Oliveira 1971, vol. 1, p. 149). Although the city’s inhabitants had administrative autonomy from at least 1085, the city’s municipal administration was only formally recognized in 1111, when it was granted its first charter (Coelho 2013), placing it amongst the oldest Portuguese municipalities. In fact, before the kingdom of Portugal became autonomous in 1143, Coimbra was already an important urban bastion with autonomous government and economic prominence.

From a religious, cultural, and political point of view, it should be noted that until 1064, Coimbra was part of the Muslim-controlled territories, only coming under Christian rule after the conquest by Ferdinand the Great (1037–1065), King of Castile and Leon (Barroca 2003). After the takeover of this region, the city came to head a territory that stretched out as far as the sea to the west, and where, from that time, an important movement of settlement and Christianization began with the foundation of new churches and parishes (Fernandes and Real 2020; Real and Fernandes 2021).

Within the urban center, the parish structure began to define itself, after the restoration of the diocese in c. 1080 (Morujão 2010a) and the progressive identification of other ecclesiae, around which populations were established (Ventura 2003; Campos 2023). In this context, it is worth noting that from a political point of view, Coimbra played a key role in the process of self-governance of the future Portuguese kingdom from 1130. At that point, the portucalensis princeps and future Portuguese monarch, Afonso Henriques (1143–1185) (Mattoso 2007), chose the city of Coimbra as his residence and site for the establishment of his curia, within which a group of learned clerics from the city’s main ecclesiastical institutions assembled (Branco 2003, pp. 520–23).

Needing the support of the Church, both through the ecclesiastics who operated in Portugal and the apostolic legates, the future Portuguese monarch allowed—and even encouraged—the implementation of the ecclesiastical norms that resulted from the Reform of the Church of Rome (the Gregorian Reform of the eleventh through to the thirteenth centuries) in Portugal. Coimbra is a good example of this, as the definition of the parish network between c. 1080 and 1139 can be clearly identified, and thus its consequent territorialization. Throughout the thirteenth century, as in other regions of Christendom, the organization of the communities of secular clergy in the city’s parish churches is recognizable, which, as such, began to house groupings made up of a prior,3 and a chapter, and to be designated as collegiates. During this process, Coimbra was divided into nine parishes, four of which were located outside the city walls, along the right bank of the river Mondego. Apart from the parish of Santa Maria da Catedral and the parish of São João do Mosteiro de Santa Cruz (Martins 2003, pp. 248–51), all the others were under the tutelage of a collegiate church. Outside the city walls, in addition to the parish of São João do Mosteiro de Santa Cruz, lay the three parishes that are the subject of this investigation (Figure 1).

The settlement of this area of the city can be traced back to the end of the eleventh century and it can be seen (Alarcão 2008), from a very early stage, that people preferred to settle here rather than on the walled hill. Thus, from a list of the tithes of the churches of Portugal produced in 1320, a contrast can be noticed between the amounts received by the parishes on the hill within the walls, and the amounts received by those outside (Boissellier 2012, document 2, p. 174). The latter extramuralhas received considerably larger revenues than their walled counterparts, perhaps indicating a correspondence to the level of settlement. Moreover, by the end of the fourteenth century, the preference for residing outside the walls is well documented—sometimes causing great issue with regard to the royal policy of the defense of cities and the consolidation of the defensive capacity of the walled interior.

The parish of Santa Justa was structured around a church first documented in 1098, which was the seat of the parish from (at the latest) 1139 and featured a Romanesque architectural configuration from 1155 onward (Campos 2017, p. 63). Its first prior can also be traced back to this date. Likewise, the constitution of the chapter can be seen at the beginning of the 13th century. Throughout the Middle Ages, this church housed an ecclesiastical community of around thirteen beneficiaries (Campos 2017, pp. 173–81). Located to the north of the city outside the walls, in a zone that was available for expansion, this area showed significant growth unlike the other parishes in the city. From a social point of view, in addition to the church clerics who lived in the parish, supported by a network of employees and trusted men, there was a significant presence of agricultural workers, namely the almuinheiros (horticulturists) who supplied the city with fresh produce. Among the artisans, the presence of potters was particularly noteworthy, alongside olive oil producers and textile professionals (Campos 2017, pp. 135–55). From the second half of the fourteenth century, this parish was particularly represented by a population classified as unskilled laborers (homens de serviço), a fact that has been analyzed as a consequence of the rural exodus in this region during a period of crisis, as was the Black Death (Coelho 1989, pp. 69–81).

The parish of São Bartolomeu, located in the immediate surroundings of the bridge crossing the river Mondego, was an area with a high population density throughout the Late Middle Ages, as can be seen from the typology of its buildings, tending to have more floors (Trindade 2002, pp. 139–44). Its church has been known since 957 and, from 1106 onward, a community residing there is recognized, albeit with a relatively ambiguous status until 1201. By that date, the existence of a chapter led by a prior is indisputable (Marques 1998, p. 101, doc. 2). In this parish, amongst the professions that occupied its inhabitants, the presence of oil pressmen stands out, with these individuals exploiting one of the city’s most dynamic sources of income, the production of azeite—olive oil. Amongst the throng, the city’s butchers and, consequently, near the river, the tanneries for the processing of hides can also be found (Guardado 2000; Campos 2021; Barreira 2023).

Next to the city’s main street, connecting the bridge to the main gate in the wall, was the church of Santiago (Gomes 2000). In the tenth century, this church held saint Cucufate as its patron, from the Mozarabic tradition: he, however, was later replaced by the invocation of the apostle who, between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, gained extraordinary prominence in the peninsula’s religious tradition (Rucquoi 2023; García Sanjuán 2023). As mentioned for the other churches, it is possible to directly identify a prior at the end of the twelfth century,4 and the first references to the beneficiaries—who made up its collegiate body—from the beginning of the thirteenth century.5 Regarding the social characterization of the lay population of the parish of Santiago, the professions related to the manufacture of leather goods, as well as merchants and long-distance traders, were particularly important. Similarly, in this territory, other professionals linked to the transformation and trade of cloth can be found. In all three parishes, despite the predominance of merchants, craftsmen, and other manual workers, the presence of an urban aristocracy made up mainly of royal officials and municipal employees can also be identified.

3. Materials: The Documentary Traces of the Management of the Office of the Dead

The archival organization and type of documents, with regard to their function, and which were safeguarded by these churches throughout the Middle Ages, were relatively similar. Chronologically framed between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, the number of documents can be seen to increase considerably from the fourteenth century onward, particularly from the second half of that century. Although dominated by economic contracts, these archives hold some precious records regarding their institutional management and their religious and pastoral functions. Of all the duties of the parish, the commemoration of the dead motivated the greatest production of written records.

In the case of the three churches under analysis, there are major differences in the extant documentation available for evaluating and understanding the office of the dead. The analysis carried out for the church of Santa Justa is based on a set of documents which include post-mortem donations,6 wills, testamentary clauses and codicils,7 and court sentences,8 between 1285 and 1398. In order to enrich this research, other documentation produced by this institution was consulted. The chronological weighting of the documents kept in this archive reveals an overwhelming majority of acts written between 1325 and 1375 (Figure 2). The documentary typology of this corpus differs greatly from those constituted for the study of the other two churches.

In São Bartolomeu, the management of this religious service seems to have been mainly organized through the use of an obituary calendar, originally written in the first quarter of the fourteenth century, showing systematic additions of ceremonies and death registers until at least 1411.9 Apart from this document, only nine post-mortem donations (1295–1366) and the registration of a testamentary clause are preserved in its records.10

The case of Santiago de Coimbra differs as well. This church had a Book of Anniversaries (also organized on the basis of a calendar), which, despite recording foundation ceremonies that can be dated back to the beginning of the thirteenth century, is written in a hand characteristic of the end of the fourteenth century and, furthermore, reveals additions until the middle of the sixteenth century.11 In addition to this manuscript, there are some twenty-nine documents in the archive, including wills and post-mortem donations, with a record of soul-suffrage ceremonies (1206–1397).12

When considering Santa Justa until the Early Modern Period, it is notable that there is no known typological calendar with an inscription of the dead and the celebrations to be held each day:13 as such, it is understood that the management of the office of the dead would thus be based on loose documentation, wherein the ceremonies were recorded. In this church, there was an annually elected office—the aniversareiro—who was responsible for collecting the rents for the anniversaries and who would eventually supervise their actual celebration.14 In the other two churches, this responsibility may have fallen to the prebendarius, but there are no direct references to this.

The calendars in the archives of the other two churches merit a more detailed characterization, in order to outline how their information was processed during this research. The Obituary of the collegiate church of São Bartolomeu de Coimbra is one of the oldest obituaries known for a Portuguese collegiate church. The medieval obituary is defined as being made up of specific information noted on the calendar: the name of the deceased and a depiction of their character, as well as information in varying levels of detail concerning the foundation of the anniversary, the property and revenue attached to it, and, sometimes, the people responsible for its maintenance (Barroca 2011; Lemaitre 2017). In cases where the obituary belonged to an ecclesiastical chapter, it could also include a registry of the value of the alms distributed at the time of its celebration. All these elements are included in the referenced document, with the singular fact that it also boasts a very complete calendar structure—something which is contextually unusual in contemporaneous Portugal (Campos 2020a, pp. 30–72).

The document consists of 18 folios, throughout which the 12 months in the year are distributed, each beginning on a new folio. In its organization of the liturgical calendar, it indicates the main saints and martyrs according to the Western devotion along the fundamental lines of the Gregorian Sacramentary. Likewise, we also see pastoral care pertaining to the parish, with the celebration of the day of the consecration of the church, on the 27th of July (Campos 2020a, p. 132); the feast and vigil of the Apostle São Bartolomeu (Saint Bartholomew) (Campos 2020a, p. 139); and the day of the death of the founder of the church on 9 January (Campos 2020a, p. 86). It is also within this calendar—exclusively regarding this parish—that the memory of the dead was celebrated, whether they were former parishioners or just benefactors of the church, registering those souls of whom celebrations had been instituted.

The Obituary of S. Bartolomeu has 399 inscriptions, 235 of which record anniversary ceremonies for departed souls, the rest recording deaths, and their respective suffrage ceremonies; however, they do not always indicate the year in which the death occurred, or its foundation (Barreira 2023, p. 121). Thus, the chronological analysis of the foundations of ceremonies required the collation of all loose documentation kept in the church’s collection (Guardado 2000, vol. 2), as well as other specific documents that mention the individuals present in the obituary. Even taking this comprehensive approach, it was only possible to date less than 50% of the inscriptions in this obituary: this nonetheless confirms a trend toward an increase in foundations throughout the 14th century, namely between c. 1325 and 1375. To summarize, the dated inscriptions are between 1176 and 1337, whereas the additions are between 1348 and 1411. The dates established by comparison with data from other documents range from the beginning of the thirteenth century to the beginning of the fifteenth century (Campos 2020a, pp. 31–32, 68) (Figure 3a,b).

In turn, despite its identical structure, the Anniversary Book of Santiago de Coimbra has different contents. It is composed of 35 folios, 34 of which were numbered after its original composition. Upon analyzing its records, a fairly uniform structure of inscriptions can be found, relating information regarding the anniversary that should be celebrated in the church of Santiago de Coimbra on each day—it is interesting to note that, in this document, no more than one ceremony is recorded per day. Each of these inscriptions contains information regarding the name of the deceased to be commemorated, the monetary value that was paid for that ceremony and, in some cases, the property that supported the celebration through reference to the rent and location, as well as the material characteristics of the respective grave. On occasion, liturgical pointers are also recorded, such as the type of Masses to be officiated or the prayers that the deceased stipulated for the celebration upon their anniversary.

There is very little regarding the liturgical calendar observed in the church of Santiago de Coimbra in this document and, furthermore, there are few references to the festivals pertaining to the parish. In fact, even regarding the Day of Santiago (Santos 2018, p. 212), there is only a brief mention of an anniversary celebrated on the eve of that saint’s day. However, due to the desire to correctly identify the grave sites, this anniversary book allows for a tracing of the topography of burials, inside the church, at its doors and in its cemetery yard.

An analysis of the hand suggests the beginning of its composition dates to the fourteenth century, but a more precise chronological interval cannot yet be proposed. The comparison of the styles of penmanship, the monetary unit of payment and cross-referencing the names inscribed in the calendar with those appearing in wills and post-mortem donations and other documents from the collegiate church would allow the critical date of this document to be narrowed. Presently, however, it is only possible to date the ceremonies for which foundation documents are extant, whether post-mortem donations, wills, or testamentary clauses. In fact, of the 358 inscriptions contained in the document, only eight have a date15—which, because they correspond to more than one ceremony in the calendar, allows for the dating of twenty entries—and only 101 can be critically dated, based on the documents recognized and compiled so far. Unsurprisingly, it is once again the second half of the fourteenth century that shows a greater concern on the part of individuals with preparing for death and the foundation of soul-suffrage ceremonies (Figure 4a,b).

The chronological distribution of the foundations of ceremonies celebrated in the parishes of ‘downtown’ Coimbra in the Middle Ages confirms, at a base level, the emergence of a period of more intense spirituality following the Black Death. While the practice of dictating wills and making important donations to the Church in exchange for perpetual commemorations was already well rooted in society, from this time on, the focus would lay upon the detail in which the ceremonies were stipulated and the number of times they were requested to be repeated (Figure 5). The importance attached to the salvation of the soul reinforced the faithful’s generosity towards their churches and gave shape to what Jacques Chiffoleau (1980) called religion flamboyante.

4. Death Commemoration in the Parishes of Santa Justa, São Bartolomeu, and Santiago de Coimbra

Having presented the urban context of the parishes under analysis, the type of documentation that underpins this study, and the way in which the information it contains has been dated and detailed, it is important to show what the practices of commemorating the dead in these parishes reflect, highlighting—above all—the participation of the laity in this aspect of religious life. Firstly, the proportion of ceremonies founded by laypeople compared to those founded by clerics will be considered, followed by an explanation of who these particular laypeople were. To contextualize these individuals, the text will provide brief characterizations of their social backgrounds, and how they organized themselves to set up these foundations. By expounding the type of ceremonies founded, this study will work toward a comprehension of the trends in the intervention of the laity in the pastoral care of each parish. Working on these themes will provide an answer to the question What survives after death? in order to understand which communities are commemorated eternally in the different parishes and what relationship they have with these jurisdictions. Of further interest will be the human relationships and connections these populations highlight when choosing their executors, exemplifying relationships of friendship, solidarity, and trust.

4.1. The Recipients of the Ceremonies Commemorating the Dead

At first glance, it could be interpreted that most of the religious services dedicated to the cult of the dead in these churches were intended for the suffrage of the souls of their clerics. In fact, the three churches that are being studied had large chapters which, despite not being obligated to follow a communal life, maintained the daily obligation of the choir service (Campos 2020b). However, considering the characteristics of those remembered by the ceremonies founded in these churches—i.e., those commemorated—the data do not support the aforementioned tendency. Whilst in the calendar of São Bartolomeu, the ecclesiastical population takes up around 27% of the commemorations (Figure 6), in Santa Justa and Santiago, the proportion of the same group recorded in the calendars does not exceed 15%. In fact, as seen elsewhere, it was to the generosity of the deceased laity—who provided much of the volume and sophistication of the religious services in their parish—that the living owed their vital enjoyment. The Bristol case serves as a particularly illuminating example in this regard (Burgess 2011, p. 109).

By studying the profile of those who were commemorated in these institutions, this work begins to trace the image of the parish population who organized their lives around these churches, and similarly, the reflection of those who, from outside the parish, saw this church as a worthy depository for their salvific intentions. In general, the specifics of these ceremonies are individual, and it can be seen that—even when the secular population is analyzed—men are commemorated in the greatest number, followed by instructions by individual women, couples and, more rarely, other groups associated, usually, by family solidarity (Figure 7). Among the latter, couples with sons or daughters, brothers and sisters,16 couples who associate their memorial with the soul of a previously deceased spouse, and the invocation of a father-in-law or mother-in-law can all be found.17

Most of these ceremonies were intended to commemorate those who were part of the parish universe during their lifetime, be they lay parishioners or portioners of their respective chapters. The latter often had their relatives celebrated in their church or associated their own ceremonies with the invocation of their relatives, an arrangement often involving nephews or ascendants. In Santa Justa, both Prior João Lourenço (1348–1378) and Prior Afonso Lourenço (1387–1403) established anniversaries in their churches, invoking their mothers.18 In São Bartolomeu, João Gomes, a portioner between at least 1390 and 1411,19 founded two anniversaries: one for his soul with that of his father (Campos 2020a, p. 116) and the other for his soul with that of his mother (Campos 2020a, p. 124).

The laity commemorated in the parishes outside the walls of Coimbra were a part of urban communities dedicated to local governance, commerce, and craftwork (Figure 8). However, a group of lower nobility was also identified, corresponding to individuals named by the title of Dominus, who were particularly prominent in the parish of São Bartolomeu in the thirteenth century. This title identified social and economic prominence rather than their noble origins—even so, the distinction is worth highlighting. Considering the urban aristocracy, made up of municipal and crown officials in the city of Coimbra, their sociological makeup is markedly different. As such, it is necessary to quantify the prevalence of the almoxarifes in the parish of Santiago and the alferes in the parish of Santa Justa.20 These can be identified through the binding of the patrimony of the families of these officials to the same church, across different generations.

Despite the prior discussion regarding the residence of the court of the first Portuguese king in Coimbra, with the expansion of Christian territory to the south, the cities on the banks of the River Tagus such as Lisbon and Santarém took on great urban contextual importance. As such, they were often chosen for the residences of the court. In fact, from the middle of the thirteenth century, the court and the royal family can be seen to lose interest in, and distance themselves from, the Mondego region. The cessation of the civil war of 1245–1248, fought over the succession of the throne, and in which Coimbra had supported the defeated side, proved to be a decisive moment for this change (Ventura 2009, pp. 87–100). Later, however, the royal family would often choose Coimbra as the stage for important ceremonies of political affirmation and, between 1415 and 1449, this city was the head of an important duchy, given to one of the king’s sons (Coelho 2002; Moreno 1984).

Although the royal family’s connection to Coimbra weakened from the second half of the thirteenth century, officials and servants from the households of the monarchs and of the royal children can be located here throughout the Late Middle Ages. These were the people responsible for the service of, and supply to, the court during a royal stay in Coimbra—they were also parishioners of these churches and were buried therein, with roles such as regueifeiras,21 aposentadores,22 and chamber doormen.23

Originating from outside these parishes, there are two notable individuals whose uniqueness justify special mention: the first, a treasurer of Queen Isabel I (1288–1325) (Campos 2020a, p. 117 (1314.05.11)), the wife of King Denis (1279–1325), who founded an anniversary in the church of São Bartolomeu (Campos 2020a, p. 117); and secondly, a squire of the Infanta Branca (1259–1321), daughter of King Afonso III, who founded a chapel in Santa Justa. In the second case, as has been studied in other works, the connection and relationship with this princess would have factually been most transitory and distant—since the aforementioned Lady spent most of her life in Castile—that only the projection of individual and family prestige explains reference to her by the squire when founding his family chapel (Ventura 2009, pp. 250–55; Campos 2016).

Merchants and artisans were the next most socially prominent groups recorded in celebratory ceremonies in their respective parishes. The former are especially present in Santiago,24 whilst the latter are spread across all three parishes. They include tailors (male and female),25 butchers,26 leather processors, and shoemakers.27 These individuals represent professions associated with the transformation of materials and the production and sale of more expensive objects, but occasional members of more modest groups, such as the cirieiras (female candlemakers, lit. ‘chandlers’),28 can be found. In a smaller group, both male and female tendeiros (storekeepers) who were responsible for small businesses have been identified.29 In Santa Justa, the bequests of almuinheiros also show their relevance as they were noted founding ceremonies that benefited from shared inheritances.30

From the twelfth century, people within these parishes in Coimbra were known to have formed brotherhoods that were associated with, and gave support to, artisans and masons (Coelho 2020). In contemporary Portuguese society, merchants or artisans did not organize themselves in guilds or professional corporations, but the association of people sharing the same profession in spiritual fraternities or brotherhoods around parochial churches was commonplace (Rocha 2021). The role of these associations was important not only in providing relief to fellow tradesfolk during the difficulties they may face, but above all, in guaranteeing support and assistance on the day of their funeral and subsequent suffrage ceremonies. These ceremonies were to be held in the medium and long term. In Santiago, ten anniversaries were to be celebrated in perpetuity for the souls of the confreres of the Alfaiates (Tailors) Hospital in exchange for a payment that is, unfortunately, not clearly defined.31

There are also men and women who dedicated their lives to the service of the city’s clerics: whether they were the servants of the priors and portioners of the collegiate churches,32 the servants of the dignitaries of the cathedral,33 the bishop (Campos 2020a, pp. 94, 100, 152), or even secular officials who served the economic administration—such as the prebendeiros (officials responsible for receiving the rents for a year)—of the Cathedral and of the Monastery of Santa Cruz who founded suffrage ceremonies in the church of Santa Justa.34

The vast majority of those remembered in these churches belonged to their respective parishes; as identified in other cities in Europe, such as Paris and London (Harding 2006, p. 38), these parish communities considered their church to be the central nucleus and privileged pole of attraction for their investment in salvation. For this reason, it was there that they were buried, and it was to their chapters that they entrusted the main suffrage ceremonies. However, there is also a minority group made up of ‘outsiders’.

When considering these people, it should be noted that there are two trends that justify the choice of these churches for the ceremonies. The first is based on the fact that some individuals have relationships of familiarity or friendship with members of its chapter,35 or have themselves belonged to that institution in the past.36 The second concerns a narrower tranche of individuals who, enjoying greater financial resources, instructed their suffrage to be spread across the city’s different churches. Amongst this latter group, the primary focus falls on clerics, such as dignitaries and canons of the Cathedral of Coimbra and other dioceses, bishops, and likewise, clergymen of other churches.

As an example of this tendency, Estêvão Peres, canon of the Cathedral, can be highlighted, as he founded twelve anniversaries in São Bartolomeu and eleven in Santiago.37 Furthermore, in the parish of São Bartolomeu, the bishop of Viseu, João Peres (1179–1192), and Pedro (1296–1301), the bishop of Coimbra, were commemorated.38 Considering portioners of the collegiate churches of Coimbra being commemorated in other churches, João Esteves, a member of Santiago, founded an anniversary in São Bartolomeu (Campos 2020a, p. 158). Lay people could also be found in that position, as was the case of Domingas Peres, a seamstress, who was buried in the Monastery of São Domingos (parish of Santa Justa), but ordered the celebration of an anniversary in Santiago (Santos 2018, p. 205).

4.2. Ceremonies Founded for the Salvation of the Soul

Funerals and suffrage ceremonies could vary greatly in their type, duration, solemnity, and both civil and institutional participation in proportion to the investment each person made when defining and establishing their instructions. The period immediately after death included a funeral procession accompanying the body to the church, a wake, prayers of suffrage, and burial at the final destination chosen for the body.39 The entire parish was invited to take part in these events, including blood relatives, but also compadres,40 brothers and sisters from the brotherhoods, clergy from the parish church, and others who had been called upon and duly accounted for. From the religious orders, the calling of the participation of mendicant friars is clearly noted, as seen in other European regions (Lawrence 2013, pp. 116–20).41 Because of their suffering during earthly life, the poor and the sick were called upon, on the basis that their prayers were important intercessions for salvation. To this end, they could be given clothes, in addition to the customary bread, wine, and other foodstuffs distributed amongst funeral attendants.42 These behaviors are recognizable in Coimbra, as throughout Western Christianity, where they have been studied over the last few decades.

When narrowing the study to consider only the perpetual foundations instituted in the three analyzed parishes, three types are evidenced: chapels, anniversaries, and that of lamps maintained in specified illumination. Since the documentary sample under study is typologically different for each of the parishes, the volume of each kind should not be compared. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that eleven chapels were identified in Santa Justa, two in São Bartolomeu and four in Santiago.43 These institutions could take on very heterogeneous characteristics, depending on the heritage that supported them, and the indications or instructions given by their founders: they could be material or incorporeal, they could be given in prayer, be it daily, monthly, or only on the dates of deaths and on some festivities of the year, and they could furthermore have their own implements and vestments.44

Despite being a part of the parish environment and under its pastoral care, these foundations were institutions in their own right, as conferred by their founding document—usually the will—which could contain a range of detailed regulations (Rosa 2012, pp. 25–53). The attached patrimony had to be zealously cared for, such that the dignity of the office of the dead would serve its founders and heirs.45 There was a common element amongst all of them: a chaplain in charge of its pastoral elements and an administrator in charge of its material management. The wills are not always specific about the choice of administrator, but it is evident that it could be one of the heads of the church’s chapter, a relative or friend of the founder—usually their executor—or the brotherhood to which they belonged during their lifetime.46 The choice of the prior of the collegiate church would guarantee stricter compliance with the stipulations (Campos 2016), but the appointment of an heir,47 husband, wife, or other entity from outside the church could guarantee more impartial supervision.48

In the choice of the dedication of these chapels, devotions to different patron saints make themselves obvious—São Salvador, Santa Maria, Todos os Santos, Santo Ildefonso, and Santo André—which are strong indicators of the religiosity and spirituality of the individuals who made up the parish community. Likewise, in addition to the choice of the day of death for the celebration of anniversaries for the soul, other days in the festive calendar were also chosen to commemorate the dead: in these particular parishes, the Marian feasts are frequently invoked,49 but Christmas, Easter, Corpus Christi,50 Michaelmas, and the Nativity of St John the Baptist are also recorded.51

The anniversaries stipulated in the chapels or, in isolation, on different days of the year, were usually marked with a Requiem Mass, either prayed or chanted, in the chapel or elsewhere, as dictated by its founder, followed by a procession with a cross, holy water, responsa, and incense to the grave.52 However, these ceremonies could take on other characteristics, such as the celebration of all the canonical hours of that day or the inclusion of nocturnes and litanies in their prayers. In the calendar of São Bartolomeu, the many marginal annotations regarding the number of readings to be made highlight that these celebrations changed over time, according to the practices of the church (Campos 2020a, pp. 39–50). In addition to the chaplains, who were responsible for the chapels, the clerics who attended their celebrations were duly remunerated with the distributions provided for in the wills and calendars of Masses. For the founders, the suitability and dignity of these clerics would be a major concern, and some would make this abundantly clear in their founding deeds.53

Estêvão Peres, canon of the Cathedral of Coimbra, left explicit instructions regarding his monthly celebration in the collegiate churches of São Bartolomeu and Santiago, during which, three specific prayers were to be said.54 It is unsurprising that a cleric would choose the prayers with which he wanted to be commemorated, and it is similarly understandable that this group would be more demanding in specifics whilst having a more ready provision to bequeath liturgical implements and books.55 It should not, however, be assumed that only the ecclesiastics did this—in fact, the foundation of chapels with more demanding and detailed characteristics (in terms of the number and nature of religious precepts contained therein) could equally belong to the laity, revealing a great porosity between the secular and ecclesiastical worlds, and a genuine transfer of religious understanding and practices.

This transfer of knowledge and convention between the two worlds can clearly be seen when wills of laypeople who, for professional or family reasons, were close to the ecclesiastical world are analyzed. This is the case of Pedro Domingues Corpo Santo, brother of a canon of Santa Justa (Campos 2016), and João Peres Verlim (Campos 2020b), a merchant and prebendary of the Cathedral of Coimbra, who founded the Chapel of Santa Maria in the church of Santa Justa with his wife. In fact, the chapels founded by both men stand out in the pastoral context of this church for the frequency with which they organized ceremonies. The celebration of daily mass, the daily office of the canonical hours, and solemn masses with processions to the graves on various feasts of the year represented an impressive liturgical program when compared to other chapels of the same period.

In the case of Pero Domingues, the choice of prayers to be said daily in his chapel also contrasts with the general practice of the time and demonstrates his knowledge of these religious precepts.56 The mastery that the tabeliães (notaries) show over these matters is also highly significant as it leads to an understanding that, because they were agents both of writing and authenticating the documentation of last wills—whilst also often working for ecclesiastical clients—they acquired greater knowledge and sensitivity about the religious cult of the dead, also clarifying why wills are among the most detailed documents in the studied sample.57

Moreover, as in other regions of Europe, such as northern Germany (Rüther 2010), the concerns of the city’s elites to perpetuate their memory can be seen, in ceremonies as numerous and solemn as possible, guaranteeing the acceptance and even admiration of the rest of the population. For example, there are chapels founded by the alvazis,58 alferes, and almoxarifes, which tended to be held daily and possess remarkable heritage both in Santa Justa and Santiago.59 Likewise, numerous anniversaries can be noted throughout the year for these men and their families, so that their social and political prominence in the given urban environment was more difficult to expunge.60

An analysis of the data studied shows that the office of chapels and anniversaries occupied the daily service in each of these parish churches, complementing parish pastoral care and the framework of celebrations in the liturgical calendar followed in Coimbra. Finally, it should also be remembered that not only lay parishioners, but also priors and portioners of these churches founded lamps, bequeathing olive groves so that the oil they produced would allow for one or more flames to be kept alight at all times. These lamps could invoke the memory of the souls of their founders, family members, or a specific devotion, such as Corpus Christi.61 In turn, they could be placed in the respective chapels, on specific altars inside the church,62 or even in the parish albergaria,63 in the hope of receiving the privileged prayers of both the poor and the pilgrims who took shelter there.64

4.3. What Survives after Death? The Communities Celebrated in the Parishes of Coimbra

Considering all that has been examined thus far, the answer to the question that introduces this sub-chapter ‘What survives after death?’ would be that: the names of the men and women who were commemorated, the invocations of the saints and devotions of their predilection, and the practice of continuous and repeated prayer over the months and years, all endure. Focusing on more tangible aspects in each of these churches however, the tombs or shallow graves in which the deceased were laid to rest survive in the churchyards, cemeteries, and cloisters, as well as the altars that were erected in memoriam. In the event that everything proceeded as the founders wished, the movable and immovable material assets that were used to administer and maintain the ceremonies in perpetuity also survived. Given the object and context of study, many other perspectives of investigation could be pursued—it would be of interest, for example, to analyze the longevity of the foundations and the evolution of commemorative practices through a comparison of these data with modern records. Unfortunately, the ever-present necessity of brevity and punctuality mean that these further avenues cannot be included at this juncture.

Notwithstanding, the opportunity still arises to deepen the inquisitorial analysis of the institution of these ceremonies, providing a more profound understanding of the interpersonal relationships whose records also survive—and therefore provide illustrative evidence of the shaping of these parish communities. In most cases, these ceremonies were founded by the people they commemorated. In Santa Justa, 59% of the recorded ceremonies of identified founders were instituted by the commemorated themselves, whilst in São Bartolomeu, this figure reaches 72%.65 Otherwise, when the sources permit a further elucidation, the secular population reveals that amongst its demographic spread, commemorations could be founded by mothers, widows, and widowers, sons or daughters and, indeed, siblings.66 In fact, the relationships of biological or spiritual familiarity were the most frequently invoked in these circumstances. Naturally, many of these individuals founded the ceremonies as related family members and executors of wills. The executor of the will was responsible for enacting the last will and testament, ensuring compliance with the clauses set within and then guaranteeing their maintenance. For this reason, it was normal for the choice of testators to rely on family members. Even so, the responsibility would often have been given to ecclesiastics, with whom other close relationships were built.67

With regard to lay parishioners, it is important to highlight the solidarity between individuals who shared the same trade and who would, on occasion, choose to jointly invest in a particular asset. This communal property could then be bequeathed, engendering the suffrage of the souls of more than one professional and their respective families. In these cases, it was normal for the choice of executor to rest with the bereaved and a professional colleague, guaranteeing that the assets acquired would ensure the commemoration of the souls of the group. Whilst this mechanism is not always easy to discern, it was nonetheless recognized in a group of shoemakers in Santiago and a group of almuinheiros in Santa Justa.68

Likewise, considering the grouping of ecclesiastics, the intervention of family members such as aunts, nephews, and nieces, and other individuals simply identified as ‘executors’, can be seen. The choice of an executor revealed the utmost trust in someone and, in the collegiate bodies of Coimbra—as in other similar institutions from Central Europe, such as the collegiate of Saint-Germain d’Auxerrois de Paris (Massoni 2009, p. 301)—it was normal for this decision to lead to a fellow member of the chapter. However, there were also many members of these collegiate bodies who selected their family members or even individuals from outside the church and familial relationships as their executors, revealing a great closeness to the surrounding secular parish universe (Campos 2017, pp. 268–72).

The duration of these chapels and anniversaries proves the effectiveness (or indeed failure) of the management of inheritances, which, at first, would be directly attributed to the executors and, subsequently, to those who, for a multitude of possible reasons, inherited this function. As already mentioned, the duration cannot be exhaustively examined in this paper. However, in this context, it is worth mentioning that, in 1369, two brothers handed over a yard and some ruined houses to the collegiate church of Santa Justa for the souls of those who had bequeathed these assets in the past for the construction of a hospital.69 The first donors are neither named nor identified, but the brothers state that they would be unable to rebuild this pious foundation and that instead, and for this reason, the anniversaries would be of greater benefit to the souls of its founders. In this case, neither the name of the deceased nor their intended pious foundation survived. The invocation of their memory depended on the association with the assets providing a material legacy, which the aforementioned brothers would—and should—have been responsible for managing.

5. Final Reflections

This research sought to analyze the practices of commemorating the dead in three parishes in Coimbra during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in detail. To this end, all the documents produced and preserved in the respective parish churches were examined, with a view to the management of this aspect of parish life. Thus, a global characterization of the cult of the dead was presented, with the aim of demonstrating the extraordinary intervention of the laity in the enrichment of parish pastoral care in this Portuguese city. Moreover, the way in which the populace related to each other—showing solidarity in order to be integrated into this enormous plan for eternal life, reinforcing family, collegial, and social ties of interdependency, cementing the bonds of the urban and parish community—was also explored and elaborated.

Answering the questions set out in the introduction, it has been shown that it is possible to characterize parish communities through the documentation that was analyzed. Furthermore, in the documentary collections from which they came, the studied texts are especially prolific in providing information about the social and familial origins of their sponsors, as well as the relationships of trust and solidarity they established. Thus, like no other, they allow for a reconstitution of the social fabric and structures on which these communities were based. Naturally, they cannot give a global perception of the entire parish population, but they certainly make it easier to identify those who, with greater financial resources, linked their inheritance and their posthumous memory to the parish church. The communities discerned in this way are therefore made up of ecclesiastics and lay parishioners with more significant incomes and social influence.

In general, it was also possible to recognize close relationships between elements of the two ‘worlds’—secular and ecclesiastical—usually based on familiarity and service. Through the founding of chapels, anniversaries, and lamps, a vivid intervention by the laity in enriching parish pastoral care was highlighted, detailed in varying complexity within their wills and donations. However, the long-term administration of these foundations tended to fall to the heads of the respective churches. When comparing the three parishes, it became clear that their strategies for commemorating the dead were generally identical. However, as shown, the ways in which each church managed the documentation and records relating to the assets assigned to the foundations for the suffrage of the soul were quite different. In this sense, the differences in the type of data analyzed make it difficult to make a more precise comparison.

As viewed through the lens of a historical perspective, it can be seen that the communities commemorated in these churches mainly belonged to the groups that would later make up the city’s bourgeoisie, such as those linked to commerce and the local government. Nonetheless, less wealthy groups organized amongst themselves in order to perpetuate their memory and ensure the suffrage of their souls, with these folk using varied mechanisms of solidarity to ensure their everlasting salvation. When considering the most striking relationships in terms of the parishioners organizing within the flock to create a memorial, family ties present a multiplicity of uniqueness. Therein, love would touchingly survive after death, whilst entwining the creation of a generational connection to the administration of the wherewithal—some material, permanent property—which was used to support these foundations.

The cult of the dead occupied a significant number of clerics in these churches, and during the fourteenth century, the emergence of chaplains specifically dedicated to this function can be noted. Investing in the commemoration and suffrage of the soul was a concern of both laypeople and clerics, with individuals usually placing their foundations in the churches of their parish, or in churches where they knew and trusted certain clerics. If the precepts stipulated by these men and women were duly complied with, the founding of ceremonies, of varied complexity and numerousness, made up a calendar rich in crafts and multifaceted in the ceremonies and devotions that filled the daily lives of the living. These commemorations invoked family ancestors and former professional colleagues, likewise representatives of local government who—as far as they could afford it—avoided oblivion and, in some way, contributed to building a profile of suitability and prestige for their living counterparts. In this diverse and plural calendar, full of names, devotions, festivals, and other memories, different generations of the parish—interconnected by family and professional and spiritual relationships—survived in the faith of eternity.