RRR: Agreement/treaty
1877
year: 1221
initiator: Dominus Jacobus Acconensis episcopus and his canons
recipient: Garinus de Monte Acuto, master of the Hospital of St John
institution: Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem
text: May 1-31. Damietta. In the presence of Cardinal Pelagius of Albano, the papal legate, the dominus Jacobus Acconensis episcopus and his canons and frater Guarinus de Monte Acuto magister Hospitalis agree to end the disputes between the bishop and his canons and the magister and brothers of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem. (1) The bishop sought the payment of twentieths [half tithes] on 2 vineyards, one next to the town, the other a large vineyard that was planted by frater Americus de Pax beyond the garden belonging to St Mary of the Latins. An earlier charter of agreement had specified that twentieths should be paid to the bishop by the Hospitallers on the grain grown on land cultivated by them; and since payment had been paid to his predecessors of a twentieth of the grain crop on the greater vineyard that was now planted with vines, payment should be made on the wine. With respect to the other vineyard next to the city, the twentieth ought to be paid because although in the charter payment was to be made for grain, wine was not specifically excepted, and so ought to be included in the agreement. The magister and brothers of the Hospital of St John argued that they were not bound to pay twentieths on vineyards, first because grain and not wine was referred to in the charter and secondly because, although they were subject to canon law, they had the privilege of exemption from the payment of tithes. When, after being granted that privilege, an agreement was made to pay twentieths on grain, only grain was mentioned and no other produce, and payment now would seem to prejudice their rights. They were not bound to pay twentieths on the vineyard which is next to the town, because they were exempt by the charter from paying tithes on anything other than grain and grain had never been grown there. It had been a garden and tithes were not paid on gardens. (2) The bishop claimed a quarter of everything left intestate to the Hospital in the city of Acre, on the basis of a decretal of Pope Innocent [III]. The Hospitallers stated that their churches were immune from any episcopal yoke or service and enjoyed the fullest freedom and because of that immunity they were not bound to pay the quarter of intestate goods; and they were anyway protected by forty-year prescriptive right. (3) The bishop maintained that the brother chaplains and others ought not to visit his parishioners to confer the divine sacraments, unless the Hospital paid that quarter of intestate goods to the church of the Holy Cross, and he wanted to prohibit the brother chaplains and others in the city of Acre from preaching sermons in the churches of the Hospital. The Hospitallers replied that the churches of the Hospital ought to have the right to organize visitations and that the brother chaplains and others ought to hear confessions and take the body of Christ and go to the sick with a cross and enjoin penance on them in whatever parish of Acre they wanted, without seeking permission from the bishop of Acre, and to preach in Hospital’s churches and cemetery. The two parties now agreed the following. (1) The Hospitallers will pay the bishop of Acre the twentieths on the two vineyards, but will give nothing relating to the trees in the vineyards or to the fruit of the trees. Nothing will be paid from the produce of gardens, if those gardens are converted into vineyards, but payment ought to be made on uncultivated and deserted lands if vineyards are planted on them. (2) The bishop of Acre and the canons remit to the Hospitallers the quarter of intestate goods left to the churches of the Hospital in full and perpetual freedom. (3) The conventual prior of the Hospital and the other chaplains in the Hospital’s churches or cemetery can preach whenever they want to do so, but they cannot advertise their sermons on fixed days. They can visit the sick with cross and procession and hear their confessions in whatever parish they wish or in the house of the Hospital and bring them the Body of Christ and enjoin penance on them and provide those who choose burial with them with other sacraments. And since it is the office of the brothers of the Hospital to receive the bodies of the dead and the sick from the squares in the city and to bury the dead, they can bury them, unless they desire burial elsewhere, and they can transport the sick to their house whenever they wish to do so, unless the infirm themselves prohibit it. The gifts, alms, oblations, legacies and intestate goods received by the the Hospital, whether from those who choose, or do not choose, burial, and whether from pilgrims or parishioners, shall belong to the Hospital. When the brother chaplains and others of the Hospital and the chaplains of the bishop of Acre visit the sick they should advise them to make benefactions to the cathedral church of the Holy Cross and the house of the Hospital after their death, if they should so wish, before they are buried. The bishop of Acre will ordain the clerics presented to him by the conventual prior of the Hospital, as long as they have licence from their bishops and as long as the Order promises by letters patent, which the bishop will keep, that they will provide livelihood for these clerics in perpetuity. Cardinal Pelagius of Albano, Jacobus Acconensis episcopus and frater Guarinus de Monte Acuto Hospitalis magister confirm the agreement and affix their seals. Witnesses: of the canons of the church of Acre, Constancius decanus; Pelagius archydiaconus; Johannes precentor; Nicolaus thesaurarius, Anselmus; of the brothers of the Hospital of St John, frater Ferraudus de Barraz marescalcus; frater Golferius preceptor; frater Henricus hospitalarius; frater Poncius Boschant drapperius. [324]
May 1-31. Damietta. In the presence of Cardinal Pelagius of Albano, the papal legate, the dominus Jacobus Acconensis episcopus and his canons and frater Guarinus de Monte Acuto magister Hospitalis agree to end the disputes between the bishop and his canons and the magister and brothers of the... more
sources: Delaville Le Roulx, Cart Hosp 2:286-8, no. 1718 (RRH no. 945)