Untitled

166 Chapter 3
Probably it was that or nothing until around this time. Bishops
may have granted dispensations readily in straightforward cases;
in cases where several ‘bigamies’ were involved, there may have
been nothing to be done. For whatever reason, in the early sixteenth
century characters like Five-Wife Francis (Document 3. 11)
started going to the top and asked the Penitentiary. In his case
his multiple ‘bigamies’ would probably have made a dispensation
from the bishop impossible. Even in milder cases like our second
one (Document 3. 12) the petitioner probably came to the Pentitentiary
because he had failed with the bishop or knew he had no
chance. The question of why these cases start to appear is in any
case unimportant for the immediate purpose.
‘Five-Wife Francis’, Franciscus Sola from Gerona, had successively
married no fewer than five women after becoming a cleric:
three virgins and two widows. Nevertheless, he asked for a dispensation.
Pedro Martorel of Barcelona was only a double bigamist, so
to speak. He had married a virgin after becoming a widower, then
after her death he had married a widow.
These two cases also imply that a bigamous cleric in minor orders
lost more than just immunity from secular prosecution. To scrutinize
the formulae: Five-Wife Francis asked that he might use all the
‘privileges, graces, concessions, and indults [omnibus et singulis privilegiis,
gratiis, concessionibus et indultis]’ enjoyed by clerics who are
married for the first time, to a woman who had been a virgin before
marriage. Pedro Martorel’s list is a little longer: he wants to use ‘all
privileges, immunities, exemptions, graces, favours, concessions,
pre-eminences, liberties, and indults [omnibus et singulis privilegiis,
immunitatibus, exemptionibus, gratiis, favoribus concessionibus, preeminentiis,
libertatibus et indultis]’ of such clerics. These formulae
suggest that the advantages of clerical status even for married men
in minor orders were multiple, and extended well beyond immunity
from secular criminal prosecution.
duas habuit uxores, sed mortua prima in cognita [fo. 36v] nonestbigamus...≈ Qui
cum virgine contraxit si eam post adulterium cognovit . . . ≈ Qui infra sacros ordines
de facto contraxit . . . [≈] Qui post votum castitatis emisssum professione regulari
contenta de facto matrimonium contraxit. . . . ≈ In istis quinque casibus bigamie
episcopus potest dispensare: in minoribus ordinibus tantum, propter necessitatem:
xxiiii. Di. Lator [sic ms. in error] (probably Gratian, Pars I, D. 34, c. 18) et c.
Si subditus [sic ms. in error] (probably Gratian, Pars I, D. 34, c. 17). Et Di. prima
Placuit [not found]’ (MS Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Vat. Lat. 3994,
fo. 36r–v).