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3. Birth

Birth and Baptism

 

In Aragon's Jiloca valley, as in most Christian countries in the sixteenth century, newborns entered the community in two separate steps. First, of course, one had to be born; but shortly thereafter, one had to be baptized. 1 Baptism dedicated the child to God, and also exorcized any demons that might be about. Since all in the Jiloca valley were baptized, whether old Christian or "newly converted," legitimate or foundling, 2 the parish record of baptisms leaves us with an accounting of births in this time period.
 1

Names

 

Part of baptism's ritual of acceptance was giving the child his or her own name. Names in the Jiloca valley were generally chosen from a limited group: Juan, Miguel, Maria, Ana, and several others. 3 In some other parts of sixteenth-century Spain, choosing from a limited number of names was a pattern among Moriscos; the name, and possibly the baptism, were a pro forma ritual within an Arabic-speaking community. 4 This pattern might hold for some places in Granada and Valencia, but in Aragon's villages, like Baguena and Burbaguena, old Christians and new converts alike chose from the same limited number of names. Christian names, in fact, had been adopted generally by the Muslims of Aragon in the fourteenth century, as knowledge of Arabic declined among the population there. 5 Christian first names, which might have seemed strange to Arabic speakers in Valencia and Granada, were familiar to the "newly converted" in Aragon.
 

This is not to say that name choices in Baguena and Burbaguena were unchanging, with no relationship to what was happening in the villages. In the earlier decades in Baguena, for example, there were two Valentins and two Valentinas, one of whom was actually found at the doorstep of the hermitage of San Valentin within the town. By the early 1600s, San Valentin had been given to the Franciscans to use as a convent, 6 and there were no children in Baguena named after the patron saint of the now defunct hermitage. At times, names also reflected events beyond the local community. In both Baguena and Burbaguena, Librada, a name that did not appear at all in the early decades, became a popular girl's name in Aragon's stormy 1590s, with five Libradas baptized in Burbaguena and another five in Baguena.
 

What the names did not reflect is also of interest. Children were not invariably named after their parents. Generally, one of the sons in a family had the same first name as his father, but there was certainly no pattern of firstborn sons being named after their fathers, and we might even attribute the repeated use of the father's name in the next generation more to the fact that a limited number of names were used in these villages. Nor do children appear to have been regularly named after their godparents. 7 In fact, a child having the same name as one of the godparents was the exception rather than the rule, even in Burbaguena in the 1550s, when there were typically two sets of godparents. 8
 

Baptism at Home

 

The ceremony of baptism, which not only gave the child his own name but also welcomed him into the community, was usually performed in the church by the parish priest. It was not, however, necessary to have a priest perform the baptism, and anyone could baptize a child that was in immediate danger of death. 9 In fact, a number of children in Baguena and Burbaguena were baptized at home because they were in danger of death.
 5

We should examine any non-standard baptism if our intention is to investigate the treatment of new Christians in the Jiloca valley, because controversy about baptism is a significant part of Morisco history. One of the questions in this history, and one which is particularly apt for the early sixteenth century, concerns the validity of forced conversion. Was a former non-Christian who had been baptized against his will truly a Christian? The medieval Inquisition had been instructed by the pope to treat all relapsed Jews and Muslims as heretics. The implication here was that baptism was valid, even if administered by force. Scholastics had drawn a line between conditional and absolute coercion, and this distinction had made it possible to think about the validity of coerced baptism, even though Albert the Great had argued that a protest uttered at the time of the baptism would invalidate the sacrament, and Duns Scotus held that internal opposition had the same negating effect. The entire argument had its roots in the early centuries of the Donatist controversy, but puzzled Spaniards, more concerned about practice than theory, convened in 1524, at Inquisitor General Manrique's behest, to debate the matter, eventually deciding that the sacrament was valid even if the baptized did not desire baptism. 10 This decision was a necessary precursor to mass baptisms of Moriscos. In The Moriscos of Spain, Henry Charles Lea describes Spanish Muslims as cowering under tables, trying to avoid being sprinkled with water, and later attempting to wash off the oil used as part of the ceremony.
 

But this extreme behavior does not seem to have been characteristic of Aragonese Muslims or of the "newly converted" of the Jiloca valley. In Burbaguena, new Christian children were brought regularly to the parish church to be baptized; when they were in mortal danger, these children of the newly converted were promptly baptized at home. Could claiming home baptism be one way to avoid actually having a child baptized? It is certainly possible, but the parish priest, who lived closely with the families involved, did not seem to exhibit any concern about this possibility. Of the seventeen home baptisms in Burbaguena in the last part of the sixteenth century, three were within new Christian families: Juan Agredenyo, who was baptized immediately at birth, 11 Juan de Burios, and Juan Mezot. The priest made no adverse comments about these three home baptisms. They were accepted, just as the home baptisms of old Christian children were.
 

We know, in fact, that these baptisms were accepted without question because there was a case in which the parish priest was concerned about a home baptism. This was the baptism of Jayme Pelayo in 1587. Jayme, whose parents already had two daughters, was baptized by one Antonia Guajardo, who was not a member of the Pelayo household. Antonia, in fact, was originally a resident of Baguena. Her own daughter, Ana, was born there in 1569. As for Jayme's baptism, the parish priest notes that Antonia herself performed the rite, and that she herself held the child as the water was poured out. The priest questioned her "carefully," perhaps because she was, after all, an outsider from another village, and then, satisfied, solemnized the baptism in the parish church. 12
 

That the parish priest could examine Antonia concerning her performance of the baptismal rite tells us that there was an accepted way to perform the ceremony, a way that might not be known to all. The parish priest in Burbaguena must have taught some of the faithful of his parish how to baptize properly, and it is possible that the possession of knowledge of how to perform a baptism increased the likelihood that a child would be baptized at home. In fact, if we examine the records of home baptisms in both Baguena and Burbaguena, we find the same adult names repeated. (See Table 1) In Burbaguena, Juana Royo was the godmother and, we presume, performed the baptism, for three of the children baptized at home: Antonia Blas, Pedro de Bernegal, and Martin Royo. Miguel de Bernagal, the father of one of these children, was later godfather to Mathias Garcia, baptized at home. Ana Pardo, mother of the baptized-at-home Tomas Segura, was godmother to Juan Mezot, baptized at home the following year. Catalina Navarro was both godmother and baptizer for Maria de Heredia in 1568; the following year her own daughter, Margarita Frances, was baptized at home. This pattern holds for Baguena as well as Burbaguena: there, Tomas Gil, who baptized Maria Gil at home for her father, Juan, in 1605, later had his own Maria baptized at home. Having an experienced "lay baptizer" in one's immediate family, or among one's friends, increased the possibility that one's child would be baptized at home.
 

In Baguena and Burbaguena, both old Christians and the "newly converted" brought their children to the priest for baptism, with old Christians often acting as godparents for the children of the converts. More importantly, when the infants were in danger of death, both groups voluntarily baptized their children themselves, later solemnizing the sacrament in the church. Even those new to the town, like Antonia Guajardo, were eager to participate in the ceremony of baptism.
 10

Births and Population

 

The baptismal record appears to give us a fairly complete record of births in Baguena (Figure 1) and Burbaguena (Figure 2). The counts for each village rise and fall together for most of the period, diverging only in the early seventeenth century, when the Moriscos were expelled from Aragon; at this point, births in Baguena continued to increase, while those in Burbaguena, as we might expect, given its larger Morisco population, fell off somewhat.
 

The number of births, however, means little without knowledge of the total population of each town. When we examine existing records, the birth counts for Baguena and Burbaguena are puzzling. A census ordered by the Aragonese Cortes of Tarazona, in 1495, recorded Baguena's population at 53 households and Burbaguena's at 105. 13 In 1542 and again in 1547, the Aragonese Cortes ordered a count of households for tax purposes. This mid-century count, once again, gives the population of Baguena as 53 households and that of Burbaguena as 105. 14 If these census counts were accurate, neither village gained any population during a full half-century. Moreover, if the counts were accurate, the birth rate in Baguena was .5 per household per year, while that of Burbaguena was closer to .35 per household per year. It seems odd that one village would be so much more fertile than the other. One way we might check the official population figures would be to utilize the information provided by parish records.
 

Throughout Spain—indeed, throughout the Christian world after the Council of Trent—parish priests were required to keep five books in which they recorded the parish's participation in the sacraments. In Spain, parochial record-keeping began prior to Trent; the Synod of Talavera, summoned by Cisneros in 1498, obliged parish priests to keep records of all baptisms, and other dioceses throughout Spain followed the lead of the city of Toledo. Bishop Berenguer de Pau issued a similar order in 1502 for Gerona; Seville was required to keep records from 1512 forward; Valencia, from 1548; and Saragossa, from 1542. 15 Prior to these episcopal orders, whether to keep records was a choice made at the parish level. In the Jiloca region, which, in the sixteenth century, was part of the Archdiocese of Saragossa, the systematic recording of births, deaths, and marriages began even earlier than the archbishop's mandate. The registers for Burbaguena date back to 1538, and registers for as early as 1515 occur in the region. 16
 

Since records of births, deaths, and marriages were required to be kept in the parish registers, these records are of principal interest to demographers, but parishes also recorded who received the sacraments of confession and communion. 17 In the Archdiocese of Saragossa, priests were required to record which parishioners made the Easter duty; in fact, in the second half of the sixteenth century, parish priests kept separate tallies for old Christian and new Christian parishioners. In both Baguena and Burbaguena, these Easter duty lists were kept by household. In Burbaguena in 1581, the parish priest recorded all who made their Easter duty in this way. The first name of each individual is given, as well as his or her place within the family; servants are identified by their occupation. There were 178 old Christian households and 33 new Christian households, containing 156 new Christian individuals. The tally included servants and shepherds who lived with the family; in once case, the priest specified that the shepherds within a new Christian household were indeed "newly converted" too. 18 For Burbaguena, then, the count of 211 households in 1581 confirms that official counts in this period were less than accurate. With higher population figures, the birth rate becomes .17 per household per year.
 

If Baguena was similar to Burbaguena, with a birth rate of .17/household/year, then, looking at the recorded births, we would expect a population of about 146 households, instead of the reported 53. But, if we go to the Easter duty records for 1581 in Baguena, we find exactly 53 households. This Easter duty list, however, in comparison with that of Burbaguena, is perfunctory: it lists an individual, "his wife," "his child," and for servants simply "youth" or mozo. No first names are included, except for heads of households. 19
 15

Is there another way to approximate the population of Baguena? In this same year, 1581, a number of children in Baguena were confirmed. The list of those confirmed is considerably more detailed than the Easter list. It includes the name of each child, his or her father and mother, and the child's sponsor. If we begin with this list, and check it against the births and marriages recorded in the parish, we count 576 individuals. This is, however, an incomplete list. It neglects:
 

  1. Those young people who had already been confirmed but had not yet married—those from, say, 15 to 26 or 27; 

  2. Those who had only older children, or who never had children (that is, unless they acted as sponsor for a child being confirmed and could be located in at least one other parish record); and 

  3. Servants, shepherds and others in the household not related to the head of the household.
 

Moreover, if we begin with the confirmation list, we can see the family unit, but we do not know how many households there were in Baguena. In the Jiloca valley, the relationship between nuclear family and household was far from one-to-one. Widowed parents often joined their married children; young widowers and widows with children were likely to live with another adult. If, ignoring these difficulties, we count the "productive couples" of Baguena's parish registers (See Table 2.) we find 130 of these pairs. 20 Anton Cutando and Antonia Guajardo, our lay baptizer, were living in Burbaguena in 1581, reducing the total count to 129. Admittedly, this is an estimate. Several of the marriages recorded in Baguena did not yield baptisms in later years, and out-migration is one possible explanation. Moreover, we know of at least one officially non-productive household—that of the parish priest. 21 Nonetheless, our approximation has yielded some worthwhile information. It has confirmed the claim that the censuses of this time period were not so much population counts as negotiated agreements between agents of the king and those in power locally. 22 Moreover, we can say that, at least for these two villages in the Jiloca valley, real population was substantially higher than the censuses indicate. 23
 20

Childhood

 

Birth and baptism brought new members into the community. But these children did not participate fully in community life; we might consider them as apprentice members of the community. Childhood in these villages was a time when young people saw how members of the community interacted with one another. Whether they were old Christian or "newly converted," children attended school in the community, played with other children their own age, and learned that they would be cared for and protected, not only by their parents, but also by the other adult members of the community.
 

Baguena's and Burbaguena's children were taught by the "Master of the infants" or "Master of the children." Their teacher, they learned, was also a community member, with responsibilities beyond teaching and links to the community that went beyond his everyday duties. Juan de Cortes, who was the Master of the children in Burbaguena in1554, was asked to be godfather for Ana Guillen, 24 and Miguel Lopez, who became Master in the following year, acted as Catherine Gamir's godfather. 25 Although teachers were not always from the village, they became a part of it, often viewing it as a native-born villager might. So Rodrigo de Altamirando, who came to Baguena to teach in the 1590s, when he wrote his will, expressed a desire to be buried "here in the place where I live." 26 This is particularly significant in a time when the sons of Baguena and Burbaguena were returned to their villages for burial from locations as distant as Teruel and Alcala.

 

Evidence from Baguena's epidemic of 1611 confirms that, within each community, children of the same age spent time with one another. If we study the death records for 1611, deaths not only cluster by household, but also by age group. This would simply tell us that the younger cohorts had not developed the immunity of older children, were it not for the fact that all ages eventually succumbed. The circumstantial evidence points strongly to children being grouped by age, whether for lessons with the Master, or at play by their own choice. Even for young children, the family was not the only significant group; ties to the larger community were also important.
 

One more formal way in which the larger community became involved in the life of the family was through the institution of legal guardianship. Guardians were required to care for the physical and legal needs of the child, and were usually named because of the death of a parent. If a parent—usually the father—had died, the first duty of the guardian often became inventorying the estate. Such an inventory would yield information about the resources available to care for the child. 27
 

There is evidence that a guardian was not always a permanent resident in the community where his wards resided, which would indicate that guardians did not always participate in the day-to-day life of the child, but in most cases the guardian was a resident of the child's village, and in every case I studied the guardian had some tie or link to the child's community. For example, Juan de Casanova, who acted as guardian to the children of the former Valero de Fuertes, in Valencia, was a resident of Baguena, as were his wife and five children. However, Casanova was a frutero, a fruit grower, and Valencia was the market of choice for the villagers of Baguena and Burbaguena. In fact, the guardianship documents refer to Casanova as a habitante, or occasional resident, of Valencia. 28
 25

Guardians might be appointed at the father's death even though the child's mother was still alive. Juana de Soriano, mother to the Gutierrez children, survived her husband; yet Martin de Bernabe was appointed as their guardian. 29 It was important for the children to have a father, and in the absence of a male parent, a guardian would be appointed to act in his stead. The choice of guardians for children confirms this; they were almost always male. In the one case to the contrary I studied, a married woman with three younger siblings was appointed guardian; the young woman, Apolonia Gil de Bernabe, promptly appointed a male relative to act in her place. 30
 

Children were the community's responsibility, as well as the parents', and the appointment of guardians confirms this. While guardians generally stepped in after the death of both parents, or when the father had died, a guardian might also be appointed when both parents were alive, but one was negligent. In a case like this, a male guardian might be better suited to protect the children's financial interests and legal rights than a negligent father. Juan Oriz, for example, was asked to act as guardian for the Armillas children. He argued before the court that the marriage of Armillas and the children's mother, Pasquala Oriz, was a valid one and, reminding the court that Armillas had undertaken this obligation "in sickness and in health," he demanded that Armillas be ordered to provide for his children financially, asking 60 escudos for each child. 31
 

The relationship between parent and child in the villages of Baguena and Burbaguena was seen as a reciprocal one. Children had the right to be provided for by their parents—to be given everything necessary for life, as Juan Oriz put it in his statement—but they also had an obligation to obey their parents and abide by their wishes. And just as an occasional parent, like Armillas, failed in his duties, at times a child could be truly difficult. Juan Royo, the son of Miguel Royo and Catalina Blasco of Baguena, was apparently such a child. In October 1575, Juan's parents appeared before the notary. Their testimony tells us, albeit in a negative way, how parents expected their children to act in the villages. Juan's parents explained that he was refusing "...to be obedient to them and their mandates, conforming to the filial obligation that he had as their son." 32 Juan, in this case, was refusing to be obedient to a specific parental request, and the notary put it bluntly: "The said Juan Royo, their son, wants to marry whomever he has paired up with, contrary to [his parents'] wishes." 33
 

Now, certainly other children rebelled over the choice of a marriage partner; in fact, the Church, in a sense, had sanctioned such rebellion from the Middle Ages forward by viewing the parties to a marriage as the performers of the marriage. In the 1560s, the Council of Trent condemned those who "falsely assert that marriages entered into by children of a family without their parents' consent are null." 34 So Juan could not have been the only child ever to want to choose his own marriage partner. And other fathers, too, reacted as Miguel Royo did; in fact, during this time period, in France, Jean Bodin argued for the restoration of the traditional power of life and death held by the paterfamilias in pre-Christian Rome. 35 Miguel Royo did not have this power, but he did have unquestioned financial authority over his household. He settled his paternal obligation to Juan, his son, by disinheriting him, providing him with a single, final payment of 10 sueldos, plus an additional 5 sueldos to compensate Juan for his personal property. 36

 

Children did leave home, and not all of them because of a rift with their family. Diego Andres, for example, moved north to Daroca. Diego's father was a notary; in fact, Diego, on occasion, acted as a scribe for him. Diego's letter to his father from Daroca, a loose sheet tucked into his father's protocol for the year 1609, written in a fine, clear hand, remains for us to read:
 30

My Lord, I am very well, thank God, and I'm managing in the boarding house. I need nothing save a bed to sleep in. As a special favor 37 this morning to your young one, please send me the bed my sister used to sleep in and a cover; I already have blankets and linens here. My lady, I kiss your hands a thousand times, along with everyone else in the house, the others, whom I hope Our Lord will protect as he is able to. Daroca, the 27th of November, 1609. Diego Andres. 38

 

Diego's letter expresses not only the expectation that his parents will continue to provide him with what is necessary for life—in this case, a bed to sleep in —but also an affection and concern that some earlier historians of the family in Europe had argued did not exist between children and parents in early modern Europe. 39 Diego's letter affirms what more recent historians have argued: members of families were linked not only by economic ties of reciprocity, but also by real bonds of affection.
 

The Child and the Community

 

If we examine the sources on birth and childhood carefully, it is difficult to find evidence that a new Christian/old Christian distinction was a part of the mental universe within these communities. For both old Christian and "newly converted" children in Baguena and Burbaguena, the family was the basic unit of community life. Children were linked to their family not only by ties of blood but also by a network of legal and social obligations. Yet the child was also part of the larger community: it protected him when he had no parents, or when his parents were negligent; it educated him; and it provided him with companions of his own age. When we begin to discuss marriage in the next chapter, then, it should not be surprising that, for both old Christians and the "newly converted" within the two villages, marriage to a partner within the village was a common strategy. But, surprisingly, there were other marriage options that increasingly linked these villages to the larger world.
 



Notes:

Note 1: That infants were baptized shortly after birth is confirmed by the record of the baptism of Jaime de Heredia, child of Josefe de Heredia and Doña Beatriz Martin. The priest notes of the child, "...he was born on Wednesday, July 28, 1604, between 11 and 12, the night of [the feast of] Saint Lazarus" (AHDT, 217, Baguena, July 31, 1604). Jaime was baptized three days later. Children who were baptized immediately, at home, because of the danger of death, would typically be exorcised (the second part of the baptismal ceremony) in the church a week to ten days later. With the child baptized, the need for an immediate ceremony was less urgent; we may assume that a child baptized because he or she was in imminent danger of death also needed time to gain strength.  Back.

Note 2: See Chapter 6 for more information on "found" children in Baguena and Burbaguena.  Back.

Note 3: The most popular names were Juan and Maria. In Burbaguena, Geronimo, Miguel, and Pedro were equally popular names in the 1550s; by the 1590s, Geronimo had fallen off sharply in popularity. There were a number of Catalinas, Ysabels, Juanas, and Anas in the 1550s; by the 1590s, Ysabel had lost ground and Geronima had gained in popularity.

In Baguena, for the decade 1565-74 (the earliest baptisms recorded in this parish) Ana was the favorite name for girls: there were 39 Anas baptized, but only 17 Marias and 21 Catalinas. By the 1590s, though, Maria was the overwhelming choice for girls. Juan and Miguel remained the most popular choices for boys in every decade.  Back.

Note 4: Bernard Vincent, "Les Morisques et les Prénoms Chrétiens, " Les Morisques et Leur Temps (Paris: C.N.R.S., 1983), 59-69. Vincent argues that, in both Valencia and Granada, Morisco families did not, in fact, use the name given in baptism. Aragon seems to follow a different pattern.  Back.

Note 5: John Boswell, The Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), 382.  Back.

Note 6: In February 1612, Fray Diego Murillo, Procurador General and Provincial for the Franciscans in Aragon, advised Fray Domingo Ferrer of the convent of San Luis in Daroca to convert the hermitage of Saint Valentine in Baguena into a convent and garden for the Sisters of Saint Clare. AMC, PN Baguena, 84.  Back.

Note 7: Co-madres and co-padres, or, later, padrinos and madrinos  Back.

Note 8: These exceptions tend to be those with unusual names. Thus, Luisa Valdeces, the only Luisa in Burbaguena in the 1590s, had Luis Vayllo as a godparent. AHDT, Baguena (November 19, 1591). Sabina Andres was sponsored by Sabina de Lager (April 12, 1601), Bartolome Rostrella by Bartolome de Romanos (April 23, 1607), Diego Sancho by Diego Sanchez (November 12, 1607), Pablo Remon by Pablo Vidal (June 1, 1616). In each case, the first name is an unusual one.  Back.

Note 9: Henry Charles Lea, The Moriscos of Spain (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1901), 73. "A baptism can, in cases of necessity, be the simplest of ceremonies and be performed even by a woman, such deficiencies did not invalidate it...." In the Jiloca valley, those who performed baptisms at home were more often women than men.  Back.

Note 10: Lea, 69-81.  Back.

Note 11: In Burbaguena in 1567, on June 24, the Feast of Saint John, Juan de Burios and his wife, both "new converts," baptized a son at home because he was in danger of dying. The priest notes that the child was named Juan, "like his father." This is the only time this comment is made in the parish register I studied, and it may be that the priest was emphasizing that the child was named after his father and not because of the date of the baptism. However, the saint of the day of baptism was rarely taken into account when naming the child.  Back.

Note 12: "En casa baptizole Antonia Guajardo por necesidad y ella misma le tenia al echar del agua y interrogada bien de lo que hizo respondio lo que se require y por tanto se hizo la solemnidad en la yglesia a 14 de noviembre." Antona Guajardo baptized him at home of necessity and she herself held him at the pouring of the water. I questioned her thoroughly about what she had done; she replied that she had done what was required, and so I solemnized [the baptism in the church November 14. AHDT, Burbaguena I (November 14, 1587).  Back.

Note 13: Maria Falcon Perez points out, in her "Aportation al estudio de la poblacion aragonesa a fines del siglo XV," Aragon en la Edad Media V (Saragossa: Universidad de Zaragoza, 1983), that census figures in this era were used for tax purposes, and thus tended to represent a negotiated settlement between agents of the Crown and those in power locally.  Back.

Note 14: Angel San Vicente, Dos registros de tributaciones y fogajes de 1,413 poblaciones de Aragon correspondientes a las Cortes de los años 1542 y 1547 (Saragossa: Institucion "Fernando el Catolico" (C.S.I.C.), 1980).  Back.

Note 15: Jordi Nadal, La poblacion española (Siglos XVI a XX) (Barcelona: Ariel, 1988), 20.  Back.

Note 16: Maria José Casaus Ballester, Catalogo de los fondos parroquiales del Archivo Historico Diocesano de Teruel (Teruel: Graficas Teruel, 1990), 33.  Back.

Note 17: In some of the initial studies of parochial registers, lists of communicants were used to estimate population. See Roger Mols, Introduction a la demographie historique des villes d'Europes du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, Volume I (Louvain: 1955), for a critical examination of these studies, including Kroker's estimate of the population of Leipzig in the sixteenth century.  Back.

Note 18: "Domingo Rubio pastor y Joan Rubio (Xpianos nuevos)" AHDT, Burbaguena I, 202. There was also an old Christian Domingo Rubio within Burbaguena, hence the need for clarification.  Back.

Note 19: By the 1560s, the Inquisition was using the Easter duty records as a way to separate new Christians from old Christians within Aragon. Baguena, which had no "new converts" resident until the 1590s, would not have needed to record the two groups and so may have entered a pro forma Easter duty report. See below for a further discussion of this Easter duty requirement, and the responses of the parish priests to it.  Back.

Note 20: One "productive pair" from the registers is not included. Anton Gutierrez and Gracia Estevan both died in November of 1579. They left four children.  Back.

Note 21: The Baguena list identifies two priests resident in the town in 1581: Mossen Miguel Garcia and Mossen Anton Crespo.  Back.

Note 22: In his study of the census of 1542 and 1547, Angel San Vicente published Juan Bolluz' original count (document from the Archivo Historico Provincal of Saragossa). The document hints strongly at why Bolluz might have been willing to accept the totals given him: working in this part of Aragon was a difficult and time-consuming task, and meant, among other things, the hardship of traveling in winter. Bolluz began collecting the sisa in December of 1543 and reached Baguena and Burbaguena on the February 21, 1544. A full year transpired in the complete accounting for this tax. San Vicente, 118.  Back.

Note 23: Both population figures and fertility rates are important, and elusive, in the early modern period. To a large extent, current demographic research has focused upon deriving population figures from birth or baptismal records, using techniques such as inverse projection. My informal estimate of the population of two villages lacks the sophistication of such methods. Indeed, it might easily have been used during the period in question, given access to parochial registers.  Back.

Note 24: AHDT, Burbaguena (April 5, 1554).  Back.

Note 25: AHDT, Burbaguena (May 14, 1555).  Back.

Note 26: AMC, PN Baguena, 136.  Back.

Note 27: Domingo Ximeno's inventory of the property of young Joannica Azcon is one example; AMC PN Baguena 66. Martin de Bernabe, guardian for the Gutierrez children, also performed such an inventory; AMC, PN Baguena, 80.  Back.

Note 28: AMC, PN Baguena, 65 (October 14, 1584).  Back.

Note 29: AMC, PN Baguena, 80.  Back.

Note 30: AMC, PN Baguena, 144 (January 5, 1602).  Back.

Note 31: AMC, PN Baguena, 71: "fuisse tenido y obligado a haver los de tener sanos and enfermos y dandoles todas las almas necessario para el sustento de la vida humana...." Oriz asked that Armillas be ordered to pay a fixed amount—60 escudos—for each child.  Back.

Note 32: AMC, PN Baguena, 170 (October 1575): "... el dicho Juan Royo su hijo se quiere casar con quien le parese y contra voluntad suyo."  Back.

Note 33: AMC, PN Baguena, 170 (October 1575): "... el qual no es siguere ser obediente de los ni a sus mandamientos conforme a la obligacion filial q como hijo tiene."  Back.

Note 34: Jean Louis Flandrin, Families in Former Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 131, discusses rebellious children and marriage.  Back.

Note 35: Flandrin, 133.  Back.

Note 36: AMC, PN Baguena, 170. There is no record of Juan's marriage in the parish registers of 1575-85. The Siete Partidas considered the marriage decision to be the right of the parents; typically, children who married without their parents' permission were disinherited. Enrique Gacto, "El Grupo Familiar de la Edad Moderna en los Territorios del Mediterraneo Hispanico: una vision juridical," in La Familia en la España Mediterranea (Siglos XV-XIX) (Barcelona: Grijalbo, 1987), 43.  Back.

Note 37: The word used here by the notary's son, "mejora," has a specific legal meaning: it is a special bequest to a lawful heir.  Back.

Note 38: "Mi señor yo estoy muy bueno bendito a dios y me allo bien en esta posada solo me falta en que dormir. Un mejora mañana al moco con la cama que dormia mi hermana con un colchon q[ue] manta y sabana ya tengo you aqui—a mi señora beso las manos mil veces con los demas de cassa a quien guarde nro Senor como yo deseo de Daroca noviembre a 27 del año 1609 Diego Andres." AMC, PN Baguena, 144, suelto.  Back.

Note 39: Philippe Aries, Centuries of Childhood (London: Jonathan Cape, 1962).  Back.

 

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