Formation of Honor and the Role of Universities in the Middle Ages
B) Formation of Honor
The prevailing economic, social, and legal landscape was characterized by dependence relations. These relations depersonalized individuals and linked inhabitants of a large domain to its owner or master. The owner or lord of a great domain had rights to the land and a series of other rights that placed the inhabitants under their authority in various aspects. The inhabitants, or growers of the fields, were linked to the lord for reasons of economic dependency.
The lordship, therefore, was a complex entity encompassing a series of dependency relationships of one individual to another. This affected the personal, social, and judicial aspects, and it projected over a territory, compact or not, but conceptually unified by a series of jurisdictional attributes exercised by the lord through royal delegation. This came to supplant, or at least interfere with, the general King-subject relationship.
The formation of domains in the Middle Ages was generally due to the Reconquest, as well as specific causes such as:
- Lordly restocking
- Grants of rights to a tycoon or church/monastery
Royal donations to religious institutions were particularly important in Galicia, where churches like Santiago or Lugo sometimes received entire counties. Donations from private farms were also common, with owners giving their property to a church for the salvation of their souls, or simply donating land that was too large to continue cultivating under usufruct.
The oblatio puerorum (delivery of children to monasteries to become monks) and the choice of burial (disposition of assets to favor the chosen church or monastery for burial) involved the provision of goods to religious entities.
- Violent dispossession of land by large landowners from smallholders
- Deliveries resulting from forced usurious loans, often leading the debtor to satisfy his debt by giving his estate to the creditor landowner
- Compositions or penalties (calories) due to criminals, which were sometimes met by the assignment of lands
The territorial structure of Spain took place from the 11th century onwards with large manors and estates that were later expanded through the capitalization of state assets as a result of grants made during the 14th century by King Henry II of Trastámara. The domains, depending on who owns or lords them, are divided into so-called stray, abadengo, and solariegos.
Normally, the estate is not a closed geographical unit, but rather scattered territories. In addition to the residence and annexed dependencies such as warehouses, barns, and workshops, there was often a private church consecrated as a bishop’s church without intervention. Around it is the tierra dominicata or demesne that the lord cultivates through his own servants and settlers. The rest, the tierra indominicata, is delivered upon payment of a fee under a contract known as prestimonio.
It was common in Leon and nearby Castile for smallholders to grant land to the Manor in exchange for cheese and land owned by others. This (weak data) independence guaranteed them that if they had to leave and find another lord, they had to return not only what they had received but also half of their own inheritance.
In Catalonia and Galicia, another system was used, precaria oblata, by which the small landowner gave the lord the ownership of their land and reserved the usufruct, or a mixed form appointing it as precaria remuneratoria. This implies that the small landowner leaves, working some foreign land (those of which were previously theirs and the lord’s). All these causes contribute to an inexorable process of integration of smallholders into the land assets of large landowners, with the manorial regime being profiled as the basis of the large domain.
2.- The Diffusion Process: The Role of Universities
The doctrinal development of the ius commune and the emergence and development of universities in Europe were simultaneous and, in a way, interdependent phenomena. The most important work in spreading common law was developed by universities, especially Bologna, where only Roman-canonical law was taught and cultivated. The Corpus Juris Civilis and Corpus Iuris Canonici were the only textbooks. A shared method and legal education were used, with teaching being imparted in Latin.
In 1364, Cardinal Egidio Albornoz founded the San Clemente College in Bologna for Spanish students, which had a significant influence on Spanish jurists. The number of teachers abroad decreased as a result of the enhancement of our universities. Over time, the reception of common law through these jurists trained in universities extended to the study and development of each kingdom or state’s law. Lawyers trained in this way occupied high positions in the councils of kings or the courts of justice. Many monarchs fostered the spread of these teachings to strengthen their power and establish the model that would culminate in the Central Administration of the Modern State.