The Importance of Wills

       This week I researched the importance of wills during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in Portugal. This was based on the essay "Testamentary Practices in Venade (Minho), 1755-1815)" by Margarida Durães. The author looks at the parish of Venade in the Municipality of Caminha to determine the use of wills and their importance in that one parish. I was able to discern information about Portuguese wills in general from her work, as well as a few interesting things about the area of Minho as well.

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HOW TO MAKE A WILL     
        There are two ways to make a will, either by making them open or closed. An open will, also known as a nuncupative will, is one that is made in front of witnesses. A closed will is one that is written, then sealed, so that witnesses will not know what is in it until the writer is dead. Wills would only be valid if a few rules were followed. If the will was written out, as opposed to being a word of mouth transaction, the bequeather had to sign it himself or have it signed on his behalf if he was unable to write. After the will was signed it would then be taken to a public notary would would register it in legal forms in front of five witnesses. Open wills could be made by the bequeather, the notary, the bequeather's representative, or by word of mouth when the bequeather is on his deathbed. Regardless of how a will is made, several witnesses had to sign it for it to be legal.

MAKING WILLS IN PORTUGAL
         By the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, making wills was becoming a widespread practice in Portugal. Prior to this time period, wills had been things that only the privileged made, or that were made in special circumstances like when property was being left to someone when a person left to enter a monastery. As the tradition of wills became more common for even the non privileged, the practices that went along with making a will differed between the social realm and the legal realm.

         The legal side of wills began to shrink as notaries began to play a smaller role in the creation of wills. They were still able to write a will but they were more often called just to approve one. This approval was then registered in the will, which was kept by the bequeather until his death. Both open and closed wills were approved but more often than not, closed wills had the register of notary approval. Open wills tended to just be signed with witness signatures instead.

         As the legal realm of wills became less important, the clerical side of wills began to grow. Clergymen began to play a larger role in the creation of wills because they said that wills were needed for a "good death". Priests were also called on often by people who couldn't write, mostly in rural areas where illiteracy rates were higher. Although priests and clergy were seeming to be helpful and proclaiming a good death, they also used their influence in creating wills to make a profit. When a bequeather died, the priests would demand that his will was presented by the heirs so that it could be transcribed. This transcription could either be in full or just the portions pertaining to the "pious vows" (Durães, 90). Transcription was strictly controlled by the idea of visitation each year. If wills were not provided at the time of visitation, people would be fined.

WILLS IN VENADE
         From 1755-1815 in Venade, only 54.8% of the population made wills. The other half of the population died intestate, or without having made a will, and was made up of mostly single people, with some married people and widowers added to the mix. Before the eighteenth century, wills were made largely by men but by the turn of the century women were also creating wills. In Venade almost 70% of the wills created at this time period were for women.

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         Those who died without a will were often awarded a "bem de alma", literally a "good thing to the soul" (Durães, 92). The bem de alma was paid for by the heir of the deceased. This heir was often the one entitled to the terça do terço, or the "third of the third" (Durães, 95). The third references the freely disposable part of one's own property, so the heir was the one who was entitled to the third of the disposable part of property.

          The heir could then only benefit from his inheritance once the pious legacy of the deceased had been fulfilled. The pious legacy refers to the social status of the dead, the number of priests to be at the funeral, the number of masses to be said, the alimony to be given to the poor, the donations to institutions, the death shroud, and the place of burial. Once all of these things were given and paid for, then the legacy would be fulfilled and the heir could claim his inheritance.



Margarida Durães presents useful information on the creation of wills in Portugal and their actual use in the parish of Venade. Wills are often used by historians as a way to understand what was important in life and in death to people. Durães takes this idea and shows how legal practice, clergymen, and inheritance all were a part of the will creating and executing process during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This information helps to better understand death practices in Portugal and how people prepared for death and the aftermath of their deaths.


Pictures
Picture 1 - Map of Portugal, showing Caminha near the top left. Picture found at http://www.manorhouses.com/ports/map.gif

Picture 2 - Image of a Last Will and Testament. Picture found at http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02084/will_2084137b.jpg
Sources
Chapter 5 Durães, Margarida. "Testamentary Practices in Venade (Minho), 1755-1815." Death in Portugal: Studies in Portuguese Anthropology and Modern History, edited by Rui Feijo, Herminio Martins, and Joao de Pina-Cabral, 1-16. Oxford: JASO, 1983.

Religious and Social Aspects of Death According to Patricia Goldey

          This week I revisited Patricia Goldey's essay "The Good Death: Personal Salvation and Community Identity". Before I had discussed what she described a "good death" to be and the rituals that take place upon death in Portugal. This week I read more about the religious background of death from a historical viewpoint and the social aspects of burial and death rituals. Goldey once again proved to be an invaluable source of information and I cannot stress how glad I am to have discovered her essay.

RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND OF DEATH RITUALS
         In Portugal, most of the northern citizens were historically Catholic, while in rural areas there was more religious diversity, not much more but there were a few other religious faiths. This heavy Catholic faith meant that death rituals were closely related to the religion and that church edicts carried much weight in rituals and traditions.
                                                                                  

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         In 610 A.D. the Second Council of Braga declared that churches could no longer be used as burial places and that the dead must be interred outside of the wall of the church. This edict was kept in place until the 11th century when the dead again were buried within the church. The Second Council of Braga's injunction became wide public policy by the 19th century though. The year 1835 ushered in the arrival of public cemeteries in rural areas; until this point all burials took place in the adros (floors) of churches or in the private cemeteries of military hospitals and misericords. Some areas of land were also blessed for burial after the cholera epidemic of 1832. The majority of Portuguese cemeteries were created in the 19th and 20th centuries.

         Another religious aspect of death in Portugal is related to the belief in "wandering souls", or the deceased who don't have time to settle their accounts before they died or those whose relatives didn't fulfill the religious requirements of burial. This belief relates to the idea of a good death because those who become wandering souls are those who do not die a good death. This also shows that the Portuguese believe in a life after death. These wandering souls appear as ghosts, known as aventesmas or sombras in Portuguese, or as tormented souls (almas penadas). They can be encountered at night outside of the village or near the cemetery which is usually placed within or very close to the village. These souls can also appear to close relatives in dreams.

         Goldey cites three reasons for the appearance of wandering souls. The first is that the dead were left unburied so they have no final resting place and can't enter into heaven. The second reason is that the dead's kin failed to perform the customary rituals. Goldey's third reason is that the dead committed some injustice that was not remedied before their death. The most common type of injustice that is spoken of in these cases is that of moving boundary stones in order to gain a few extra feet of land from their neighbors.

         Deaths that occur in the mountains or by accident are cause for unease in Portugal because it can take several days for a body to be recovered. This allows for wild animals to have a chance to ravage the body and it means that there is a delay in the burial ritual, a ritual that normally takes place the day after death occurs. Despite these types of death and the problems they present, the deceased's family still has to fulfill their obligations to the dead even though the proper ritual and order of events was not able to be observed. Accidental and mountain deaths both can result in wandering souls and deaths that are not ideal.

          Goldey then focuses on rituals that took place historically that were frowned upon by the Church and as such, are no longer practiced today. She does discuss some of the rituals that took the place of these older traditions and how they are daily reminders of the dead. The historical traditions are the encomendação das almas and the rezadas em comum.

          The encomendação das almas ritual was a public gathering that took place inside the church during every day of Lent. The dead members of the village would be named individually and commemorated in a prayer for their souls. This ritual lasted about an hour and was attended by all the village adults. This was a non-Catholic ritual which is why the Church tried to get rid of it. Today, only middle aged and elderly citizens remember participating in this tradition because it faded out during the 20th century. Now, every day of Lent has a new ritual that takes place in the church but it is led by a group of women and the priest is not present or involved. The Rosary is recited for souls in Purgatory and not all village members attend this ritual, most of the time it is just women.

          The rezadas em comum is the second community wide ritual that the Church tried to stamp out of Portuguese traditions. This practice is now only remembered by the elderly because it faded out by the 1920s. This ritual took place on January 20th, when villagers met in the open air to pray to Saint Sebastian. Married men led this tradition and every person who attended was called forward to say a prayer, the "em louvor do mártir São Sebastião". This ritual was considered a holy day and all work was suspended as long as prayers continued.

          Some of the ways that the dead are commemorated daily in Portugal still include alminhas, crosses, calvaries, stone cairns, and wooden or stone crosses. Alminhas are small painted niches in house walls that, every time someone walks by, an Our Father is said for souls in Purgatory. Crosses and calvaries that are displayed are used as daily reminders of the dead, in the house and in public. Stone cairns, found in the hills and on roadsides, are built by people who pass by and place a stone at the site while praying for people who were killed in an accident or by violence. Wooden and stone crosses placed on roadsides and in fields mark the places where death occurred and when people come across them they are supposed to stop and say an Our Father for the souls in Purgatory.

                                                                          

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SOCIAL ASPECTS OF OF BURIAL AND DEATH RITUALS
           After discussing the religious aspect of death and its traditions, Goldey moves on to the social aspects of death in Portugal. This section of her essay focused largely on what happens to land and inheritances when the head of a household dies, as well as the wills that the dead leave behind. When the head of the household dies, the land that they owned is transferred from the deceased land owner to a new one. Wills of the deceased in Portugal often laid out specifically how many masses the dead wanted said for them, how many priests they wanted to have say masses and prayers, as well as the amount of money they were willing to pay to the priests and the churches for these services. When it came to children, both in secular and religious aspects of death rituals, there was no place for them to partake in the traditions. They were considered to be anjinhos, or little angels, giving them no place in post death land redistribution and inheritances.

CONCLUSION
          Patricia Goldey's essay ends by recapping her main points. The Portuguese idea of a good death is concerned with property transfers and individual salvation. Death rituals and traditions are operated on three different levels. The first is the individual, where salvation is the main point but the emphasis is on salvation in the sense of safety, meaning freedom from the torment of Hell and Purgatory, or the return to life. The second is the individual and kin, which involves land inheritance arrangements. The third level is that of the kin, where obligations fall on several individuals but mostly on the heir or heirs. This level stresses the separation of kin and the casa, or family and the house, from other landholding neighbors. Also, death and burial rituals, according to Goldey, reconcile the separation and competition of individual casas (houses) in other aspects of daily life that affects the entire village.



Patricia Goldey has offered many, many insights into death and dying, ritual and tradition, in Portugal throughout history and into the modern day. She discusses the idea of a good death, the many rituals surrounding death, the historical religious viewpoint of death, and the social aspects of burial and death rituals. These topics all give a good look into what death and dying is like in Portugal and they are written about succinctly and with much detail. This has most definitely been an amazing source for my research.




Pictures
Picture 1 - Misericórdia Church, Viseu, Portugal. Picture found at http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/2dk8Ene/viseu+church

Picture 2 - Alminhas de Padornelo VIII. Picture found at http://padornelo.blogs.sapo.pt/tag/alminhas

Sources
Chapter 1 Goldey, Patricia. "The Good Death: Personal Salvation and Community Identity." Death in Portugal: Studies in Portuguese Anthropology and Modern History, edited by Rui Feijo, Herminio Martins, and Joao de Pina-Cabral, 1-16. Oxford: JASO, 1983.