NOTARIALLY DOCUMENTED LEGAL ACTS GRANTED BY THE BISHOP OF CIUDAD RODRIGO ON 6-7 DECEMBER 1604 (Partial non-application of the will of the disposing party)

Abstract

Throughout the year 1604, the bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo, Martín de Salvatierra, made various donations in favour of private individuals and ecclesiastical institutions, and died on 13 December 1604. On the 6th of the same month and year, in full use of his mental faculties, he granted a notarial deed of exceptional importance, because with it he distributed practically all of his personal or private patrimony, and many other goods that were under his ecclesiastical administration, by means of a plurality of inter vivos donations, which had multiple beneficiaries, but from which his closest cognates and other blood relatives, as well as some pious works, such as the two seminaries, benefited greatly.
With the second, granted the following day, and also authorised by a notary public of the locality, he granted the nuncupative testament, without institution of an heir, but including the precise clauses for his burial and funeral, suffrages and alms, very much in accordance with the spirit of the good prelate and the applicable canonical regulations. In this way we leave the judgement of his conduct in abeyance, as we have not been able to locate, until now, the inventory of the heir, who accepted the inheritance with this benefit, nor that which, almost certainly, must have been drawn up by the Apostolic Chamber, as a result of his request to the Nuncio, declaring the nullity of the donations contained in the notarial deed of the 6th, before making the transfer of his patrimonial ownership to the bishop's heirs.