Marco Antonio Foscarini, the bishop of Novigrad, and Andrea Ferro, syndic and procurator of the Commune of Oprtalj, settle the dispute concerning tithes on properties acquired by the treasury of the parish church of St. George and by other churches and confraternities of Oprtalj, establishing that said institutions shall pay the bishop in perpetuity the tithe on all properties acquired from private persons and of which memory still subsists, excepting only original endowment properties; in return, the bishop lifts the ecclesiastical interdict and grants absolution from excommunication with which he had struck the people and the Commune of Oprtalj due to unfulfilled tithe payments.
In Christi nomine, amen.
Anno nativitatis Eiusdem millesimo quingentesimo decimo octavo, indictione sexta, die vero mercurii tertio mensis martii.
Cum prout infrascripti contrahentes asseruerunt, dudum vera fuerit controversia inter reverendissimum in Christo patrem et eximium iuris utriusque doctorem dominum Marcum Antonium Foschareno episcopum Aemoniensem, nomine suae ecclesiae et mensae episcopalis Aemoniensis ac Comune et homines universitatis oppidi Portularum diocesis Aemoniensis et et super Xma et iure decimandi terrarum, possessionum et bonorum acquisitorum per cameram sancti Georgii ac diversas ecclesias et confraternitates dicti oppidi Portularum. Quas Xmas prefatus dominus episcopus pretendit sibi de iure spectare. Ex adverso autem dicti homines universitatis Portularum solvere recusabant, et propter talem recustionem idem dominus episcopus dictos homines et universitatem Portularum suspendevit a divinis dictumque oppidum et illius universitatem, ecclesias et confraternitates interdicto ecclesiastico supposuevit, et ad complures actus pro utroque parte processum fuerat.
Eapropter in mei notarii publici testiumque infrascriptorum presentia personaliter constituti, prefatus reverendisimus dominus episcopus ex una et vir nobilis dominus Andreas Ferro patricius Venetus tanquam syndicus et procurator ad haec peragenda constitutus, predictę universitati Portularum per publicum instrumentum in pergameno scriptum et publicatum manu ser Ioannis cognominati de Tridento Parentini notarii et cancellarii magnifici domini potestati Portularum sub die XXII mensis novembris proxime pręteriti recomendatum ad infra per litteras pręfati domini potestatis fidem facientes de legalitate dicti notarii cum impressione sigilli sancti Marci, ut morus est, ad quod relatio habeatur, et dicto procuratorio nomine ex altera partibus, cassantes et annullantes concorditer alteram compositionis huiusmodi instrumentum dudum celebratum in partibus inter dictas partes sive eorum procuratoresa, composuerunt in invicem et transegerunt atque ad amicabilem compositionem et concordiam devenerunt ut infra, videlicet:
Quod praedicti homines universitatis Portularum, tam cives quam plebei, et quilibet ipsorum ad quos respective pertinet, teneantur et debeant, et sic pręfatus dominus procurator dicto nomine convenitur et se obligavit dare, solvere et respondere singulis annis prefato reverendissimo domino episcopo, stipulanti nomine praefatę suę ecclesiae et mensae episcopalis Aemoniensis pro se ac successoribus suis pro tempore existentibus in perpetuum, suprascriptas Xmas et sive iura decimalia de omnibus ac singulis terris, possessionibus et bonis, tam praedictę camerę sancti Georgii quam singularum ecclesiarum et confraternitatum eiusdem oppidi Portularum, acquisitis et positis in locis subiacentibus solutioni decimarum dicto Episcopatui Aemoniensi, et de quibus bonis adhuc extat memoria omnium, quae fuerint de ratione aliarum specialium personarum et ad presens possessos per cameram, ecclesias et confraternitates praedictas aut aliqua ipsarum, salvis tamen et exceptuatis dotibus ipsarum ecclesiarum, camerae et confraternitatum, et sive bonis existentibus de dote illarum de quibus non extat memoria quod unquam fuerint de ratione particularium personarum, quae huiusmodi obligationi non subiaceant. Quas namque Xmas solvere debeantur, incipiendo a tempore locationis iurium decimalium ultimo loco facte per dictum dominum episcopum ser Ioanni Baptistae ad presensb comilitoni pręfati domini potestatis Portularum et sociis, et continuando successive in perpetuum temporibus debitis et consuetis, cum hac declaratione: quod de praedictis Xmis per antea decursis pręfatę partes concordare et componere debeant, cum pręfatus dominus episcopus ad ecclesiam et diocesis suam se contulerit, et superinde sint reservata iura utriusque partis.
Item quod pro adimplemento presentis concordii praefatus dominus episcopus debeat relaxare et amovere, prout substulit et relaxavit pręalegatum interdictum per eum, et sint de ipsius comissione et auctoritate in praedictum oppidum ecclesias, universitatem et confraternitates, ut pręmittitur, suppositam, nec non consentire ac facere quod praedicti homines universitatis Portularum et alii intervenientes absolvi et absolutionis beneficium optinere possint et debeant ab excomunicationis sententia aliisque ecclesiasticis sententiis, censuris et poenis contra eos hactenus promulgatis praemissorum occasione, et ita ex nunc consentiendo actualem absolutionem huiusmodi duxit comittendam, prout per hoc presens instrumentum commisit venerabili patri domino Ioanni Paulo de Georgiis vicario suo in spiritualibus generali ibidem presenti et acceptanti impendendam in forma ecclesiae consueta ac faciendam.
Quae omnia et singula suprascripta in presenti instrumento contenta praenominatae partes contrahentes promiserunt et per solemnem stipulationem utriusque intervenientemc convenerunt ac promittunt et se obligant sibi ad invicem et nominibus supradictis firma et rata ut supra habere, tenere et observare ac non contrafacere, opponere aut contravenire per se vel alium sive alios modo aliquo, ratione vel causa, de iure vel de facto, in iudicio et extra, sub mutua obligatione omnium bonorum suorum mobilium et immobilium praesentium et futurorum ac successorum suorum.
Actum Venetiis in domo habitationis suprascripti reverendissimi domini episcopi Aemoniensis posita in confinio sancti Raphaelis, presentibus ibidem venerabili domino fratre Nicolao de Venetiis professore ordinis fratrum Minorum conventualium et visitatore pizidinorumd tertii ordinis et nobilibus viris dominis Ioanne Memo quondam magnifici domini Petri et Andrea Curiano quondam magnifici domini Petri testibus ad praemissa vocatis, adhibitis et rogatis.
<Signum (SC) notarii> Ego Bonifacius Sogliani Venetus quondam ser Matthei publicus apostolica et imperiali auctoritatibus ac Venetiarum notarius premissa rogatus scripssi et protocollo meo sed aliena manu transcribi feci et publicavi cum illa appostila in fine duarum linearum, qua incipit “cessantes” et finit “eorum procuratores” caditque supra lineam XVIII. Ideo me subscripssi signo apposito consueto mei tabellionatus in fidem premissorum.
a) cessantes—procuratores] add. cum sign. insertionis V. b) seq. conductori canc. V. c) sic V: pro interventientium. d) sic V: pro penitentiarum seu penitentium.
The hereby edited document represents the culmination of a protracted juridical conflict whose earlier phases are documented in the two preceding texts. The 1474 sentence of the podestà of Oprtalj (doc. 1474_PD) had established a territorial principle of tithe division, physically inscribed upon the landscape through a perambulation that traced the boundary between episcopal and parochial rights across the hills and valleys of Oprtalj’s hinterland. Yet this settlement, however meticulously delineated, evidently failed to extinguish the underlying tension, rooted not in geographical ambiguity but in the more fundamental question of whether ecclesiastical institutions, by acquiring lands from private hands, could thereby immunize those lands from episcopal tithing.
The 1483 court summons (doc. 1483_PD) signals the reopening of hostilities on precisely this front: the bishop now advances a claim not to lands beyond certain confines, but to tithes on all properties bequeathed to the churches by deceased laymen – a claim that strikes at the very heart of the parish treasury’s accumulative strategies. The Commune’s apparent failure to respond satisfactorily to this summons presumably precipitated the enmity between Oprtalj and the Bishopric of Novigrad, a hostility that eventually culminated in the interdiction and excommunication of the community mentioned in the 1518 agreement.
The Venetian compromise of 1518 thus abandons the elegant cartographic solution of 1474 in favor of a memorial criterion: liability to episcopal tithe henceforth attaches not to location but to provenance, distinguishing between properties whose lay origins remain within living memory and those whose ecclesiastical character has become, as it were, immemorial. The bishop secures in principle what he could not obtain by territorial demarcation; the Commune preserves its ancient endowments while conceding the fruits of more recent acquisitions. The division did not prove enforceable. Thus, the bishop proceeded to excommunicate the Commune of Oprtalj yet again. It was not until 1523 that a compromise decision was reached, but its practical implementation remains an open question in scholarship that needs to be addressed through new archival research (Vesnaver, cited above).