testamenta religiosorum – illegal charters? Apparently he had accompanied King Sigismund of Hungary who had fought at Nicopolis on 25 September 1396, and then travelled via Constantinople and Ragusa back to Hungary. Its heading reads: Testamentum fratris Baraxii ordinis Templariorum de Rodo. Of course it was not a testamentumnor was Fr. Barras a Templar. But people did not always pay attention to such niceties. The text began with an invocation: Innomine Christi amen. Then Fr. Barras declared: Io frar Baras de Baraso faço lo mio despropriamento. And at the end he ordered that no one must infringe it: Hoc autem testamentum nullo testimonio rumpi possit. In the main text Fr. Barras enumerated his spolia, first things he had left on Rhodes: his armour, his crossbows, and his bed; then things he had with him on his journey: 190 gold ducats, four silver cups, two silver belts (one large and one small), a gold piece worth 17 ducats, his coat of camlet,28 a small robe, a galley bed, a steel body plate, three rings, and a piece of silver worth 16 ducats; he added that Fr. Johann von Richtenberg owed him 20 ducats. Except for the galley bed that was to be given to his valet, and except for the small robe that was to be sold to give alms to the poor, Fr. Barras ordered that the authorities of Ragusa had to send all these movables to Rhodes; a note on the margin says that on 9 September 1397 they were received by Fr. Antonio de Rivara.29 In effect this despropriamentumwas a fairly informal cedula. Its major provision was that 90 ducats were to be used for the salvation of Fr. Barras’s soul. Interestingly, the Hospitallers sometimes used the term ‘testament’ as a pretext to declare the last will invalid. For example, in 1414 the Convent on Rhodes criticized thatmore laicali the late Fr. Hesso Schlegelholz (died 20 May 1412) had made a verum testamentum, quod facere non poterat, cum religiosus nichil possideat nec velle nec nolle habeat. So the clauses of this ‘testament’ were declared to be null and void. Fr. Hesso had deposited 2,300 florins at the Hospitaller commandery at Straßburg (Alsace). Acompromise was negotiated. Only 2,000 florins were to be used to rebuild the ruined Hospitaller commandery at Freiburg im Breisgau, as Fr. Hesso 28 Cloth made of camel’s hair, or more broadly fine cloth of whatever material, including silk. 29 Delaville Le Roulx (1913), pp. 76–78, 197 mentions only Fr. Jean de Rivara, prior of Pisa, of Venice, and papal rector of the March of Ancona. See also below note 39. 110
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