kirsi salonen chapter, and clergy to Pope Innocent VIII to receive a licentia testandi, and a similar, contemporaneous attempt by Nicolaus Byskalle, canon of Turku. An important step in the history of hereditary rights applied to members of the upper clergy took place in the late 11th and early 12th century as a consequence of the Gregorian reform.6 A part of this reform was that the Catholic Church began to regulate the right to property for members of the clergy, stipulating that men who had achieved the three higher ecclesiastical orders (subdeacon, deacon, and presbyter) were not allowed to marry and, consequently, should not have children.7 The introduction of clerical celibacy meant in practice that subdeacons, deacons, or priests could no longer pass property to their offspring and that their children could no longer be considered legitimate heirs – any inheritance thus should go to the Church. The demand for celibacy and the regarding of the offspring of clergymen as illegitimate was a huge change from earlier practice, which allowed clerics to marry and to bequeath their property to legitimate heirs. The new requirements were, indeed, considered so radical that they were never fully accepted by the clergy; the Church had to find a way to deal with the problem.8 The regulation limiting the right of clergymen to leave their property to whomever they wished was impractical not only for members of the upper clergy with illegitimate children but also for many unmarried clerics, who had those they needed to care for even after their death – for example, old and infirm parents, relatives, or servants. In order to overcome 6 There is ample historiography of the study of the Gregorian reform. A relatively recent anthology with references to relevant literature is Martine – Winandy 2021. 7 Central ecclesiastical legislation about the topic can be found in the Decretumof Gratian, CausaXII,editedinCorpus Iuris Canonici, pars prior: Decretum magistri Gratiani (Henceforth CICI), coll. 675–717, andLiber extra(X3.26), edited inCorpus Iuris Canonici, pars secunda: Decretalium collectiones (HenceforthCICII), coll. 538–546. 8 The most important regulations regarding the testamentary rights of clergymen can be found in the Liber extra. X 3.26.7., 9, 12, edited inCICII, coll. 540–542. See also Meehan 1913. 169 Catholic Church Regulation of Inheritance Rights
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