kirsi salonen in Rome before he died in the 1480s and requested a licence to bequeath his property to his children.29 The entry is unfortunately undated, so we do not know who would have been the pope to whom he turned, but the entry testifies that Nicolaus Byskalle did not receive such a permit and therefore he had made a will to donate his estates to the prebend of Saint Bartholomew in the Turku cathedral. This is an interesting case, as it shows that Turku canons had children and even tried to leave their property to them – but the pope had not allowed that. We actually know that Nicolaus had a son named Paulus, who in March 1475 received from the Apostolic Penitentiary a dispensation in order to receive priestly ordination despite his illegitimate birth (he was son of a priest – that is, Nicolaus Byskalle – and an unmarried woman, probably the housekeeper of Nicolaus).30 It is not clear why Nicolaus attempted to receive a papal licentia testandi. In principle the liberal Swedish custom should have allowed him to bequeath his personal property freely to his heirs. But my guess here is that the problem lay in the fact that he wanted to leave his property to his children, which he according to the strict celibacy regulations of the Church should not have had. And as the Swedish legislation did not consider illegitimate children as legal heirs, it is possible that local customs simply did not allow him – or any priest in the same situation – to make a will in favour of persons who did not have a legal right to inheritance. But as we heard,the papal administration did not help him in this matter. It is not possible to know whether the case of Nicolaus had any connection to thelicentia testandi granted to the bishop and chapter of Turku, even though Nicolaus was a former canon of Turku. But his case might have functioned as a catalyst for the rest of the canons to turn to the pope for settling the inheritance issue of clergymen in the diocese of Turku. 29 “… sadis haffwa warid til Rom, ath hans barn motte komma til arffz epter honom och effter ath the ingalunda staddis honom eller tillatid bleff, thå testamenterade han forschriffna Wähax godz thill sanctj Berthollomej prebenda i Åbo …” [English translation: [It is] said that he has been to Rome, so that his children could receive inheritance after him, and when he was not allowed to do so, he bequeathed the mentioned Wähax estates to the prebend of Saint Bartholomew in Turku.] The text is edited inFMUVIII, document no. 6688 (s.d.). 30 The relevant document is edited inAuctoritate Papae, document no. 204 (29.3.1475). 177
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