papal administration and the rights of clergymen to make a last will Although there is very little information about clergymen’s rights to bequeath their property, the surviving documents testify that there was a lively discussion in Finland in the last decades of the 15th century about priestly inheritance. Not only did Canon Nicolaus Byskalle try to receive alicentia testandi to leave his property to his offspring, but also the bishop, the cathedral chapter, and the clergy of the Turku diocese applied in 1488 for a licence to bequeath not only their personal property but also ecclesiastical property. Both requests were unusual from the point of view of what canon law regulations typically permitted. Documentation also shows that the Church wanted to uphold the existing regulations and thus Nicolaus was not successful in his attempt, and the bishop and cathedral chapter of Turku only received a partial licence from Pope Innocent VIII. The discussion about priests’ rights to testament their property in Turku did not end here, as the statutes for Turku cathedral chapter from 1491 stipulated that priests needed to leave their benefices to their successors in at least as good conditions as they were when they received them. This regulation thus does not allow bequeathing ecclesiastical property. I would also dare to suggest that the four formularies for making a will in the copybook of Bishop Magnus (who was successor to Bishop Conradus) might be a result of the discussion about priests’ hereditary rights in the diocese of Turku. 178 Conclusions
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