maria helena da cruz coelho & maria do rosário morujão that any could delegate their power to the others, or act without the agreement of any who were seen to be negligent in their duties.45 Such an arduous task required some form of recompense.46 Sometimes wills do not stipulate a specific payment for the fulfilment of the testamentary legacy, but executors were bequeathed movable or immovable property. Whenever payment for their work is specified, it is generally in money or movable property: the heirs of Estêvão Peres Ferro, canon of Braga, received a silver cup weighing one mark for fulfiling his wishes (1250);47 Pedro Martins, canon of Coimbra, who drew up his will in 1296, gifted his executor with his breviary, valuable both for its content and for the personal bond it reflected.48 There are also payments ordered to each of the executors sometimes without revealing how much each one would receive. Different executors of the same will could receive different amounts, as exemplified by Vasco Domingues’s will (1298), which states that one of his chosen executors would receive nothing for his trouble;49 or that of Pedro Martins (1301), bishop of Coimbra, who left 25 silver marks to one executor and 100 pounds to each of the other three.50 Even more liberally, in 1315, Francisco Peres, canon of the same diocese, allowed his executors to reward themselves as they saw fit.51 There was undoubtedly diversity in this recompense, which naturally depended on the wealth and liberality of the testator, but also on the desire to ensure that the provisions were indeed carried out. 287 45 Morujão 2010, doc. 7.8. Original quotation: “plenam et [liberam potestatem addendi], subtrahendi, diminuendi, corrigendi in dicto testamento si necesse fuerit (…) et damus potestatem dictis executoribus et heredibus quod possint comitere alteri de [executoribus] predictis vices suas ad [exequendum testamentum] sive legatum nostrum et revocare ad se et cum eis simul exequi quocumque et [quotienscumque] sibi viderint seu viderint expedire [et hoc sine] excusatione et [negligentia faciant prout de ipsis confidimus et] speramus. Et [si] aliquis eorum negligens fuerit et aliis [committere noluerit] alii posint exequi testamentum”. 46 See Bruand 2011–2012, pp. 50–51. 47 Morujão 2010, doc. 1.24. 48 Morujão 2010, doc. 2.38. 49 Morujão 2010, doc. 2.40. 50 Morujão 2010, doc. 2.41.
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