Una función fundamental: el albaceazgo en una comunidad de la Edad Moderna

Abstract

This paper studies which is the major type of executor role in the Ancien Régime Córdoba and province and what it hides. Paying attention specifically to the clerical type, we can thus know the degree of confidence caused by clergymen in pre-industrial societies, given their association to ideas such as respect, prestige, education and status; to settle the level reverence in the society to the ecclesiastic model of "bien morir", which not only recommends the participation of those in the testamentary act, but also their inclusion in some juridical figure as, for instance, that of testamentary execution; and even to fix the limit of freedom the testator faces his last will's deed with. To that, the legal definition and assessment of execution are analysed, and also its concretion in individual and collective wills and decisions.