Bernat de Puigcercós facts for kids

Bernat de Puigcercós was an important friar from Catalonia who lived a long time ago, in the 1300s. He was part of the Dominican Order, a group of religious people. He also held a very important job: he was the main Inquisitor for the Crown of Aragon. This meant he was in charge of making sure people followed the rules of the church in that area.

What He Wrote

Bernat de Puigcercós wrote a short book in Latin. It was called Quaestio disputata de licitudine contractus emptionis et venditionis censualis cum conditione revenditionis. That's a long name! It means "A Disputed Question about the Lawfulness of buying and selling censals with a condition of reselling."

This book talked about something called censals and violaris. These were ways for people to get a regular income after paying a certain amount of money. Imagine paying a sum now to get money back every year, sometimes for a set time, or even for your whole life. These agreements were very common in Catalonia and the Crown of Aragon during the Middle Ages.

Many people at the time debated if these censals and violaris were fair or allowed by church law. Bernat de Puigcercós wrote that he believed they were lawful. His ideas were very important and influenced other thinkers. For example, a famous writer named Francesc Eiximenis used Bernat's ideas in his own book, the Tractat d'usura (Treaty on usury). Usury was about charging too much interest on money, which the church often saw as wrong. Bernat's work helped explain why censals and violaris were different and acceptable.

His book was copied from an old manuscript found in the Monastery of Sant Cugat. Today, you can find this important document in the General Archive of the Crown of Aragon.

Images for kids

• 

  A robot icon, representing a kid-friendly resource.