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Geographical mobility and community-building in seventeenth-century Palestine: insights from the records of Bethlehem's Catholic Parish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2020

Felicita Tramontana
Felicita Tramontana*
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
*
*Corresponding author. Email: f.tramontana@warwick.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article focuses on the role played by local mobility in processes of confession and community building, taking the Catholic population in seventeenth-century Palestine as a case study. Works on the Reformation in Europe have acknowledged a connection between the strengthening of confessional identities and geographical mobility. Through the analysis of the parish records of Bethlehem, the article reveals some characteristics of seventeenth-century Catholic mobility in Palestine and shows how this mobility was bound up with the consolidation of a tiny Catholic minority and the establishment of a sacramental network. From a larger perspective, this research suggests that mobility plays an important role in the development and consolidation of small communities in a context of competing religion. From a methodological point of view, it also shows the importance of microanalysis in understanding the geographical mobility associated with religious practices and allegiances.

French abstract

French Abstract

Mobilité géographique et construction d'une identité communautaire en Palestine au XVIIe siècle: l'apport des registres paroissiaux catholiques de Bethléem

S'attachant au cas de la population catholique présente en Palestine au XVIIe siècle, cet article est consacré au rôle joué par la mobilité géographique dans les processus de construction d'une identité confessionnelle et communautaire. Les travaux sur la Réforme en Europe s'accordent à reconnaître un lien entre renforcement des identités confessionnelles et mobilité géographique. Grâce à l'analyse des registres paroissiaux de Bethléem, certaines caractéristiques de la mobilité catholique du XVIIe siècle en Palestine sont mises en lumière. L'auteur montre comment cette mobilité était liée à la consolidation d'une minuscule minorité catholique et à la création d'un réseau sacramentel. Dans une perspective plus large, cette recherche suggère que la mobilité joue un rôle important dans le développement et la consolidation des petites communautés dans le contexte d'une religion entrant en concurrence. D'un point de vue méthodologique, l'étude fait ressortir également l'importance de la microanalyse pour comprendre la mobilité géographique associée aux pratiques et allégeances religieuses.

German abstract

German Abstract

Geographische Mobilität und Gemeindebildung in Palästina im 17. Jahrhundert: Erkenntnisse aus den Akten der katholischen Gemeinde Bethlehems

Dieser Aufsatz dreht sich um die Frage, welche Rolle die lokale Mobilität im Prozess der Konfessions- und Gemeindebildung spielt, und wählt dafür die katholische Bevölkerung in Palästina im 17. Jahrhundert als Fallstudie. Arbeiten zur Reformation in Europe haben einen Zusammenhang zwischen der Bekräftigung konfessioneller Identitäten und geographischer Mobilität aufgezeigt. Aus der Analyse der Pfarrregister Bethlehems ergeben sich einige Charakteristika der katholischen Mobilität in Palästina im 17. Jahrhundert. Der Aufsatz zeigt ferner, wie eng diese Mobilität mit der Konsolidierung einer winzigen katholischen Minderheit und der Bildung eines sakramentalen Netzwerks verknüpft war. Aus einer übergreifenden Perspektiv deutet diese Forschung darauf hin, dass der Mobilität für die Entwicklung und Festigung kleiner Gemeinden im Kontext konkurrierender Religionen eine wichtige Rolle zukommt. Aus einem methodologischen Blickwinkel zeigt sich außerdem, wie wichtig die Mikroanalyse ist, wenn man die mit religiösen Praktiken und Loyalitäten verknüpfte geographische Mobilität verstehen will.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , August 2020 , pp. 163 - 185
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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Footnotes

This research has been funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions, Grant Agreement: 657118. I would like to thank Bernard Heyberger, Beat Kümin and Richard Smith for their helpful comments and encouragement, and the anonymous referees for their suggestions. A special thanks to Julie Marfany for her thorough work and suggestions.

References

Notes

1 Archivio Storico della Custodia di Terra Santa, Jerusalem (from now on ASCTS), Curia Custodiale, Sacramenti. Registrazioni miste, vol. I, f. 84. Throughout the article, names are spelled as in the Franciscan sources, unless otherwise stated.

2 The term ‘dragoman’ usually refers to the European consuls’ official translators, whose patents were issued by the Ottoman authorities. In Franciscan sources, however, the term refers to those who worked for the friars and had closer ties with the convents. See Norris, Jacob, ‘Dragomans, tattooists, artisans: Palestinian Christians and their encounters with Catholic Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’, Journal of Global History 14, 1 (2018), 68–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 74.

3 ASCTS, Curia Custodiale, Sacramenti, Registrazioni miste, vol. I, f. 18.

4 See for example, de Vries, Jan, European urbanization, 1500–1800 (Cambridge, 1984)Google Scholar; Clark, Peter and Souden, David eds., Migration and society in early modern England (Totowa, 1988)Google Scholar; Clark, Peter, ‘The migrant in Kentish towns, 1580–1640’, in Clark, Peter and Slack, Paul eds., Crisis and order in English towns 1500–1700: essays in urban history (London, 1973)Google Scholar; Laslett, Peter and Harrison, John R., ‘Clayworth and Cogenhoe’, in Bell, H. E. and Ollard, Richard L. eds., Historical essays 1600–1750, presented to David Ogg (London, 1963)Google Scholar.

5 Yohanan Friedmann, ‘Dhimma’, in Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas and Everett Rowson eds., Encyclopaedia of Islam, III (Leiden, 2012), consulted online on 04 January 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_26005; see also Braude, Benjamin and Lewis, Bernard eds., Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: the functioning of a plural society (New York, 1984)Google Scholar; Masters, Bruce, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab world (Cambridge, 2001)Google Scholar.

6 On Catholic missions in the seventeenth-century Middle East: Heyberger, Bernard, Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient au temps de la Réforme catholique (Rome, 1984)Google Scholar; Frazee, Charles, Catholics and sultans: the Church and the Ottoman Empire 1453–1923 (Cambridge, 1983), 67–150CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab world, 68–97; Haddad, Robert M., ‘Conversion of the Eastern Orthodox Christians to the Unia in the 17th and 18th century’, in Gervers, Michael and Bikhazi, Ramzi J. eds., Conversion and continuity: indigenous Christian communities in Islamic lands, eighth to eighteenth centuries (Toronto, 1990), 449–59Google Scholar. On Egypt: Febe Armanios, Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt (Oxford, 2011) and Alastair Hamilton, The Copts and the West, 1439–1822: the European discovery of the Egyptian church (Oxford, 2006); on the following centuries: Helen Murre-Van den Berg ed., New faith in ancient lands: Western missions in the Middle East in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Leiden, 2006).

7 On Franciscan missions in Palestine: Heyberger, Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient; Felicita Tramontana, Passages of faith. Conversions in Palestinian villages (Wiesbaden, 2014), 32–39, 97–110; Norris, ‘Dragomans, tattooists, artisans”, 68–86. Valensi, Lucette, ‘Inter-communal relations and changes in religious affiliation in the Middle East (seventeenth to nineteenth centuries)’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 39, 2 (1997), 251–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar. According to the 1922 population census of Palestine (table XIV), Catholics were in Jifnā an-Naṣārā, al-Tabieh, ʿAbūd, Silwān (16 Catholics) ʿIrṭās (29 Catholics), Ramallah, Kufr al-Malīk, and Bir Zei. See J. B. Barron ed., Palestine: report and general abstracts of the census of 1922, Government of Palestine 1922, table XIV. On the topic, see also Victor Guérin, Description géographique historique et archéologique de la Palestine (Paris, 1878); Socin, Albert, ‘Alphabetisches Verzeichniss von Ortschaften des Paschalik Jerusalem’, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins, 2 (1879), 135–63Google Scholar.

8 Administratively, the Franciscan order is divided into provinces, made up of several convents and headed by a provincial minister.

9 See Pieraccini, Paolo, Cattolici di Terra Santa (1333–2000) (Firenze, 2003), 13–20Google Scholar.

10 Heyberger, Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient, 8, 253–6; Bernard Heyberger, ‘Frontières confessionnelles et conversions chez les chrétiens orientaux (xviie-xviiie siècles)’, in Mercedes García-Arenal ed., Conversions islamiques (Paris, 2001), 245–58. On the relationship between the issues raised by the Reformation and the missionary activity toward Orthodox Christians, see also Felicita Tramontana ‘“Né si potevano castigare per la libertà del loco e il dominio che vi è.” Cattolici e protestanti nell'Impero Ottomano attraverso i dubia e le facultates’, Mélanges de l'École française de Rome 129, 1 (2017), 201–13.

11 Sacramental sharing refers to both the practice of giving the sacraments irrespective of denomination and to the practice of, say, being baptised in one faith or denomination and married in another.

12 Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab world, 55. See also Bakhit Adnan, ‘The Christian population of the province of Damascus in the sixteenth century’, in Braude and Lewis eds., Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire, vol. II, 19–66.

13 Cohen, Amnon and Lewis, Bernard, Population and revenue in the towns of Palestine in the sixteenth century (Princeton, 1978), 32–3Google Scholar, 86, 90; Peri, Oded, ‘The Christian population of Jerusalem in the late seventeenth century’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 39, 4 (1996), 398–421CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 410.

14 Heyberger, Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient, 275.

15 Tramontana, Passages of faith, 126–7.

16 The confessionalization paradigm, as elaborated by Schilling and Reinhard, was based on the concept of Konfessionsbildung (confession building) developed in the late 1950s by Ernst Walter Zeeden, to which they added a strong social and political dimension. See Wolfgang Reinhard, ‘Reformation, counter-reformation, and the early modern state: a reassessment’, The Catholic Historical Review 75 (1989), 383–404; Heinz Schilling, Religion, political culture and the emergence of early modern society: essays in German and Dutch history (Leiden, 1992); see also Lotz-Heumann, Ute, ‘The concept of ‘confessionalization’: a historiographical paradigm in dispute’, Memoria y civilización 4 (2001), 93–114Google Scholar.

17 See, for example, ‘Forum: religious history beyond confessionalization’, German History 32, 4 (2014), 579–98; Ziegler, Walter, ‘Kritisches zur Konfessionalisierungsthese’, in Frieß, Peer and Kießlin, Rolf eds., Konfessionalisierung und Region (Konstanz, 1999), 41–53Google Scholar; Foster, Mark, ‘With and without confessionalization. Varieties of early modern German Catholicism’, Journal of Early Modern History 1 (1997), 315–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 See Jedin, Hubert, ‘Catholic-reformation or counter-reformation’, in Luebke, David ed., Counter-reformation: the essential readings (Oxford, 1999), 21–4Google Scholar. On the Catholic reformation see, for example, Mullett, Michael, The catholic reformation (London, 1999)Google Scholar; Bireley, Robert, The refashioning of catholicism, 1450–1700: a reassessment of the counter reformation (Washington, DC, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 See, for example, Forster, Marc R., Counter-reformation in the villages: religion and reform in the bishopric of Speyer, 1560–1720 (Ithaca, NY, 1992)Google Scholar; Venard, Marc, Le temps des confessions: 1530–1620/30 (Paris, 1992)Google Scholar; Lotz-Heumann, Ute, Die doppelte Konfessionalisierung in Irland: Konflikt und Koexistenz im 16. und in der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts (Tübingen, 2000)Google Scholar.

20 Ditchfield, Simon, ‘De-centering the Catholic Reformation: Papacy and peoples in the early modern world’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 101 (2010), 186–208Google Scholar.

21 See Melvin, Karen, ‘Globalization of reform’, in Bamji, Alexandra, Janssen, Geert H. and Laven, Mary eds., The Ashgate research companion to the counter-reformation (Ashgate, 2013), 391–405Google Scholar; Alison Forrestal and Seán Smith, ‘Re-thinking missionary Catholicism for the early modern era’, in Alison Forrestal and Seán Smith eds., The frontiers of mission: perspectives on early modern missionary Catholicism (Leiden, 2016). 8. Concerning the Middle East, well before the global Counter-Reformation became a field of inquiry, Heyberger shed light on the effects that the Counter-Reformation had in the area. He convincingly argued that confessionalization in Europe influenced Rome's attitude toward the relationship between Catholics and Orthodox Christians in the Middle East. See Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient, 8, 253–6 and ‘Frontières confessionnelles et conversions chez les Chrétiens orientaux (xviie-xviiie siècles)’, in Mercedes García-Arenal ed., Conversions islamiques (Paris, 2001), 245–58. On the Middle East, see also Beat Kümin and Felicita Tramontana, ‘Catholicism decentralised: local religion in the early modern periphery’, Church History, 2020 (forthcoming).

22 Heinz Schilling, Peregrini und Schiffchen Gottes: Flüchtlingserfahrung und Exulantentheologie des frühneuzeitlichen Calvinismus, in Ansgar Reiss et al. eds., Calvinismus: Die Reformierten in Deutschland und Europa (Berlin, 2009), 60–168; Henning P. Jürgens and Thomas Weller eds., Religion und Mobilität. Zum Verhältnis von raumbezogener Mobilität und religiöser Identitätsbildung im frühneuzeitlichen Europa (Göttingen, 2010); Alexander Schunka, ‘Konfession und Migrationsregime in der Frühen Neuzeit’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 35 (2009), 28–63; Liesbeth Corens, Confessional mobility and English Catholics in Counter-Reformation Europe (Oxford, 2019); David van der Linden, Experiencing exile: Huguenot refugees in the Dutch Republic, 1680–1700 (Ashgate, 2015).

23 Heinz Schilling, Niederländische Exulanten im 16. Jahrhundert: ihre Stellung im Sozialgefüge und im religiösen Leben deutscher und englischer Städte (Gütersloh, 1972); Alastair Duke, Reformation and revolt in the low countries (London, 1990); Andrew Pettegree, Emden and the Dutch revolt: exile and the development of reformed protestantism (Oxford, 1992); Jesse Spohnholz, The tactics of toleration: a refugee community in the age of religious wars (Newark, NJ, 2011); Geert H. Janssen, The Dutch revolt and Catholic exile in Reformation Europe (Cambridge, 2014).

24 Peri, ‘The Christian population of Jerusalem in the late seventeenth century’, 40.

25 On the meaning of the term ‘parish’ in the Palestinian context, see below.

26 On microhistory, see Levi, Giovanni, ‘On Microhistory’, in Burke, Peter ed., New perspectives on historical writing (State College, PA, 1993), 93–113Google Scholar; Ginzburg, Carlo, ‘Microhistory: two or three things that I know about it’, Critical Inquiry 20 (1993), 10–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar. More recently on the use of a microhistorical approach, see Trivellato, Francesca, ‘Is there a future for Italian microhistory in the age of global history?’, California Italian Studies 2 (2011), 1Google Scholar; Ghobrial, John-Paul, ‘The secret life of Elias Babylon and the uses of global microhistory’, Past and Present 222 (2014), 51–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ghobrial, John-Paul, ‘Introduction: seeing the world like a microhistorian, and moving stories and what they tell us: early modern mobility between microhistory and global history’, Past and Present 242, Issue Supplement 14 (2019), 1–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ghobrial, John-Paul (ed.), Global history and microhistory, Issue supplement 14 of Past and Present 242 (2019)Google Scholar.

27 On the Bethlehem sacramental registers and in general on the archive of Custody of the Holy Land, see Andrea Maiarelli and Narcyz Klimas, L'archivio storico della custodia di Terra Santa, 1230–1970 (Milano, 2012).

28 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Registrazioni miste, vol. 1 (25/12/1616–20/12/1671). The volume is divided into parts according to the sacrament registered. I have used Liber baptizatorum (13/05/1618–12/05/1699, ff. 1–52); Liber defunctorum (07/08/1633–01/11/1638, ff. 53–67); Liber matrimoniorum (07/02/1652–25/12/1669, ff. 71–94).

29 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Battesimi, Registrum baptizatorum (11/05/1669–08/12/1721); ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Registrazioni miste, vol. 2, Registrum coniugatorum et defunctorum huius parochiae S. Caterinae …  (ab anno 1669–1735), Registrum coniugatorum (28/08/1672–19/06/1735, ff. 1–68) and Registrum defunctorum (07/10/1669–18/01/1735, ff. 1–95). I have used these volumes mostly up to the year 1700. For this research, I have also used: ASCTS, Cura Custodiale, Registrazioni miste, vol. 1 (1555–1671), see below note 20, and ASCTS, Parrocchie, Gerusalemme, S. Salvatore, Sacramenti Liber baptizatorum (1669–1718).

30 The best-known example is Wrigley, E. A. and Schofield, R. S., The population history of England 1541–1871: a reconstruction (London, 1981)Google Scholar.

31 See also Wrigley, E. A. et al. , English population history from family reconstitution, 1580–1837 (New York, 1997), 12–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 ASCTS, Curia Custodiale, Registrazioni miste, vol. 1 (1555–1671). In particular, I have used the following parts: ‘Battesimi in Gerusalemme, Betlemme e Ramleh’ (9 luglio 1617–24 Agosto 1671, ff. 1r–28r.) and ‘Nota di quei che si sono coniugati in matrimonio in queste nostre chiese da’ frati nostri in tempi diversi’ (15/02/1618, 21/07/1671, ff. 82r–87v).

33 Hinde, Andrew, England's population: a history since the Domesday survey (London, 2003), 167Google Scholar.

34 On the naming system in the Arab world, see Jacqueline Sublet, Le voile du nom. Essai sur le nom propre arabe (Paris, 1991); Benkheira, Mohammed Hocine, Giladi, Avner, Mayeur-Jaouen, Catherine, Sublet, Jacqueline, La Famille en islam: D'après les sources arabes (Paris, 2013)Google Scholar; Schimmel, Annemarie, Islamic names: an introduction (Edinburgh, 1989)Google Scholar.

35 See, for example, ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Battesimi, Registrum baptizatorum (11/05/1669–08/12/1721), 64, 65 (‘Michael di Botticella’, Bayt Jālā).

36 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Battesimi, Registrum baptizatorum (11/05/1669–08/12/1721), 75 and 76. Westernized names became widespread among Eastern Christians in the nineteenth century.

37 Italianization of the Arab Ghazāl.

38 Norris, ‘Dragomans, tattooists, artisans’, 74.

39 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Battesimi, Registrum baptizatorum (11/05/1669–08/12/1721), 27, 36.

40 The liturgies and forms of worship employed by the Roman Catholic Church in the West.

41 Established in 1622, the Roman congregation De Propaganda Fide was in charge of all the Catholic missionary activity in those places in which there was no established Church hierarchy.

42 Heyberger, Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient, 235. Eastern Catholic Churches are formed of Eastern Christians who have left their mother church to join the Catholic communion. They are in full communion with Rome but have retained their own liturgy and organization.

43 Heyberger, Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient, 275. This happened, for example, in Bayruth, Bethlehem and Acri. The engagement of an Arab priest was often made necessary by the Franciscans’ lack of the linguistic competences necessary to deal with an Arab population.

44 Pieraccini, Paolo, Il ristabilimento del patriarcato latino di Gerusalemme e la Custodia di Terra Santa: la dialettica istituzionale al tempo del primo patriarca Mons. Giuseppe Valerga (1847–1872) (Cairo, 2006), 53Google Scholar, but see below.

45 Kümin and Tramontana, ‘Catholicism decentralised: local religion in the early modern periphery’.

46 Archivio della Sacra Congregazione De Propaganda Fide, Rome (thereafter, ASCPF), Scritture originali riferite ai congressi generali (thereafter SOCG), vol. 242, f. 62v. On the growth of Catholic communities in Palestine, see Heyberger, Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient; Tramontana, Passages of faith, 86–110.

47 ASCPF, SOCG, vol. 542 f. 502v.

48 ASCPF, SOCG, vol. 518, f. 345r.

49 ASCPF, Scritture riferite ai congressi (thereafter SC), Terra Santa e Cipro, vol. III, f. 215 v. On the spread of Catholicism in Bayt Jālā and Bayt Saḥūr, see Tramontana, Passages of faith, 106.

50 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Battesimi, Registrum Baptizatorum (11/05/1669–08/12/1721), 38.

51 Ibid., 12.

52 Ibid., 29, 32, 33, 35.

53 Ibid., 22.

54 Ibid., 43, 49.

55 Heyberger, Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient, 385–98, 511–50. On the development of the Catholic community in Bethlehem also see Norris, ‘Dragomans, tattooists, artisans’, 68–86.

56 Tramontana, Passages of faith, 99–101.

57 On the topic, see Constantin A. Panchenko, Arab Orthodox Christians under the Ottomans 1516–1831 (Jordanville, 2016); Heyberger, Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient.

58 Ibid. On the communicatio in sacris in the Middle East, see also Cesare Santus, Trasgressioni necessarie. Communicatio in sacris, coesistenza e conflitti tra le comunità cristiane orientali (Levante e Impero Ottomano, XVII–XVIII secolo) (Rome, 2018).

59 Tramontana, Passages of faith, 125–8.

60 In Franciscan registers, the patronymic is expressed by the Latin filius/filia (thereafter f.) followed by the genitive.

61 ASCTS, Cura Custodiale, Registrazioni miste, vol. 1, 18.

62 Dror Ze'evi, An Ottoman century: the district of Jerusalem in the 1600s (Albany, 1996), 162, 164.

63 See Mariano Morone da Maleo, Terra Santa nuovamente illustrata (Piacenza, 1669), 60.

64 ASCTS, Cura Custodiale, Registrazioni miste, vol. 1 (25/12/1616–20/12/1671), 12.

65 Ibid., 7.

66 Ibid., 12.

67 Ibid., 18.

68 18/11/1646, see ASCTS, Cura Custodiale, Registrazioni miste, vol. 1, 84.

69 ‘Ritu et natione grecam’, ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Registrazioni miste, vol. 2, Registrum coniugatorum (28/08/1672–19/06/1735), 1.

70 ‘Murmur grecorum’, ibid.

71 ‘Ab [sic!] scandala vitanda’, ibid., 3.

72 Schilling, Niederländische Exulanten; Duke, Reformation and revolt in the low countries; Pettegree, Emden and the Dutch revolt; Spohnholz, The tactics of toleration; Janssen, The Dutch revolt.

73 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Battesimi, Registrum baptizatorum (11/05/1669–08/12/1721), 38.

74 Ibid., 62, 63.

75 Ibid., 26. In Franciscan documents, Bayt Jālā is usually called ‘Botticella’.

76 Ibid., 33, 55, 67.

77 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Registrazioni miste, vol. 2, Registrum defunctorum (07/10/1669–18/01/1735), 10.

78 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Battesimi, Registrum baptizatorum (11/05/1669–08/12/1721), 34.

79 05/11/1684. See ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Battesimi, Registrum baptizatorum (11/05/1669–08/12/1721), 43.

80 Ibidem.

81 See Leonhard Lemmens OFM., Collectanea Terrae Sanctae ex archivo Hierosolymitano deprompta, in G. Golubovich ed., Biblioteca biobibliografica della Terra Santa, 2nd series, vol. 14 (Florence, 1933), 52: ‘Il che ci é costato non poca fatica ridurre detti turcimanni a prendere habitazione in detta villa (ʿAyn Kārim)’.

82 Clark, Peter and Souden, David, Migration and society in early modern England (Hutchinson, 1987)Google Scholar; Richard M. Smith, ‘55 years since Laslett's ‘Clayworth and Cogenhoe’: What have we learned about pre-modern geographical mobility?’, paper presented at the 16th Warwick Parish Symposium ‘Parish and Migration’, 12/05/2018. I am grateful to Prof. Smith for letting me read the paper.

83 ASCTS, Cura Custodiale, Registrazioni miste, vol. 1, 83.

84 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Registrazioni Miste, vol. 1, (25/12/1616–20/12/1671), Liber baptizatorum, 20.

85 Ibid., 21.

86 Day, Cathy, Wiltshire marriage patterns 1754–1914: geographical mobility, cousin marriage and illegitimacy (Cambridge, 2013), 201Google Scholar; Harrison, G. A. and Boyce, A. J. (eds.), The structure of human population (Oxford, 1972)Google Scholar.

87 Kalmijn, Matthijs, ‘Intermarriage and homogamy: causes, patterns, trends’, Annual Review of Sociology 24 (1998), 395–421CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 404. See also van Leeuwen, Marco H. D. and Maas, Ineke, ‘Endogamy and social class in history: an overview’, in van Leeuwen, Marco H. D., Maas, Ineke and Miles, Andrew eds., Marriage choices and class boundaries: social endogamy in history (Cambridge, 2005), 1–23Google Scholar, at 5–10.

88 Meriwether, Margaret L., The kin who count: family and society in Ottoman Aleppo 1770–1840 (Austin, 1999)Google Scholar. Among the anthropological literature on the topic, see Ladislav Holý, Kinship, honour and solidarity: cousin marriage in the Middle East (Manchester, 1989).

89 Meriwether, The kin who count, 134; Todorova, Maria N., Balkan family structure and the European pattern: demographic developments in Ottoman Bulgaria (Washington, 1993), 46–56Google Scholar; Tucker, Judith E., In the house of the law (Berkeley, 1998), 168Google Scholar. See also Doumani, Beshara, Family life in the Ottoman Mediterranean (Cambridge, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

90 ACPF, SOCG, vol. 104, f. 118v.

91 See above.

92 Dispensations are mentioned already in the mixed volume, on burials and weddings, starting in 1619 (up to 1667). According to this register, whose recording is less accurate than the following one, dispensations were awarded in 20% of the 29 marriages recorded.

93 G. A. Harrison, The human biology of the English village (Oxford, 1995), 43; Malcom Kitch, ‘Population movement and migration in pre-industrial rural England’, in Brian Short ed., English rural community: image and analysis (Cambridge, 1992), 62–84, at 72.

94 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Registrazioni Miste, vol. 1 (25/12/1616–20/12/1671), Liber matrimoniorum, 77.

95 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Registrazioni Miste, vol. 1 (25/12/1616–20/12/1671), Liber baptizatorum, 38. The number of marriages between the Catholics of Bethlehem and women from Jerusalem is surprisingly low. This may be because, according to the Custos, women born in the city were used to staying at home, while in Bethlehem men needed women who could work in the fields. See ACPF, SOCG, vol. 104, f. 118v.

96 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Registrazioni Miste, vol. 1 (25/12/1616–20/12/1671), Liber matrimoniorum, 77 and 79.

97 Ibid., 78 and 79.

98 ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Registrazioni miste, vol. 2, Registrum coniugatorum (28/08/1672–19/06/1735), f. 1.

99 Ibid., f. 16 and 19.

100 Ibid., 3.

101 The marriage was celebrated on 14/4/1700. The entry also specifies that the wedding took place with the authorization of the parish priest of Bethlehem, to which one of the spouses belonged. ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Registrazioni miste, vol. 2, Registrum Coniugatorum (28/08/1672–19/06/1735), 20.

102 This is the case, for example, in the wedding between Pietro f. Salomone from ʿAyn Kārim and Marta f. Giorgio from Bethlehem, which took place on 15/02/1716. ASCTS, Parrocchie, Betlemme, Santa Caterina. Sacramenti, Registrazioni miste, vol. 2, Registrum Coniugatorum (28/08/1672–19/06/1735), 36.

103 See for example Kitch, ‘Population movement and migration’, 75–6. According to Kitch, the average was five kilometres, and 86% of out-of-village marriages were within 19 km.

104 P. Verniero di Montepeloso OFM, Chroniche o annali di Terra Santa, in Girolamo Golubovich ed., Biblioteca biobibliografica della Terra Santa, 2nd series, vol. 7 (Florence, 1930), 21.

105 Tramontana, Passages of faith, 126–7.