Page 112 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Aleksander Panjek and Miha Zobec

the goal of this study, i.e. checking and detecting possible fluctuations in
the prestige of the family and its members. In the second part, presented
in the fourth chapter, after a brief presentation of godparenthood patterns
at the parish level over the centuries, we focus on a quantitative and qual-
itative, both collective and individual, analysis of godparents within the
Černe family over three centuries. We are interested in whether and how
their elite status in society was reflected in their desirability as godparents
in the native village community of Tomaj, and whether and how the Černe
godfathers were affected by the ups and downs of individuals over time. In
the conclusions, we present the results for the considered family as well as
the outcome of using godparents as an indicator of popularity in the local
community.

The First Century: Descendants of the Parish Priest
None of the four available lists of family heads in the village of Tomaj in
the sixteenth century mention the family name Černe, not even the land
register (urbar) of 1578, but when they are first mentioned, their appear-
ance on the scene is striking. The first mention relates to the Tomaj parish
priest Baptista Černe, involved in a lawsuit in 1592 related to his lease of
a farm in a nearby village (ast, atta, 196.1.1, 4, 141). In the same year,
the ‘son of the parish priest,’ named Just, was accused by the village com-
munity of Tomaj, tried, and condemned to a punishment both in money
and in goods (wine) for being recognized as responsible for the death of a
child he had with his maidservant (ast, atta, 196.1.1, 4, 154–155). In 1595
Andrej and Just Černe are listed among the subjects in Tomaj, their dues
corresponding to those paid by small cottagers (ast, atta, 229, 1/4).
A quarter of a century later, in 1618, Just Černe was considered as be-
longing among the ‘big ones’ (li grandi)inthe village community whopro-
moted the blockade of the village to prevent a patrol of Walloon soldiers
from entering it, in order to avoid the foreseeable expenses and inconve-
niences, although the military men were accompanied by the administra-
tor of the manor. They even let the count, their manorial lord, wait in front
of the door to the village fort, which consisted in the church surrounded
by defensive walls on top of the hillock (tabor). Because of this, Just Černe
was incarcerated in the castle tower together with a bunch of fellow peas-
ants and their mayor, who described those men as ‘the leaders, who do
not want to obey me or the precepts of our illustrious count’ (ast, atta,
200.1, 13). The matter was serious, since the biggest agitator among those
men, Jurij Škapin, was handed the death penalty, commuted to a fine of

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