Page 116 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Aleksander Panjek and Miha Zobec

by girl, until she is in a better state and then send her to some Hospital.’
Since the food he gave did not correspond to the determined value, after
the child’s birth at the beginning of 1696 he was summoned to the castle,
where he was detained and sentenced to pay the twenty marks fine. His
father, mayor Marko, took responsibility for paying the fine (ast, atta,
202.1, 15).
In thesameyearof1696, Andrej wasreportedbyhis olderbrother Štefan
for having beaten him after a devotional pilgrimage. In a discussion start-
ed by Andrej, Štefan accused him of ‘ruining the House and always doing
damage like a smuggler thief.’ At that point Andrej gave him two blows
with a rod and a fight broke out between them. At the judicial proceed-
ings, witnesses declared that Andrej had caused great ‘scandal’ with two
other young men, because ‘they were closed in a room all together with
three bitches’ and having also spent money on ‘noises with musicians all
that night, that everyone was amazed that such things were exchanged for
the Devotion to which they had presented themselves.’ During his testimo-
ny in court, Štefan accused Andrej of having repeatedly stolen quantities
of rye and money from him, even from closed chests, ‘no lock being able
to resist him, since he opens everything, [...] and yet if Justice does not
provide, he will never give peace in the House’ – the reason behind Šte-
fan’s complaint over Andrej’s behaviour and conflictual personality, which
in his view damaged the family image and wealth. In 1698, Andrej was sen-
tenced to a fine of 100 marks and one month’s imprisonment in the castle
tower. At the publication of the judgment, his father Marko Černe, mayor
in Tomaj, once again declared himself as ‘guarantor and principal payer’ of
the fine (ast, atta, 202.1, 17).
One would think he cooled down after this experience, but in 1700 An-
drej Černe yet again appears in the manorial court documents among the
liveliest participants in the Tomaj youth abbey’s ritual sanctioning of the
parish priest’s cook and servant, a married man, and a village girl be-
cause of the illegitimate pregnancy caused by their affair. But since most
of the village participated in the rituals, there was no serious trespass-
ing of boundaries by the youths, except that they acted on hearsay rather
than proven guilt. Even the mayor, Marko Černe, agreed to the fact that
thegrainandwine confiscatedfromthe trespassers shouldbekeptinthe
communal cellar. It is interesting to note that the head of the village youth
abbey was called ‘mayor of the youngsters’ and that this position was held
by the adult mayor’s youngest son Tomaž Černe, Andrej’s brother (ast,
atta,202,19).

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