There was no greater or more absolute social distinction in early modern Spain than that between noble and non-noble. Together with the clergy, the nobility constituted a privileged estate. In addition to conferring status--it was once argued that a passion for nobility and an aversion to the bourgeois work ethic contributed to the decline of Spain--nobility provided tangible benefits. Nobles could not be taxed, nor imprisoned for indebtedness; they could not be tortured except in cases of treason; their possessions could not be taken from them in civil suits; and if they faced the threat of execution they could choose decapitation rather than hanging. There was considerable variety among the nobility, from the extraordinarily powerful and wealthy dukes of Alba or Medina Sidonia to the "mendicant" hidalgos, popular in period literature. In northern Spain, which had been Christian for centuries, as much as half of the population claimed noble status; indeed in Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya the entire population deemed itself noble! In the more recently conquered south, where the majority of the population worked on large estates and descended from Moorish families, only about one percent was noble. The Schoenberg Collection contains three cartas ejecutorias, that is, documents issued in the name of the king proving a certain person to be noble. Each of the three seems to have had a common origin: an attempt by the king's tax collector to add their names to the tax rolls. The cartas present the testimony of respected neighbors and elders who swore to the person's honor and reputation and to the antiquity of his nobility. While it was probably better never to have had one's status questioned, a handsomely bound carta ejecutoria could become a family treasure as well as indisputable proof of one's hidalguia. Despite the formulaic nature of their texts, the cartas are typically colorful and often exude a sort of folk charm which identifies them with a person and a place and which separates them from the higher traditions of European manuscript illustration.