medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]>
>> [me] according to the best quick reference to Chartrain churches (Jacques
Lacour, _Chartres, églises et chapelles_. Chartres: Société archéologique
d'Eure-et-Loir, 1985, p. 135) the parish church of St. Hilaire next to the
Benedictine abbey of St. Peter's was built on land given by a knight in the
first half of the *10th* century.
> Well, Christopher, the question is, to whom did he give the land. It would
make more sense for him to have given it to a major abbey than to a burgeoning
parish.
sorry if i wasn't clear.
yes, the gift of land (accepting Lacour's characterisation of it) was certaily
to the abbey --St. Hilaire belonged to St. Peter, just as did all other
churches and property given to the monks who served him in Chartres.
alternatively, it's *possible* that a pre-existing church had fallen into the
hands of the "knight" (or his progenitor) and he was returning it to St. Peter
--a great majority of the 11th and 12th c. charters in the cartulary record
the return of ecclesiastical property which had fallen into lay hands in the
course of the "feudal chaos" of the later 9th and 10th centuries.
whether there was a church on the site or not, it's a pretty good guess that
the land in question --being so close to the abbey-- originally belonged to
St. Peter and was given in fief to a layman sometime in the stormy history of
the abbey.
Yves Delaporte's learned article "Chartres" in the _Dictionnaire d'histoire et
geographie ecclesiastique_, XII (1953), col. 559 tells us that the abbey was
"Invaded by an armed force and pillaged by the soldier-Bishop Elias
(840-46)... was restored by Bishop Gislebert around 860.
"Destroyed by the Norsemen in 911, it was rebuilt again by Bishop Aganon,
who installed secular clerics there around 930.
"Bishop Ragenfred sent their superior, Alveus, to Fleury (St-Benoît-sur-
Loire) to be initiated into the monastic life.
"Alveus returned in 954 with a group of Benedictine monks and, from that
time until the Revolution the house was in Benedictine hands."
once again i've forgotten to look at the charter itself --to see how, exactly,
the (comming) church of St. Hilaire might have been mentioned.
maybe tomorrow.
i used to have a digital copy of that cartulary on floppy disks, but haven't
seen them for a while...
c
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