Megan McLaughlin's gleanings from actual documents correspond roughly
with my own firmly-held, totally-groundless conjectures, though i always
thought that many of the large number of surviving croziers round about were
from *abbots'* tombs (on no evidence whatever, just
thoughtlessness).
*Might* be worth a look to try and run down the provenance of the ones we
have.
I have no idea of the more recent literature (they do show up with some
frequency in exhibitions, but has there ever been a show actually *devoted* to
them?)
Peter Lasko's _Ars Sacra, 800-1200_ (1972) in the Pelican History of Art
series *might* be a place to start getting a handle on the older lit.
>Where they would be buried seems to have been largely a matter of individual
choice, although I can imagine some communities may have had a particular area
within the church reserved for abbots or priors.
That sounds right.
I would suppose as well that each house would have its own, more or less
unique, long-standing customs, in part driven by the fabric of the place
(can't plant the guy in an ambulatory chapel if you've got one of those
new-fangled, no-frills, flat-ended cistercian piles that crankie ole Bernie
dreamed up).
And, of course, "priories" could be quite large and important places.
Am I wrong, or were most Cluniac houses headed by Priors, rather than Abbots?
I know that (at least) Saint-Martin-des-Champs was.
True for Marmoutier, at least, which had hundreds of the things all over,
mostly small but some (St. Martin @ Chartres) quite substantial.
Unlike Abbots or Priors, who were perhaps invariably buried in "their"
churches, French Bishops were not infrequently(?) laid down, not in their
"own" cathedrals, but elsewhere, and surely at their own instruction.
At Chartres, Ivo (+1115?) was buried (as was his nephew, who was a canon of
the cathedral) in the collegial of St. John (now obliterated without a trace),
which he had reformed along the lines of his reform of St.
Quentin at Beauvais and was no doubt extraordinarily attached to.
Ivo's 12th c. sucessors were put to rest in the benedictine house of St. Mary
of Johasaphat at near-by Leves, begining with Godfrey of Leves +1140?), who
founded the place on his ancestrial lands.
The beautifully carved sarcophagus of Bishop John of Salisbury (+1180)
was unearthed there at the turn of this century (partly visible on the left of
the Voile here: http://www.angelfire.com/de/centrechartraine/ ).
>However, I have seen requests by individual abbots to be buried in the porch,
near the altar, etc., etc.
A tour through the surviving Obituaries (Necrologies, "Books of Life") might
be of considerable use, being (I assume) somewhat more common than your
Customaries.
Veritable mines of all sorts of information, those things.
For most of France these were published--still *are* being published, in good
French glacial fashion--by the Academie des Inscriptions, in a series called
_Obituaires de la France_ (or somesuch), organized by provence and diocese.
The (ancient) Province of Sens, at least, was done c.1900 and includes those
for Chartres (most known to me), wherein
mention of *where* a bishop/abbot/prior was buried is not at all
uncommon.
For example part of the necrology of Leves survives and, I believe, mentions
*where* in that church the Bishops (at least) were planted.
There are two or three recent (80's) supplementary volumes which attempt to
catalogue all of the surving French Obituaries (and there are a *lot* of
them), running down and describing all the mss and refs to where they might be
published, if at all.
>What really seems to have marked the status of abbots and priors was the type
and quantity of suffrages performed for them after the burial--how many masses
within the first thirty days, for example, or how much was given in alms,
whether a solemn anniversary was performed, etc.
Yes.
And, again for Chartres, for many of the major cathedral dignitaries (Deans
through Capicerii) and even "ordinary" canons, as well.
Not at all uncommon for these "terms" to be recorded--almost as a kind of
contract (including exactly *how* his brothers were to pay for the cakes and
candles) in the Necrology obit notice, along with all of the good deeds which
the fellow did for the company.
My own thought is that, for "my" part of France, from at least the 12th
c. actual, formal *wills* were the norm (at least for the secular
clergy)--though none have survived, that i know of.
The closest thing to a will i know is an extraordinary charter of Abbot Udo of
St. Peter (Pe`re, if you insist) of Chartres (1130-50), wherein he endows the
library and his own anniversary feast, setting out in some specificity how it
is to be celebrated and paid for.
Goodness, I can't have this kind of fun: I'm finally back home again in
Indiana with only about three weeks' work to do before Kalamazoo.
I'll try to get my priorities straight and get on to the pressing Saint
Fripette problem.
On the other hand, Bloomington is a good yard-sale town; I'm sure to pick up a
copy of her opera omnia (in the 4 vol. quarto ed., not those common, nasty
16mos.) this weekend and find some live one at the zoo to foist it off on.
Some Benedictines have a special *thing* for her, I understand.
Best to all from here,
Christopher
Christopher Crockett
Would-be future curator of the
Centre des Etudes Chartraines
a home on the Web for Chartres-
related scholarship from all disciplines,
comming sometime in the next millenium
to a web site near you.
And Pres. & CEO of
Christopher's Book Room
P.O. Box 1061
Bloomington, IN 47402
(Corporate motto: "Will sell Books for Food")
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