[242] Few aspects of society and government in the Midi have been dealt with by historians more cursorily and with less understanding than the Church during the first three quarters of the tenth century. Yet few have more importance. The picture which has generally been presented to us is one of a moribund, secularized, feudalized Church, preyed on by a rapacious aristocracy, and one which steadily deteriorated until it was rescued by the Cluny Reform movement and the Peace of God. Only one important study which deals with our region -- Tenant de la Tours examination of the Limousin -- has registered a strong dissent from the prevailing opinion in showing a Church much healthier and more vital than most historians have been willing to believe existed.⁽¹⁾

Curiously enough the prevailing picture of this Church which historians have given us seems to have been derived from an insufficient study of it. It has been arrived at by mixing together facts concerning this Church, which cover a period of more than two centuries, from late Carolingian times to the period of the Investiture struggle, and even more important by abstracting from this period a few examples of simony and lay control of the most glaring sort and considering them as typical. For the period from 900 to 975 such views seem to be in particular need of correction, and a more serious effort needs to be made to understand the organization, role, and importance of the Church, before they can be accepted as valid.

Let us begin by considering whether the Church in the Midi and Catalonia was moribund or vital and expanding during these years. Here we note at once a crucial factor. One of the more important facts concerning [243] the Church in these regions after 900, as before, is that it continued to grow and expand. One of the best indices of this growth is to be found in the number of new monasteries which were established and the number of old ones which were reformed and given new life. In Auvergne we find at least two such monasteries, Sauxillanges which was founded about 917 by Count William II of Auvergne⁽²⁾ and Chanteuges to which Louis IV gave privileges about 941.⁽³⁾ In nearby Velay we have Chamalières which seems to have been established or reestablished about 933-937⁽⁴⁾ at about the same time that Bishop Godeschalc of LePuy was reforming Saint-Chaffre.⁽⁵⁾ In the Limousin there is Tulle which Ademar, viscount of Scalas, reconstituted about 930,⁽⁶⁾ and which received privileges from King Raoul about 935.⁽⁷⁾ In nearby Angoulême Count William of Angoulême and Count Bernard of Périgord appear to have restored the Abbey of Saint-Cybard⁽⁸⁾ soon after Saint-Jean d'Angély was reformed and received a new charter from King Louis IV.⁽⁹⁾ To the south of Aquitaine among the other new abbeys which were established the most important were Saint-Pons of Thomières founded near Narbonne by Count Raymond Pons of Toulouse, which received royal privileges in 939,⁽¹⁰⁾ and Sainte-Marie de Canon given to Lagrasse in 943.⁽¹¹⁾

Gascony, where Carolingian efforts to establish a vital Church had ended in failure, presents a particularly important example of Church growth during this period. New abbeys and rebuilt churches became the order of the day, particularly in eastern Gascony near the borders of Périgord, the Toulousain, and Carcassonne-Razès. At the turn of the century, according to a somewhat later source, Gascony was a land in which the civitates and churches like Auch had been reduced to ruins.⁽¹²⁾ Yet by 920 a beginning was made of reconstituting the archbishopric of Auch with the assistance of Count William García of Fézensac.⁽¹³⁾ Some two decades [244] later, about 940, the abbey of Lézat was founded by a viscount of Lautrec⁽¹⁴⁾ and in 945 a certain Raymond, who was probably count of Bigorre, gave land and privileges to the new abbey of Saint-Savin.⁽¹⁵⁾ In 954 the nearby abbey of Saint-Martin de Lez was important enough to receive a charter from the Pope,⁽¹⁶⁾ while a little later, perhaps about 970, Count Bernard of Périgord restored the abbey of Saint-Sour de Geniac by returning it to its abbot.⁽¹⁷⁾ In a region in which the Church had been in a decline since the time of Louis the Pious, we suddenly find it growing and expanding -- though not in Western Gascony, which still was not much affected by this revival.

In the Valley of the Rhone the same tendencies seem to have been at work. The monastery of Ainay in the Lyonnais begins to show new life.⁽¹⁸⁾ So does Saint-Barnard de Romans which in 908 was reformed and rebuilt by Archbishop Alexander of Vienne.⁽¹⁹⁾ We hear of a new church or abbey of Saint-Vincent near Grenoble,⁽²⁰⁾ and of the priory of Saint-Michael de la Cluse in Maurienne about 950.⁽²¹⁾ In Provence and neighboring regions Cluny's influence in revitalizing monastic establishments can be seen in the gift of the priory of Saint-Sernin de Port of Arles to this establishment by Archbishop Gerald in 945,⁽²²⁾ as well as a very similar gift of the abbey of Saint-Armand in 958.⁽²³⁾

The Spanish March presents an equally revealing picture of the foundation of new monasteries, particularly in regions close to the Moslem frontiers where there had been few such establishments in the previous century. In 922 the new abbey of Amer received a royal charter from Charles the Simple,⁽²⁴⁾ and in 944 the cella of Saint-Peter of Rhodes in Perelada was raised to the status of an independent monastery and given royal privileges too.⁽²⁵⁾ A year later in 945 two new nunneries were established [245] in the Spanish March to join their sister house of Saint-Joan de les Abadesses. One of them, San-Pedro de les Puellas, was founded near Barcelona by the bishop and the count and countess of Barcelona,⁽²⁶⁾ while the other, the nunnery of Burghals, was established in Pallars by Count Isarn.⁽²⁷⁾ At about this same period Counts Borell and Miró of Barcelona also established the abbey of Montserrat in a castle very close to the frontier,⁽²⁸⁾ and a decade or so later we hear of two other new abbeys in this part of Barcelona: Santa Maria de Castelfels⁽²⁹⁾ and San Felix de Guixolds.⁽³⁰⁾

What does this all mean? It shows clearly that the Church in the Midi and Catalonia during this period was anything but moribund. New, restored, and reformed abbeys and nunneries which were the result of the joint efforts of churchmen and prominent lay nobles are the symbol everywhere of a revived and more vital Church life and Church organization. In some regions like Gascony and the Valley of the Rhone they even represent a movement in regions which had not known such interest in the Church for more than a century. In others the trend was but a continuation of progress in this respect which had not appreciably slackened since the ninth century. Everywhere what stands out is the fact that the Cluny Reform movement was not an isolated development, but part of a larger Church reform which affected every part of Southern France and the Spanish March. Cluny merely represents the most spectacular example of renewed interest in a reformed, revitalized monasticism.

Still a second indication of vitality is to be found in the expansion of the holdings of abbeys and cathedral churches during these years in every part of Southern France and Catalonia. Such an increase in Church endowments is another index of an interest in the Church by lay society which, of course, provided the abbeys and churches with the gifts of land, both large and small, that made up their holdings. One cannot examine the record of the hundreds of gifts of land to abbeys like Sauxillanges and Brioude⁽³¹⁾ in Auvergne; Conques in Rouergue;⁽³²⁾ Tulle and Beaulieu in [264] the Limousin;⁽³³⁾ Saint-Chaffre in Velay,⁽³⁴⁾ Saint-André-le-Bas in Viennois;⁽³⁵⁾ Aniane and Gellone⁽³⁶⁾ near Melgueil; or Montolieu, Lagrasse, and Saint-Hilaire⁽³⁷⁾ in Western Septimania without being impressed by this regard for monasteries. Ripoll, Saint-Joan de les Abadesses, Cuxa, and San-Cugat⁽³⁸⁾ are equally impressive when we consider Catalonia. We find a similar expansion of Church domains when we examine the holdings of cathedral churches in Vienne, Nîmes, Béziers, Narbonne, Elne, Angoulîme, and Limoges.⁽³⁹⁾

[247] Unfortunately few special studies of the property accumulated by individual churches and abbeys have been made which concern this period with one exception, that of Cuxa in Confluent.⁽⁴⁰⁾ A cursory and incomplete examination of these charters, however, is enough to show one that most of their land was located in regions fairly close to the abbey or church in question. This seems to be particularly true of the church establishments of Auvergne, the Limousin, the Albigeois, Velay, Dauphiny, the Lyonnais, and Provence,⁽⁴¹⁾ most of whose property could probably be included in a circle drawn forty or fifty miles or less about the establishment in question. If property was acquired which was more distant, it was generally exchanged with another religious establishment or even a lay landowner.⁽⁴²⁾ In a few cases in this period, however, we begin to find important abbeys following the example of Cluny and not only acquiring but also keeping possession of property which was relatively far away, like that in the Gap region of Provence given to Conques in 928.⁽⁴³⁾ In this [248] respect the holdings of the great abbey of Lagrasse, as revealed in charters given this monastery by Charles the Simple in 908⁽⁴⁴⁾ and Pope Agepitus in 951⁽⁴⁵⁾ are of particular interest. They show that the domains of this abbey were located near Carcassonne, in Razes, in the Toulousain, in the Narbonne area, in the Albigeois, in Rouergue, in Besalu, in Urgell, in Roussillon, in Ausona, in Gerona, and in Barcelona, thus covering a tremendous area of the Midi and Catalonia. Montolieu's holdings, as shown in charters of the period, were almost as extensive.⁽⁴⁶⁾ Even Gellone, which was still a monastery with a relatively small domain, possessed considerable property in Rouergue at some distance from its central abbey.⁽⁴⁷⁾ Though we are far from the situation we find in the next century when monasteries like Conques and Saint-Victor of Marseille, to mention only two prominent ones, owned land all over Southern France, abbeys were beginning to expand their holdings beyond their local regions and to assume an importance which Cluny had already achieved.

In previous chapters we have pointed out how this growing Church continued, down to 950, to rely upon royal charters and privileges to protect its rights, and it is clear that new abbeys in particular sought such privileges whether it be in Catalonia, the Narbonnaise, Septimania, or Aquitaine.⁽⁴⁸⁾ We have also pointed out how after 950 more and more reliance began to be placed on Papal protection in most regions of the Midi and Catalonia, and how the influence of Cluny, another outside power, steadily increased, particularly in Auvergne and the Valley of the Rhone. As royal protection became less helpful then, the Church now often turned to the distant Papacy and nearby Cluny to gain the protection [249] which Northern French monarchs were no longer able to provide.⁽⁴⁹⁾ Down to 975, however, neither of these two outside influences, Cluny or Rome, could really play a very important role in the Midi and Catalonia. We must therefore look elsewhere for the methods whereby the Church was able to survive in the turbulent world of the tenth century. We must look to the more local scene.

When we do so, we must again emphasize, that, with certain exceptions, the possessions of abbeys, their abbatia, to use a contemporary term, and the domains of cathedral churches tended to grow in regions close to their establishments. Such growth, of course, made these establishments, whether they willed it or not, important and powerful, and it made the bishops, abbots, and others, who controlled or shared in the control of them, important figures in the life of their local regions. What was the result of this? The most important result had already begun before the tenth century, the tendency of important church officials to be chosen from the ranks of the family which held secular authority over the region in which the archbishopric, bishopric, or abbey was located. In other words the tendency was for the Church to become part of the family system which controlled Southern France and Catalonia during these years.

We can see this tendency at work everywhere. In Provence by 950 the family of the viscounts of Marseille controlled the bishopric of this city in the person of Honoratius, brother of Pons and Guillaume, who were its viscounts.⁽⁵⁰⁾ In the Béziers region the bishopric of Béziers was under the control of the viscounts of the city, as revealed by the fact that Reginald, bishop of Béziers, was a brother of Viscount Boson and that in his will of 969 he emphasized such family connections.⁽⁵¹⁾ By the last years of the period a similar situation prevailed at Narbonne, judging from a charter of 966, which mentions the archbishopric as if it were almost the family possession of the viscounts who ruled this city.⁽⁵²⁾ In the Toulousain Hugh, who was bishop of Toulouse and a member of the House of Toulouse-Rouergue, reveals in his will the same kind of close family ties,⁽⁵³⁾ while the choice of Frédélon as abbot of Vabres emphasizes the same kind of [250] family connections.⁽⁵⁴⁾ By the middle of the century the viscounts of Albi appear to have controlled the bishopric of this city too, where Bernard was viscount and his brother Frotaire its bishop.⁽⁵⁵⁾

In Aquitaine proper we find the same system in effect. In the Limousin, except for a brief interval, the family and relatives of the viscount of Limoges provided its bishopric with incumbents,⁽⁵⁶⁾ and several of the lay abbots of Beaulieu and Tulle were also chosen from important viscontal families of the region.⁽⁵⁷⁾ Gombard, bishop of Angoulême, seems to have been a member of the ruling family of Angoulême-Périgord,⁽⁵⁸⁾ just as Ebles, who was bishop of Limoges and abbot of Saint-Hilaire of Poitiers at mid-century, was a brother of the count of Poitou.⁽⁵⁹⁾ Bishop Etienne II of Auvergne was a scion of the viscontal House of Clermont,⁽⁶⁰⁾ and at least one abbot of Saint-Chaffre du Monastier in Velay, Dalmace, was of the viscontal family of LePuy.⁽⁶¹⁾ Already in the person of Bishop Isarn the secular counts of Gravaisdun were beginning to show a measure of control over the church of Grenoble.⁽⁶²⁾

We find a similar situation throughout Catalonia. The first abbesses of Saint-Joan de les Abadesses, Emma and Adelaise, were chosen from the comital family of Barcelona-Ausona,⁽⁶³⁾ just as Ermengardis, the first abbess [251] of Burghals was a daughter of Count Isarn of Pallars.⁽⁶⁴⁾ As the power of the family of Cerdanya-Besalu increased toward mid-century we begin to find them dominating the abbey of Cuxa and adding Ripoll to their family interests by seeing that its abbots were chosen from members of their house,⁽⁶⁵⁾ and even bringing Saint-Joan under their influence with the selection of Ranlo as abbess of this nunnery.⁽⁶⁶⁾ By 950 not only had this family come to possess the important monasteries located in their counties but even the powerful abbey of Lagrasse further to the north.⁽⁶⁷⁾ We are well on our way toward the period when Bishop Oliba was to be a major power in Catalonia and much of the Midi.

It must not be thought, however, that it was only through the selection of members of a particular clan as bishops or abbots that family control and interests in an abbey or bishopric were maintained during this period, or that such influence was the monopoly of a single family in each region. The larger monasteries and the cathedral churches of the Midi and Catalonia possessed other prizes available to neighboring families. These included such offices as that of deacon and prepositus which also carried with them considerable authority. The prepositi of the great abbeys of the Limousin, for instance, seem to have been the monopoly of the leading noble families of this region.⁽⁶⁸⁾ They seem to have been important posts in Auvergne also, where again and again our documents show us leading landholding families represented in the administration of abbeys like Brioude and Sauxillanges⁽⁶⁹⁾ through representatives who hold such offices. [252] At Vienne the prepositi of the church seem to have been drawn from the members of the family of Ingelbert who assumed this position by almost hereditary right.⁽⁷⁰⁾ The church of Nîmes had similar officials drawn from the leading neighboring landholding families.⁽⁷¹⁾ So did the abbeys and cathedral churches of Catalonia.⁽⁷²⁾ Given a share of church property as precaria, such prepositi formed an important element in family control of the Church in this period.

All of this seems to show that, as the Church continued to grow and to expand its holdings, it tended to become a power in its own right. It began to develop a bureaucracy of officials of its own, which involved not only the ruling noble families of various regions who controlled the offices of archbishop, bishop, and abbot, but also others who were drawn into it through positions which, though less important, still carried with them considerable authority and control over the domains belonging to church establishments. By 950, if not earlier, each important church establishment was controlled not by a single family, but by a group of families of neighboring [253] regions who shared in various degrees in the privileges and power which came from such churches and abbeys -- either through church office or through precaria given them in return for their support.⁽⁷³⁾ It was not a feudal system which triumphed over the Church in this period, but a family system -- one which involved more than a single family in the life of each church and abbey of the Midi and Catalonia.

As the Church grew and its organization and its property began to become entwined in the destinies of the leading ruling families of each region we begin to see some interesting results. The Church and its organization often began to take the place of secular political institutions in a rather curious way. As important noble families, like the Houses of Auvergne and Toulouse-Rouergue, found, for instance, that their subordinates or supporters tended to transform property which they gave them into allods, and as their machinery of courts disappeared, and as their control over castles became more precarious, they began more and more to give such property to abbeys and churches, which could not alienate it as easily as secular supporters could and which they could control more easily. This practice seems clearly indicated by the wills of Raymond of Rouergue⁽⁷⁴⁾ and Garsinde of Toulouse,⁽⁷⁵⁾ who appear to be using the abbey in their region of the Midi as repositories for their property which could then be drawn on at a later time to provide precaria for their supporters without the danger of usurpation or alienation that would result if land were given them directly. Others seem to have followed suit. Like the Ottos of [254] Germany in this same period, then, the nobles of the Midi made gifts to the Church as a method of keeping actual control of their property and power which would have been lost under any other method available to them.

We must regard the growth of property and influence among the abbeys and churches of the Midi, then, as in no small measure the result of a definite policy followed by ruling families in entrusting such religious establishments, which they dominated, with control over property that they expected to use in their own interest and that of their supporters. This may have resulted in a feudalized Church, but if so, it was a feudalism quite different from that generally ascribed to it by historians.

As the Church under this system more and more became the key to real power and authority in Southern France and Catalonia we begin to note another interesting development -- the bishop who also serves as abbot of a monastery or series of monasteries, and so is able to command authority over a rather wide area. This phenomenon was not an entirely new one. In the late ninth century it was used, for instance, by Archbishop Frotaire.⁽⁷⁶⁾ But in the tenth century it became more widespread. Thus we find Bishop Ebles of Limoges not only serving as abbot of Saint-Hilaire of Poitiers but reaching out to control Saint-Martial of Limoges and a number of other abbeys in the Limousin.⁽⁷⁷⁾ We discover that Bishop Etienne II was not only abbot of Brioude and Conques but for a considerable period controlled Sauxillanges too.⁽⁷⁸⁾ Bishop Godeschalc of LePuy also served as abbot of Saint-Chaffre du Monastier.⁽⁷⁹⁾ The archbishops of Vienne controlled the abbatia of Saint-Barnard de Romans,⁽⁸⁰⁾ and the bishops of Grenoble the monastic establishments of their part of Dauphiny.⁽⁸¹⁾ A Bishop Honoratius of Marseille, we learn, is also abbot of Saint-Victor of Marseille,⁽⁸²⁾ just as Bishop Bernard served as abbot of [255] Aniane.⁽⁸³⁾ Even in Catalonia we find that Arnulf, bishop of Gerona was also abbot of Ripoll.⁽⁸⁴⁾ An age in which a Bishop Oliba could simultaneously serve as abbot of both Ripoll and Cuxa,⁽⁸⁵⁾ and an Archbishop Burchard could use such authority to dominate the Lyonnais was already dawning. The ecclesiastical principality had become a reality in Southern France and to some extent in Catalonia.

So far in this chapter we have considered the growth of the Church and its organization almost completely in terms of important noble families of Southern France and Catalonia, who gave their land to religious establishments, and who came to dominate such churches and abbeys as archbishops, bishops, and abbots, or to become part of a church officialdom as prepositi, deacons, vicars, and the like. But what of the humbler members of society -- those less important families who were not able to share, as the principes and majores could do, in a governing system which used the Church as an organization instead of the dying secular institutions of the period? Here again we notice an interesting fact. Our sources show that these humble folk too gave their land in large amounts to religious establishments. What they seem to be seeking is not political power or advantage in doing so, but rather protection in a society which offered them little security. The property which they gave, judging from our records, was often received expressly as a usufruct for members of their family for one or more lifetimes, upon payment of a cens of generally modest proportions. Perhaps it was even understood that this would continue to be so even after the time specified by the donor in making the gift. But whatever method was used, religious establishments like San-Cugat, or Saint-Joan de les Abadesses, Gellone, or Beaulieu, or Brioude, or Savigny, or Saint-André-le-Bas,⁽⁸⁶⁾ as a result of such gifts, began to [256] build up an acreage of land occupied by humble landowners who had exchanged the dangerous position of independent allodial ownership for the protection which a light fiscal yoke of a cens or tasca to a church or abbey made available to them. In doing so they not only swelled the property of such establishments in Southern France and Catalonia but they increased Church authority too, just as gifts by more important land owning families had done. The ecclesiastical principality in Southern France and the Spanish March was becoming a reality at the very moment when the secular principality had become an impossibility.

How were such large ecclesiastical principalities administered? It seems clear that the principal officials who were used, whether they be called prepositi or vicars or judices⁽⁸⁷⁾or even the humble portarii were rewarded by being given lands in the form of precaria⁽⁸⁸⁾ or by being given rights over church property in the form of a share of the court fines or other dues owed to the particular church establishment. Often such lands or rights were held "in obedientia"⁽⁸⁹⁾ to an abbey or a cathedral church and [257] even minor officials took an oath of fidelitas to an abbey like that required of the judices whom we find mentioned at Beaulieu in 971.⁽⁹⁰⁾ Their precaria and offices were still restricted in most cases to one lifetime during this period,⁽⁹¹⁾ but there was certainly a tendency for them to become hereditary, particularly those which were given to magnates, such as the control of castles either as outright fiefs or as guardas⁽⁹²⁾ for a more limited period of time. Thus we find a promise given to the "judices servum" of Beaulieu that if they stayed loyal their sons would inherit their offices,⁽⁹³⁾ and we see precaria renewed by a church like that of Saint-Maurice of Vienne for a certain Berilo, perhaps of the old viscontal family, which his uncle had held before him.⁽⁹⁴⁾ What evidence we possess, however, seems to indicate that those who received precaria from church establishments, whether they held office or not in this period, were expected to pay a cens in return for them, like that owed the abbey of Tulle by Viscount Bernard of Turenne, its defensor, for the castle of Scalas and its caslania,⁽⁹⁵⁾ or the "dominatio et servitia" which Bishop Isarn of Grenoble kept over the castles that he allowed nobles to build in Dauphiny soon after 950.⁽⁹⁶⁾ Down to 975 the precaria which were used by ecclesiastical establishments to pay their officials or to bind leading landowners to them still seem to be fiscal in essence rather than military in nature. They established a mild seignorial yoke -- that is all; which is probably the reason why their holdings continued to grow during this period.

There remains the important question of how well such an ecclesiastical system worked. Down to 975, as far as we can tell, its seems to have proved a rather effective substitute in most regions for a decaying system [258] of secular, family-controlled principalities. True there were abuses, particularly in regions where castles were numerous and a fighting aristocracy was becoming a powerful element in the population. Here the rather sinister figure of the lay abbot-whether it be a Count William II controlling Brioude,⁽⁹⁷⁾ a Begon ruling Conques,⁽⁹⁸⁾ or a Bernard of Turenne dominating Tulle,⁽⁹⁹⁾ or an Aimery in charge of Saint-Martial of Limoges⁽¹⁰⁰⁾ presented a problem for which there was no easy solution. No doubt also there were serious abuses which were the result of family control over abbeys and churches at Marseille, Béziers, Narbonne, and in regions controlled by the House of Toulouse-Rouergue.⁽¹⁰¹⁾ Yet it is possible to overestimate the seriousness of such abuses. The continued growth of the domains of church establishments throughout the period and the evidence of continuing efforts to reform monasteries bid us take care before we assume that secularization of a brutal sort was the lot of the Church in the Midi and Catalonia. In general familial control of the Church was a mild yoke which was by no means unenlightened and which was not incompatible with either real religious life or intellectual vigor. The career of Gerbert, who got his early training at Aurillac, and evidence of the abbey of Cuxa's intellectual interests in this period, bid us be careful before we assume that a brutal secularization resulted from the rather unusual way in which the abbeys and cathedral churches of the Midi and Catalonia functioned during this period.⁽¹⁰²⁾ Cluny's influence spread, for example, not because of the poor state of Church discipline, but because thoughtful churchmen and laymen like Etienne, bishop of Auvergne,⁽¹⁰³⁾ or Gerald, [259] archbishop of Aix,⁽¹⁰⁴⁾ or King Conrad of Burgundy-Provence⁽¹⁰⁵⁾ were interested in making a vital, growing Church a more disciplined one. Without that widespread feeling, which in itself was a reflection of the strength and the health of the Church, the example of Cluny would have been meaningless.

Nevertheless one fundamental problem remained by the year 975 which was to clamor for attention in the next decades. This was the problem of how the abbeys and bishoprics of the Midi and Catalonia were to cope with the new class of professional milites in the castles which were everywhere being built -- even by the Church itself. It was one thing for the Church to accommodate itself to a family control through the choosing of archbishops, bishops, abbots, and prepositi from the ranks of the leading families of a region, and to reward such families and officials by grants of precaria or fiefs, or castle guard, which were in theory for a lifetime only, even if they were often in practice hereditary and renewable. It was something else for it to accommodate itself to the warriors of a castle who levied tribute on the surrounding territory, whatever their rights over it were, and who were rapidly transforming such caslania or territoria into mandamenta. Here lay the challenge to Church establishments which could not reconcile their older system of milder fidelitas or obedientia accompanied by fiscal lordship with the harsher militarism which emanated from such castles and the milites who now occupied them. No wonder Beaulieu forbade its judices to become milites⁽¹⁰⁶⁾ or that the castle of Brézac in the Limousin which was oppressing local monks was torn down.⁽¹⁰⁷⁾ No wonder too that the monkish scribe of the church of Vienne noted in a charter that 965 was the year when Queen Matilda destroyed the castle of Mont Burton.⁽¹⁰⁸⁾ The new age dawning for the Church and society in Southern France and the Spanish March was one of castle and milites in which the Church in particular was to suffer until Peace and Truce of God were established to hold in check the new class of milites, [260] and the Investiture controversy and First Crusade brought a new and different era to the Church.

We might sum up our conclusions regarding the Church in the Midi and Catalonia as follows. From 900 to 975 the Church as an institution was anything but moribund. It showed a power to expand, and a vitality so great that in many regions it became an institutional substitute for secular organization and government. In addition to its outside protectors, Cluny and the Papacy, it procured its support from important noble families who used it as a repository for their family influence and much of their family property. In turn it rewarded such families with important Church offices, a share of Church lands, and a share of Church revenues. It also gave protection on mild terms to smaller landholders. It kept a form of order in regions like Auvergne, Dauphiny, and the Limousin, where no order of any other sort could exist and, as a result, began to develop something which we might call Church principalities. Such principalities were secular, in part, in their interests and used mild and limited precaria of a fiscal sort as part of their system of administration and government, but they were not feudal in the classic sense of the word.

Toward the end of this period, however, abuses seem to have become more numerous. Family control, mutually advantageous to church establishments and ruling families, began to become simony and unscrupulous domination in some cases. Even more important the newer military system of castle and professional milites began to represent a problem with which the Church, as an institution, was not prepared to cope. This, however, was more a problem of the years after 975 than it was of the earlier period. For down to 975, as principalities disintegrated, royal influence disappeared, and castles grew more numerous throughout Southern France and Catalonia, it was the Church, as an institution, which provided what stability and order existed and which through its power and its organization bridged the gap between a dying Carolingian order and the new era which was being born.

1. See G. Tenant de la Tour, L'homme et la terre de Charlemagne à Saint Louis, pp. 175-183, for an excellent account of the general growth and well-being of the Church in the Limousin during this century.

2. Cart. de Sauxillanges, no. 146.

3. Cart. de Brioude, no. 338, and Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 75.

4. The first charters of the Camalarium de St. Egidius date from the 930's. They record gifts of very small pieces of land to this establishment (Cartularium conventus St. Egidii Camaleriarum [LePuy], ed. H. Fraisse, nos. 113, 115, 168, 259, 290 [hereafter cited as Cart. de Saint-Egidius]). Perhaps this house was a revitalized one during this period rather than a completely new foundation.

5. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 70. See the charter of the Pope confirming its privileges in Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, no. 375.

6. Cart. de Tulle, nos. 14, 290.

7. Ibid., no. 598.

8. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 24, p. 145.

9. Cart. de Saint-Jean d'Angély, no. 1.

10. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, nos. 73, 74.

11. Cart. de Carcassonne, II, 222-223.

12. Cart. d'Auch, no. 77.

13. Ibid., no. 55.

14. Hist. Gén. de Lang., IV, 126-128, 488-489.

15. Ibid., V. no. 84.

16. Ibid., V, no. 97.

17. Cart. de la Réolle, no. 171.

18. For gifts of land to Ainay during this period see "Cart. d'Ainay," nos. 2, 138, 169, 192, in Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Savigny, suivi du petit cartulaire de l'abbaye d'Ainay, ed. A. Bernard.

19. Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, no. 6.

20. Cart. de Grenoble, no. 11.

21. Chartes de Maurienne, no. 5.

22. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 81.

23. Chartes de Cluny, II, no. 1052.

24. Catalunya Carolingia, II, 379-380.

25. Ibid., pp. 226-228.

26. Archivo Catedral de Barcelona, no. 22.

27. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 82.

28. Catalunya Carolingia, II, 256-257.

29. Cart. de San Cugat, no. 89.

30. Catalunya Carolingia, II, 202-204.

31. Cart. de Sauxillanges contains more than a hundred charters showing gifts of lands to the abbey in this period. Some six score charters show the growth of Brioude's landed endowment during this period (See the Cart. de Brioude and the Grand Cart. de Brioude).

32. For Conques for the period 900-938 see some forty charters (Cart. de Conques, nos. 5, 6, 7, 22, 24, 91, 92, 107, 112, 115, 116, 121, 124, 128, 143, 144, 157, 161, 177, 182, 185, 200, 208, 220, 230, 231, 251, 262, 291, 306, 321, 322, 343, 352, 357, 391, 406, 432). Charters from the period 939-975 show an even greater growth of the abbey's domains.

33. For Tulle see Cart, de Tulle, nos. 12, 14, 15, 16, 59, 60, 62, 90, 108, 109, 124, 125, 126, 183, 184, 185, 208, 226, 228, 229, 249, 262, 283, 285-286, 289, 301, 304, 305, 317, 345, 387, 396, 397, 417-419, 428, 458, 469, 472, 473, 480, 487, 520, 529, 530, 532, 536, 537, 556, 561, 565-568, 587, 591, 592, 597, 598, 599, 641, 781. For the record of more than a hundred gifts of land to Beaulieu in this period see the Cart. de Beaulieu.

34. For the growth of Saint-Chaffre's landed endowment see Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, nos. 54, 75, 76-78, 80-81, 84-85, 87-88, 92, 94, 103, 106, 109, 112, 114, 115, 117, 119-121, 125-126, 129, 168, 243, 276, 277, 288, 294, 299, 305, 312, 316-317, 322, 323-325, 328, 331, 332, 334, 336, 340, 343, 345, 346, 375.

35. See Cart. de Saint-André-le-bas, nos. 5, 15, 18, 39, 43, 49, 63, 64, 84, 90, 97-98, 99-100, 102-103, 104, 105, 111, 112, 116, 119, 122-123, 128, 130, 131-132, 133- 135, 139, 141, 145, 245.

36. For Aniane's growth see Cart. d'Aniane, nos. 42, 218, 245, 253, 281, 285, 316. For the increase in Gellone's domain see Cart. de Gellone, nos. 9, 12, 26, 30, 36, 41, 72-73, 74, 111, 117, 280-281, 420.

37. For property accumulated by Montolieu see Cart. de Carcassonne, I, 74-77, 195, 253-254 and especially the charter of Pope Agepitus dating from 950 which lists all the abbey's holdings (Cart. de Carcassonne, I, 78). A complete list of Lagrasse's extensive domain in this period is to be found also in a charter of Pope Agepitus dating from 951 (Cart. de Carcassonne, II, 224-225). For Saint-Hilaire's holdings see Cart. de Carcassonne, V, 61; Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 53; and Cros-Meyrévielle, Documents, nos. 28, 29.

38. See R. de Abadal i de Vinyals, Els Primers Comtes Catalans, pp. 271-278 for the growth of Ripoll during this period; also the charter of Louis IV, dating from 938, in Catalunya Carolingia, II, 159-165. El Archivo Condal de Barcelona records more than eight score gifts and additions of land to the nunnery of Saint-Joan during this period. See an exact and revealing analysis of Cuxa's growth in P. Ponsch, "Le domaine foncier de Saint-Michel de Cuxa au IX^e, X^e et XI^e siècles," in Études Roussillonnaises, II (1952). Some two hundred charters record additions to San-Cugat's domains during these years (see the Cart. de San Cugat).

39. See Cart. de Vienne, nos. 14, 19-21, 23, 26, 28, 30, 111, 113, 114, 115, 239, for the growth of Vienne. Charters of this period show extensive additions to the domains of the church of Nîmes (Cart. de Nîmes, nos. 10, 13-15, 18-19, 22-30, 34-41,43-44, 46, 48-49, 5 3-58, 60-63, 65, 67-69, 71). For Béziers see Cart. de Béziers, nos. 12-13, 17-18, 25-28, 31, 34-36; and for Narbonne see Hist. Gén. de Lang., Y, nos. 38, 46, 51, 104-105, Cart. de Carcassonne, II, 226, and Cartulaire de la seigneurie de Fontjoncouse, ed. G. Mouynes, in Bulletin de la commission archéologique et littéraire de Narbonne, I (1877), no. 6. For Elne see Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, nos. 60, 62, 72, 76, 83, 105, and Cart. roussillonnais, no. 8; and for the church of Barcelona see Archivo Cathedral de Barcelona, nos. 20-24. Cart. d'Angoulême, nos. 3, 27, 29, 33, 41, 43, 52, 57, give information about Angoulême. See the extensive growth of Limoges church's lands as recorded in Cart. de Saint-Etienne de Limoges, nos. 6, 9, 10, 14, 16, 17, 19, 26, 31, 32, 39, 41, 42-43, 44, 45, 104, 108, 144-145, 146, 148, 150-152, 153, 157, 163.

40. Ponsch, "Le domaine foncier de Saint-Michel de Cuxa."

41. Examination of the Cart. of Brioude and the Grand Cart. de Brioude shows that most of this abbey's property is located in the general area of Auvergne. See Cart. de Tulle, Cart. de Beaulieu, Cart. de Saint-Etienne de Limoges, Cart. d'Uzerche, and Cart. de Vigeois for the local nature of most of the holdings of the Limousin abbeys and churches. In the Albigeois the Cart. de Conques and Cartulaire de Vabres, ed. A. Molinier, in Hist. Gén. de Lang., II, emphasize that most of these abbeys' domains are nearby; and the Cart. de Saint-Chaffre and Cart. de Saint-Egidius make the local pattern of holdings in Velay obvious. In addition to the localism revealed in Dauphiny by an examination of the Cart. de Grenoble, see that shown when one examines the Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, Cart. de Saint-André-le-bas, and Cart. de Vienne. See also the same pattern in the Cart. de Savigny and Ainay in the Lyonnais, and of the Cart. de Saint-Victor (nos. 1, 23, 107, 1041) in Provence.

42. For examples of such exchanges during this period see Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, no. 85; Chartes de Maurienne, no. 5; and Cart. de Béziers, nos. 32, 34, 38. For exchanges of land on an even more local level see Cart. de Nîmes, nos. 45, 59.

43. Cart. de Conques, no. 431.

44. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 34.

45. Cart. de Carcassonne, II, 224-225.

46. See the list of Montolieu's holdings in Raoul's charter of 932 (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 56) and that of Pope Agepitus in 951 (Cart. de Carcassonne, I, 78).

47. Cart. de Gellone, no. 134.

48. For examples in Catalonia see royal charters given to Catalonian abbeys like Amer in 922 (Catalunya Carolingia, II, 18-19), or San Cugat in 938 (ibid., pp. 183-193), or Saint-Peter of Rhodes in 944 (ibid., pp. 226-228), or Montserrat in 951 (ibid., pp. 256-257), or Cuxa in 958 (ibid., pp. 96-98). In the Narbonnaise note the royal charter given Saint-Jacques de Joucan in 900 (Cart. roussillonnais, no. 3), or Lagrasse in 908 (Cart. de Carcassonne, II, 219-220), or Montolieu in 932 (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 56), or Saint-Pons de Thomiéres in 939 (ibid., no. 73). See royal charter given to Psalmodi in Septimania in 909 (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 37), and those given in Aquitaine to Tulle in 935 (Cart. de Tulle, no. 598), to Chanteuges in 941 (Cart. de Brioude, no. 338), or to Saint-Jean d'Angély in 942 (Cart. de Saint-Jean d'Angély, no. 1).

49. See Chapter I, Section IV, on the way the protectors of these abbeys changed during the tenth century.

50. Honoratius is mentioned as the brother of Viscount William of Marseille in Cart. de Saint-Victor, no. 23.

51. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 118.

52. Ibid., no. 115.

53. Cart. de Saint-Sernin, no. 280.

54. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 59.

55. Ibid., no. 102.

56. Tenant de la Tour, L'homme et la terre, p. 254.

57. See the charters of 945 which mention that Boson, a brother of the viscount of Aubusson, is serving as lay abbot of Tulle (Cart. de Tulle, nos. 285, 286). Or note that Dida, abbess of Saint-Marie de Limoges is a sister of Viscount Ademar of Limoges (ibid., no. 428). Or see the mention of the fact that Viscount Ademar of Comborn is serving as an avoué of three churches (Cart. de Saint-Etienne de Limoges, no. 5). On the lay abbots of Beaulieu see the Introduction to the Cart. de Beaulieu, pp. cclii-cclxv.

58. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 23, p. 144.

59. Ibid., III, 25, pp. 147-148.

60. Bishop Stephen of Clermont is revealed as the son of Viscount Robert in a charter of 945 (Grand Cart. de Brioude, no. CCCXXXV). A little later we note a similar close relationship between Bishop Stephen II and Viscounts Robert and Amblard (Cart. de Sauxillanges, no. 179).

61. Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, no. 328.

62. On the kinship existing between Bishop Isarn of Grenoble (950-976) and the counts of Gravaisdun see Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, no. 27; Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, no. 322; and Cart. de Grenoble, no. 16. See a similar kinship a little later as regards Bishop Humbert of Grenoble according to Chartes de Cluny, III, 2307, and Cart. de Grenoble, no. 118.

63. Abbess Emma was the daughter of Count Guifred (El Archivo Condal de Barcelona, no. 38). Adelaise who became the next abbess in 949 was a sister of Count Borell of Barcelona.

64. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, nos. 82, 84. See the kinship between Count Isarn of Pallars and Bishop Otto who was his brother (ibid., no. 95).

65. Abadal, Catalunya Carolingia, II, 92-93, and El Archivo Condal de Barcelona, no. 139.

66. El Archivo Condal de Barcelona, nos. 132, 162.

67. Hist. Gén. de Lang., Y, no. 94, and Cros-Meyrévielle, Documents, no. 22.

68. Tenant de la Tour, L'homme et la terre, pp. 520-531.

69. At Brioude, Eldefred, already prepositus before 900, still holds this position in 907 (Cart. de Brioude, no. 228). In 909 he is called a fidelis of Duke William and is still prepositus (ibid., no. 51). Then in 912 our documents mention a new prepositus called Arlebad. Charters of 916, 922, 923, and 926 show him still occupying this office (ibid., nos. 100, 76, 169, 112). In 926 he is called a bishop (ibid., no. 327) and is mentioned by Duke Acfred in his will of 927 as a fidelis (Grand Cart. de Brioude, no. CCCCXXXIII). Meanwhile a certain Cunibert is mentioned in a charter of 927 as prepositus. He seems to have held this office to 941 (Cart. de Brioude, nos. 86, 261, 338). He is called lay abbot in 930 (ibid., no. 213). Then in 942 and 950 our documents call him a deacon (ibid., nos. 226, 61). Then between 943 and 956 a certain Joseph serves as prepositus (ibid., nos. 113, 124, 293, and Grand Cart. de Brioude, no. CCLXXXIII). He is succeeded in this year by a certain Robert who is still in office in 969 (ibid., nos. 69, 83, 177, 189, 246). All of these men seem to have connections with important neighboring landholding families, as seen in these charters. And all seem able to survive the political changes which affected Brioude and Auvergne during this period (except Cunibert, who may have been a partisan of the House of Toulouse).

At Sauxillanges, quite late in this period, we find Eustorgus of the viscontal family of Clermont serving as prepositus (Cart. de Sauxillanges, nos. 340, 358, 363). See the mention of the gift that he and his brother gave to this abbey in 970 (ibid., no. 441).

70. A charter of 923 mentions at Vienne a certain Ingelbert who is called a fidelis of King Louis of Provence (Chartes de Cluny, I, no. 237). After the dynasties had changed in this region in 956 a charter mentions an Ingelbert (perhaps the same one) who is prepositus of the church of Vienne (ibid., II, no. 1005).

71. In 926 a certain Ansemir, of an unknown family, is mentioned as prepositus of Nîmes (Cart. de Nîmes, no. 29). In 929 another charter says that Frédélon, lord of Anduze is serving as defensator of the church (ibid., no. 32). Meanwhile at about the same time a certain Almeradus is mentioned as prepositus. He is called deacon in 932 and is mentioned again in a charter of 960 (ibid., nos. 35, 57, 58). Judging from his name Almeradus was a member of the Anduze family.

72. See references to Deacon Miró of the family of Cerdanya-Besalu between 959 and 964 in El Archivo Condal de Barcelona, nos. 131, 144, 162. Abbot Gilmundo of San Cugat, also called deacon, was a member of the viscontal family of Barcelona (Cart. de San Cugat, no. 157). See also the interesting will of Deacon Sunifred in Roussillon dating from 967 (Cart. roussillonnais, no. 12). All these show that a number of noble families of Catalonia held important church offices.

73. Note that in 948 the abbey of Saint-Barnard de Romans gave a precarium to Count Geilin (Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, no. 21). Note also that in 950 the church of Vienne gave a prestaria to a certain Berilo (probably a viscount of Vienne) which his uncle had held before him (Cart. de Vienne, no. 20). In Auvergne, Arlebad, prepositus of Brioude, was given a precarium by this abbey in 926 (Cart. de Brioude, no. 327). A little later in 929 Cunibert, now prepositus, is also given a precarium by the abbey (ibid., no. 261). In the Limousin Tulle gave the castle of Moncieux as a prestaria (Cart. de Tulle, no. 290), and gave lands to Viscount Foucher of Tulle in 947 (ibid., no. 317) and gave a prestaria to Hugh and Iter in 949 (ibid., no. 184). Note also the lands which Beaulieu granted to its prepositus Ranier between 954 and 967 (Cart. de Beaulieu, no. 70).

74. Count Raymond I of Rouergue left property to Conques, Figeac, Aurillac, Beaulieu, Saint-Sernin, Yabres, Brioude, Aniane, Gellone, Saint-Salvador of Albi, and Moissac, and to the churches of Nîmes, Rouergue, Cahors, Agen, and Maguelonne, and a number of others (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 111).

75. Countess Garsinde gave property to a number of church establishments in Rouergue: to Saint-Pons of Thomières, Saint-Vincent of Castres, Aurillac, Gaillac, Conques, Valimagne, Aniane, Yabres, Saint-Just and Saint-Paul of Narbonne, to the churches of Lodève, Béziers, Albi, and a number of others (ibid., no. 126).

76. See Chapter III, Section III, on Frotaire's role throughout the Midi.

77. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 25, pp. 147-148.

78. Frontinus is mentioned as a bishop and as abbot of Brioude in 920 (Cart. de Brioude, no. 129). In 941 Bishop Etienne of Auvergne was also abbot of the same monastery (ibid., no. 178). See references to his control over Sauxillanges in charters of 970, 971, and 974 in Cart, de Sauxillanges, nos. 356, 368, 639. For evidence of his control of Conques in 959 and 962 see Cart. de Conques, nos. 405 and 302.

79. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, nos. 70 and 99.

80. See Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, no. 55, for a later example of this archepiscopal control of this abbey.

81. Cart. de Grenoble, no. 11.

82. Cart. de Saint-Victor, nos. 23, 29, 290.

83. Cart. d'Aniane, no. 316.

84. El Archivo Condal de Barcelona, no. 139.

85. See an excellent example of the control of a number of abbeys and a bishopric by one man in the career of Oliba in R. de Abadal i de Vinyals, L'abat Oliva, bisbe de Vic, i la seva època.

86. For examples of such small holdings given to the abbey of San-Cugat in this period see Cart. de San Cugat, nos. 7, 11-14, 16-19, 21-22, 24, 26-27, 31-33, 35-37, 39-44, 46, 48, 50, 53-55, 61-64, 74-75, 78, 80-86, 91-93, 95-97, 101-103, 110-111. All seem to represent allods whose owners often received them back from the abbey as benefices for which they and their posterity paid a regular cens or tasca.

For some examples of similar small holdings given to the nunnery of Saint-Joan in the year 908-918, all of them aprisiones located in the valley of Valifogena, see El Archivo Condal de Barcelona, nos. 22-29, 3 1-32, 34, 36-37, 40-46, 48, 50-52, 54, and 57. Similar small holdings were given Gellone usually with the proviso that the donor and his heirs have the usufruct of this land (Cart. de Gellone, nos. 36, 41, 73, 74, 117).

Cart. de Beaulieu, nos. 67, 70, 73, 74, 96, 106, 126, 129, 139, 143, 148, 149, show other examples of small gifts. In general, however, most property which was given to Beaulieu and other abbeys in the Limousin was larger in extent than the holdings mentioned above. The Cart. de Brioude shows that more than 90 per cent of the property this abbey acquired in this period was in the form of small holdings. For similar gifts to Savigny see Cart. de Savigny, nos. 28, 33-37, 44, 46, 55, 57, 59, 70, 76, 100, 118-119, 158, 201, 320; and to Saint-André-le-Bas see Cart. de Saint-André-le-bas, nos. 39, 43, 84, 102, 116, 123, 129, 130, 131, 136, 138, 139, 141.

87. See notes 68-70 and references to a prepositus at Gellone in a charter of 939 (Cart. de Gellone, no. 420), and at Angoulême in 918 according to Cart. d'Angoulême, no. 2. There is a mention of the vicaria of Saint-André at Gellone, according to the charter of 939 (Cart. de Gellone, no. 420). A charter of 934 mentions a vicar at Yabres in 934 (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 59), and at Conques in the same year (Cart. de Conques, no. 155). Still another mentions two vicars at Périgord in 964 (Cart. de Paunat, no. 15). Judices are mentioned at Nîmes in 928, as serving at a session of a court (Cart. de Nîmes, no. 32). A similar mention of them is to be found at Carcassonne in 908 (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 33). Quite different however are those judices which a charter of 971 mentions at Beaulieu. They seem to be administrative officials of the abbey (Cart. de Beaulieu, no. 50).

88. See note 73.

89. A charter of 913 from Beaulieu mentions land which a certain Ratbad holds "ad obedientiam" (Cart. de Beaulieu, no. 89). One of 939 from San Cugat mentions land held "in tua subdicione ac senioraticone" (Cart. de San Cugat, no. 17). Brioude, however, furnishes the most numerous examples. A charter of 922 mentions land held "in servaticione" and "per obedientiam" (Cart. de Brioude, no. 30). One of 929 mentions land held "in ministerio et in fidelitate" (ibid., no. 261). Others in 939 and 947 mention land held "in ministerio" (ibid., nos. 46, 140); or in 964, 967, and 970 land held "in obedientia" (ibid., nos. 177, 205, 147).

90. Cart. de Beaulieu, no. 50.

91. Sometimes rather emphatically, as is revealed by a charter in which the abbot of Tulle gives land in 947 to the viscount of Limoges. He says he does so "sed in vita sua solummodo" (Cart. de Tulle, no. 317).

92. For the history of the castle of Moncieux, given out as a precarium, see ibid., no. 290.

93. Cart. de Beaulieu, no. 50.

94. Cart. de Vienne, no. 26.

95. Cart. de Tulle, no. 290.

96. Cart. de Grenoble, no. 16.

97. A charter of 917 mentions Count William II for the first time as rector of Brioude (Cart. de Brioude, no. 318). In the next year he is said to have it under his protection (ibid., no.66).

98. See how Begon exploited the abbey of Conques according to a charter of 962 (Cart. de Conques, no. 302).

99. On how Bernard of Turenne acted as defensor of Tulle and particularly on how his successor Viscount Archimbaud of Comborn refused to pay the abbey a cens for his precaria see Cart. de Tulle, no. 290. After this period Tulle seems to have given out most of its land as precaria to the nobles of the surrounding region.

100. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 29, p. 150.

101. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, nos. 111, 126.

102. On this see L. Nicolau d'Oliver, "Gerbert y la cultura catalana del siglo X," in Estudis Universitaris Catalans, IV (1910).

103. Bishop Etienne is called the defensor of lands given to abbeys in Auvergne (Cart. de Sauxillanges, nos. 368, 639). See also his efforts to keep peace in this region in 972 with the help of the bishops of Périgord and Cahors and the nobles of Central France (Cart. Saint-Flour, no. 1).

104. See his gift of the priory of Saint-Sernin de Port to Cluny in 945 (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 81).

105. See King Conrad's confirming of the privileges and lands of Saint-Chaffre, circa 950 (Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, no. 322); and his confirmation of Cluny's privileges in 943 before an assembly of all the "vassi majores et minores" of his realm (Chartes de Cluny, I, no. 622).

106. Cart. de Beaulieu, no. 50.

107. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 29, p. 150.

108. Cart. de Vienne, no. 28.