The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050
Archibald R. Lewis
The Church (975-1050)
[315] In the year 975 the Church was the most important single institution in Southern France and Catalonia. Its new and older monastic foundations had steadily grown in power and influence, as abbeys spread into regions like Gascony and Alpine areas east of the Rhone where for decades they had been unknown. Its princes, the great bishop-abbots of the period, were the actual rulers of many regions of Southern France and Catalonia. Its administration, which was adjusted to the prevailing family system of powerful landowners, provided patronage and favor which linked these nobles to its organization. Its protection in an age which provided little, had attracted to it smaller proprietors as well as larger ones who turned over to its abbeys and churches their property in return for a relatively mild yoke of tithe, cens, and tasca. In many ways this continued to be so during the years from 975 to 1050 also. One cannot examine evidence of an increase in the domains of abbeys like Sauxillanges, Brioude, Saint-Chaffre, Savigny, Saint-André-le-Bas, Saint-Victor of Marseille, Lérins, Aniane, Gellone, Conques, Cuxa, or San-Cugat,(1) for instance, without being [316] impressed by their power and importance. Nor can one help but be struck by the authority of the great church officials of the period, like Abbot Guitard of San-Cugat,(2) Bishop Oliba of Cuxa and Ripoll,(3) Archbishop Burchard of Lyon(4) or Bishop Etienne III of Auvergne.(5) This was [317] an age in which St. Odilon of Cluny could act as the arbiter of Auvergne(6) and in which Papal intervention was effective in the power politics of the Limousin.(7)
Yet, as the years progressed from 975 to 1050, it became steadily more apparent that all was not well with this powerful Church. More and more its close relationship with the great noble landholding families began to change from one of close collaboration and mutual respect to one in which secular domination had become the rule. The Church in the Midi and Spanish March began to become so secularized that, despite its power, it was threatened with complete absorption into the family system of these regions. In an immediate sense, an even more dangerous situation threatened it, that which proceeded from the new militarism emanating from the new rising castles and their milites. This new militarism found land which belonged to abbeys and cathedral churches very tempting indeed, and so the new military class began to build castles, legal and illegal, on or near Church land and to extort heavy new exactions from proprietors and peasants who were under Church protection. They usurped Church revenues. By force or intimidation, they took over important Church offices. Faced by this threat the Church struck back by enlisting Pope, enlightened nobles, and Cluny on its side, and important churchmen began to put public pressure on their dangerous neighbors, the castellans and milites. This pressure finally took organized form as the Peace of God and the Truce of God which rapidly spread throughout Southern France and Catalonia. As a result, by 1050 the Church had begun to make some headway against this new militarism and was holding it at bay in many regions south of Poitou and Burgundy.
But such a program, even though it produced some victories, was not enough. It still did not touch the heart of the problem -- the prevailing secularism of a Church which was completely involved in the power politics of the period on a local level. As long as an archbishopric of Narbonne could be bought for 100,000 solidi,(8)and abbeys could be passed from one hand to another by secular nobles as if they were private property,(9) the danger to the Church remained a real one. By 1050 only a few [318] voices were raised against this threat to the Church in Southern France and Catalonia, but at least some protests were finally being heard. They were to swell in volume until they led directly to the Gregorian Reform movement of the last years of the eleventh century and to a new and more spiritual Church.
With this general pattern of development in mind, let us examine evidence of the continuing spread and growth of monasteries during these years. One of the more interesting aspects of this movement concerns the building of new priories and abbeys in parts of the Midi where up to this time few existed. One of these regions was Western Gascony. Here, in the last years of the tenth century, at last we begin to find an active monastic movement. It was at about this period, for instance, that the priory of La Réolle was founded,(10) and that we begin to hear of two new abbeys, Blasement, and Lucq, the latter located not far from Bayonne in Southwestern Gascony.(11) By the first years of the eleventh century these three houses had been joined by other new or restored foundations, Sainte-Croix and Sainte-Marie near Bordeaux and Sorde further in the interior.(12) Soon after 1050 Centulle IV, viscount of Béarn, gave the newly built Sainte-Foi of Morlaas to Cluny.(13) Gascony, like the rest of the Midi, began to be a land covered with abbeys.
In Alpine and other regions near the Rhone Valley these years saw a similar movement. In 1016 Humbert, bishop of Grenoble, and his brother [319] Count Guigo founded a new abbey in Dauphiny.(14) A few years later a second was established at Suse.(15) Our sources also tell us of others which appear to be new or restored foundations, one in Savoy, about 1031(16) and two others near Grenoble mentioned in 1040 and 1042,(17) respectively. Further to the south near Valence we hear of two other new ones which were placed under the supervision of the abbey of Saint-Chaffre in the years 1010 and 1011.(18)
Provence too felt this impetus toward monastic growth as it began to enter a more orderly era resulting from its organization by Count William into a principality. About the year 1000, for instance, we learn that Count Josfred had restored the abbey of Sparro near Aix, which had been destroyed by the Moslems, according to our source;(19) and at about the same time a charter tells us of a new foundation at Valentiolo, which is coming under the control of Cluny.(20) Near Nice we hear of the new abbeys of Vence and Saint-Pons.(21) A document, dating from 1034, tells us of a priory near Fréjus, called a cella, belonging to the abbey of Saint-Victor of Marseille.(22) Ten years later we learn from our sources of a gathering of important nobles and churchmen, headed by Count Bertrand of Provence, which founded the abbey of Saint-Promasius near the castle of Forcalquier,(23) and of another near Gap, which restored the abbey of Bremetense which had been destroyed by the pagans.(24) In much of Provence the monastic movement was revived after a period in which for many decades abbeys had ceased to exist.
We could continue such a list of new foundations in the rest of the Midi too, like Saint-Flour in Auvergne, Gallargues near Nîmes, or Dorat and the almonry of Saint-Martial in the Limousin, or Saint-Etienne de Baigne and Notre Dame de Saintes in Saintonge.(25) But this is not necessary. [320] It seems clear that down to 1050 new abbeys were founded in every part of Southern France, especially in regions like Gascony, Savoy, Dauphiny, and Provence, where they had been few in number and where their foundation represented a definite monastic revival. Only in the Spanish March, as a matter of fact, is there evidence of some slowing down during this period in the rate of founding of new religious houses, and here this was to prove only temporary. When the frontiers of Christian Spain began to move south in the Reconquista which began about 1050, new abbeys followed the frontier as it moved forward at the expense of the Moslems who had long dominated the fertile Ebro Valley.
Even more striking is evidence of the expansion of the domains and power of certain important abbeys throughout the Midi and Spanish March. Cluny, which was already important in these regions before 975, is a good example of this. After 975 it continued to spread its influence as new monastic foundations became a part of its congregation of abbeys, not only in Auvergne and the Rhone Valley, where it had long exerted considerable authority, but elsewhere as well. Particularly significant in this regard was Cluny's growth in the southwestern part of the Midi, where, shortly before 1050, Moissac and Lézat(26) came under Cluniac control and where shortly thereafter, Sainte-Foi of Morlaas followed their example.(27) From this region Cluny's influence began to spill across the Pyrenees into Northwestern Spain where it was to play a major role in the Reconquista.(28)
It needs to be emphasized, however, that the example of Cluny was by no means unique. The abbey of Saint-Chaffre in Velay played a similar role, as its domains and affiliated houses spread along the Rhone Valley as far north as the Lyonnais(29) and as far south as Provence(30) and even into [321] northern Italy.(31) The abbey of Conques which had long been important became even more so in this period and came to acquire land as far south as the Spanish March.(32) So too did Saint-Victor of Marseille.(33) In Aquitaine, Fleury's affiliated priories spread into Gascony.(34) In Catalonia domains belonging to San Cugat spread all along the frontiers of the Spanish March,(35) while we have evidence of the authority of Lagrasse in Pallars and Ribagorça.(36) Even more than in the period prior to 975, the great abbeys of the Midi and Catalonia were bursting their regional bonds and exercising authority over more extended areas. Nor was this merely a spread of domains and affiliated religious houses. It often included, rather significantly, a military-political authority of some consequence. The castles which the abbey of San Cugat possessed along the frontiers of Barcelona and Manressa made it a military power to be reckoned with in this part of Spain,(37) just as the castle which Savigny built about 1000 gave it an all but independent authority in the Lyonnais.(38) Similar fortresses owned by abbeys like Saint-Victor of Marseille, Saint-Pons of Thomières, and Conques(39) gave to them also a certain power in their local regions which the secular society of principes and milites had to take into consideration.
All of this helps to explain why ruling families in the Midi and Catalonia found control of archbishoprics, bishoprics, and abbeys in their regions such an important basis for their authority after 975, as had been the case earlier. They continued to make every effort to dominate these religious establishments by seeing that members of their families were selected as church officials or as the prepositi, defensores, and custodes who handled their landed endowment. Everywhere the system was the same. In Eastern Gascony, we find the newly re-established archbishopric of Auch had, by this period, come under the control of nearby local ruling families, with Archbishop Raymond, uncle of the count of Fézensac, holding [322] this important office during the first years of the eleventh century.(40) His successor, St. Austinde, had equally important family ties which linked him to the noble families of this region.(41) Down to 1029 the archbishop of Bordeaux was Séguin, from a family which had been important in this part of Gascony since the ninth century, and his successor, chosen, according to Ademar of Chabannes, from a family of Frankish origin, marks the beginning of Poitevin authority over the Bordelais.(42) Bernard, son of Count Raymond Dat, was bishop of Oriolo in 980,(43) just as Gumbald, the brother of Duke William Sánchez of Gascony, was bishop of Baza in 1046.(44) In Gascony, family control of church offices was the order of the day.
Nearby, in Catalonia, the same state of affairs prevailed. In the late tenth century members of the viscontal family began to occupy the office of bishop of Barcelona as well as the abbatia of San-Cugat, which was the most important monastic foundation of the region,(45) while Peter, of the House of Carcassonne, a brother of Countess Ermissende, was made bishop of Gerona.(46) It would appear that the abbeys of Ripoll and Cuxa chose as abbots members of the House of Cerdanya-Besalu of which Bishop Oliba was certainly the most distinguished representative.(47) Then about 1016 they extended their family influence by purchasing the archbishopric of Narbonne,(48) and, a little later the bishopric of Urgell.(49) During most of this period this family also controlled the nunnery of Saint Joan de les Abadesses.(50)
To the north in Languedoc the right to fill the archbishopric of Narbonne seems to have been a prerogative of the viscontal family of the city,(51) until its purchase for Guifred of Cerdanya-Besalu, and so was the naming [323] of abbots of Caunes, one of whom in 993 was Udalguerius, a brother of Viscount Raymond and Archbishop Ermengaud.(52) According to the will of Count Roger the Old in 1002, the Carcassonne house could dispose of a number of abbeys like Saint-Hilaire and Montolieu as if they were their own private property;(53) just as Viscount William could will the bishopric of Béziers to his daughter like any other family allod.(54) Not only did the family of Marquis Bernard of Anduze and his wife, Countess Garsinde, control the bishoprics of Nîmes and LePuy for a period;(55) in 1035 they also had rights over the abbeys of Aniane and Gellone.(56) About 1030 we find a similar situation in Melgueil, where Bishop Peter of Maguelonne was a son of Countess Senegunde and a cousin of Count Bernard.(57)
When we turn to Provence we find that the viscounts of Marseille controlled this city's bishopric(58) and the abbey of Saint-Victor. Their control of this latter was amply attested by a charter which gives us details concerning an election of the monastery's abbot in 1005.(59) Their power also extended over the archbishopric of Aix.(60) In 1018 records indicate that the bishopric of Nice was in the hands of the local counts of this region,(61) just as similar families in Antibes and Grasse controlled their bishoprics in 1038 and 1032(62) respectively. During this same period our sources reveal that the archbishopric of Arles was controlled in the same way by the local lords of this city.(63) When we turn our attention to regions which lay further to the north in the Valley of the Rhone, we find the counts of Valence choosing the bishop of this region from members of their [324] family(64) and for a brief period controlling the see of LePuy as well.(65) They seem to have shared this right with the counts of Gevaudun, who also for a period exercised control over the abbey of Saint-Chaffre du Monastier in Velay.(66) In Dauphiny the counts of Gravaisdun, who were related to the House of Valence, regularly provided bishops of Grenoble from members of their family.(67) The nearby important archbishopric of Lyon was, for a period, controlled by the royal family of Burgundy-Provence, since Burchard, its archbishop, was a brother of King Rudolf and in 1031 his nephew made an attempt to succeed him in this office.(68) In 1024, by placing a certain Léger on the archbishopric of Vienne, the family of Sylvius got control of this important office as well as the abbey of Saint-Barnard de Romans.(69) This same family also had some pretensions to control over Saint-Chaffre du Monastier in Velay.(70) Even St. Odilon of Cluny was not above seeing that a nephew should succeed to the bishopric of LePuy.(71) In Auvergne a similar nepotism seems to have prevailed, where Bishop Etienne III of Auvergne was a brother of Count Robert of Clermont and a member of the family which had long supplied this see with bishops.(72) By 1035 the Trencavels not only were in possession of the bishopric of Nîmes,(73) they also had enough authority over that of Albi to sell it outright for some 5,000 solidi.(74)However, in 1045 a charter reveals they were still in control of the bishopric.(75) To the west in Languedoc the House of Toulouse not only served as custodes of important abbeys like Moissac(76) and Lézat;(77) they also seem to have had the right of selecting the bishops of Toulouse, a right they may have [325] shared with certain viscontal families of this region.(78) In the Limousin lay abbots seem to have regularly been chosen from members of the leading local viscontal families,(79) just as the bishopric of Limoges appears to have been regularly filled by bishops chosen from the family of the viscounts of Limoges.(80) In the same way in Angoulême, during the first years of the eleventh century, the bishop was a brother of Count Geoffrey of Angoulême who controlled this part of Aquitaine.(81)
There seems to be no need to continue this examination of family control of church offices by looking into the family affiliations of the prepositi and other laymen who held such offices during these years. Suffice it to say that they continued to be chosen, as had been the case earlier, from the ranks of less important local landholding families or milites. Thus they seem to reflect the same kind of family influence over the Church which we find dictated the choosing of archbishops, bishops, and abbots. Even more than had been the case in earlier periods, these decades saw a Church which was the repository of family interests and family power and which had become almost a part of the family system that controlled authority in Southern France and Catalonia. As the wealth, the power, and the influence of a family grew, so did its control over the Church establishments which were located nearby. As it declined, so did its influence in the choice of important church officials and lay vicars and prepositi who administered church domains.
So natural, as a matter of fact, did this system seem to the society of the Midi and the Spanish March in the late tenth century and the first half of the eleventh, that it was not often seriously questioned, though it was certainly anything but canonical. What did cause growing concern was something else: namely the more direct, more brutal control of Church lands and Church offices than the older system of family influence sanctioned. This, of course, was the result of the new militarism and the exactions which castellans of fortresses and their milites began to impose upon nearby Church establishments. It was against such practices that protests began to arise in our region.
[326] The first efforts to limit the excesses of the new militarism in various parts of the Midi began late in the tenth century. One of the first of such efforts seems to have occurred in Velay, according to a contemporary chronicle. This tells how Guy, who was bishop of LePuy and later abbot of Saint-Chaffre, and who had been chosen for this office, no doubt, because of family connections (his nephews were counts of Gevaudun), ordered all milites in his region to keep the peace and forced his nephews to give back the "rura et castella" which they had seized.(82) At about the same time, about 985, a charter tells us how the nearby Count Lambert of Valence gave to a newly reformed abbey the right to protect itself by means of fortifications from the rapacity of evil men ("pravorum hominum").(83)
These two examples of a resistance to the new militarism of the period were more than matched by certain actions of Archbishop Burchard of Lyon, who, like Bishop Guy of LePuy, seems to be a good example of family influence over the local church, since he was the king of Burgundy's brother. Nevertheless, we find him fighting the same battle, excommunicating those who were encroaching on the domains of the abbey of Saint-Pierre of Lyon,(84) and complaining in 984 of the sad state of Church property in his province due to such usurpations.(85) In 994 this same primate is shown in our sources holding an important church council, which was attended by Archbishop Teubald of Vienne and a number of other churchmen of the Rhone Valley, as well as some prominent laymen. At this council the matter of Cluny's lands in this region was considered, and it was decreed that no judex, count, or person controlling armed men could build a castle on or near lands which belonged to Cluny, or levy any special dues or exactions upon such property.(86) It seems probable that this Church council stiffened local resistance to the activities of the new military class in this region. At any rate, six years later in 1000 we learn of a similar assembly of churchmen and nobles, local in nature, held by the abbot of Saint-André-le-Bas which condemned sacrileges to the Church.(87) In the same year Artald, a local noble in the Lyonnais, gave up exactions [327] he was levying on the domains of this same abbey;(88) and a neighboring house, Savigny, built a castle to protect its domains from the same kind of encroachment.(89)
Despite such councils and assemblies sponsored by churchmen and their pronouncements, however, the pressure and encroachment upon Church domains continued. In 1012, for instance, the abbey of Saint-Chaffre had to summon a nobleman, Sylvius, to its court before he agreed to give up the exactions he was levying upon its domains as "defensor."(90) And the election of Sylvius' grandson Léger as archbishop of Vienne in 1025 was certainly no triumph for the antimilitary party of the Church in the Valley of the Rhone, followed as it was by this primate's ruthless appropriation of the patrimony of Saint-André-le-Bas(91) and his similar actions regarding that belonging to Saint-Barnard de Romans, where he also served as abbot.(92) But the struggle continued nevertheless. In 1024 for instance, Savigny seems to have successfully persuaded a certain Vurchard to give up dues he was exacting from property belonging to this abbey in return for a payment to him of some 500 solidi.(93) Then three years later in 1027 Cluny received from King Robert of France, who now controlled Burgundy, an important charter which had repercussions on neighboring regions in the Midi and which, like that of 994, forbade anyone to build fortresses near land which belonged to Cluny or its associated Church establishments.(94)
By the year 1030 the result of all this was a more general movement on the part of the Church to limit the effects of the new militarism upon its lands and its authority, as Raoul Glaber's Chronicle makes clear.(95) In the Middle Rhone region and elsewhere this resulted in new Church councils, which were held in 1031 and 1037,(96) and which were attended by both leading churchmen and members of the lay nobility. These councils ordered the laity to return churches which they had seized from Savigny and other abbeys. They did more than this. Out of such mixed [328] assemblies we begin to find rules being elaborated which were to become what we now know as the Peace of God. One such assembly was held in 1037, and was attended by the bishops, abbots, counts, and principes of Valence and Vienne. This gave to the abbey of Saint-Barnard de Romans the right to refuge, one of the first acts of its kind setting up such a sanctuary in a Church establishment in the Midi.(97) Yet as late as 1050, Pope Leo IX was attempting to protect this abbey from encroachment and usurpations of its lands and felt it necessary to reaffirm its privileges in a special Papal bull.(98) The battle of the Church against the new militarism was still not won by 1050 in the Middle Rhone region, though some progress had been made in the struggle.
This pattern of Church resistance to the militarism of this age, with its exactions and usurpation of Church lands, was not, however, confined to the Rhone Valley and regions immediately contiguous to it. We find it proceeding in Auvergne, in Rouergue, and in Gevaudun, where the new militarism, which resulted from rising castles and their covetous milites, presented problems to the Church of these regions too. It is in an Auvergnat cartulary, as a matter of fact, that we read about an early eleventh century council, held by Bishop Guy of LePuy, which was attended by bishops from Toulouse, Rodez, Elne, Lodève, Glandève, Auvergne, Vivarais, and Valence, as well as by important nobles and principes of the laity. This council prohibited the building of castles or the levying of special exactions except on one's own allod, benefice, or commande.(99) This of course represents the same prohibitions found in the charter which Archbishop Burchard procured from his council for Cluny in 994, except that now these provisions were given a general application and were assented to by a body of bishops who represented a majority of the regions to be found in the Midi. It may have had some immediate local effect, for it is at about this time that we find Duke William of Aquitaine, who was the overlord of much of Auvergne, giving up exactions he and his predecessors were accustomed to levy upon the church of LePuy and other religious establishments of the region.(100)
Encroachment upon Church property, however, did not cease as a result [329] of this council, despite the active intervention of St. Odilon of Cluny,(101) and the support which the counts of Clermont gave to those who were opposed to the new militarism and disorders which it produced. True, a few milites like Maurice and Artmann, who gave up exactions they were levying on land belonging to Sauxillanges, appear to have been impressed by St. Odilon.(102) Others, like those milites whom Renco, bishop of Auvergne, had to threaten with excommunication about 1040, proved more refractory and had to be bought off by the monks.(103) Almost as difficult to deal with were those important military figures of Southern Auvergne, Etienne and his brother Austorg, who refused to give up the dues "per vacas" which they were levying on domains belonging to the abbey of Conques until they were paid 140 solidi.(104) Auvergne, like nearby Gevaudun, remained an area in the Midi so disorderly that the Peace of God still needed to be enforced there all through the eleventh century.(105)
The same pressures on the Church and its property are to be found in Western Aquitaine west of Auvergne and Rouergue. We have already noted how an abbey in the Limousin as early as 971 felt it necessary to forbid its own men or officials, in this case its judices servum, to become milites.(106) A little later an initial Church council seems to have been held at Charroux which attempted, like those in Velay and the Rhone Valley, to halt abuse which resulted from the new militarism.(107) It seems doubtful, however, if such efforts were crowned by much success, since abuses continued. About the year 1000, for instance, in giving some land to the abbey of Tulle, Viscount Rainald of Aubusson felt it necessary to promise that he would not thereafter interfere with this property as a "defensor." This gives a rather sinister but realistic idea of what the term defensor now really meant.(108) A little later, about 1020, a charter tells us of some property that belonged to the church of Limoges which [330] certain Etienne had usurped and held illegally for two years.(109) Still later, we find the bishop and canons of this same church complaining that their own prepositus had taken over some of their church property and given it "furtively" to his brother, who proceeded to use it to reward three of his milites.(110) It is at about this time too that the viscounts of Comborn and Carlat seem to have joined together to take over almost the entire domain of the abbey of Aurillac;(111) just as the former had done with that of Tulle,(112) and the lords of Castelnau with Beaulieu's patrimony.(113) The lands belonging to the abbeys of the Limousin were threatened with appropriation by the lords of the region. We even learn from a charter of 1027 that Bishop Jordain of Limoges and his mother acted in similar fashion by usurping property which belonged to the abbey of Saint-Martial of Limoges.(114)
All of this explains why Church councils, held at Bourges and in the Limousin in 1031., were of such importance to the Church in this part of Aquitaine. These councils seem to have been attended by the leading principes and churchmen of the region, and to have had the full backing of the dukes of Aquitaine. They provided a forum where monks like those of Beaulieu could go to enlist aid in their attempt to halt abuses and protest the conditions forced upon them by the militarized nobility of their particular regions.(115) Calling for an excommunication of offenders, these councils ordered such deplorable conditions corrected and threatened to lay an interdict upon the lands of those who continued to usurp Church property. Perhaps the fulminations of such councils had some effect, for soon afterwards we begin to hear of reforms and of certain local nobles giving up exactions they were levying upon neighboring abbeys. Such seems to have been the case with the domains of the abbey of Uzerche.(116) We also learn of a local Church council of barons and churchmen, presided over by Bishop Hildegare of Limoges in 1039, which forbade both interference in the election of abbots and the usurpation of Church property in the Limousin.(117) Soon after this council met, a charter, dating from [331] 1044, tells us of the return of a number of villas to the abbey of Uzerche by Viscount Guy of Limoges,(118) an action which may have forced a local miles to act similarly a year later.(119) Even in Southern Limousin and Quercy we find evidence that Viscount Bernard of Tulle was giving up similar levies on the domains of the abbey of Tulle at about this period.(120) By 1050 the situation had improved sufficiently, so that the duke of Aquitaine could give to the bishopric of Limoges a charter which guaranteed that the election of its bishop could take place without outside interference.(121) In the Limousin and Quercy, where the new militarism had borne most heavily upon the Church and its rights and property, reforms had begun, at last, to change the situation, though much still remained to be done.
Nor were such reforms confined to the Limousin and Quercy. We find evidence of them elsewhere in Aquitaine, where again the power and prestige of the dukes of Aquitaine was marshalled to assist Church reform. In 1026 a charter tells us of a wood, belonging to the abbey of Saint-Jean d'Angély which was restored to it by Viscount Kaledon of Aunay who had usurped it.(122) Five years later a miles, called Rainald, with the consent of Duke William of Aquitaine, returned to this same abbey a mansus he was occupying;(123) and in 1039 under the same conditions William, lord of Parthenay, gave up dues he was levying on land which also belonged to this monastery.(124) It was about this time too that we find Bishop Rohan of Angoulême threatening to excommunicate anyone who gave church property as fiefs.(125) We begin to find a successful effort to curb the new militarism and stop the usurpation of church lands and the illegal exactions between Poitou and the Garonne, just as we find a similar movement in the same period in Auvergne and the Valley of the Rhone.
Naturally enough this movement to curb the abuses of the new militarism also spread into more southerly portions of the Midi: into Languedoc, Gascony, Provence, and Catalonia. As early as 993 a charter of Pope John the XVI had placed the abbeys of Saint-Hilaire, Cuxa, and Lézat under the protection of Cluny,(126) and in 997 an important local lord of this region, Amelius, had returned land belonging to Lézat, which he [332] had usurped.(127) A little later, about 1015 and 1025, charters show us Count William of Toulouse acting in similar fashion and giving back to this same abbey property he had taken from it.(128) At about the same period in nearby Gascony, we learn from our sources that Viscount William Forto restored land to the abbey of Mas Grenier, because he had violated the monastery's right of sanctuary by seizing a certain Bernard who was taking refuge there.(129) At about the same period another document tells us of the restoration of land belonging to Saint-Sernin of Toulouse by certain local landholding nobles.(130) Nevertheless, usurpation of church lands continued to be a serious problem. So much so, that we find Pope John XIX sending a letter to Count William of Toulouse threatening excommunication if a certain Viscount Arnold Eudes, called a miles by the Pope, did not stop taking over lands which belonged to the abbey of Moissac.(131) By 1047 Count William's son, Count Pons of Toulouse, took the obvious step and gave Moissac to Cluny,(132) and a little later accepted a similar Cluniac connection for the abbey of Lézat, which was also under his protection as its custodis or defensor.(133) In this part of the Midi too, a combination of Papal pressure and comital influence, aided by Cluny, began to halt usurpation of Church property by the new military class and to check the more flagrant exactions which milites were levying on Church domains.
To the south in the Narbonnaise we again find a similar resistance on the part of the Church to usurpation of its property by the lay nobles of the region. A charter of 998, for instance, tells us of the return of land which they had usurped from the abbey of Montolieu by two local magnates of the regions,(134) and in 1002 after a court case, Viscount Arnold of Carcassonne was forced to restore property he had taken from the abbey of Saint-Hilaire.(135) It was this kind of lay pressure upon the Church of this region which no doubt caused an important Church council to meet at Taluges in 1027, presided over by Bishop Oliba and attended by many important nobles and churchmen of this part of the Midi and Catalonia.(136)[333] At this council the same kind of rules were promulgated which we find in similar councils which met in Aquitaine, Velay, and the Valley of the Rhone. The Peace of God was proclaimed with regulations designed to curb the abuses of the new militarism as they affected both the Church and the society of Southern France and Catalonia.
The great Church council of Taluges seems to have had some effect upon the society of this region. At any rate in 1036 a charter tells us that Count Roger the Young of Carcassonne returned important domains belonging to the abbey of Saint-Polycarpe in Razès.(137) Twelve years later the abbeys of Saint-Just of Narbonne and Lézat recovered lands which had been usurped as well.(138) Even more important is evidence of a wholesale return of property which had been taken from abbeys like Aniane and Gellone and the cathedral church of Béziers. Documents dating from this period, most of them from the years 1030 to 1050, show us some thirteen guirpitios, giving back land and rights to Gellone,(139) four to six which did the same for Aniane,(140) and several for the church of Béziers and the nearby abbey of Saint-Nazaire.(141) All these restorations of Church land and rights seem to have taken place before informal courts presided over by important churchmen and attended by leading landowners and milites of this part of Languedoc. A similar return of church lands at Nîmes is mentioned in a document of 1007,(142) and three more in charters dating from the years 1043-1060.(143) In nearby Provence we find less evidence of this sort of activity, but even here, in 1032, we learn of a gift of land to the abbey of Saint-Victor of Marseille by the archbishop of Aix,(144) At about the same time another series of charters tell us of the restoration of Church property in the Arles area of Provence to this same abbey.(145) Only in Catalonia does such return of Church property seem a rare occurrence, probably because the usurpation of Church land was still less of a problem there than in the rest of the Midi.
All of this leads us to some conclusions concerning the Church in the [334] Midi and Catalonia during this period. Our sources make it clear to us that the coming of castles and milites to lands south of Poitou and Burgundy caused serious problems for the Church in these regions. Aided by the system of family control of Church establishments, which had long existed in the Midi and Catalonia, the castellans and milites who occupied these fortresses encroached upon the domains of nearby Church establishments, levying dues of a new and onerous sort and in many cases usurping Church lands, which were then distributed as fiefs to members of the new military class. As early as the last years of the tenth century the Church reacted against such practices, particularly in regions like the Limousin and the Valley of the Rhone. It did so by enlisting the support of both Cluny and the Papacy, and by holding Church councils on a local and regional level. These councils included among those who attended, not only the leading churchmen but also important nobles of the regions concerned. They condemned the building of castles and the levying of the new onerous types of exactions which were a feature of the new militarism.
At first such councils were relatively unsuccessful. But when in 1027, 1031, and 1037 more important councils were held, followed up by local assemblies of the same character in various parts of the Midi, we begin to see some results. In part, no doubt, this was due to decisive support for the movement on the part of important lay nobles. In Aquitaine, for instance, it was the backing of the dukes of Aquitaine which helped most.(146) In Auvergne that of the counts of Clermont.(147) In the Toulousain that of the counts of Toulouse.(148) In Eastern Languedoc that of the principal noble families. All of these saw the dangers to them of the new militarism, and cooperated with the Church of their regions in checking its abuses. Perhaps even more important these councils elaborated a definite program, the Peace of God, which was more specific and workable than earlier fulminations and decrees against the building of castles and usurpation of Church property. As a result by 1050 we can see evidence from all over the Midi and Catalonia that the abuses of the new militarism had been checked, and that land was being restored to its Church owners and in many cases exactions given up. A beginning had at least been made [335] of bringing the new militarism under some form of control, though much still needed to be done.
But all of this still failed to touch the real problem which the Church in the Midi needed to face -- its domination by local families in the regions where Church establishments were located. A Bishop Guy of LePuy, an Archbishop Burchard of Lyon, a Bishop Hildegare of Limoges, or a Bishop Oliba, or even an Archbishop Pons of Aix, sincere though they might be as opponents of the new militarism, were still the product of a family-run Church, who owed their positions to the operation of this system in the Midi and Catalonia. In some ways the same thing can even be said of St. Odilon of Cluny. They were still far removed in spirit from the Gregorian Reform movement of the late eleventh century, which was to demand a Church, not only free of military domination and control, but a spiritual Church whose officials were free of any form of lay investiture and simony. Already in the provisions of councils that asked for free election of abbots in the Limousin(149) and in the charter which the duke of Aquitaine gave the bishopric of Limoges that provided for his free election, we can see this new spirit emerging.(150) But by 1050 it was only beginning to affect the rest of the Midi and Catalonia, and was not to triumph until well into the twelfth century. By the mid eleventh century then, the Church of Southern France and the Spanish March was beginning to emerge successfully from its struggle with the new militarism of these regions, but its purification from the more subtle forms of family control and influence still remained a problem for the future.
Yet even when we emphasize the limitations which attended this aspect of the Cluny Reform movement and the Peace of God, which Cluny and others in the Church did so much to bring about, we must note a very important fact: the evidence of the great authority throughout our region which the Papacy and Cluny, due to this movement, were able to exert. We have already commented on how Cluny's influence, as seen in her affiliated houses, by 1050 had spread until every region, from the Pyrenees to the Loire and from Provence and Dauphiny to the Atlantic, was affected by it, and how it was even crossing the mountains into Northwestern Spain.
What needs more emphasis still, though, is evidence of the authority and influence over Southern France and Catalonia which the pre-Gregorian Papacy was beginning to wield. We not only find popes actively intervening [336] in Catalonia,(151) as Kehr has emphasized; we find their authority reflected in the charters they granted to monastic establishments in Dauphiny, in Velay, in the Limousin, in Gascony, and in Provence.(152) We find them setting up abbeys as sanctuaries in the Alps,(153) admonishing milites in Gascony,(154) and getting a bishop released from captivity in Limoges.(155) Already by 1050 the Popes had moved in to fill the vacuum left by the decline of royal Northern French influence in the Midi and Catalonia, and the inability of the kings of Provence-Burgundy to build an effective kingdom in the Valley of the Rhone. A basis had been laid for the work of Gregory VII, Urban II, Alexander III, and Innocent III in lands south of Poitou and Burgundy.
Thus we see an increase in Papal
and Cluniac influence over the Church of the Midi and Catalonia; and a
Church which still was vigorous and vital enough to rally society and check
certain abuses of the new prevailing militarism of the period, and to make
a beginning toward the creation of a new, more spiritual, Church. Abuses
still remained, it is true, but they were beginning to feel a breath of
reform which was to produce the age of the crusades and Gregory VII.
1. About 170 charters dating from this period show the growth of Sauxillanges (see the Cart. de Sauxillanges). Though Brioude's domain does not seem to have increased as much as Sauxillanges', during these years some 40 charters in the Cart. de Brioude, show the abbey's continued growth. Some 60 charters in the Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, show a growth of the abbey's lands in Velay, Vivarais, Forez, the Lyonnais, Savoy, Dauphiny, Auvergne, Provence, and even in Northern Italy. According to the charters of the Cart. de Savigny this was a period of rapid growth, but mainly in the local region of the Lyonnais and Forez. Saint-André-le-Bas, like Savigny, experienced a growth and expansion of its holdings, but mainly close to Vienne. See some four score charters of the Cart. de Saint-André-le-bas for this growth. Saint-Victor de Marseille according to its catulary really began to expand until its land spread all over Provence and the Alpine regions nearby according to more than 200 charters of this period (Cart. de Saint-Victor). It even accumulated land in distant Catalonia. Lérins also expanded its domains, but mainly in a region centering about the Riviera, according to its cartulary. But it did have land given it in Auvergne also (See Cart. de Lérins, no. 219). Judging from its cartulary, Aniane grew steadily but modestly during these years. Some 30 charters show the expansion of its holdings mainly near the abbey itself in Eastern Languedoc (Cart. d'Aniane). Judging from charters Gellone's domains grew steadily in the Melgueil-Béziers region. But the abbey also acquired some extensive holdings to the north in the Albigeois and Rouergue (Cart. de Gellone). The Cart. de Conques shows this period was one of great growth for the abbey's landed endowment. Over 180 charters exist which show gifts to Conques. Most are from Rouergue and the Albigeois. Some however are from Quercy, the Limousin, Auvergne, Vivarais, and even Provence. On Cuxa's growth during these years see P. Ponsch, "Le domaine foncier de Saint-Michel de Cuxa au IXe, Xe, et XIe siècles," in Etudes Roussillonnaises, 11(1952). More than 200 charters illustrate how San Cugat's lands grew in extent during this period. Most impressive of all is the list of castles which it owned along the entire border of Catalonia. See the charters given the abbey by Pope Sylvester II in 1002 and by Pope John in 1007 which trace the extent of San Cugat's domains (Cart. de San Cugat, nos. 382, 412).
2. Charters dating from 1011 and 1012 show the power which Abbot Guitard was able to exercise (Cart. de San Cugat, nos. 437-439, 442, 447, 449). All concern San-Cugat's ownership of important castles. See also his influence shown in a dispute with an important marcher lord in 1020 (ibid., no. 479).
3. For some examples of Oliba's power note how he presided over the Synod of Taluges in 1027 where the Peace of God was proclaimed (Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, ed. D. Bouquet et alii, XI, 514). Or see how he intervened in this same year to protect the rights of two villages in Roussillon (Cart. roussillonnais, no. 32). On his career see R. de Abadal i de Vinyals, L'Abat Oliva, bisbe de Vic, i la seva època.
4. Note the privileges which Archbishop Burchard helped give Cluny in 994 (Chartes de Cluny, III, no. 2255), and his action in excommunicating those who were disturbing the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Lyon about the year 1000 (Cart. Lyonnais, no. 8). See also the important councils held at Vienne in 1023 (Cart. de Saint-André-le-bas, no. 32); and a little later also Cartulaire de Saint-Maurice de Vienne, ed. U. Chevalier, in Cartulaire de Saint-André-le-bas de Vienne, appendix L, p. 59. On the vain attempts of his nephew to succeed to his position and power see Raoul Glaber, Historiarum libri V. V. 4, 21-22, pp. 130-132.
5. A number of charters reveal the power exercised by this bishop (Cart. de Sauxillanges, nos. 701, 476; Cart. de Brioude, no. 105; Chartes de Cluny, IV, no. 2682).
6. See a number of charters on Abbot Odilon's activities in Auvergne (Cart. de Saint-Flour, nos. 4, 6; Cart. de Sauxillanges, no. 635).
7. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 36, pp. 159-160.
8. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 251, and P. Ponsch, "Le Confluent et ses comtes du IXe au XIIe siècle," in Etudes Roussillonnais, I (1951), 295.
9. For examples of such lay control of abbeys see the will of Viscountess Adelaise of Narbonne about 990, or of Count Roger of Carcassonne about the year 1000 in Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, nos. 152, 162. Other examples are to be found in the power exercised by Count Pons of Toulouse according to ibid., no. 206, and Cart. de Tulle, no. 1306.
10. The first mention of this abbey seems to date from 978 (Cart. de la Réolle, no. 132), though there is an account of the founding of the abbey in ibid., no. 94. See also a charter of Pope Benedict which mentions this monastery in 981 (ibid., no.138).
11. On the abbey of Blasement see ibid., no. 14. Our first proof of the existence of the abbey of Lucq seems to come from a charter dating from 988 (Cart. de Lucq, no. 3). We also have a mention of still another Gascon monastery in a charter dating from 980 (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 133).
12. A charter of 1027 tells of how this abbey was founded at Bordeaux (Cart. de Saint-Croix, no. 1). A series of charters give us our first references to the abbey of Sorde during these years (Cart. de Saint-Jean de Sorde, nos. 2, 3, 15). A countess of Bordeaux in 1043 founded this establishment according to Cart. de Sainte-Croix, no. 80.
13. Cartulaire de Sainte-Foi de Morlaas, ed. L. Cadier, in Bulletin de la Société des sciences, lettres et arts de Pau, 2nd Ser. XIII (1886), no. 1.
15. Raoul Glaber, Historiarum libri V, IV, 3, 6-7, pp. 96-97.
16. Cart. de Saint Sulpice en Bugey, no. 2.
17. Cart. de Grenoble, nos. 19, 20, 34.
18. Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, nos. 314, 375.
19. Cart. de Saint-Victor, no. 269. See also the Papal priviledges given to the restored abbey of Saint-André of Avignon in 999 (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 15).
20. Chartes de Cluny, III, nos. 1866, 1990, 1991.
21. See reference to this monastery of Vence in Cart. de Saint-Victor, no. 272. There is a mention of the election of the abbot of Saint-Pons of Nice in a charter of 1004 Cart. de Saint-Pons de Nice, no. 2.
22. Cart. de Saint-Victor, no. 558.
25. See Cart. de Saint-Flour, no. 6 on the early history of Saint-Flour, and Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 188 on Gallargues. See a reference to the foundation of Dorat by Count Boson of La Marche in a charter of 987 (Recueil de textes et d'analyses concernant le chapitre de Saint-Pierre de Dorat, ed. J. Font-Réaulx, in Bulletin de la société archéologique et historique du Limousin, LXXII (1927), no. 2.) Charters of 1020 and 1025 mention Saint-Martial in Cart. de l'aumônerie de Saint-Martial de Limoges, nos. 14, 29. For the beginnings of Saint-Etienne about the year 1000 see Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Etienne de Baigne en Saintogne, ed. R. Chalet, nos. 263, 270, 271. The Cart. de Notre Dame de Saintes, nos. 1 and 78 contain the first references to Notre Dame de Saintes.
26. Cart. de Tulle, no. 1306. Charter de Cluny, III, no. 1950.
27. Cart. de Sainte-Foi de Morlaas, no. 1.
28. On the expansion of Cluny's influence into Northwestern Spain see M. Defourneaux, Les Français en Espagne aux XIe et XIIe siècles.
29. Cart. de Saint -Chaffre, no. 387.
30. Ibid., nos. 321, 390, 391, 393.
31. Ibid., no. 367. On lands belonging to Saint-Chaffre in Alpine regions of Savoy and Dauphiny see ibid., nos. 357, 433, 434, 435.
32. Cart. de Conques, no. 73. See also reference to land in the Narbonnaise in ibid., no. 411.
33. Cart. de Saint-Victor, nos. 1044, 1046-1052.
34. Cart. de la Réolle, no. 99.
35. For example see Cart. de San Cugat, no. 387.
36. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 167.
37. Cart. de San Cugat, nos. 387, 412.
38. Cart. de Savigny, no. 430.
39. For examples of such castles see Cart. de Saint-Victor, nos. 58, 135, 243, 255; Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 226; Cart. de Conques, nos. 34, 142, 167, 355.
41. On his kinship with important noble families of this region see A. Brueils, St. Austinde et la Gascogne au XIe siècle.
42. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 34, pp. 163-164.
43. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 133.
44. Cart. de la Réolle, no. 90.
45. El Archivo Condal de Barcelona, no. 26.
46. Cart. de Carcassonne, I, 244-245, and Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, nos. 189, 209.
47. On Oliba's relationship with the House of Cerdanya-Besalu see Abadal, L'abat Oliva, pp. 18-39.
48. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 251.
49. Ponsch, "Le Confluent et ses comtes," p. 295.
51. See the will of Aimery, archbishop of Narbonne, which dates from 977 (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 127); and that a little later of Viscountess Adelaise (ibid., no. 151).
52. Cart. de Carcassonne, IV, 3.
53. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 162.
55. The Cronique de la Monastère de Saint-Pierre-de-Le-Puy, in Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. col. 18-20 mentions control of LePuy by the Anduze family. See also a charter of 1020 which mentions Bernard, lord of Anduze, and his sons Frédol, bishop of LePuy, and Gerald, bishop of Nîmes (Cart. de Nîmes, no. 120). On the election of Frédol as bishop of LePuy see also Cart. de Saint-Petrus Aniacensis [LePuy], ed. A. Molinier, in Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 416.
56. Hist. Gén. de Lang, V, no. 206.
58. Cart. de Saint-Victor de Marseille, nos. 69, 169.
61. Cartulaire de l'ancienne Cathédral de Nice, Sainte-Réparte, ed. E. Cais de Pierlas, no. 11.
62. Cart. de Lérins, nos. 131, 140.
63. Cart. de Saint-Victor, nos. 58, 116.
64. For references to Bishops Lambert and Pons of Valence who were members of this family see Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, nos. 314, 315, and Chartes de Cluny, IV, no. 2921.
65. For the election of Bishop Ademar of this family of Valence see Cart. de Saint-Petrus Aniacensis [LePuy], no. 416.
66. Cronique de Saint-Pierre de LePuy, cols. 14-23, and Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, no. 140.
67. Cart. de Grenoble, no. 33.
69. Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, nos. 74, 78, 80.
70. On Sylvius and his encroachment upon lands belonging to Saint-Chaffre see Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, no. 311.
71. Cronique de Saint-Pierre de LePuy, col. 21-23.
72. We find this in a charter dating from 994-1046 (Cart. de Sauxillanges, no. 476).
73. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, nos. 203, 205.
76. Cart. de Tulle, XXII, 154-155.
77. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 173.
78. Hugh who was bishop of Toulouse in the late tenth century was a member of the Toulouse-Rouergue family. See his will in Cart. de Saint-Sernin, no. 280. His successor, Frotaire, was probably of the Lautrec family (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 139). The next bishop, Raymond, was probably of the Toulousain house (ibid., no. 165).
79. See Cart. d'Uzerche, nos. 31, 58, 1039; and Cart. de Tulle, no. 290.
80. One finds a mention of bishops of this family in Cart. d'Uzerche, nos. 31, 426, 1020.
81. Cart. de Savigny, no. 633.
82. Cronique de Saint-Pierre de LePuy, col. 14-l5.
83. Chartes de Cluny, II, no. 1716.
84. Cart. Lyonnais, no. 8. See the excommunication pronounced by the bishop of Grenoble for a similar offense in his part of Dauphiny in 976-978 in Cart. de Grenoble, no. 25.
86. Chartes de Cluny, III, no. 2255.
87. Cart. de Saint-André-le-bas, no. 210. See also Artald's return of land in 992 which his father had usurped from Savigny (Cart. de Savigny, no. 533).
88. Cart. de Saint-André-le-bas, no. 182.
89. Cart. de Savigny, no. 430.
90. Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, no. 311.
91. Cart. de Saint-André-le-bas, no. 209.
92. Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, nos. 74, 80.
93. Cart. de Savigny, nos. 679, 680.
94. Chartes de Cluny, IV, no. 2800.
95. Raoul Glaber, Historiarum libri V, IV, 5, 14-16, p. 103.
96. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova el amplissima collectio, XIX, col. 507. Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, no. 79.
97. Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, no. 79.
98. Ibid., no. 93. See in the same year the record of similar encroachments of another landowner upon the domains of the abbey of Saint-Sulpice (Cart. de Saint-Sulpice, no. 3).
99. Cart. de Sauxillanges, no. 15.
100. Chartes de Cluny, III, no. 2277.
101. Cart. de Saint-Flour, no. 4.
102. Cart. de Sauxillanges, nos. 417, 419, 620, 635.
104. Cart. de Conquer, no. 285, 441. On Ictor's sale of his unjustly exercised rights to Conques in 1019 see ibid., no. 394. On similar action by his son Robert to Sauxillanges at about this time see Cart. de Sauxillanges, no. 406.
105. C. Brunel, "Les juges de la paix en Gévaudun au milieu du XIe siècle," in Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, CIX (1951).
106. Cart. de Beaulieu, no. 50.
107. See how Count Boson de La Marche returned land to Uzerche as a result of this council (Cart. d'Uzerche, no. 46).
109. Cart. de Saint-Etienne de Limoges, no. 46.
113. P. Labbé, Sacrosancta Concilia, IX, col. 898.
114. Cart. de l'aumônerie de Saint-Martial de Limoges, no. 36.
115. Labbé, Sacrosancta Concilia, IX, col. 898, and XIX, col. 507.
116. Cart. d'Uzerche, nos. 179, 441, 452.
121. Cart. de Saint-Etienne de Limoges, nos. 175-176.
122. Cart. de Saint-Jean d'Angély, no. 48.
125. Cart. d'Angoulême, no. 30.
126. Chartes de Cluny, III, no. 1950.
127. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 155.
130. Cart. de Saint-Sernin, nos. 47, 99, 147, 232.
131. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 195.
132. Cart. de Tulle, XXII, 154-155.
133. Chartes de Cluny, III, no. 1950.
134. Cart. de Carcassonne, I, 196.
135. Cros-Meyrévielle, Documents, no. 34.
136. Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, XI, 514.
137. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 208.
139. Cart. de Gellone, nos. 11, 16, 33, 34, 54, 86, 107, 133, 146, 221, 248, 305, and Hist. Gén. de Lang., no. 206.
140. Cart. d'Aniane, nos. 142, 146, 230, 244, 277, 332.
141. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 149, and Cart. de Béziers, no. 66.
143. Ibid., nos. 137, 140, 141.
144. Cart. de Saint-Victor, no. 237. See also the guirpitio of the villa of Valentiola to Cluny at about this time (Chartes de Cluny, III, nos. 2066, 2268).
145. Cart. de Saint-Victor, nos. 167, 186, 293.
146. See Labbé, Sacrosancta Concilia, IX, col. 898, on action taken by the duke of Aquitaine to free the Church of his region from lay control.
147. See for example the action taken by the count of Clermont in 1011 according to Chartes de Cluny, IV, 2682, and in 1047 according to Chartes de Charroux, no. 4.
148. See action taken by Count Pons as regards the abbeys of Lézat and Moissac and other church establishments in notes 128-133.
149. Cart. d'Uzerche, no. 1039.
150. Cart. de Saint-Etienne de Limoges, nos. 175-176.
151. See Papal charters given to the abbey of San Cugat in 1002 and 1007 (Cart. de San Cugat, nos. 387, 412).
152. Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, nos. 92, 93 (Dauphiny); Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, no. 375 (Velay); Chartes de Charroux, nos. 72-75 (the Limousin); Cart. de la Réolle, no. 99 (Gascony), Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 157 (Provence).
153. Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, no. 93.