No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Early Norman Monastic Visitations: a Neglected Record
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
Extract
Among students of medieval monasticism the province of Rouen has long been famous for a unique record: the archiepiscopal register (Paris, B.N.MS lat. 1245) commonly called the Regestrum visitationum or Journal des visites pastorales of Archbishop Odo Rigaldi, or Eudes Rigaud, which extends from 1248 to 1269. Published first by Theodose Bonnin in 1852, during the past sixty years it has been translated into English, reprinted in Latin and much commented upon.
- Type
- Notes and Documents
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982
References
* I wish to record my thanks to the Directeur des services d'archives de la Seine-maritime for supplying me with a photocopy from MS G 7, and for permission to publish this document; also to Professor Raymonde Foreville and to Professor Marc Vénard for their help in checking some readings in the manuscript.
1 It has been generally overlooked that Bonnin's work was first issued in parts and circulated among a few French scholars - probably chartistes - in the years 1845–52. I owe this information to Prof. Raymonde Foreville, while to Prof. Giles Constable I owe information about a copy in the Library of Congress with the words 'Premiére livraison' on the title-page with the date 1847. (The title was re-set for the reissue of 1852.) This explains the extensive use of the book by L. Delisle, 'Le Clergé normand au xiiie siecle', Bibliothique de l'Écles des Charles, 2e ser., iii (1846), by A. Dumeril, 'LÉfitat du clergé régulier en Normandie sous le pontificat d'Eude Rigaud', Mémoires de la Soc. des Antiquaires de Normandie (serie in-40), xvii (1847), 107–25; and by Victor Le Clerc on Eudes Rigaud in Hist, litteraire de la France, 1847, xxi. 622–8Google Scholar, cf. pp. lxxix-lxxx. The Bibliotheque Nationale and the British Library catalogues (the latter s.v. Bonnin, Theodore) only record the impression of 1852. G. G. Coulton brought the Journal to the notice of English scholars in ‘The interpretation of visitation records’, EHR, xxix (1914), 30Google Scholar, and used it amply in Five Centuries of Religion, ii, Cambridge, 1927Google Scholar. See also Cheney, C. R., Episcopal of Monasteries in the xiii Century, Manchester 1931, 6–8Google Scholar, 149–76; and Andrieu-Guitrancourt, cited below, n. 5.
2 Regestrum, 71.
3 Ibid., 127–9.
4 Ibid., 78–9, 233–4 (canton Nocé, ar. Mortagne, Orne). The settlement is mentioned by Dom M. Felibien, Hist, de I'abbaye royale de St Denis, Paris 1705, 196.
5 Regestrum, 282, 776. Andrieu-Guitrancourt, Pierre, L'Archevêque Eudes Rigaud et la vie de l'église au xiiie siécle d'apris le “Regestrum visilationum”, Paris 1938Google Scholar, hints at visitations by archbishops of Rouen from the ninth century on (118–19) and notes that the register alludes to earlier visitations, but gives no precise references. This substantial monograph (honoured with a preface by Cardinal Baudrillart and crowned by the Academie Franchise) conspicuously ignores all antecedent critical studies of the source. M. Coulet describes it as: 'solide etude juridique qui céde è l'apologétique dans l'analyse des informations que livre le registre': Coulet, L., Les Visites pastorales, typologie des sources moyen dge occidental, 77, ed. Genicot, L., Turnhout 1977, 14Google Scholar.
8 L. d'Achéry, Spicilegium, 2ndedn, Paris 1723, Hi. 619, dated at Vincennes, 3 Sept. 1237.
7 Martene, E. and Durand, U., Thesaurus novus anecdotorum, Paris 1717, i. 911–12Google Scholar from a MS of the abbey, now Avranches, Bibliothèque municipale MS 149 (s. xiii in.).
8 The pope's injunctions for Subiaco (Reg. Inn. v. 82: Cum ad monasterium) were available to the archbishop in Comp. Il l 3.27.2 and other decretal-collections. For the York injunctions see Cheney in EHR, xlvi (1931), 443–52. Other early English injunctions are concerned almost exclusively with financial matters.
10 Ibid., ii. 276 (no. 3144), 25 Oct. 1224. A generation later Odo Rigaldi was not obstructed in his visitations: Regestrum, 105, etc.
11 Cheney, C. R., English Bishops' Chanceries, Manchester 1950, 109Google Scholar.
12 Visitations of Religious Houses in the Diocese of Lincoln, ed. A. Hamilton Thompson, ii (Lincoln Record Soc. 1918 and Canterbury and York Soc. 1919), and Coulton, ‘Visitation Records’. See C. R. Cheney,'A visitation of St Peter's priory, Ipswich [1327–1336]', EHR, xlvii (1932) 268–72 for the examination which followed the ‘detecta’.
13 It may include no more than a quarter of the depositions.
14 In 1966 Prof. Richard Kay pointed out that Archbishop Odo's diligence in visitation, while exemplary, was not unique. He did so while arguing, justly, that the unprecedented record of provincial councils found in Odo's register throws no light on the frequency of such councils in the province in the forty years before. ‘Mansi and Rouen: a critique of the conciliar collections’, Catholic Historical Review, lii (1966), 155–85Google Scholar, esp. 162–3.
15 Occasional ambiguities about syntax and punctuation might easily occur in a late copy of informal and hasty notes. (The precise offences of the sacrist of St Ouen are in some doubt: he chats with women in his room and with the door shut celebrates in his chapel.) Allowance must also be made for possible errors in transcribing names and numbers and i n extending abbreviations.
16 This council had little to say on monastic discipline: cc. 4, 5 and 6 reproduce Lateran Council IV cc. 12, 13 and 59. For further details see R. Foreville, ‘La Réception des conciles généraux dans l'église et la province de Rouen au xiiie siècle' in her Gouvemement et vie de l'église (London, Variorum Reprints 1979) ch. ixGoogle Scholar, from Études … Jean Over (1976), 243–53.
17 Registres de Grigoire IX (École franç, de Rome, 1892–1955) 11. 317–31, no. 3045; Odo Rigaldi, Regestrum 643–8, cf. Cheney, Episcopal Visitation, 151, 157–8, 160, 163.
18 Again in 1259, at St Ouen, the sacrist (presumably another man) was under a cloud. Archbishop Odo noted: ‘quia aliqua audieramus de incontinentia sacriste, ipsum secreto monuimus abstinere' (Regestrum, 365).
19 Pommeraye, F., Histoire de l'abbaye royalt de St Ouen de Rouen, Rouen 1662, 271–3Google Scholar. Pommeraye (followed in Gallia Christiana) attributes to Abbot Roger the impetration of a bull from Gregory ix to revive a readership in theology which had been allowed to lapse n i the abbey; but it was a measure of reform taken by a later abbot, Hugh (Reg. Grigoire IX no. 2163 (31 Oct. 1234)). Th e accounts of Abbot Roger's pontificate by Monstier, Arthur du in Neustria pia, Rouen 1663, 30–1Google Scholar and Ste-Marthe, D. de in Gallia Christiana, 2nd edn, Paris 1874, xi. 146–7Google Scholar add little.
20 Prior William Vaspail was appointed abbot of Fecamp in 1227 or 1228 and ruled this important abbey for more than thirty years (Du Monstier, 64; Gallia Christiana, xi. 210).
21 Reg. Grégoire IX, no. 446; also printed from a Dominican register by Ripoll, T., Bullarium ord. pracdicatorwn, Rome 1729, i. 31–2Google Scholar no. 38, where the second and third addressees are omitted, though th e text contains the clause ‘Quod si non omnes … duo vestrum...’
22 Reg. Grigoire IX, nos. 2175 (24 Oct. 1234) and 2163 (31 Oct. 1234).
23 Ibid., 2551 (16 May 1235).
24 Ibid., 2836 (22 Nov. 1235).
24 Registres d'Innocent IV (École fran¸, de Rome, 1884–1921), no. 263.
26 Presumably from Cailly, canton Cleres, ar. Rouen, Seine-maritime. The abbey of St Ouen was engaged with the family of Cailly in business over property later in the century: Magni ntuli scaccarii Normanniae, ed. T. Stapleton (London, Soc. Antiquaries. 1844), ii. p. cxiii, cf. pp. cxvi-vii.
27 Priory of St Gilles-les-Elbeuf, ar. Rouen, Seine-mar., a cell of St Ouen.
28 For the practice of mutual accusation in chapter, see Cheney, Episcopal Visitation, 154, 158–9 and examples in Odo's register, passim.
29 Marancie can signify penalties imposed for minor offences in, or absence from, divin e service. The term is found also in the customary of Rouen (C. du Cange, Glossarium, ed. Henschel, Paris 1840–50, vol. iv. s.v.).
30 Aug. abbey of Corneville (-sur-Risle), cant, and ar. Pont-Audemer, Eure.
31 Aug. priory of Bourg Achard, cant. Routot, ar. Pont-Audemer, Eure.
32 For the yoking of oxen and horses together at the plough, see other examples in L. Delisle, Études SUT la condition de la classe agricole … en Normandic au moyen âge, Evreux, 1851, 303, where this exampl e is cited.
33 Selveison, or La Forêt-verte, Seine-mar. For the abbey's rights in the forest see Magni rotuli scaccarii, ii. pp. cxiii, cxvi-vii.
34 Isneauville, cant. Darnétal, ar. Rouen, Seine-mar.
36 ? for Vernon, ar. Évreux, Eure.
36 Quévreville-la-Poterie, cant. Boos, ar. Rouen, Seine-mar.
37 Les Authieux-sur-le-Port-St Ouen, cant. Boos, ar. Rouen, Seine-mar.
38 Perriers-sur-Andelle, cant. Fleury, ar. Les Andelys, Eure, a cell of St Ouen.
39 Gouy, cant. Boos, ar. Rouen, Seine-mar.
40 Sigy-en-Bray, cant. Argueil, ar. Dieppe, Seine-mar., a cell of St Ouen.
41 Probably Caudebec-lès-Elbeuf, cant. Elbeuf, ar. Rouen, Seine-mar, rather than Caudebec-en-Caux, ar. Yvetot, Seine-mar.; but I have failed to trace the establishment of which the lady was prepositissa. Maybe she was the wife of the prepositus or bailiff of St Ouen's property at Caudebec.