Haregarius, Truda and Tenestina establish and endow a monastery dedicated to *Mary (Mother of Christ, S00033) and to the apostles *Peter and *Paul (S00036 and S00008) at Le Mans (north-west Gaul); later the monastery is granted to Tenestina in precarial tenure; charters written in Latin in Le Mans, possibly in 513 and 524, or in 696/7 and 708.
Evidence ID
E08330
Type of Evidence
Documentary texts - Donation document
Documentary texts - Charter or diploma
Charter of Haregarius, Truda and Tenestina:
The donors, mindful of their mortal state,
cellula ac monasterium [vel o]ratorium [in honorem] sanctae Mariae genetricis Domini nostri Ihesu Xpisti vel sanctorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli construere ac ędificare deberemus, quod ita et fecimus.
'resolved to construct and build a cell, monastery and oratory of holy Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the holy apostles, Peter and Paul, which we duly did.'
There follows a list of the endowments.
The charter is dated 'in the second year of the reign of Childebert' (anno II regnante Childeberto rege), and its first witness is Bishop Innocentius.
Charter in favour of Tenestina:
Tenestina, daughter of the late Haregarius and Truda, is granted precarial tenure of the same monastery by Bishop Innocentius. The monastery is described as 'near the wall of the city of Le Mans, on the river Sarthe' (juxta murum cenomannis civitate, supra fluvium Sarthae).
The charter is dated 'in the 13th year of the reign of King Childebert' (anno XIII regnante Childeberto rege).
Text: Havet 1896, 424-27 and 427-29.
Translation and summary: Bryan Ward-Perkins.
Cult PlacesBequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesFamily
Cult building - monastic
Non Liturgical ActivityBequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Construction of cult buildings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesFamily
Aristocrats
Source
The texts of these charters are known only through their being reproduced in a ninth-century history written in Le Mans, the Deeds of the bishops of Le Mans (Actus pontificum Cenomannis in urbe degentium). The Actus was compiled to justify the claims of the ninth-century bishops of Le Mans to extensive properties and rights. It quotes in full 86 royal, episcopal or private charters, including these two. Many of these documents are obvious forgeries, while others, almost certainly containing a genuine core, have clearly been altered and interpolated to favour the ninth-century bishops' claims. For a full introduction to the Actus and the texts it purports to quote, see Goffart 1966.The charters relating to Haregarius, Truda and Tenestina's foundation are accepted by modern scholarship as having authentic text at their core, but with evident ninth-century interpolations. See below for a discussion of this issue.
Discussion
TCCG p.52 accepts the 513/524 dates.All scholars are agreed that the texts of both these charters, as recorded in the ninth century, contain, at the very least, numerous falsifying interpolations. However, Havet (1896, 378-90) argued that at the core of both charters were genuine Merovingian texts, elaborated in the ninth century, and this conclusion has been widely accepted (Goffart 1966, 293-94; Pietri and Heijmans 2013, 1050 'Innocentius 4'). We can therefore reasonably accept that these three donors did establish a monastery of Mary and of Peter and Paul at Le Mans in the Merovingian period.
Scholars have, however, differed over the precise date of the foundation. Havet who examined these texts in great detail and argued convincingly for their having an authentic core (1896, 378-92), thought that both the purported regnal dates (to the second and thirteenth years of a king Childebert), and the attribution of the second charter to Bishop Innocentius, might be authentic (while rejecting, as an interpolation, Innocentius' subscription to the original foundation document). Since Innocentius is documented as bishop between 533 and 559 (but may have become so slightly earlier), the Childebert who is mentioned would have to be Childebert I (r. 511-558), and the charters would have to be of 513 and 524. Havet was, however, well aware that this dating would make these two charters much the earliest ones in the Le Mans collection, and readily accepted that these early dates are uncertain. Biarne 1987, 52, no. 9 accepts Havet's early dating.
Goffart (1966, 293-94) pointed out that, if founded in the early sixth century, this monastery should have featured in the 616 will of Bertram of Le Mans (E06095), who left bequests to 'all the basilicas which are known to be around our city' (omnes basilicas quae circa civitatem nostram esse noscuntur), listing them without mentioning a monastery of Mary, Peter and Paul (the only dedication to Mary that Bertram notes outside the walls of Le Mans is a basilica dedicated to Mary and the Holy Cross, which he himself built and which therefore cannot be our monastery). Goffart therefore rejected any genuine presence of Bishop Innocentius in these charters as interpolated, while accepting that the regnal years might be correct. If so, they could be credited to Childebert III (r. 694/5-711), offering later, and therefore more plausible, dates for the charters: 696/7 and 708. Pietri and Heijmans 2013, 1050 accept this later dating.
There is, however, a problem with dating the foundation of the monastery of Haregarius, Truda and Tenestina to 696/7. The charter in favour of Tenestina describes her monastery as 'near the wall of the city of Le Mans, on the river Sarthe' (juxta murum cenomannis civitate, supra fluvium Sarthae), which is a more-or-less identical description to that of the location of a monastery to Mary, 'built between the river Sarthe and the wall of the city' (constructa intra fluvium Sarte et murum civitatis), which is already documented in 683 (in a privilege granted by Bishop Aiglibert, E08336). This clash of dates could, however, be resolved, if the description of the location of our monastery was an interpolation by the compiler of the Actus, tidying two monasteries (one already in existence in 683, dedicated to Mary, and one founded in 696/7, dedicated to Mary, Peter and Paul) into one single monastery. If so, there could have been two female monasteries dedicated to Mary at Le Mans: that granted privileges by Bishop Aiglibert in 683, and Haregarius, Truda and Tenestina's foundation of 696/7. Better knowledge of Le Mans and research into later documents (which is beyond the scope of our project) might be able to resolve this issue.
Bibliography
Edition and discussion:Havet, J., 'Les actes des évêques du Mans', in J. Havet, Oeuvres de Julien Havet (1853-1893), I Questions Mérovingiennes, Paris 1896, 271-445; Latin text at 424-29 (Appendices IV and V).
Further reading:
Biarne, J., 'Le Mans', in N. Gauthier and J.-Ch. Picard (eds), Topographie chrétienne des Cités de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle, V Province ecclésiastique de Tours (L. Pietri and J. Biarne), Paris (De Boccard 1987), 41-56.
Goffart, W., The Le Mans Forgeries: A Chapter from the History of Church Property in the Ninth Century, Cambridge Mass. (Harvard UP) 1966.
Pietri, L. and Heijmans, M., Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 4 Prosopographie de la Gaule chrétienne (314-614), 2 vols. (Paris 2013).
Record Created By
Bryan Ward-Perkins
Date of Entry
02/09/2022
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00008 | Paul, the Apostle | Paulus | Certain | S00033 | Mary, Mother of Christ | Maria genetrix Ihesi Xpisti | Certain | S00036 | Peter, the Apostle | Petrus | Certain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Bryan Ward-Perkins, Cult of Saints, E08330 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08330