A summary of two charters records grants of property to rural churches in the territory of Viviers (southern Gaul): one by a bishop of the early 6th c. to a church of *Mary (mother of Christ, S00033) and to a church of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, S00050); another by a bishop of the 7th c. to a church of *Stephen (which he had built), and to one of *Laurence (deacon and martyr of Rome, S00037). Summaries written in Latin in Viviers, probably in the 8th c.
E08395
Documentary texts - Charter or diploma
Dotatio sanctae et insignis Ecclesiae vivariensis
19th donation:
Ego Venantius, sedis Vivariensis episcopus, dotavi ecclesiam in Luciatence in honore sanctae Mariae et sancti Martini Bessiaco. Dotavi eas calonicas LXX cum servis suis et dimissi eas Deo et sancto Vincentio.
'I Venantius, bishop of the see of Viviers, endowed the church at Lussas in honour of saint Mary and [that] of Martin at Bayssac. I granted them 70 holdings with their dependent tenants and gave them to God and saint Vincent.'
22nd donation:
Ego Longinus, episcopus, aedificavi ecclesiam in honore sancti Stephani in monte Corioto que dicitur ad Sanctas: dotavi colonicas XX. Et ecclesiam sancti Laurentii dotavi colonicas XV. Et ego, indignus et peccator, consecravi eas et derelequi Deo et sancto Vincentio et Silvatense medio cum CXX colonicis una cum servis suis.
'I Longinus, bishop, built the church in honour of saint Stephen on mount Coriotum, where it is called Samcrot: I gave 20 hoildings. And I gave the church of saint Laurence 15 households. And I, unworthy and a sinner, dedicated them and left them to God and saint Vincent, and half of Sauvas with 120 holdings along with their dependent tenants.'
Text: Laffont 2009, 40 (using Olivier Darnaud)
Translation: Bryan Ward-Perkins (place-names identified by Olivier Darnaud)
Cult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityConstruction of cult buildings
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Source
The Dotatio is a summary list of donations to the church of Viviers, compiled, probably in the 8th century, on the basis of donation-charters held in the church's archive. This summary list was then copied in the mid-10th century into a document known as the Carta Vetus, at the instigation of Bishop Thomas of Viviers, who stated that it was copied from vetustissimis cartulis ('very ancient documents'). The original charters, the original summary list, and the Carta Vetus itself are all lost, but the latter is known through later copies.Discussion
Twenty-seven donations are summarised in the Dotatio, in a manner that probably reflects the originals fairly accurately (though numbers of holdings and serfs have clearly been rounded up or down to the nearest 5). In these donations a large number of rural churches are mentioned, with their dedications, as well as the four covered by this record: in the first donation, a church to Andrew; in the 7th, one to Victor; in the 9th, to Maurice; in the 10th, to Peter, John, Eulalia and Romanus (without specifying which Romanus this was); in the 11th, to Symphorianus; in the 13th, a female monastery to Stephen and Saturninus; in the 14th, to Laurence; in the 15th, to Aulus (a saintly bishop of Viviers); in the 16th, to Peter; in the 18th, again to an unspecified Romanus; in the 20th, to Thomas and Sebastian; in the 21st, to Saturninus and Lupus (presumably Lupus of Troyes); in the 23rd, to Vincent; in the 26th, to Peter, Albanus (perhaps the martyr of Verulamium), 'Progetus' (who is unknown to us) and Stephen; in the 27th, to Martin.This is a remarkably full and early list of rural dedications, but only two of the twenty-seven donations (nos. 19 and 22) can be dated with confidence to the period before 700, so they alone are entered here in detail. These two can be dated because they were gifts by bishops whose approximate years in office are known: Vincentius, whose episcopate can be dated with confidence to the early 6th century, and Longinus, who was almost certainly bishop sometime in the 7th century (Duchesne 1894, 232).
Almost all the summaries (including the two quoted here) are expressed as donations 'to God and to saint Vincent' , but this precise wording, which appears in almost all the summaries, may have been the work of the 8th-century summariser, and is not reliable evidence that the cathedral church of Viviers was dedicated to Vincent before 700.
Bibliography
Edition:Laffont, P.-Y., Châteaux du Vivarais: Pouvoir et peuplement en France méridionale du haut moyen âage au XIIIe siècle (Rennes, 2009). (Using, and fully crediting, the unpublished doctoral thesis of Olivier Darnaud.)
Further reading:
Duchesne, L., Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule. Tome premier: Provinces du Sud-Est (Paris, 1894).
Bryan Ward-Perkins
13/02/2023
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Stephanus | Certain | S00033 | Mary, Mother of Christ | Maria | Certain | S00037 | Laurence/Laurentius, deacon and martyr of Rome | Laurentius | Certain | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain |
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