THE MARTYR STEPHEN, THE RICH SAINT (ON THE PROPERTY RIGHTS OF THE CATHEDRAL CHAPTER OF LIMOGES IN THE NINTH TO TWELFTH CENTURIES)

Patron saints of medieval ecclesiastical communities were frequently presented as legal persons. Particular saints were described as the recipients of gifts in donation charters and as the owners of property in various household records. Usually it was declared or at least implied that the saint received and possessed certain rights, while the income was destined for the maintenance of his servants. The image of the patron saint could be employed in uncertain legal situations when the ecclesiastical community itself was not regarded as a legal entity and was therefore not qualified to receive donations and to possess property. For example, a community of canons attached to a cathedral was, according to the Carolingian regulations at first and later to the common view, subject to the local bishop who acted as the head of community and the steward of its possessions. Such was the case of the cathedral chapter of Limoges, where the surviving cartulary allows to trace the development of the legal position of an episcopal community of clerics between the ninth and the twelfth centuries. The Carolingian acts attribute property rights to the ‘See of Limoges’ or the ‘Church of Limoges’, terms used to describe the indivisible ecclesiastical organization of the diocese led by the bishop. Numerous donation charters issued in favour of the cathedral community throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries tended to keep silent about the episcopal leadership, while St. Stephen, the holy patron of the cathedral church, emerged as the recipient of gifts and the owner of the ecclesiastical property. Alongside God and St. Stephen the canons themselves were eventually referred to as equal participants in property transactions (although as a group of persons only and not as a community). In the same period their right to receive income (stipendia) from the property belonging to the saint or his church gradually turns into ownership of that property, described with diverse terms. However, the existence of the community never took the legal shape, despite the expressions used in private charters. The papal privilege of 1105, issued in favour of the cathedral chapter, confirmed the property rights of the ‘Church of Limoges’ while referring to the canons as a group of ecclesiastical officials subject to the bishop. It is important to note that the canons never sought to distance themselves from the bishop and always recognized his leadership (this may be explained in part by local conditions). Thus, employing the image of St. Stephen, the community could officially acquire, possess, and dispose of property without claiming autonomy and separating itself from the episcopal see.

Middle Ages, Catholic Church, bishops, canons, cathedral chapters, cartularies, donation charters, Limoges