Skip to content
1882
Volume 7, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2034-3515
  • E-ISSN: 2034-3523

Abstract

Abstract

This article looks to paint a picture of life and death at the reformed Benedictine (later Cistercian) abbey of Savigny, head of Normandy's only native monastic order. Using the abbey's extensive collection of charters, as well as narrative and annalistic texts, it traces in detail the different networks that underpinned recruitment at the abbey, from its abbots to its lay brothers, and attempts to reconstruct the community's lost sepulchral landscape, in particular with regards to the burial of its lay benefactors. As a result, it offers the first such evaluation of a Savigniac community, either in France or the British Isles, providing a case study that should be of interest not just to scholars working on the history of Savigny itself, but also to those looking to understand the various ways in which monastic institutions, both Cistercian and otherwise, helped to shape and influence the wider world in which they operated.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1484/J.JMMS.5.116566
2018-01-01
2025-12-06

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Manuscript and Archival Documents
    Angers, Archives departementales de Maine-et-Loire (ADML), 67 H 1
  2. Caen, Archives departementales du Calvados (ADC), F 5690
  3. Caen, Archives departementales du Calvados (ADC), H 9089 (formerly, H non cote 69, fonds du Plessis-Grimoult, carton 8/1)
  4. Caen, Musee des Beaux-Arts (MBA), coll. Mancel, MS 298
  5. Caen, Musee des Beaux-Arts (MBA), coll. Mancel, MS 302
  6. Laval, Archives departementales de la Mayenne (ADM), MS 35
  7. London, Westminster Abbey, Muniments, no. 538
  8. Paris, Archives nationales (AN), K 22, nos 74, 87
  9. Paris, Archives nationales (AN), K 23, nos 65, 158, 236, 237, 239, 2310
  10. Paris, Archives nationales (AN), K 24, nos 22, 56, 84, 93, 126, 167
  11. Paris, Archives nationales (AN), K 25, no. 49
  12. Paris, Archives nationales (AN), L 966 to L 978
  13. Paris, Archives nationales (AN), L 979, nos 20–23, 25, 38, 45
  14. Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF), MS fr. 4901
  15. Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF), MS lat. 9215
  16. Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF), MS nouv. acq. lat. 217
  17. Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF), MS nouv. acq. lat. 1022
  18. Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF), MS nouv. acq. lat. 2292
  19. Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF), MS nouv. acq. lat. 2500
  20. Rouen, Bibliotheque municipale (BM), MS Leber 5636
  21. Primary Sources
    Cartulaire de Mont-Morel, ed. by François-Nicolas Dubosc (Saint-Lô: Jacqueline fils, 1878)
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Cartulaire des abbayes de Saint-Pierre de la Couture et de Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, ed. by Bénédictins de Solesmes (Le Mans: Monnoyer, 1881)
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Cartulaire de Saint-Lô, ed. by François-Nicolas Dubosc (Saint-Lô: Jacqueline fils, 1882)
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Chronicon Savigniacense, in Stephani Baluzii miscellaneorum liber primus [-septimus], 7 vols (Paris, 1678–1715), ii (1679), 310323
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Cistercian Lay Brothers: Twelfth-Century Usages with Related Texts, ed. by Chrysogonus Waddell, Cîteaux. Studia et documenta, 10 (Brecht: Cîteaux, 2000)
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Ex libro de miraculis sanctorum Savigniacensium, in Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, 24 vols (Paris, 1869–1904), xxiii (1894), 587605
    [Google Scholar]
  27. The Foundation History of the Abbeys of Byland and Jervaulx, ed. by Janet Burton, Borthwick Texts and Studies, 35 (York: University of york, Borthwick Institute for Archives, 2006)
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Gallia Christiana, ed. by Denis de Sainte-Marthe and others, 16 vols (Paris, 1715–1865)
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Historia monasterii Mariae de Fontanis Albis, in Recueil de chroniques de Touraine, ed. by André Salmon (Tours: Imprimerie Ladeveze, 1854), pp. 257291
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Layettes du Trésor des chartes. Tome quatrième, ed. by Élie Berger (Paris: Plon-Nourrit et Cie, 1902)
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Les plus anciens textes de Cîteaux: sources, textes et notes historiques, ed. by Jean de la Croix Bouton and Jean-Baptiste van Damme, Cîteaux. Studia et documenta, 2 (Achel: Abbaye Cistercienne, 1974)
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Lincolnshire Records: Abstracts of Final Concords, temp. Richard I., John, and Henry III, ed. by William Massingberd and William K. Boyd (London: Spottiswoode, 1896)
    [Google Scholar]
  33. The Lives of Monastic Reformers, ii: Abbot Vitalis of Savigny, Abbot Godfrey of Savigny, Peter of Avranches, and Blessed Hamo, trans. by Hugh Feiss, Ronald Pepin, and Maureen O’Brien, Cistercian Studies Series, 230 (Collegeville: Cistercian Publications, 2014)
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. by Marjorie Chibnall, 6 vols (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969–80)
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Papsturkunden in Frankreich: Neue Folge: 2. Band Normandie, ed. by Johannes Ramackers (Berlin: Weidmann, 1937)
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Recueil des rouleaux des morts (VIIIe siècle-vers 1536): Volume premier, VIIIe siècle–1180, ed. by Jean Dufour, Recueil des historiens de la France. Obituaires. Série in-4, 8 (Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et belles-lettres, 2005)
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Robert of Torigni, Chronique (suivie de divers opuscules historiques de cet auteur), ed. by Léopold Delisle, 2 vols (Rouen: Le Brument, 1872–73)
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Twelfth-Century Statutes from the Cistercian General Chapter, ed. by Chrysogonus Waddell, Cîteaux. Studia et documenta, 12 (Brecht: Cîteaux, 2002)
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Vitae BB. Vitalis et Gaufridi, primi et secundi abbatum Saviniacensium, ed. by Eugène-Paul Sauvage, Analecta Bollandiana, 1 (1882), 355410
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Vitae B. Petri Abrincensis et B. Hamonis monachorum coenobii Saviniacensis in Normannia, ed. by Eugène-Paul Sauvage, Analecta Bollandiana, 2 (1883), 475560
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Secondary Works
    Allen, Richard, ‘Les actes des évêques d’Avranches, ca. 990–1253: esquisse d’un premier bilan’, Tabularia ‘études’, 12 (2012), 63106
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Allen, Richard, ‘À la recherche d’un atelier d’écriture de la Normandie cistercienne: le scriptorium de l’abbaye de Savigny (xIIe–xIIIe siècles)’, in Les pratiques de l’écrit dans les abbayes cisterciennes (XIIe–milieu du XVIe s.): Produire, échanger, contrôler, conserver, ed. by Arnaud Baudin and Laurent Morelle (Paris: Somogy éditions d’art, 2016), pp. 3154
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Allen, Richard, ‘The Ecclesiastical Patrons of the Abbey of Le Bec’, in A Companion to the Abbey of Le Bec in the Central Middle Ages (11th–13th Centuries), ed. by Benjamin Pohl and Laura Gathagan (Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. 318342
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Allen, Richard, ‘The Annals and History of the Abbots of Savigny: A New Edition of the So-Called Chronicon Savigniacense (12th–14th c.)’, Cîteaux, 68 (2017), 973
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Allen, Richard, ‘Les chartes originales de Savigny des origines jusqu’au xIIIe siècle (1112–1202)’, in L’abbaye de Savigny (1112–2012): Un chef d’ordre anglo-normand (Actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, 3–6 octobre 2012), ed. by Véronique Gazeau, Gilles Désiré dit Gosset, and Brigitte Galbrun (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, forthcoming)
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Auvry, Claude, Histoire de la congrégation de Savigny, ed. by Auguste Laveille, 3 vols (Rouen: Lestringant, 1896–98)
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Bachelier, Julien, ‘Miracles et miraculés au milieu du xIIIe siècle d’après le Livre des saints de l’abbaye de Savigny’, Revue de l’Avranchin et du pays de Granville, 88 (2011), 2159
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Bachelier, Julien, ‘De l’abbaye de Savigny au château de Fougères: le parcours d’un gisant’, in L’abbaye de Savigny (1112–2012): Un chef d’ordre anglo-normand (Actes du colloque de Cerisyla-Salle, 3–6 octobre 2012), ed. by Véronique Gazeau, Gilles Désiré dit Gosset, and Brigitte Galbrun (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, forthcoming)
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Berman, Constance, The Cistercian Evolution: The Invention of a Religious Order in Twelfth-Century Europe (Philadelphia: university of Pennsylvania Press, 2000)
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Bertrand de Broussillon, Arthur, La maison de Craon, 1050–1480: étude historique accompagnée du cartulaire de Craon, 2 vols (Paris: Picard, 1893)
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Bonis, Armelle, and Monique Wabont, ‘Cisterciens et Cisterciennes en France du Nord-Ouest: typologie des fondations, typologie des sites’, in Cîteaux et les femmes: architectures et occupation de l’espace dans les monastères féminins, modalités d’intégration et de contrôle des femmes dans l’Ordre, ed. by Bernadette Barrière and Marie-Elizabeth Henneau (Paris: Créaphis, 2001), pp. 151178
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Brand’honneur, Michel, ‘La lignage, point de cristallisation d’une nouvelle cohésion sociale: Les Goranton-Hervé de Vitré aux xIe, xIIe et xIIIe siècles’, Mémoires de la Société d’Histoire et d’Archéologie de Bretagne, 70 (1993), 6587
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Brand’honneur, Michel, ‘Seigneurs et réseaux de chevaliers du nord-est du Rennais sous Henri II Plantagenêt’, in Noblesses de l’espace Plantagenêt, 1154–1224: table ronde tenue à Poitiers le 13 mai 2000, ed. by Martin Aurell (Poitiers: Centre d’études supérieures de civilisation médiévales, 2001), pp. 165184
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Brown, Elizabeth A. R., ‘The Oxford Collection of the Drawings of Roger de Gaignières and the Royal Tombs of Saint-Denis’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 78 (1988), 733
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Buhot, Jacqueline, ‘L’abbaye normande de Savigny, chef d’ordre et fille de Cîteaux’, Le Moyen Âge, 46 (1936), 119, 104121, 178190, 249272
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Burton, Janet, ‘Homines sanctitatis eximiae, religionis consummatae: The Cistercians in England and Wales’, Archaeologia Cambrensis, 154 (2005), 2751
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Cassidy-Welch, Megan, Monastic Spaces and their Meanings: Thirteenth-Century English Cistercian Monasteries, Medieval Church Studies, 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001)
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Chronique. Novembre–Décembre 1844ʹ, Bibliothèque de l’École des chartes, 6 (1845), 189190
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Coativy, yves, ‘La bataille de Châteaubriant (3 mars 1223): un Bouvines breton’, in Le prince, l’argent, les hommes au Moyen Âge: mélanges offerts à Jean Kerhervé, ed. by Jean-Christophe Cassard, yves Coativy, and Alain Gallicé (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2015), pp. 89101
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Day, Gerald W., ‘Juhel III of Mayenne and the Lay Attitude toward Savigny in the Age of Philip Augustus’, Analecta Cisterciensia, 36 (1980), 103128
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Dubois, Adrien, and Jean-Baptiste Vincent, ‘L’abbaye cistercienne de Barbery (Calvados): liste abbatiale et restitution du bâti’, Annales de Normandie, 65 (2015), 39152
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Dugdale, William, Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. by John Caley, Henry Ellis, and Bulkeley Bandinel, 6 vols (London, 1817–30)
    [Google Scholar]
  63. France, James, Separate but Equal: Cistercian Lay Brothers, 1120–1350, Cistercian Studies Series, 246 (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2012)
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Gazeau, Véronique, Normannia monastica, 2 vols (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007)
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Golding, Brian, ‘Burials and Benefactors: An Aspect of Monastic Patronage in Thirteenth-Century England’, in Symposium on England in the Thirteenth Century: Harlaxton Conference Proceedings, ed. by Mark Ormrod (Harlaxton: Harlaxton College, 1995), pp. 6475
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Grant, Lindy, ‘The Architecture of the Early Savignacs and Cistercians in Normandy’, Anglo-Norman Studies, 10 (1988), 111143
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Grant, Lindy, ‘Savigny and its Saints’, in Perspectives for an Architecture of Solitude: Essays on Cistercians, Art and Architecture in Honour of Peter Fergusson, ed. by Terryl N. Kinder, Medieval Church Studies, 11 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 109114
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Hall, Jackie, ‘The Legislative Background to the Burial of Laity and other Patrons in Cistercian Abbeys’, in Sepulturae cistercienses: sépulture, mémoire et patronage dans les monastères cisterciens au Moyen Âge, ed. by Jackie Hall and Christine Kratzke, Cîteaux. Studia et documenta, 14 (Forges-Chimay: Cîteaux, 2005), pp. 363372
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Hill, Bennett, English Cistercian Monasteries and their Patrons in the Twelfth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1968)
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Hockey, Stanley, Quarr Abbey and its Lands, 1132–1631 (Leicester: Leicester university Press, 1970)
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Hunter, Joseph, Ecclesiastical Documents viz. I: A Brief History of the Bishoprick of Somerset II. Charters from the Library of Dr Cox Macro (London: Nichols, 1840)
    [Google Scholar]
  72. Jamroziak, Emilia, ‘Making Friends beyond the Grave: Melrose Abbey and its Lay Burials in the Thirteenth Century’, Cîteaux, 56 (2005), 323336
    [Google Scholar]
  73. Jamroziak, Emilia, Rievaulx Abbey and its Social Context, 1132–1300: Memory, Locality, and Networks, Medieval Church Studies, 8 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005)
    [Google Scholar]
  74. Jamroziak, Emilia, ‘Spaces of Lay-Religious Interaction in Cistercian Houses’, Parergon, 27 (2010), 3758
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Jamroziak, Emilia, Survival and Success on Medieval Borders: Cistercian Houses in Medieval Scotland and Pomerania from the Twelfth to Late Fourteenth Century, Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, 24 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2011)
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Kerr, Julie, ‘Cistercian Hospitality in the Later Middle Ages’, in Monasteries and Society in the British Isles in the Later Middle Ages, ed. by Janet Burton and Karen Stöber (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2008), pp. 2539
    [Google Scholar]
  77. Kinder, Terryl N., Cistercian Europe: Architecture of Contemplation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002)
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Laffitte, Marie-Pierre, ‘Inventaires de bibliothèques normandes: l’intérêt des listes tardives’, Tabularia ‘études’, 14 (2014), 89150
    [Google Scholar]
  79. Leclercq, Jean, ‘Comment vivaient les frères convers?’, Analecta Cisterciensia, 21 (1965), 23958
    [Google Scholar]
  80. Levalet, Daniel, ‘De la cité des Abrincates au diocèse d’Avranches. 2) Toponymie et vocables paroissiaux’, Annales de Normandie, 29 (1979), 259300
    [Google Scholar]
  81. Mastrolorenzo, Joseph, ‘Savigny-le-Vieux. Abbaye’, in DRAC Basse-Normandie: Service régional de l’archéologie. Bilan scientifique 2008 (Caen: DRAC, 2009), pp. 9193
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Mastrolorenzo, Joseph, ‘Savigny-le-Vieux. Abbaye’, in DRAC Basse-Normandie: Service Régional de l’Archéologie. Bilan Scientifique 2010 (Caen: DRAC, 2011), pp. 109110
    [Google Scholar]
  83. Morice, Pierre-Hyacinthe, Mémoires pour servir de preuves à l’histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Bretagne, 3 vols (Paris: Charles Osmont, 1742–46)
    [Google Scholar]
  84. Pichot, Daniel, Les cartulaires manceaux de l’abbaye de Savigny: essai d’étude économique et sociale (Avranches: Revue de l’Avranchin, 1976)
    [Google Scholar]
  85. Pichot, Daniel, Le Bas-Maine du Xe au XIIIe siècle: étude d’une société, Mayenne, Archéologie, Histoire, 7 (Laval: Société d’archéologie et d’histoire de la Mayenne, 1995)
    [Google Scholar]
  86. Poulle, Béatrice, ‘Le chartrier de l’abbaye de Savigny au diocèse d’Avranches: édition partielle (1202–1243) et commentaires’, École nationale des chartes, positions des thèses (1989), 167171
    [Google Scholar]
  87. Poulle, Béatrice, ‘Savigny and England’, in England and Normandy in the Middle Ages, ed. by David Bates and Anne Curry (London: Hambledon, 1994), pp. 159168
    [Google Scholar]
  88. Poulle, Béatrice, ‘Les sources de l’histoire de l’abbaye cistercienne de Savigny au diocèse d’Avranches’, Revue Mabillon, 68 (1996), 10525
    [Google Scholar]
  89. Power, Daniel, The Norman Frontier in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th ser. (Cambridge: Cambridge university Press, 2004)
    [Google Scholar]
  90. Power, Daniel, ‘Charters as Sources for Norman Customary Law: The Savigny Evidence (12th–13th Centuries)’, in Paris 1259: Studies in the History and Law of Continental and Insular Normandy, ed. by Gordon Dawes (St Peter Port: The Guernsey Bar, 2016), pp. 281308
    [Google Scholar]
  91. Power, Daniel, ‘The Grants of Mary and Richard Bastard to the Abbey of Savigny: Inheritance, Kinship and Lordship in the Plantagenet Lands in the Mid-12th Century’, in Sur les pas de Lanfranc, du Bec à Caen. Recueil d’études en hommage à Véronique Gazeau, ed. by Pierre Bauduin and Grégory Combalbert (Caen: forthcoming)
    [Google Scholar]
  92. Rösener, Werner, ‘Abbot Stephen Lexington and his Efforts for Reform of the Cistercian Order in the Thirteenth Century’, in Goad and Nail: Studies in Medieval Cistercian History, ed. by E. Rozanne Elder (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1985), pp. 4655
    [Google Scholar]
  93. Salzer, Kathryn, Vaucelles Abbey: Social, Political, and Ecclesiastical Relationships in the Borderland Region of the Cambrésis, 1131–1300, Medieval Monastic Studies, 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017)
    [Google Scholar]
  94. Sauvage, Hippolyte, Savigny et la réforme: émeutes et révolution dans un monastère (Avranches: Durand, 1897)
    [Google Scholar]
  95. Sauvage, Hippolyte, Le livre des miracles des saints de Savigny (Mortain: Imprimerie Armand Leroy, 1899)
    [Google Scholar]
  96. Swietek, Francis, ‘King Henry II and Savigny’, Cîteaux, 38 (1987), 1423
    [Google Scholar]
  97. Swietek, Francis, ‘The Role of Bernard of Clairvaux in the union of Savigny with Cîteaux: A Reconsideration’, in Bernardus Magister: Papers Presented at the Nonacentenary Celebration of the Birth of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Kalamazoo, Michigan 1990, ed. by John R. Sommerfeldt, Cistercian Studies Series, 135 (Spencer: Cistercian Publications, 1992), pp. 289302
    [Google Scholar]
  98. Swietek, Francis, and Terrence Deneen, ‘“Ab antiquo alterius ordinis fuerit”: Alexander III on the Reception of Savigny into the Cistercian Order’, Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, 89 (1994), 528
    [Google Scholar]
  99. Swietek, Francis, and Terrence Deneen, ‘Et inter abbates de majoribus unus”: The Abbot of Savigny in the Cistercian Constitution, 1147–1243ʹ, in Truth as Gift: Studies in Medieval Cistercian History in Honor of John R. Sommerfeldt, ed. by Marsha Dutton, Daniel La Corte, and Paul Lockey (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2004), pp. 89118
    [Google Scholar]
  100. Swietek, Francis, and Terrence Deneen, ‘The Date of the Merger of Savigny and Cîteaux Reconsidered’, Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, 101 (2006), 547574
    [Google Scholar]
  101. Tabbagh, Vincent, ed., Fasti ecclesiae Gallicanae: répertoire prosopographique des évêques, dignitaires et chanoines de France de 1200 à 1500. Tome II, Diocèse de Rouen (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998)
    [Google Scholar]
  102. van Moolenbroek, Jaap, Vital l’ermite, prédicateur itinérant, fondateur de l’abbaye normande de Savigny (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1990)
    [Google Scholar]
  103. Wardrop, Joan, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, 1132–1300, Cistercian Studies Series, 91 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987)
/content/journals/10.1484/J.JMMS.5.116566
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
This is a required field.
Please enter a valid email address.
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An error occurred.
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error:
Please enter a valid_number test
aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnJlcG9sc29ubGluZS5uZXQv