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Ann Arbor, MI 48106 VILLAGE LIFE IN THE HAUT COMTE DE FOIX IN THE THIRTEENTH AND EARLY FOURTEENTH CENTURIES DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By David R. Blanks, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1991 Dissertation Committee: Approved by J . H . Lynch H.-E. Keller F . J . Pegues Copyright by David Robert Blanks 1991 To My Wife, Natalie Novak ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First I would like to thank my adviser, Dr. Joseph Lynch. He was always patient and kind, and he gave me the guidance and encouragement I needed to complete this project. I am also grateful to the other members of my committee, Dr. Franklin J. Pegues and Dr. Hans-Erich Keller. Special thanks go to Dr. Keller for his enthusiasm and his many valuable suggestions. In addition, I would like to express my gratitude to Jean Duvernoy, who was a constant inspiration and always ready to give his assistance. To my wife, Natalie, thank you for your suggestions, your editing, your patience and your love. iii VITA July 24, 1961 Born - Berkeley, California 1983 ................................. B.A. , Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 1 9 8 5 ................................. M.A., Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Minor Fields: Byzantine History, Peasant Studies LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1. List of the Counts of F o i x ................. 81 2. Churches, Parishes and Priests of the Haut Pays de F o i x ..................... 305 3. Population Estimates: Haut Pays de Foix . 310 v LIST OF FIGURES FIGURES PAGE 1. Geography of the Haut Pays de F o i x ......... 19 2. Occitania in the Thirteenth Century .......... 150 3. The Diocese of P a m i e r s ........................179 4. The Haut Pays de F o i x .......................... 223 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION............................................ ii. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................... iii VITA .................................................. iv LIST OF T A B L E S ....................................... V LIST OF FIGURES . .'............................. vi INTRODUCTION .......................................... 1 The Fournier Register ........................... 1 Jacques Fournier and Heresy ..................... 4 Methodological Problems ......................... 12 CHAPTER PAGE I. GEOGRAPHY................................... 18 Introduction ........................... 18 The Haut Pays de F o i x ................. 22 Mountain Agriculture ................... 26 II. ORIGINS OF THE COMTE DE F O I X .............. 34 Introduction ........................... 34 Past Approaches ....................... 39 The Pre-Roman and Gallo-Roman Eras . 46 The Early Middle A g e s ................. 54 The Creation of the Comte de Foix: 1002-1167 ............... 66 III. THE COMTE DE FOIX TO THE EARLY FOURTEENTH CENTURY ........................... 93 Introduction ........................... 93 The Haut Pays de Foix before the Albigensian Crusades .... 96 The Albigensian Crusades and their Aftermath .......... 109 vii IV. THE CHURCH IN THE HAUT PAYS DE F O I X ........... 151 Past Approaches.......................... 151 The Early Middle A g e s .................... 161 Church and C r o w n ........................ 167 The Diocese of P a m i e r s .................. 178 Churches and Parishes ................... 185 V. ECONOMY AND SOCIETY ...........................222 Introduction ........................... 222 The R i v e r s .............................. 224 The Forests...............................234 Pastoralism.............................. 244 The T r a n s h u m a n c e ........................ 263 VI. CONCLUSION: PEASANT LIBERTIES ............... 287 Past Approaches.......................... 287 Mountain Air Makes Fr e e ................... 293 APPENDICES A. Churches, Parishes and Priests of the Haut Pays de F o i x ...................... 304 B. Population Estimates: Haut Pays de Foix . 309 LIST OF REFERENCES....................................... 312 Primary Sources ............................. 312 Secondary Sources ........................... 315 viii INTRODUCTION The Fournier Register The social history of medieval popular culture has progressed more slowly than that of the early modern and modern periods because the sources are sparse: the masses left few records of their thoughts and daily activities. A rare exception to this is the Reaistre d'Inquisition de Jacques Fournier preserved in Vaticanus Latinus manuscript 4030 and published in three volumes by Jean Duvernoy.1 Jacques Fournier, who became Pope Benedict XII (1335- 1342) , was Bishop of Pamiers from 1317 to 1325 and zealously directed the local inquisition. For eight years he routinely interrogated those suspected of heresy and he meticulously recorded their depositions. The Fournier Register contains the 1Le reaistre d 1 inquisition de Jacques Fournier (1318- 1325). ed. Jean Duvernoy (Toulouse: Privat, 1965). A pamphlet of corrections appeared in 1972, and Duvernoy published a French translation of the Register (Mouton: Paris, 1978) under the same title. For the purposes of this dissertation I have, for the most part, relied on the Latin edition, and references to it will always carry the volume number (e.g. Reaistre. I, 128). Occasionally I make use of the French edition, especially for its index and Duvernoy's copious notes. The pagination of this edition is consecutive through all three volumes; so when I have recourse to it, no volume number is given (e.g. Reaistre. p. 1262). 1 testimony of 218 persons. Half were suspects; the other half, witnesses. Nearly all of them lived in the Comte de Foix, an area of southern France which today comprises the eastern half of the Department of Ariege. MS Vat. Lat. 4030, a book of parchment of 325 folios, is an official copy (i.e. made by sworn scribes) of the court proceedings that took place from 1318-1325. Fournier directed his assistants to perform the task when he was transferred from the diocese of Pamiers to that of Mirepoix in 1326. They produced two volumes, one of which is lost. The other has come down to us in the form of the Fournier Register.2 The truly remarkable thing which makes the Register a unique document is that the majority of these witnesses were peasants! And a talkative lot they were. The bishop was hunting Cathar heretics, but the villagers commented on everything from their families and flocks to their fears of the unknown. They told fascinating stories, and nowhere else do we find medieval peasants talking about themselves in such detail. This manuscript was first brought to the attention of historians by Charles Molinier, a professor at the University of Toulouse. In 1880 Molinier published his study of the inquisition in the Midi and its sources.3 Four years later the 2For a brief history and description of the MS see Duvernoy, Reaistre. I, 8-17. ^'Inquisition dans Le Midi de La France au Xlle et XlVe siecle (Paris; Librairie Sandoz et Fischbacher, 1880). Ministre de 1'Instruction Publique commissioned him to search for other relevant documents in Italy. Molinier visited libraries in Milan, Lacques, Florence and Rome in the spring of 1885. In 1887 he published his findings.4 Among the many records that he found he recognized MS Vat. Lat. 4030 as the most important. Although Molinier was interested primarily in the history, processes and personnel of the inquisition, the uniqueness of the document was not lost on him, and he suggested that there were a number of interesting details beyond the technical ones.5 Molinier's discovery reverberated in the historical community and generated several analyses and articles based upon the manuscript. The most significant