Saint-Lucien Abbey (Beauvais)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Saint-Lucien Abbey in Beauvais ( Oise department , France) is a former Benedictine monastery that was founded at the end of the 6th century and closed in 1791. Most of the monastery buildings were demolished in the 19th century.

history

founding

Évrost, abbot of Saint-Fuscien abbey in what is now the Somme department and comes from Beauvais, received around 580 from Dodo, Bishop of Beauvais, permission to build a church in front of the city on the site where the martyr Lucianus was buried - so far a document attributed to King Chilperic I , but whose authenticity has been refuted. In fact, around 585 Évrost sent a group of monks from his abbey, who were already subject to the new Benedictine rule, to Beauvais, where they settled with the bishop's approval. Due to the Lucianus grave under the main altar, the abbey soon became an important regional pilgrimage site.

Development in the Middle Ages

During the disputes between the sons of Louis the Pious , part of the property was confiscated. In 861, Beauvais and Saint-Lucien were sacked for the first time by the Vikings . Although donations from Charles the Bald initiated by Bishop Odo († 881) soon restored the abbey, the city was devastated again in 883 and the abbey was also damaged again. In the 920s, Saint-Lucien received support from Bishop Bovo, who was previously a monk in the abbey: relations between the monastery and bishop have been close since that time, especially since each new bishop spent the night before his inauguration at Lucian's tomb, and numerous bishops were buried in the abbey.

Alleged remains of the saint's clothing were found around 1002 and henceforth exhibited as relics. In 1035 the bishop left the rule of Warluis and the church of Bonnières to the abbey, and numerous other possessions were added. At the turn from the 11th to the 12th century a new abbey church was built, this time made of stone, unlike the previous one, which was partly made of wood. The new church was consecrated in 1109.

A number of priories were dependent on the abbey, either self-founded or taken over, such as Saint-Martin d'Auchy near Aumale (founded in 1096 and independent in 1130), Saint-Maxien in Montmille (today Fouquenies ), priories in Senarpont , Pernois , Flixecourt , Picquigny (Notre-Dame-sur-le-Mont) and Lesseville (now Aincourt ), La Chaussée in Eu (Seine-Maritime) (1138) and even the Weedon Pinkney Priory in Northamptonshire , England. Abbot Pierre II had a list of all possessions and rights signed by Bishop Henri in 1157 . In 1167 the Milly-sur-Thérain priory , a former monastery, was subordinated to the abbey. In 1212, Saint-Lucien founded the municipality of Grandvilliers . A papal bull by Alexander IV of July 21, 1260 allowed the abbots to carry the episcopal insignia miter, ring and crosier. In 1261 the relics of the abbey were in the presence of numerous bishops and King Louis IX. transferred to a new shrine.

During his campaign of 1346, the English King Edward III. the night of August 20-21 in the abbey, a few days before the battle of Crécy (August 26-27); When he withdrew, his troops set the abbey on fire - and the abbot was subsequently given permission to reduce the number of monks to 36 to support the reconstruction work. At the end of the 14th century, the abbots managed to restore the church and the monastery buildings. Between 1391 and 1413 a new refectory and a new entrance building were built. At the beginning of the 15th century, due to the ongoing threat from the Hundred Years War, a wall was built around the abbey, remains of which still exist today.

During the siege of Beauvais at the end of June 1472, the troops of the Duke of Burgundy under Philippe de Crèvecœur camped in the suburbs of the city. Charles the Bold himself settled in the abbey after his soldiers had stormed the monastery. When the Burgundians withdrew on July 22nd, the abbey buildings remained relatively undamaged, only the furnishings were badly damaged.

The commendati abbot

In 1488 a conflict broke out between the pope-appointed new bishop Antoine Dubois (a nephew of Crèvecœur) on the one hand and the king and the cathedral chapter on the other, who refused Dubois the inauguration and wanted to see Louis de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam in his place. Dubois, who saw the bishopric lost, which was also confirmed by the parliament in 1497 , asked the Pope to appoint him as Abbot of Saint-Lucien, approval was given on July 8, 1492. Antoine Dubois was thus the first abbot of Saint-Lucien who was not elected by the monks - the system of commendatabtes , which was to become generally applicable on the basis of the Bologna Concordat of 1516, was established in Saint-Lucien.

Antoine Dubois had a wooden rood screen built into the church , choir stalls and new windows; In addition, the Abbot's Palace was built and a country house in Saint-Félix . In 1507 he was appointed Bishop of Béziers , but did not give up his office as abbot because of that. His successor was Cardinal Odet de Coligny , Archbishop of Toulouse , Bishop of Beauvais and abbot of 15 other monasteries. He gave the abbey property to a general tenant and entrusted the management to an advisory board. After converting to Protestantism in 1560, he sold the abbey property and had tombstones removed from the church to pave the castle in Bresles . Odet de Coligny was excommunicated in 1563 and revoked of his privileges in 1569.

At the beginning of the 17th century the monastic community consisted of 16 people under the authority of Prior Nicolas Patin, doctor of theology, who tried to restore discipline in the monastery. Pierre de Bérulle , who was abbot for a few months in 1629, appointed Yvon Mullot as his successor, who remained prior in Saint-Lucien for 32 years. The abbey became part of the Congrégation de Saint-Maur in October 1665 , after the 13 remaining monks adopted new regulations on April 4, 1665 that made this possible.

From 1630 to 1661, Richelieu and Mazarin were abbots of Saint-Lucien. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet had a detailed inventory of the abbey's property and income made and several of the monastery's farms and churches repaired; in Saint-Lucien itself he had the vaults of the church renewed, a new three-story convent building and a new gatehouse built. The archive was given to a monk and a history of the monastery was written in 1681. In 1700 the income of the abbey was estimated at more than 40,000 livres , which were divided equally between the abbot, the monks and the maintenance of the monastery.

During the dispute over the bull Unigenitus (1713) , the monks sided with the Jansenists . On October 8, 1718, they published a text that strongly criticized the papal decree. They were only ready to accept the terms of the bull when they were forced to do so by the Bishop of Beauvais.

Dissolution of the monastery

After the death of the last abbot in 1787, the office was not occupied again and the administration of the monastery was subordinated to the general administration of the French clergy. In 1790 another inventory was drawn up that estimated the income of the abbey at 53,000 livres. The library contained 3,057 manuscripts, and ten monks still lived in the monastery. Finally, on December 20, 1790, Saint-Lucien was dissolved and the monks chased away. The monastery was nationalized and unsuccessfully offered for sale on January 5th, then purchased on January 19th for 181,000 livres by Michel de Boislisle, a merchant on Beauvais. The relics were brought to Beauvais Cathedral before being destroyed in 1793. In 1791 the monastery church began to be demolished, the remaining buildings were demolished in 1810.

In 1819 the property was divided between several private individuals. In 1855 the Institut agricole de Beauvais rented the land in order to set up an agricultural school. Later, the Congrégation des frères du Saint-Esprit acquired the site, after 1905 a farmer. From 1926 to 1931 there was a silk spinning mill here, during the Second World War the former monastery was occupied by the military, after which it remained fallow. In 1960, a construction company acquired the site and built social housing on it.

Current situation

On the grounds of the monastery, on rue de l'Abbaye and rue Louis Prache and owned by the city of Beauvais, a piece of the surrounding wall and the main entrance have been preserved. On August 13, 1930, they were classified as a Monument historique . Nearby is the fortified tower built at the beginning of the 15th century, which was declared a monument historique on September 17, 1935. The rest of the site was listed on October 22, 1965.

Several of the abbey furnishings are still preserved: the pulpit (end of the 17th century, oak with images of Saint Lucien and his companions Maxien and Julien), which was purchased in 1805 and is located in the cathedral, was classified as a monument historique as early as 1840. The recumbent grave figure of Florimond de Villiers-Saint-Paul, who was bought in 1842 and buried in the abbey in 1473, is in the church of Sainte-Maure-et-Sainte-Brigide in Nogent-sur-Oise ; it has been classified as a monument historique since 1984.

  • Saint-Lucien de Beauvais; Isidore Laurent Deroy (1797–1886)

  • Saint-Lucien de Beauvais; Tavernier de Jonquières (18th century)

  • Ruins of Saint-Lucien de Beauvais Abbey at the end of the 18th century (1864); Isidore Laurent Deroy after a drawing by Augustin Charles G. van den Berghes (1756–1836)

  • Tower of the enclosure wall of the abbey

List of Abbots

Source: Deladreue et Mathon.

Regular abbots

  • Was in
  • Anthelmets
  • Waston
  • Robert
  • Ricard
  • Wernerus
  • Guntharius
  • Bavon
  • Herberomius
  • Guy or Wido
  • Régnier (1002-1003)
  • Foulques (1003)
  • Hubert (1004 – around 1050?)
  • Thibaut (around 1050-1077)
  • Pierre I. (1077-1094)
  • Gilbert (1094-1099)
  • Girold (1100–1128)
  • Serlon I. (1128-1147)
  • Pierre II (1147–1171)
  • Guillaume I (1171-1180)
  • Hugues de Clermont (1180–1183) (later abbot of Cluny )
  • Gautier (1183-1194)
  • Jean I. (1197-1202)
  • Renaud (1202-1210)
  • Evrard de Monchy (1210-1237)
  • Roger (1237-1256)
  • Jean de Toirac or de Thury (1256 – around 1265)
  • Odon I. Cholet de Nointel (1265–1288) (brother of Cardinal Jean Cholet )
  • Guillaume II. (1288-1293)
  • Jean III Le Boulensien (1293-1297)
  • Jacques de Chambly (1297-1300)
  • Pierre III. de Sarnoy (1300-1336)
  • Odon II. De Gouvieux (1336–1339)
  • Pierre IV. De Campdeville (1339-1340)
  • Jean IV. De Boran (1340-1353)
  • Aimery Fulcant (1353-1362)
  • Guillaume III. Du Bois (1362-1364)
  • Godefroi de Billy (1364-1371)
  • Foulques II. De Chanac (1372–1383) (later Bishop of Orléans )
  • Raoul de Royes (1383-1394)
  • Robert d'Esquenes (1394-1413)
  • Pierre V. de Beauvoir (1413-1443)
  • Raoul de Villers Saint Paul (1444-1467)
  • Jean V de Villers Saint Paul (1467-1492)

Commendati abbots

literature

  • Louis Eudore Deladreue et Mathon, Histoire de l'abbaye royale de Saint-Lucien, in: Mémoires de la Société académique d'archéologie, sciences et arts du département de l'Oise , Volume 8 (1871), pp. 257-385 and 541 ( online )
  • Florence Charpentier, Xavier Daugy, Sur le Chemin des abbayes de Picardie: Histoire des abbayes picardes des origines à nos jours (2008), 286 pp. ( ISBN 978-2-911576-83-6 ), pp. 138-142

Web links

Commons : Saint-Lucien Abbey (Beauvais)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Fernand Vercauteren, Étude critique d'un diplôme attribué à Chilpéric Ier, in: Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire , Volume VII, No. 1 (1928), pp. 83-112, reissued in Études d'Histoire médiévale (1978), pp. 629-659
  2. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 269-276
  3. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 277-288
  4. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, p 290
  5. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, page 294
  6. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, p 304
  7. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 306-310 and 314-315
  8. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 323-330
  9. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 331-332
  10. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 344–346
  11. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, p 352
  12. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 377-379
  13. ↑ Charpentier / Daugy p. 141
  14. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, p 549
  15. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 556–558
  16. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 563-564
  17. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 567-568
  18. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 569-570
  19. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, p. 574
  20. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, p 595
  21. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, p 599
  22. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 607-608
  23. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 615-619
  24. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, p 628
  25. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp. 632-634
  26. ↑ Deladreue et Mathon, pp 642-658
  27. ↑ Charpentier / Daugy, p 142

Coordinates: 49 ° 26 ′ 30 "  N , 2 ° 4 ′ 44"  E