Liter funéraire
A liter funéraire (mourning ribbon, from the Latin litura funeris , for example “corrected place at the burial”, also liter seigneuriale ) is a painted black ribbon on which coats of arms or other decorative motifs were drawn to commemorate high-ranking deceased persons. They can be found in churches or burial chapels in the Middle Ages and Ancien Régimes in France .
layout
The liter funéraire is usually a horizontal black band painted on the plaster of the walls and pillars, a good half a meter wide and two and a half to four meters above the floor. It usually reached around the surfaces of all internal components or around the outer walls. In the event of the death of a person who had the right to church patronage , their insignia , especially the crown and family coat of arms, were painted on the black ribbon in memory of them .
history
Historical background
The Franconian Empire was Christianized in the Merovingian period (5th - 8th centuries) . Noble Franks built houses of worship on their lands to pray with their families and their entourage. They were the owners of the churches or chapels and that property was inheritable. The owners could sell or give away the churches. This was called Dominium laicus ( something like "worldly power").
The church reformer Gregory VII (1020-1085) initiated the investiture controversy (1076-1122), a political conflict between clerical and secular power over the appointment of clergy. The Worms Concordat (1122), but even more so the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) established a new church patronage law in France that replaced the old Dominium laicus. Lay people were no longer allowed to own a church, but they could become patrons of a church. As a patron, for example, they had the right to propose a new pastor ( jus praesentendi ) if the position was vacant. The memorial picture on the liter funéraire also belonged to her right .
middle Ages
The first liters of funéraires are known from the end of the 11th century, especially from the time of the First Crusade (1096-1099). At that time they were mostly attached to the outer walls of the church and did not yet have a permanent character. The coats of arms of the deceased were painted over in black on the occasion of the spiritual office ( obituaire ), which was celebrated one year after their burial.
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Early modern age
Towards the end of the 14th century, the patronages over the churches, some of which had existed for centuries, had become hereditary, the litres funéraires were mostly located inside the church and the coat of arms drawings were no longer deleted. People who had donated an insignificant church or chapel that belonged to a larger parish also received the right to the liter funéraire in the main church of the parish. In some churches the patron even had the ribbon affixed to crosses. At the beginning of the 17th century the church umbrella law had to be reorganized; in 1615 a law was drafted that regulated everything down to the last detail. The law was enthusiastically accepted and the number of coat of arms drawings fell significantly. However, the reputation of the liters funéraires had already declined due to various abuses.
French Revolution
On April 13, 1791, the National Assembly resolved to completely remove the litres funéraires by the patrons on and in public churches and chapels. The decision did not meet with much resistance because at that time the custom was hardly practiced. Litres funéraires that were not painted over due to the decision later disappeared as a result of weathering or renovation work. Today only a few of them are left.
See also
literature
- Pierre Bodin: Les litres seigneuriales des églises de l'Eure . Amis des Monuments et Sites de l'Eure, Amis de Bernay, Condé-sur-Noireau 2005 (French).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Mathias Mareschal: Traité des droits honorifiques des patrons et seigneurs dans les églises, par m. Maréchal, avec les autres traités qui y étoient joints . Ed .: Jean Adrien Sérieux. Cheron, Paris 1772, p. 333-379 ( in Google Books [accessed October 13, 2009]). (French)