Saint-Pierre (Reims)

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Kirch, Saint-Pierre.

In the Middle Ages, two women's convents existed at the same time in Reims , bearing the name Saint-Pierre . They were not far apart and were distinguished by the additional designation d'en-Bas and d'en-Haut . While one abbey existed at least from the end of the 6th century until the revolution , the other, founded at the latest at the beginning of the 9th century, disappeared before the end of the Middle Ages.

Sources

We owe the news of the existence of two abbeys of the same name in Reims to Flodoard von Reims and his Reims church history, written around 948. Beyond Flodoard's information, however, the data on the two abbeys are so sparse and imprecise that confusion has occurred between the two monasteries to this day. In addition, even in Flodoard's time, a number of information was pure tradition, some of which arose from the competitive situation in the city and the pursuit of a leadership role, and which are still passed on as historical truths today.

Saint-Pierre d'en-Haut

Flodoard reports on a monastic community under the leadership of an abbess Susanna and the guardianship of Bishop Remigius , who headed the diocese from 459 to 533, but without reference to Peter; however, this community is often named as the origin and then Remigius as the founder of the monastery.

The testament of Bishop Romulfus (590 - before 613), which was available to Flodoard, mentions a women's monastery in Reims in honor of St. Peter, so that the end of the 6th century is certain as the latest date for the foundation of a women's monastery consecrated to Peter. The will of his successor Sonnatius (before 613 - after 624) reports on a convent that was located within the city walls near the Basilica of Saint Peter. His successor Lando (around 634/656) in turn differentiates in a document sancti Petri ad cortem and sancti Petri ad monasterium puellarum , i.e. in the case of the women's monastery. Bishop Reolus (673/689), in turn, as executor of Lando's successor Nivardus (657/673) takes into account a women's monastery (without reference to Peter), which Bova had as abbess. Abbess Doda received a document from Prince Pippin on the immunity of the abbey, which he (Flodoard) had before him.

The rest of Flodoard's information is no longer based on documents, but on records that were in circulation at the time his Historia was written in Reims. Thereafter, a higher-lying convent was founded in honore sanctae Mariae vel Sancti Petri by the priest Balderich (Baudry), a son of King Sigibert, and his sister Bova, who later became abbess. Her niece was the one Doda who had received a document from Prince Pippin on the immunity of the abbey.

A Vita Bovae et Dodae , which was written after Flodoard, also knows that the abbesses Bova and Doda were buried in a church Sainte-Marie outside the city walls, and that this was also the first location of the monastery. A fire destroyed the church (at an unspecified time). Shortly thereafter, in contradiction to this, it is reported that Balderich and Bova founded the monastery at the Porte Basée within the city walls (see below). Since Flodoard itself does not mention this information, it must be taken into account that this is a legend.

In fact, the abbey, which after the end of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre-d'en-Bas was also simply called Saint-Pierre-les-Dames or Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains, stood where the street names still exist today suggest, on the Rue Saint-Pierre-les-Dames, which leads to the Place Godinot, the former Place Saint-Pierre-les-Dames, and thus about 250 meters south-east of Reims Cathedral .

From the further history of the monastery it should be noted that after the death of King Francis II († 1560) his widow Maria Stuart stayed several times in the abbey, where her aunt, Renée de Lorraine († 1602), was abbess . From here she left for Calais , where she boarded a ship for Scotland on August 15, 1561, leaving France for good. She had decreed that she wanted to be buried in Saint-Pierre-les-Dames, but found her final resting place in Westminster Abbey .

The monastery was destroyed during the revolution , the last remains of the ruins were removed in 1919.

Saint-Pierre d'en-Bas

According to tradition recorded by Flodoard, the Abbey of Saint-Pierre d'en-Bas was founded by Guntbertus, the husband of Bertha von Avenay, the founder of Avenay Abbey , who died a martyr in Friesland .

The fact that Guntbertus was a brother of Archbishop Nivard is only brought into play in the 16th century through equation, and goes back to a letter from Archbishop Hinkmar von Reims († 882), with which he granted the rights of the Reims church at the Avenay monastery tries to prove by claiming to have records that the Avenay Monastery was founded by an unnamed brother Nivard. Flodoard, who mentions the letter, is apparently not aware of the documents mentioned. The Vita Nivardi , which was written during Hinkmar's lifetime, does not mention Guntbertus as Nivard's brother, although it goes into detail about Nivard's family.

The first certain news about the monastery comes from the years 814/816, as this monastery is meant when it is said that Emperor Ludwig the Pious gave it to his daughter Alpheid († probably after 852), even before her husband, Count Beggo I. . had died. In the biography of Bishop Rigobert von Reims from the first half of the 9th century, which does not make any statements about the founder or the time of foundation, the Petrus monastery of Alpheid is referred to as being lower than the neighboring higher one. Flodoard adds that Charlemagne had already granted the monastery immunity.

Further information on the abbey is only available second hand. Centuries later an abbess Odile and a document from 1033 and 1035 are mentioned, both of which are now lost. The document from 1033 allows the conclusion - without proof - that the location of the abbey was in the immediate vicinity of the Porte Basée, the southeastern gate of the early medieval Reims, about 150 meters southwest of the abbey of Sainte-Pierre-d'en-Haut.

A last document from the abbey - also lost today - is cited from the year 1125 and names an abbess Elisabeth, after which there is silence, so that it is assumed that the monastery of Saint-Pierre-d'en-Bas disappeared some time afterwards. Apparently it was at least partly inherited by Saint-Pierre-d'en-Haut, as this still owned property on both sides of the Porte Basée until the Revolution.

literature

  • Flodoard of Reims: Historia Remensis ecclesiae, ed. by Johannes Heller and Georg Waitz, MGH Scriptores XIII, 1881, pp. 405-599
  • Michèle Gaillard: Les monastères féminins de Reims pendant le Haut Moyen Âge: histoire et historiographie, in: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, Volume 71.4 (1993), pp. 825-840 online

Remarks

  1. ↑ Liber IV, Chapter 38
  2. ↑ including Coutansais that only the monastery of Saint-Pierre-les-Dames mentioned and (falsely) as owned by Alpais, the daughter of Louis the Pious, called (Françoise Poirier-Coutansais: Les abbayes Bénédictines you diocèse de Reims, in: Jean-François Lemariginier (ed.): Gallia monastica I, 1974, p. 483)
  3. ↑ z. B. Michel Bur , pp. 98 and 101, in Maurice Crubellier, Histoire de la Champagne, 1988 and Pierre Desportes, Histoire de Reims, pp. 67-68
  4. ↑ Liber I, Caput 24, p. 443
  5. ↑ Liber II, Caput 4, p. 451
  6. ↑ Liber II, Caput 5, p. 454
  7. ↑ Liber II, Caput 6, p. 455
  8. ↑ Liber II, Caput 10, pp. 457-458
  9. ↑ Liber IV, Caput 38, p. 591; Gaillard identifies Prince Pippin with Pippin the Younger as the only Pippin who is mentioned as princeps and sets the period of the award to the years 741/743, since only during this time a Pippin under his own power (i.e. without the Merovingian king), but also acted without a royal title.
  10. ↑ Vita Bovae et Dodae, Acta Sanctorum, Aprilis, III, pp. 283-290, G. Henschenius (ed.), Antwerp 1675, p. 284
  11. ↑ "Les trésors de la bibliothèque de Reims", (online) ( Memento of the original from January 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bm-reims.fr
  12. ↑ Liber IV, Caput 46
  13. ↑ De sancto Gondberto martyre, Acta Sanctorum , Aprilis, Volume 3, pp. 620-625; De sancta Bertha martyre, Acta Sanctorum, Maii, Volume 1, pp. 112-117; Dom Jacques Hourlier, Les origines du monastère Saint-Pierre de Reims, in: Mémoires de la société de l'agriculture de la Marne, No. 89, 1974, p. 22
  14. ↑ MGH SS XIII, p. 549, 1.15-18
  15. ↑ Vita Nivardi episcopi Remensis auctore Almanno SWM Altivillarenso, W. Levison (ed.), MGH SRM V, pp 160-171
  16. ↑ Liber IV, Caput 46
  17. ↑ monasterium sancti Petri (…) de situ loci inferius propter alterum huic vicinium, quod eadem ex causa dicitus Superius , Vita Rigoberti, ed. by W. Levison, MGH SRM 7, 1920, Caput 12, p. 68
  18. ↑ Liber IV, Caput 46
  19. ↑ Dom Marlot, Histoire de la ville de Reims (manuscript from the 17th century), 4 volumes, 1843-45, volume 4, chapter XL, p. 231; Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa, volume 9, 1751, column 269; L. Bidet, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique de la ville et cité du diocèse de Reims, 1758, manuscript, Bibliothèque municipale de Reims, Nfonds 1654, pp. 165–166
  20. ↑ at the intersection of Rue de l'Université - Rue du Barbâtre with Rue de Contral - Rue des Murs
  21. ^ Dom Marlot, p. 231

Coordinates: 49 ° 15 '10.2 "  N , 4 ° 2' 15.7"  E