REMEMBERING ISABELLE OF BAVARIA'S ENTRY INTO PARIS: THE "SEPARATE CITY (VILLE SÉPARÉE)" OF SAINT GERMAIN AND ITS GUILDS
Edna Ruth Yahil (Paris)
In February, 1273, Philip III issued a patent letter outlining and defining the abbey of Saint Germain des Prés' rights to temporal justice and demarcating the streets and territories under the abbey's jurisdiction. In 1296 the Parliament officially recognized Saint Germain as a city distinct from Paris when it ruled that the inhabitants of Saint Germain as well as those of Saint Marcel did not have to share in a 100,000 l. p. tax imposed on the city of Paris since they did not live in faubourgs (suburbs) but rather in independent territories and thus were not responsible for Parisian taxes.
As with the other ecclesiastical jurisdictions of Paris, the abbey's powers were not always clearly defined in the Middle Ages. Even residents of the bourg were often confused about the exact status of the land upon which they lived. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, many of the inhabitants of Saint Germain knew that they lived in an area that was separate and distinct from Paris despite its proximity, and this distinct self-identity lasted well into the seventeenth century. However, their knowledge of the unique role of Saint Germain stemmed not from forged Merovingian charters or decisions of the Parliament but rather from either social memory or practical experience relating to the world of work or to taxation.
During the course of a 1400 inquest held at the Châtelet concerning guilds, many inhabitants of the bourg testified as to whether Saint Germain was a city that was separate from Paris or simply a suburb. The witnesses diverged in their responses and some were unable to give definitive answers. All the witnesses were certain that Saint Germain was somehow distinct from Paris, but some, namely those who relied on their own memory of what they had heard and seen, either thought that Saint Germain was a faubourg or could not definitively state that it was separate from the city of Paris. The renowned historian Françoise Lehoux valued the testimony of certain witnesses over that of the men who were less clear about the legal status of the bourg Saint Germain, writing:
Si les charges et les privilèges des bourgeois de Saint-Germain sont différents de ceux des bourgeois de Paris, c'est évidement que le bourg forme une ville absolument distinct de la capitale et dépend uniquement de l'abbaye qui lui a donné naissance.
I would argue, instead, that one cannot dismiss the vagaries of the testimonies of some of the witnesses and that in the early part of the fifteenth century not all the inhabitants of the bourg realized the significance of the Saint Germain's position. People who needed to know understood the special privileges accorded to the abbey and knew how they themselves could benefit from these privileges. Others, who did not directly benefit from Saint Germain's unique position, may not have understood its significance. Over the course of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, as the seigneural court, Saint Germain's administrative and policing instrument, developed, the inhabitants of the bourg became more knowledgeable about the independence of Saint Germain and the privilege it bestowed upon them.
In this workshop, we shall consider the testimonies given before the Châtelet in 1400 (Archives Nationales de Paris, L 762 n. 1) in order to see how local inhabitants viewed Saint Germain and Paris in the beginning of the fifteenth century.