1. Ziegler, Philip, The Black Death (New York, 1969),Google Scholar provides a useful bibliographical orientation on the plague. Regarding the chronology of its arrival in Europe, see p. 40ff.

2. The dispersion of the disease was somewhat erratic. See Bowsky, William, “The Impact of the Black Death upon Sienese Government and Society,” Speculum 39 (01 1964): 14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

3. “La chronique romane,” in Le Petit Thalamus de Montpellier, ed. Pégat, Ferdinand et al. (Montpellier, 1840), p. 348.Google Scholar

4. See Germain, Alexandre, Histoire de la commune de Montpellier depuis ses orgines jusqu'à son incorporation définitive à la monarchie française (Montpellier, 1851) 1:412–413,Google Scholar for publication of the consular lists and the deaths of that year. See also Renouard, Yves, “La Peste Noire de 1348–1350,” Revue de Paris (03, 1950): 109.Google Scholar

5. The most recent study of the religious history of Montpellier is Le diocèse de Montpellier, ed. Cholvy, Gérard (Paris, 1976).Google Scholar Still useful are the numerous studies by Germain, Alexandre in the Mémoires de la société archéologique de Montpellier, 1–8 (Montpellier, 1850–1893).Google Scholar Of interest for the reaction of the town to the Albigensians is Fliche, Augustin, “La vie religieuse à Montpellier sous le pontificat d'Innocent III (1198–1216),” Mélanges Louis Halphen (Paris, 1951), pp. 217–224.Google Scholar

6. Materials for this study were drawn from the Archives Départementales de I'Hérault (hereafter abbreviated A. D. Hérault), notarial registers II E 95/368-lI E 95/377 and from the Archives Municipales de Montpellier (abbreviated A. M. Montp.), registers II 1–3. Also consulted were the Série EE, fonds de la Commune Clôture and the Grand Chartrier of the municipal archives. For inventories of the last two collections, see de Dainville, Maurice and Gouron, Marcel, Inventaire, Fonds de la Commune Clôture et Affaires militaires (Montpellier, 1974)Google Scholar and Berthelé, Joseph, Archives communales de Montpellier antérieures à 1789, Inventaires et documents: I. Notice sur les anciens inventaires, inventaire du Grand Chartrier (Montpellier, 1895).Google ScholarGrand Chartrier documents will be cited in the Louvet numbering system used in the above inventory. Le Cartulaire de Maguelone, ed. Rouquette, Jean and Villemagne, Augustin, 5 vols. (Montpellier, 1912–1925)Google Scholar yielded four wills for the thirteenth century only; see vol. 2, acts CCXCIII, CCCLXIII, CCCCLXXXVII, DCXXXVII. Although Montpellier Cannot boast the wealth of notarial archives of many Italian towns, one extant register written by the notary Bernardus Egidii and several clerks (A. D. Hérault, II E 95/377), spanning the period January 17, 1347 to March 31, 1348, contains forty-eight wills.

7. Many scholars have analyzed French religious behavior by examining wills; e.g. Folz, Robert, “L'Esprit religieux du testament bourguignon au moyen âge,” Mèmoires de Ia société pour l'histoire du droit et des institutions des anciens pays bourguignons, comtois et romands (Dijon, 1955), pp. 7–27;Google ScholarBoutruche, Robert, “Aux origines d'une crise nobiliaire: Donations pieuses et pratiques successorales en Bordelais du XIIIe au XVIe siècle,” Annales d'histoire sociale 1 (03, 1939): 161–177;Google ScholarGonon, Marguérite, Les institutions et la sociêtê en Forez au XIVe siécle d'après les testaments (Macon, 1960);Google Scholarde Lamothe, Marie-simone de Nucê, “Piété et charité publique à Toulouse de Ia fin du XIIIe siècle au milieu du XVe siècle d'après les testaments,” Annales du Midi 76 (01, 1964): 5–39;CrossRefGoogle ScholarLorcin, Marie-Thérèse, “Les clauses religieuses dans les testaments du plat pays lyon-nais aux XIVe et XVe siècles,” Le Moyen Age 78 no. 2 (4th ser., 27) (1972): 287–323;Google ScholarCoulet, Noel, “Jalons pour une histoire religieuse d'Aix au has moyen âge (1350–1450),” Provence historique 22 fasc. 89 (07—09, 1972): 203–260;Google ScholarBastard-Fournier, Michelle, “Mentalités religieuses aux confins du Toulousain et de I'Albigeois à la fin du moyen âge,” Annales du Midi 85 (07—09, 1973): 267–287;CrossRefGoogle ScholarChiffoleau, Jacques, “Pratiques funéraires et images de la mort à Marseille, en Avignon et dans le Comtat Venaissin (vers 1280-vers 1350),” La religion populaire en Languedoc du XIIIe siécle à la moitié du XIVe siécle. Cahiers de Fanjeaux 11 (1976): 271–303.Google Scholar

8. Lorcin, , “Les clauses religieuses,” p. 287,Google Scholar argues that the preambules of the region of Lyon were too formulaic to be relied upon as a faithful transmission of the testator's thoughts. However, the wills of some areas may take exception to this generalization. See the comments of de Lamothe, Nucé, “Piété et charité publique,” p. 7,Google Scholar regarding pious formulae and p. 10, regarding the problems of testamentary evidence. Aubenas, Roger, Le testament en Provence dans l'ancien régime (Aix-en-Provence, 1927), pp. 161–162,Google Scholar recounts that in the time of plague, preambules differed from the norm and might mention the plague. According to Aubenas, one notary sat in a tree at Grasse to avoid contagion from his clients. See also Folz, , “L'Esprit religieux,” p. 9.Google Scholar I have not encountered specific references to the plague in the Montpellier wills.

9. Charrin, Louis de, Les testaments dans la région de Montpellier au moyen age (Ambilly, 1961), p. 54,Google Scholar uses the notarial and Commune Cloture records, but does not discuss religious mentality.

10. Ibid., p. 135. Gonon, , Les institutions et la société en Forez, p. 97,Google Scholar found on the contrary that for the Forez region burial generally took place in the parish cemetery in the tomb of parents, or, if a wife were making the will, with her husband. New tombs were rare.

11. Bernard, Antoine, La sépulture en droit canonique du décret de Gratien au conczle de Trente (Paris, 1933), p. 85 ff.Google Scholar

12. Ibid, pp. 70–76, 169–170, 174–183.

13. Emery, Richard Wilder, Heresy and Inquisition in Narbonne (New York, 1941), p. 123, n. 53.Google Scholar

14. Technically both Spiritual and Conventual Franciscans probably did not solicit such gifts; not so, perhaps, for the Dominicans. See Bernard, , La sépulture en droit canonique, p. 75.Google Scholar

15. See Table 2. Coulet, “Jalons pour une histoire religieuse d'Aix,” p. 253, argued that burial choice suggested a preference for a specific religious order.

16. On the parishes of Montpellier, see Germain, , “La paroisse à Montpellier au moyen âge,” Mémoirec de la scoiété archéologique de Montpellier 5 (Monspellier, 1860–1869): 1–56,Google Scholar and Guirand, Louise, Laparoisse Saint-Denis de Montpellier (Montpellier, 1887).Google Scholar

17. On the cathedral see Rouquette, Jean, Histoire du diocése de Maguelone, 2 vols. (Montpellier, 1921–1927).Google ScholarFabrége, Frederic, Histoire de Maguelone, 3 vols. (Paris-Montpellier, 1893–1911)Google Scholar is somewhat dated.

18. See Le guide du pélérin de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle, 3rd ed. Jeanne Vielliard (Mâcon, 1963), p. 2Google Scholar and Guiraud, Louise, “Recherches topographiques sur Montpellier au moyen âge,” Mémoires de la sociét archéologique de Montpellier, 2d ser. 1 (Montpellier, 1899), p. 122.Google Scholar

19. Dating of the installation of mendicant convents is often disputed. For details see Emery, Richard Wilder, The Friars in Medieval France (New York, London, 1961).Google Scholar

20. “La chronique romane,” in Le Petit Thalamus de Montpellier, p. 330. On Saint-Barthélémy, see Baumel, Jean, Histoire d'une seigneurie du Midi de la France, Naissance de Montpellier (985–1213) (Montpellier, 1969), p. 198,Google Scholar and Germain, , Histoire de la commune de Montpellier 3:337.Google Scholar

21. De, Charrin, Les testaments dans la region de Montpellier, p. 135.Google Scholar

22. In addition to the wills tabulated in Table 2, there were eleven requests for burial Outside Montpellier, two of which chose the Franciscan cemetery at Sommiéres. The remaining wills for which no mention of place of burial is given either neglect this stipulation, or are known only in fragmentary or indirect form.

23. A. M. Montp., EE 149, November 23, 1286 and EE 682, October 29, 1288.

24. The first extant notarial register dates from 1293–1294. See A. M. Montp., II 1, Jean Grimaud.

25. The choice of special chapels was common for burial in the Middle Ages. See Bernard, , La sépulture en droit canonique, pp. 37–38.Google Scholar

26. Blood relations are shown to be stronger than relations by marriage in these wills.

27. A. M. Montp., EE 328, August 22, 1279; Grand Chartrier, Louvet no. 2315, January 30, 1299 (n. s. 1300); EE 680, April 18, 1259; EE 590, November 28, 1297; II1, f. 31r; Grand Chartrier, Louvet no. 31, January 16, 1313 (n. s.); Ibid., Louvet no. 3007, March 23, 1324; EE 757, August 26, 1325; EE 761, December 13, 1335; EE 383, October 13, 1343; EE 375, April 5, 1345.

28. See Gaillard, Benjamin, “Les relations des Guilhem de Montpellier avec le Saint-Siège,” Mémoires de la société archéologieque de Montpellier, 2d ser. 9 (Montpellier, 1924): 41–61,Google Scholar and Guillemain, Bernard, La cour pontificale d'Avignon (1309–1376): étude dune société (Paris, 1962)Google Scholar and idem., “Les Français du Midi á la cour pontificale d'Avignon,” Annales du Midi 74 (January, 1962): 29–38.

29. Studies of the ecclesiastical history of the region can be found in the classic history of Languedoc by Devic, Dom Claude and Vaisséte, Dom Joseph, Histoire général de Languedoc, 15 vols. (Toulouse, 1872—1892).Google Scholar See also Cholvy, ed. Le diocèse de Montpellier and Rouquette, Histoire du diocièse de Maguel one.

30. A. M. Montp., EE 426, April 2, 1348.

31. A. M. Montp., EE 214, May 23, 1348. The possibility of refusal of burial always existed. See Bernard, , La sépulture en droit canonique, p. 113ff.Google Scholar

32. Wolff, Philippe, Commerces et marchands de Toulouse (Paris, 1954), p. 74,Google Scholar remarked that there were only a few notarial registers remaining for 1348, “mais les testaments les envahissent, rédigés par des malades, mais aussi par des ‘bien portants’ qui craignent de mourir. La prévision des morts possibles pestilencia vigenti y multiplie les substitutions d'héritiers.”

33. See Table 2.

34. On confrèries see Adam, Paul, La vie paroissale en France au XIVe siècle (Paris, 1964), p. 15ff.Google Scholar On the organization of trades which often supported charitable associations, see Gouron, André, La réglementation des métiers en Languedoc au moyen âge (Geneva, Paris, 1958).Google Scholar The chantry foundations of Montpellier have been described by Montel, Achille, “Le catalogue des chapellenies,” Revue de langues romanes 3 (Montpellier, 1872): 292–310; 4 (Montpellier, 1873): 5–43.Google Scholar Their chronological distribution is the following:

35. A. D. Hérault, II E 95/377, f. 310v, March 16, 1348; A. M. Montp., EE 426, April 2, 1348; EE 415, May 17, 1348; A. M. Montp., EE 566, April 20, 1348.

36. Generally a gift of clothing, often a shirt, accompanied the provision for poor inhabitants to carry the defunct's body. See, for example, A. D. Hérault, II E 95/377, f. 282v, 312r, 317r, and A. M. Montp., EE 426. In addition to the donation patterns discussed, there were numerous scattered gifts to specific urban and suburban churches for the fabric, the infirmary, the support of priests, alms or other services. Such donations were recorded for the cathedral of Maguelone in the years before 1346 when burial practice focused on its cemetery. There does not seem to have been a transference of these patterns of giving to themendicant churches. The findings of Lorcin, “Les clauses religieuses,” p. 301–310, and Nucé de Lamothe, “Piété et charité publique,” p. 12, provide useful comparisons with the Montpellier data.

37. Ziegler, , The Black Death, pp. 188–189,Google Scholar suggested that charitable donations and religious fervor increased manyfold because of the plague.

38. For differing views of the behavior of the plague in hot weather, see Emery, Richard Wilder, “The Black Death of 1348 in Perpignan,” Speculum 42 (10, 1967): 611–623,CrossRefGoogle ScholarHerlihy, David, Medieval and Renaissance Pistoia (New Haven and London, 1967), p. 107,Google Scholar and Wolff, , Commerces et marchands de Toulouse, p. 74.Google Scholar

39. On the trauma of the plague, see especially Meiss, Millard, Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death (New York, 1951), p. 64ff,Google Scholar and Bowsky, William, The Black Death, A TurningPoint in History? (New York, 1971), p. 13.Google Scholar

40. Thompson, James Westfall, “The Aftermath of the Black Death and the Aftermath of the Great War,” American Journal of Sociology 26 no. 5 (03, 1921): 565–572;CrossRefGoogle ScholarRenouard, Yves, “Conséquences et intérêt démographiques de la Peste Noire de 1348,” Population 3 (07—09, 1948): 458–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41. Bowsky, , “The Impact of the Black Death,” pp. 1–34;Google ScholarEmery, , “The Black Death,” pp. 611–623;Google ScholarWolff, Philippe, “Trois etudes de démographie médihvale en France méridionale,” Studi in onore di Armando Sapori (Milan, 1957), 1: 493–503;Google ScholarPrat, Genevieve, “Albi et la Peste Noire,” Annales du Midi 64 (01, 1952): 15–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42. Carpentier, Elisabeth, Une ville devant la peste: Orvieto et la peste noire de 1348 (Paris, 1962), pp. 76–94.Google Scholar

43. Bastard-Fournier, , “Mentalités religieuses,” p. 268Google Scholar proposed that a graph of the chronological frequency of wills permits the discernment of years of crisis in the Late Middle Ages.

44. See Tables 2 and 3.

45. On shifts in spiritual loyalties of individuals in the later Middle Ages, see Douie, Decima L., The Nature and the Effect of the Heresy of the Fraticelli (Manchester, 1932);Google ScholarSaville, DavidMuzzey, , The Spiritual Franciscans (New York, 1907, reprint ed., 1914);Google ScholarLeff, Gordon, Heresy in the Later Middle Ages (Manchester, 1967).Google Scholar Two recent volumes of coLlected essays are also useful for background on the religious mentality of this era: Franciscains d'Oc. Les Spirituels ca. 1280–1324, ed. Marie-Humbert Vicaire, Cahiers de Fanjeaux 10 (Toulouse, 1975)Google Scholar and La religion populaire en Languedoc du XllIe siècle à la moitié du XIVe siécle, ed. Marie-Humbert Vicaire, Cahiers de Fanjeaux 11 (Toulouse, 1976).Google Scholar

46. For a comparison of burial choices of Mendicant convents in Toulouse, see Nucé, de Lamothe, “Piété et charité publique,” p. 15 ff.Google Scholar

47. One testator, Guillelma, wife of Johannes Audrigol, raw wool merchant, specified in her will of May 21, 1347, that if the forty shillings which she set aside for a funeral bed were not sufficient for the prior of Saint-Denis where she requested burial, then she would prefer to be buried at the convent of the Augustinians. On May 30, she broke the old will and made a new one with the same stipulation. See A. D. Hérault, II E 95/377, f. 63v and 73r.

48. On the subject of merchant guilt, see, for example, Meiss, , Painting in Florence and Siena, p. 71ff.Google Scholar

49. See A. D. Hérault, II E 95/372, f. 66v, for an example of exports. On grain exports from southern France, see Wolff, , Commerce et marchands de Toulouse, pp. 169–187.,Google Scholar and Baratier, Edouard, “Marseille et Narbonne au XIVe siècle d'après les sources marseillaises,” Fédération historique du Languedoc méditerranéen et du Roussillon, Narbonne au moyen âge (Montpellier, 1973), p. 88.Google Scholar

50. Dainville, Maurice de, Inventaires, Archives municipales de Montpellier, XI, Documents comptables (Montpellier, 1959),Google ScholarLivre de depenses de l'Hôpital Saint-Lazare, f. 27r-50v.

51. A. D. Hérault, II E 95/377.

52. For imports by Montpelliérains, see A. D. Hérault, II E 95/368, f. 19v, 30v, 44r and II E 95/369, f. 52v, 84v.

53. A. D. Hérault, IIE 95/377, f. 36v, 41v, 42r, 46v, 51r, 56r, 62v, 71r, I 19r.

54. A. D. Hérault, IIE 95/377, f. 13v, 62v, 71v, 75r, 75v, 76v, 89v, 301r.

55. See A. D. Hérault, II E 95/371, 372, 374.

56. On the commercial history of Montpellier, see Germain, Alexandre, Histoire du commerce du Montpellier antérieurement à l'ouverture du port de Cette, 2 vols. (Montpellier. 1861),Google Scholar and Thomas, Louis J., Montpellier, ville marchande: histoire économique et sociale de Montpellier des origines a 1870 (Montpellier, 1936).Google Scholar

57. On the political history of Montpellier, see Germain, Histoire de la commune de Montpellier, See also de Tourtoulon, Charles, Etudes sur la maison de Barcelone, Jacme Ier le conquérant, roi d'Aragon, comte de Barcelone, seigneur de Montpellier, d'après les chroniques et les documents inédits, 2 vols. (Montpellier, 1863),Google Scholar and Bonnet, Emile, “Les séjours a Montpellier de Jacques le conquérant roi d'Aragon,” Mémoires de la societe archéologique de Montpellier, 2nd ser. 9 (Montpellier, 1927): 153–232.Google Scholar

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59. On Olivi see Burr, David, The Persecution of Peter Olivi (Philadelphia, 1976), especially pp. 65–78 and 91,Google Scholar for his ideas on burial. On Spiritual activity at Montpellier, see Emery, , Heresy and Inquisition, p. 145,Google Scholar and Lea, Henry C., A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages (New York, 1922) 3:77.Google Scholar

60. Burr, , The Persecution, pp. 36–41, 67, 78;Google Scholar see also Moorman, John, A History of the Franciscan Order from Its Origins to the Year 1517 (Oxford, 1968), pp. 193, 197.Google Scholar

61. Lambert, Malcolm D., Franciscan Poverty. The Doctrine of Absolute Poverty of Christ and the Apostles in the Franciscan Order 1210–1323 (London, 1961), p. 205.Google Scholar

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63. On the condemnations, see Lambert, Malcolm D., “The Franciscan Crisis under John XXII,” Franciscan Studies 32 Annual X (1972): 123–143.Google Scholar See also Davis, Charles T., “Le pape Jean XXII et les Spirituels. Ubertin de Casale,” Franciscains d'Oc. Les Spirituels ca. 1280–1324. Cahiers de Fanjeaux 10 (Toulouse, 1975): 263–283.Google Scholar

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65. According to Leff, , Heresy 1:230,Google Scholar the primary towns of heretical outbreak at this time were Narbonne, Béziers, Lodève, Carcassonne and Agde.

66. See Guillemain, , La cour pontificale pp. 377–379Google Scholar and Schäfer, Karl Heinrich, Die Ausgaben der apostolischen Kammer unter Johann XXII, nebst derJahresbilanzen von 1316–1378 (Paderborn, 1911).Google Scholar

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68. Testators made only ten references to personal confessors in the extant wills, but six of these fall in the 1330s and 1340s and mention Franciscan confessors. They were Guillelmus de Peyrotes; A. M. Montp., II 3, f. 13; A. D. Montp., II E; 95/377, f. 282v; Jacobus de Asperis; A. D. Montp., II E 95/69, f. 106r; II E; 95/377. f. 38r. See also, II E 95/377, f. 58v; f. 83r; 282v and A. M. Montp., EE 149, EE 335, EE 433.

Among the clergy singled out for pious gifts in wills, the Franciscans were cited eighteen times with the next most numerous group, the Dominicans, recorded only five times.

The Franciscan position of influence in Montpellier may have expanded when their educational facilities were elevated to the status of studium generate in 1346. See Moorman, , A History, p. 366.Google Scholar

69. On Franciscan critics, see Ferguson, Wallace K., Europe in Transition, 1300–1520 (Boston, 1962), pp. 341–342.Google Scholar On courage during the plague, see Ziegler, , The Black Death, p. 259ff.Google Scholar

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