The Women of Papal Avignon. A New Source: The Liber Divisionis of 1371

The Women of Papal Avignon. A New Source: The Liber Divisionis of 1371 Joëlle Rollo-Koster The history of southern French women during the late medieval period is stUl to be written. Luckily a variety of sources such as notarial, judicial, and civü records, testaments and livres de raison, are preserved in the archives. In addition, and more specificaUy with an eye on Avignon, the administrative progress of the Avignonese papacy and historical fortune have preserved quantities of documents in the local departmental archives of the Vaucluse as well as the Vatican. One such document, the Vatican's Liber Divisionis of 1371, which survived the many peregrinations of the papacy to and from Rome and the Great Schism, offers some of the best evidence regarding the composition of the Avignonese population during the late fourteenth century, and therefore, can throw light on the role that women played in this large international city.1 When the papal curia settled permanently in Avignon in 1316, a mass of immigrants flooded the city. The core of the Avignonese population, some five to six thousand natives, was augmented by thousands of newcomers . By the 1370s the total population approximated 30,000 people. The arrival of the Roman court introduced the city to a new demographic reality which was reflected in the vocabulary designating the various segments of the Avignonese population. In addition to the citizens (cives) native to Avignon, contemporary documents add qualifiers such as "inhabitant," "resident," or "follower of the Roman court" (habitator Avinionenensis , Avinione commorans, curiam romanam sequens) to denote persons who were not citizens. The noncitizens belonged to a more loosely defined group, the cortisiani (courtiers). The term encompassed aU persons who arrived in Avignon specifically in the wake of the pope and his entourage. But any immigrant entering the city for the first time was automaticaUy classified as a courtier.2 The different segments of the Avignonese population were aUocated to different courts of justice coexisting in the city during the papal residency , based on their status. For instance, Avignonese citizens and the Jewish community depended on the temporal court, headed by a vicar (viguier). The papal court of the marshal of justice administered justice to lay courtiers and curialists, who were not members of the pope's, cardinals', or chamberlain's households. © 1996 Journal of Women's History, Vol. 8 No. ι (Spring) 1996 Joëlle Rollo-Koster 37 Up to 1348 the papal curia was a guest of the Count of Provence, Lord of Avignon. But in 1348 the pope bought the city. This purchase did not chaUenge the divisions of justice nor the status of inhabitants. As earUer, courtiers could become citizens if they owned property in the city (and many did), swearing aUegiance to the city and paying a small fee to formalize their entry into citizenship. But in fact few chose to change their status. Evidently the group of natives was losing ground to the larger group of courtiers. Urban V, returning the papacy to Rome in 1367, remedied the situation. On March 26 of that year he ordered that all courtiers remaining in Avignon after the departure of the curia would have the status of citizens. However, this demographic unification was short-lived. Three years later, in 1370, the pope was back in Avignon. This return put the judicial status of the naturalized Avignonese in Umbo. Courtiers who had been made citizens in 1367 did not know if they still were citizens, now that the papacy was back, and anybody who entered the city after 1367 did not know to which court they belonged. Both courts of justice, the temporal and the marshal, needed clarification of their jurisdictions. The Liber Divisionis was created as an answer to these uncertainties. The undated document is preserved at the Vatican archives (Registra Avenionensa 204, fol. 428r-507v) and fully titled "Liber divisionis cortisianorum et civium romane curie et civitatis Avinionensis facte de novo de mandato Gregorii XI ad certitudinem curiarum et ne amodo de earum subditis valeat hesitare," loosely translated as "book of division of the courtiers and citizens of the Roman court (on the one hand) and of the city of Avignon (on the other) comp...