Parròquia i societat rural al bisbat de Girona, segles XIII-XIV

Abstract

Parish and rural society in the diocese of Girona, 13th and 14th centuries. The parish, undervalued by the medieval historiography, was a fundamental institution for the arrangement of the rural society of the diocese of Girona between the 10th and the 14th centuries. It was a well delimited territory, whose inhabitants received the ecclesiastic sacraments from the clergymen who ruled the church and, through the churchwardenship and the churchwardens, they took part in the management of the parish and its economy. The parish influenced directly in the organisation of the rural settlement not only through the ecclesiastical villages, or celleres, but also through the farmhouses scattered within the boundaries of the parish. Besides, the parish was an important source of revenues: through the documentation generated by the bishop of Girona, the tithe appears as a revenue mainly in hands of feudal lords, gentlemen and important ecclesiastic institutions; the parochial clergymen only received the first fruits, or primícies, and other rights of minor value. Finally, the parish contributed significantly to the rural communities configuration in most of the diocese of Girona.