Schöller

Athena Review, Vol. 4, No. 2

Funding the Construction of Gothic Cathedrals:

Financial and Legal Realities of the Middle Ages

Wolfgang Schöller, University of Regensburg, Institute of Art History

As in all cultural and social phenomena, the building of cathedrals was subject to changes during the long timeframe of the Middle Ages - in organizational as well as in legal and economic respects. Yet, this was not only because the administration of cathedral-building worked differently between the 9th and 13th centuries, due to changed power structures between the bishop and the cathedral chapter. Changes were also due to differences in regional habits, not only between northern and southern France, or between Germany and Italy, but even within the smallest, well defined local units - concerning, for instance, the institution of the fabrica ecclesiae (see glossary below).

Since contemporary sources on medieval construction, while numerous, are highly fragmentary, anything more than a preliminary approach to the topic is hardly possible. Nevertheless, an extraordinarily multi-faceted picture is presented to us, especially from the 13th century onward, when the written sources flow more abundantly.

Legal organization of medieval church construction: In this connection, it has to be stressed that medieval canon law (or ecclesiastical law; see glossary) only consisted of a few generally valid legal rules concerning the administration of church building, or the establishment and management of the church building fund.

Obligations of bishops in late antiquity: It is true that, beginning in the 5th century, papal decretals (laws on ecclesiastical questions) imposed on the bishops a division of the bishopric's income, in such a way that a quarter of his income had to be allocated for the architectural/structural maintenance of the public church buildings (pro fabricis ecclesiae) of the diocese. Yet, aside from the exclusive effect of this regulation on bishops of the Roman metropolitan district in Middle and Lower Italy, it was no longer of any practical significance during the High Middle Ages. Although still listed in 12th century canon compilations by medieval scholars of ecclesiastical law known as decretalists (such as Gratian, who died around 1160), this Roman procedure was by then simply outdated, if only because of a trend toward the economic independence of cathedral chapters.

[Fig.1: South façade of Strasbourg Cahedral (photo: Athena Review)].

Beneficiaries in France and Germany: In Italy, as already noted, it was the bishops (specifically, those subordinate to the Roman metropolitan or pope), who were legally obligated to support public church building projects within their bishopric, by transferring part of their income for the maintenance, restoration, and décor of the buildings. In the case of the 8th-10th century Frankish Empire and its territorial successors France and Germany, however, the obligation to fund construction affected a different group of people. According to the secular laws and regulations (capitularia) of the Frankish kings, it mainly affected the beneficiaries or beneficati (owners of property which once belonged to the church), particularly those royal vassals who repeatedly bore the costs of maintaining the churches given them in fee.

Without going into detail, it may be remarked that, after the legal regulation of the church building costs was interrupted in the later 9th century, significant changes occurred. When the topic was taken up again in the 12th century literature of church jurisdiction (i.e., in its digest of capitularies), we now find included under the term beneficiati, or church property-holders, primarily the prebendaries (praebendarii), or those receiving income from a church office. Under the heading of beneficium were now specified those financial means permanently connected with an ecclesiastical office (see glossary). Soon thereafter, this extended to "every ecclesiastical office vested with a permanent stock of property" (Pöschl 1926: 449).

Canons, bishops, and the fabrica ecclesiae: What does this mean in practical terms? At the very least, it suggests a new building obligation of the canons, replacing the long obsolete laws of the 8th and 9th centuries. Accordingly, as the scholar of ecclesiastical law Bernhard of Pavia stated in his Summa decretalium (written 1191-1198), collapsed and destroyed churches were to be renovated, to which all clerical beneficiaries had to give support commensurate with their means. When Pope Innocent III notified the archbishop and cathedral canons of Rouen (after internal quarreling in 1198) that each would have to allocate equally a part of their income to restore the cathedral, this regulation became generally valid. The law was first entered in the so-called Compilatio IV of Johannes Teutonicus in AD 1216, and then in the Liber Extra of Pope Gregory IX in 1234.

However, by this time, Goffredus of Trano (1241/43) and decretalists succeeding him emphasized another aspect. According to them, the main burden of building or maintaining a church should be borne by a fund which specifically endowed the church works (fabrica ecclesiae: "the building fund of a church"). Any additional financing drawn from incomes of the beneficiaries (including bishops and canons) should only take place if the money from the fund would not suffice for repairs.

Actually, the sporadic establishment of such building funds (bona fabricae) had already occurred at ecclesiastical institutions during the late 11th century, and then increased throughout the 12th and, especially, 13th centuries. These building funds or endowments served solely to construct the specific church, and to equip it with ritual furnishings. The bona fabricae had nothing to do with the finances connected with the office of the bishop, or the endowment of the chapter. These funds were instead created, for example, by a larger donation earmarked for church upkeep and maintenance (ad fabricam); or by separating out a part of the daily donations of the faithful; or by the transfer of any prebend properties which had become free. In any event, these building funds were created and endowed haphazardly by individual church institutions at different times, particularly as a result of pending building enterprises. Thus, as no generally valid canon law ordered the creation of such building funds (which were only recommended or demanded by decretalists), the administration of these funds at the cathedrals was handled in many different ways and had no consistent canonical supervision.

If we leave aside the rare case of a building fund being managed by the bishop, or by the laity (as at Hamburg and Strasbourg, fig.1), two particular types of administration of the bona fabricae occur:

It may have rested in the hands of chapter officials such as the thesaurii ("treasurers"), who - apart from the administration of the church treasure and the church's embellishment and furnishings, as well as its cleaning and illumination - continuously had control over the buildings. Yet this type of administration of building funds could be seriously deficient because, in the course of time, the bona fabricae or construction funds could have lost their independent status for appropriation, by becoming interwoven with the other operating funds of the ecclesiastical office.

Thus, at most of the cathedrals, but also at abbey and collegiate churches, the separate administration of the bona fabricae became the rule during the 13th century. This process, incidentally, did not go over smoothly everywhere, since the treasurers were understandably not easily separated from those incomes, which in case of smaller repair work may have even spun off a surplus. It must be emphasized that this special administration of the building endowment was an internal measure of the individual church institutions. Neither did a general ecclesiastical law regulate its realization, nor do we now have any indications in collegiate churches of the will of individual private donors as the primary deciding factor. At the churches where a special official known as the magister fabricae looked after the management of the building fund, as a rule the special post of a fabrica ecclesiae was created (see glossary). This was an administrative office which should not be confounded with that of the masons' lodge (logia), which was an on-site headquarters for architects, sculptors, stone workers, and bricklayers.

To summarize: according to general scholarly opinion, during the 13th century every beneficiary who received incomes from a church was required to support its building enterprises, commensurate with the extent of his income - but this only happened if the regular building funds were insufficient for meeting the costs of building. The primary burden of construction thus rested by law on the bona fabricae or building funds.

Realities of church construction in the High Middle Ages: What did this change in practice? In the case of new building projects or major repair work, certainly it changed little because the regular building endowments, if there were any at all, could hardly have been sufficient. For example, the bishop and the canons of Chartres were compelled - according to the contemporary Miracula beatae Marie Virginis in Carnotensi ecclesia facta (a report on the miracle of the blessed Virgin Mary at the church of Chartres) - to make a "considerable part" of their incomes available for the restoration of the cathedral after the devastating fire of 1194.

However, thanks to this same source, we know of some further 'internal matter', which revolved around the reconstruction of this highly significant shrine which served as a place of worship of the Virgin Mary, and was also a center of pilgrimage. This shows, for example, that those responsible for the building only agreed to a contract after a word of admonishment by the cardinal legate Melior of Pisa, who then happened to be staying in Chartres. The same report states that their contribution was restricted to only three years; and that ultimately, after the course of this time span, no further funds were available, "so that those", as the Miracula report states, "who ran the building had nothing at their disposal, with which they could have paid the workers, or what could have been given to the workers in the future."

[Fig.2: View of the southeast façade of St. Peter's Cathedral at Regensburg (photo:Athena Review)].

A similar state of affairs must have presented itself to Bishop Durandus the Younger of Mende, when he - in his reformist text De modo generalis concilii celebrandi, written for the council of Vienne in 1311 - castigated those curates and prelates, who neither wanted to contribute funds to ease the burden of church building, nor to the maintenance of the lights, nor the restoration of the roofing.

Obviously, rules were established for the effective enactment of the canon law. The fact that one felt obliged to codify the proportionate burden over and over again by contracts, internal statutes, and regulations, only confirms this state of affairs in a different way. For instance, since the beginning of the 13th century there is evidence for the taxation of incomes made by prebends and benefices of the cathedral chapter and canons, intended for a whole series of building enterprises. Yet even under these circumstances, refractoriness and opposition by the canons was not precluded. At Vienne, those behind in their payments no longer had the right to even enter the cathedral or other churches.

What about the contributions of the bishops? Were they not the pillars supporting the structure of the church, the machinam ecclesiae verbo et vitae sustentant ("the machine supporting the church by word and life"), as written by Sicard of Cremona (who died in 1215)? Certainly, the times had changed. Unlike the circumstances of the 10th and 11th centuries, the cathedral chapters had now grown into independent legislative bodies. Every bishop experienced this, as when the chapter claimed its right to have a say in the administration of the episcopal income. Also, in a quarrel with the bishop, the cathedral chapter could unceremoniously place him under an interdiction, an action which some of the French cathedral chapters had an explicit right to perform.

Much evidence points to this changed situation, in which the chapter also took over the status of owner-builders of the cathedrals, so that the contribution of the bishop, whose office could be understood as a beneficium ecclesiasticum ("ecclesiastical benefice"), was now more clearly defined. Thus in 1283, a Parisian bishop was, among other things, expected to contribute to the maintenance of the new cathedral belfries; while his colleague at Poitiers had to bear the costs for the entire wooden construction of the cathedral towers.

Surely, a bishop was not necessarily unconcerned with the control of the building funds office (fabrica ecclesiae). At Cologne (fig.4) during the 14th century, a vehement quarrel flared up on this subject between the archbishop and the cathedral chapter. This does not at all mean that the archbishop would have complied with his obligation to support the building with any pleasure. Some bishops knew how to get rid of this obligation legally, by letting the onera reparationis (the duty to participate in church building and maintenance) sink down to a mere object of exchange. This was the case in 1023 at Nevers, when Bishop Hugo transferred the income of two of the cathedral's altars to the community of the canons, and, by so doing, secured his release from required payments for the nave of the church and the maintenance of the cloister. At Coutances, Bishop Hugo of Morville in 1235 left certain incomes to the chapter, including his share of oblations (donations) from the main altar. From then on he was released from all further obligation to pay for minor repair work on the belfries.

On the other hand, we hear of fierce quarreling in Arras about the extent of the episcopal obligation for church construction in the year 1253. In this case, Bishop Jacob refused to pay for the repair or restoration of the belfries and cloister, as the cathedral chapter demanded of him, since (from their point of view) the general maintenance of the entire cathedral and of certain parts of its furnishings should be incumbent upon the bishops. Finally, the quarrel ended with an agreement that Jacob pay a single compensation of 400 Parisian pounds to the cathedral's building fund for its repair. In exchange, he gained the concession that the Bishops of Arras, apart from minor costs, would henceforth be released from all building obligations.

Of course we also know of bishops who donated this or that sum of money for the building of the cathedral, or those, such as Robert of Courtenay at Orléans, who gave building materials and land for building sites. Consider, for instance, the case of St. Engelbert (Archbishop of Cologne from 1216-1225) who, seriously in debt, held out the prospect of paying an initial financing of 500 marks to the chapter for the new cathedral building, as the contemporary Caesarius of Heisterbach reports in his biography of the saint. It was then simply just and fair that Englebert had to pay the same sum every year until the church was completed. This is because, according to the concept of the law at that time, whoever enjoyed a benefice of the church had to, after all, contribute to its structural maintenance, not from his personal assets, but from the means of his benefice and office; in keeping with the example of the bishop, his incomes of the mensa episcopalis.

The passion of a number of these conflicts is surprising. There is little doubt that the greater the chapter's influence became on the administration of the cathedral, the more the bishop became estranged from any structural concerns of the cathedral. The latter still held the bishop's seat (the cathedra), but in actuality it may have no longer stood under the bishop's jurisdiction.

The role of the canons: Similarly, on the side of the secular canons, there were few incentives to donate to church building projects. Certain aspects did little to stimulate the willingness of the canons to become actively involved in church building through a renunciation of their incomes. These aspects included the cumulation of prebends (see glossary), curial commission mandates on vacant prebends (the chapter's right to fill a vacant prebend with a candidate named by the Curia), entitlements, and the whole system of numerous reservations or reserved privileges (which since the second half of the 13th century increasingly followed the papal plenitudo potestatis or fullness of authority). Why should a Middle Italian prelate, owning a benefice at the cathedral of Cambrai, which was completely unfamiliar to him, be interested in this building? This is why relevant statutory laws, which stated that tax had to be paid on incomes made by prebends and benefices for church building purposes, were considered highly unpopular measures among the chapters and canons, and were only rarely mentioned in the contemporary sources.

[Fig.3: West façade of Reims Cathedral (photo: Patrick Demouy)].

For more obvious reasons, therefore, those canons newly admitted to a chapter were burdened with such financial obligations. Just as the right of disposal of incomes of the canonry's benefice was often kept from them for a certain period (to first pay off debts or other costs created by the predecessor), they frequently had to set aside one or several so-called building years (anni fabricae), during which their incomes were monopolized for ecclesiastical building purposes. By the 12th and especially the 13th and 14th centuries, this was a common legally instituted means of financing church buildings. There is no doubt that, even during this boom building period, clerical finances continued to play a large role in the building of churches. Thus there was a frequent concentration on the mobilization of external resources right from the beginning. Cathedral chapters, in particular, deliberately, if not unscrupulously, abused their special role within the diocesan church system, as the cathedral had, according to its status of mater ecclesiarum, an instrument which neither an abbey church, nor a collegiate church, or (lastly) a parish church was entitled to.

The role of the parish churches, and the 'harvesting' of alms: In contrast, parish or parochial churches, which were most intensely exposed to the jurisdiction of the cathedral chapter, were the big losers. In this case, petitions were frequently replaced by mandates (orders). Admonitions addressed to the parish priests remained comparably moderate. These included demands to support the interests of cathedral building in their sermons, to conscientiously administer the incoming means of the parish, and to inform the bishop about the individual donors. Yet, who would have wanted to risk dismissal or excommunication because of the slightest unauthorized act, even if the local church needed the legates and offerings of the members of the parish community just as much as the cathedral? With such punishments - and this was certainly no isolated case - the vicar general of Châlons-sur-Marne threatened in 1255 all those parish priests who did not support the cathedral building enterprise, to the best of their abilities, on all Sundays and religious festivals up until the next synod; who did not make cathedral-building their top priority, thus putting back or suspending all other matters; or who admitted non-local collectors of alms into their churches, up until the mentioned date.

Additional mention should be made of the collections of alms. Whether or not they were connected with an indulgence by payment, their numbers were immense. Much to the displeasure of some of the ecclesiastical authorities, in many places during the 13th century they had fallen into the hands of professional collectors, the so-called questuarii. All this not only proves the eminent importance of oblations or donations from the congregation for the building of churches - which emerges clearly in other sources - it also, of course, shows an undisguised amount of commercialization.

Rather common during the Gothic period was the planned 'harvesting' of the diocese by the questuarii, who travelled around on behalf of the cathedral building office (fabrica ecclesiae). In Cologne, collections in favor of the cathedral building had priority over all others - if the latter were approved at all. Non-local collectors, such as brothers of the order of St. Anthony of Vienne, who, at the beginning of the 14th century, collected money in the Cologne diocese, were obliged on penalty to surrender a part of their proceeds to the local cathedral building fund.

In an additional method of carefully-staged planning, messengers would march into the parishes in advance and announce, for this or that day, a specific collection. Frequently, the day of the collector's arrival had to be observed as a holiday. If a parish church was under interdiction (with a prohibition of official ecclesiastical acts), this would be reversed, so that the collection could be carried out. The parish priest had to assemble the congregation to explain the purpose of the collection to them and to exhort them to donate something.

In the case of the Cologne diocese, in 1327 Archbishop Henry II ordered that, after reading the Gospel aloud, the local clergy of the churches and chapels had to first let the collectors of the Cologne cathedral building office (fig.4) have their say. The usual church service was interrupted at this point, and permitting the external collectors to give a sermon and preach the Word of God. They then asked for oblations and alms for the church construction. If the local priest wanted to hold his own sermon, he then had to wait until the collection was finished, so that the collectors were able to reach the next church without any further delay. Additionally there were threats of punishment, reaching the extreme of suspension and excommunication, spoken out repeatedly against those who might keep back oblations collected for the cathedral fund. There is no doubt that the costs of the Cologne cathedral were raised "to the greater part out of alms and donations of Christian believers", as a document of the cathedral chapter of 1325 notes.

Cologne was not an isolated case. At Carcassonne the bishop promised the parish priests and their vicars an indulgence (see glossary) of twenty days, each time urging the parishioners to make a donation in favor of the cathedral building fund. As mentioned above, in 1255 all those priests of Châlons-sur-Marne who did not support the cathedral building project to the best of their abilities, were threatened by such extreme penalities as excommunication and dismissal. Just as at Cologne, also at Troyes a planned 'harvesting' of the diocese was common towards the end of the 13th century. According to a preserved account of the office of the fabrica, in 1294/95 the incomes made from collections of alms and offertory boxes made up approximately 89% of the total income of the cathedral building fund (bona fabrica).

Thus the offerings of the parishioners seemed to provide an inexhaustible source of income for cathedral building. Nonetheless, the fabrica's fund-raisers, for whom this was still not enough, might have fleeced the parishes in yet other ways. One such method was the incorporation, or permanent transfer of a parish church to the cathedral, performed by an ecclesiastical head. Such a transfer aimed at the financial use of the prebends of the parish and also served to increase the cathedral building fund.

[Fig.4: The Pardoner from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1390) is an English version of the questuarii, who has just returned from Rome with a license to sell pardon and indulgences. He also sold fake "relics." (This item is reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA; 26 C9 f.138r)].

Furthermore, another way was making use of half, or all of the incomes of the first year fruits (fructus primi anni) of parish benefices becoming vacant, and then administered within the diocese in connection with an episcopal or canon collation (conferment of an office). At the beginning of the 13th century, such a practice in favor of church building purposes is verifiable for the first time. From then on it was practiced mainly in France by various cathedrals for a number of years: at Limoges, for example, during 1290, 1316, 1320, 1325, and 1344. Orphaned (deserted) parishes, in which the pastoral care suffered, were the result - this more than in the case of incorporations, where usually low paid vicars performed a temporary service.

Anyone who really tries to probe fully into the written sources of the Gothic era in terms of how individual characters acted in connection with the funding of church building, will time and again discover examples of calculation, indifference, ignorance, selfishness, and hostility. For us, this behavior simply brings the process of late medieval church building - and everywhere, that of cathedral building - from a sphere of religious keenness and rapt theological symbolization, back to reality.

Examples abound in the Gothic period of such unlofty behavior. It doesn't seem to matter if this concerned bishops, taking delight in alms collected in the diocese by the cathedral fabricae, or withholding payment of fines actually promised to the fabric; "donors," who did an about-face at the end, and kept a legacy promised long ago from the building contractors; and donation collectors (questuarii) who behaved criminally. Related examples include careless executors of last wills; greedy parish clergymen; noble canons, who exploited their office and benefice only for the sake of its high reputation, and as a way to cement their own financial security with claims of trying to keep within their station; or Curial prebend hunters, who owned three, four, if not dozens of prebends of cathedrals and collegiate churches hundreds of kilometers apart (who accordingly did not have the slightest interest in being involved in any building matters there). Quite a lot of that sounds all too familiar to us. The Middles Ages are actually not so far away as they might seem!

Glossary of terms on cathedral building and administration:

benefice: (beneficium ecclesiae) an ecclesiastical office connected with income earned from financial holdings, land, or taxation.

beneficiary: (beneficiati) originally referring to the lay holder or incumbent of church property (land and estates), often royal vassals; after the 12th century, refers to the holder of prebends directly connected with an office (benefices).

bona fabricae: a building fund, whose money is solely devoted to church building and maintenance of the church fabric.

canon: members of the cathedral chapter, or a collegiate church's chapter. Also, a member of non-monastic religious community living under a rule. Whereas the regular canons (canonici regulares) took a monastic vow, the secular canons (cononici saeculares) did not, and were therefore entitled to more personal freedom, living in their own houses with their own posessions. Many secular canons came from noble families. Their numbers increased significantly after the 10th century, due to growing benefices.

canon law: ecclesiastical law.

capitularies / capitularia: laws and regulations of the Frankish kings, divided into chapters (capitulae).

cathedral chapter: an ecclesiastical corporate body having legal status to manage the administration and services of the cathedral. The chapter and its canons participated in the election of a new bishop and the management of the diocese.

collation: conferment of an ecclesiastical office with a benefice attached.

cumulation: an accumulation of ecclesiastical prebends and offices, as in the hands of a bishop, often leading to less attention paid to individual prebends or offices.

Curial: concerning the central administration (Curia) of the Pope, or of a bishop (diocesan Curia).

decretal / decretal epistle: legal decision (decree) of the Pope on ecclesiastical questions, written as a letter.

decretalist: scholar of ecclesiastical law.

fabrica ecclesiae: 'the construction of a church'. By the 12th century, the administrative office for the management of the building fund (bona fabrica).

in fee / fief: (from Latin: feudum) a piece of land, a customary right, or an office given from a master to his vassal. A fief was originally a loan given for the lifetime of the vassal, but later they increasingly became heritable.

incorporation: incorporation of a prebend into an ecclesiastical institution, e.g., the transfer of a parish into the posession of a cathedral chapter, or monastery, which could lead to insufficient pastoral care within the parish.

indulgence: release or pardon granted by the church from a punishment, increasingly (by the 13th c.) bought and sold.

interdiction: prohibition of all ecclesiastical official acts as a penalty for specific persons or a specific church, or other ecclesiastical institutions.

vicar: deputy of an ecclesiastical office-bearer, such as the bishop, or a parish priest.

magister fabricae: an official controlling the construction funds of a church.

masons' lodge: on-site headquarters of the Master Masons and their assistants (sculptors, stone workers, and bricklayers) in a cathedral building project.

metropolitan / archbishop: the bishop of the capital (metropole) of an archbishop's province, consisting of several bishoprics. The Pope, as bishop of Rome, is the Roman metropolitan.

oblation: collected offerings of the congregation given during the mass.

office: ecclesiastical office and its related duties.

Ordinary: bishop or archbishop with ordinary jurisdictional power.

pardoners / questuarii: professional, travelling alms collectors involved in the sale of indulgences and pardons.

prebend: (praebenda) the right to receive income in various forms, including money, food, and housing, in connection with an ecclesiastical office.

prebendary: the holder of a prebend.

prince bishop: a bishop who, besides his ecclesiastical office, also had the secular status and power of a prince. Such status and territorial power was conferred by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany).

questuarii / pardoners: professional alms collectors with a papal license to sell indulgences and pardons, often travelling around a region.

reservation: specially reserved ecclesiastical rights.

thesaurarii: treasurers of the funds of a church.

vassal: someone under oath to serve a master or king, usually by military service. In return, he received land (a fief) in fee, and certain privileges. Dukes were examples of royal vassals.

References:

Wolfgang Schöller. 1989. Die rechtliche Organisation des Kirchenbaues in Mittelalter, vornehmlich des Kathesdralbaues. Baulast-Bauherrenschaft-Baufinanzierung. Köln-Wien.

Pöschl, Arnold 1926. Die Enstehung des geistlichen Benefiziums. In: Archiv für katholisches Kirchenrecht, 106 (series 4, 14), pp.3-121, 363-471.

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