Abbey of Stavelot:
Corvée of Labor, 1126
The usual meaning of a corvée was forced labor over and above the usual services
required of a serf. In this case it took the form of carting lime or wood to a monastery,
under the supervision of a steward or bailiff. Its commutation was not desired by the
abbot.
In the name of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity. Cuonon, by the grace of God, Abbot
of Stavelot. Just as it is right to keep alive those things which have been well and truly
decreed to be inviolate and holy, so there is no question at all that those things which
have been corrupted by perversion ought to be returned to their proper use. Therefore, let
it be known to your posterity that we have discovered a certain corrupt and altogether
reprehensible use, or rather abuse, which we on the advice of our monastery and of our
faithful people have corrected by this present charter. For since it was the ancient
custom that all, who have a rural possession within the boundaries of the villa of
Stavelot, should bring lime three times a year to the monastery, negligent officials,
having accepted money for the cartage, worked two evils, i.e., they oppressed the people
by this exaction and they neglected both the walls of our buildings and the crumbling
walls of the inner cloister. And so we, resisting this two-fold evil, have decreed, and by
this present charter have confirmed our decree, that, for the future, serfs will bring
lime or stone for burning to our monastery, and if they are not commanded to transport the
lime, they need not pay any commutation or redemption at all, except that if there be an
abundance of lime, they may pay for one cartload of lime six loads of timber for building
purposes or two for fuel. Moreover, they will go three times a year, first in the month of
May, then between the feast of St. John and that of St. Peter, at the end of the month of
June, and thirdly between the feast of St. Remaclus and that of St. Remigius. Let them
bring this lime or stone prepared for burning from our manors, that is Louveigné, or
Xhoris, or Filot, or Ozo.
Done at Stavelot in the year of the Incarnation 1126, Lothar being King of the Romans,
Alberon Bishop of Liège, and Cuonon Abbot of Stavelot.
Source:
Jos. Halkin and C. G. Roland, eds., Recueil des Chartes de l=Abbaye de Stavelot-Malmedy, (Brussels: Academie
Royale de Belgique, 1909), p. 292; reprinted in Roy C. Cave & Herbert H. Coulson, A
Source Book for Medieval Economic History, (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936;
reprint ed., New York: Biblo & Tannen, 1965), pp. 365-366.
Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton. The text has been modernized by
Prof. Arkenberg.
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© Paul Halsall, October 1998
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