inheritance meant that in the high Middle Ages there was always ambiguity over the
nature of property rights: on the one hand, a man could do with his own property what he
liked; on the other, he was expected not to do anything that would disrupt his lineage’s
inheritance.
Constance B.Bouchard
[See also: BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE CONTRACTS; DOWRY;
FEUDALISM; NOBILITY; SEIGNEUR/SEIGNEURIE]
Bouchard, Constance B. “Family Structure and Family Consciousness Among the Aristocracy in
the Ninth to Eleventh Centuries.” Francia 14 (1986):639–58.
Il matrimonio nella società altomedievale. Spoleto: La Sede del Centro, 1977.
Reuter, Timothy, ed. and trans. The Medieval Nobility: Studies on the Ruling Classes of France and
Germany from the Sixth to the Twelfth Century. Amsterdam: New Holland, 1978.
Sheehan, Michael M. “Choice of Marriage Partner in the Middle Ages: Development and Mode of
Application of a Theory of Marriage.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 11
(1978):1–33.
White, Stephen D. Custom, Kinship, and Gifts to Saints: The Laudatio Parentum in Western
France, 1050–1150. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
LISIEUX
. The diocese of Lisieux (Calvados) was the last founded in Normandy and the only one
without a local bishop-saint. The city was an important Gallo-Roman center and seaport
on the Touques River even before the arrival of Christianity. Traces of the 3rd-century
city walls were found during the rebuilding after 1944. Of the known medieval abbeys
and churches in and around Lisieux, only the former cathedral of Saint-Pierre and the
Flamboyant church of Saint-Jacques survive.
Saint-Pierre, which dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, was begun during the
episcopacy of Arnulf, who had served on the crusade of 1146. Its nave is one of the first
Gothic structures in Normandy, although Gothic elements are confined to features of
style, columnar supports, pointed arches, and attempts to accomplish the new spatial
organization. The technique and structure are typically Norman and have little to do with
Île-de-France experiments in lightening the wall. The nave was followed by the transept
and straight bays of the chevet near the end of the 12th century; the elegant turning bays,
ambulatory, and side radiating chapels announce the Norman regional style of Gothic.
The axial chapel was rebuilt under Bishop Pierre Cauchon, now remembered only as one
of the condemning judges of Jeanne d’Arc.
The plan of the church consists of an eight-bay nave, flanked by aisles, a projecting
transept with eastern aisles and a handsome lantern tower, and a deep chevet with
ambulatory and three separated radiating chapels. The elevation has three stories
throughout: arcades and aisles, subdivided arcade units open into the unfloored roof
space above the aisle vaults, and single clerestory windows. In spite of details associated
with the Gothic style, the elevation is a common Norman one updated from Romanesque
precedents. Prior to its systematic scrapping after the Revolution, the richly decorated
central portal of the west façade was one of the rare sculpted Early Gothic portals in
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1044