124 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
If we consider that on the whole this epitaph record contains only
a few names and that the vocations of many are not indicated, the pro-
portion of builders appears sufficiently strong to show that Saint
Nicolas Parish was clearly a builders' neighborhood at one time. This
same holds true for the neighborhoods near Saint Sauveur, Saint
Gervais, and Saint Paul, as we can see from epitaph records from these
parishes.
Near Saint Nicolas des Champs was the small parish of Saint
Sauveur, throughout whose territory the Temple had its domains. Here
again, Saint John the Evangelist served as the second patron saint. The
church here was demolished in 1787 and its site is now occupied by a
house on the rue Saint Denis.
As the short epitaph record suggests, the parish of Saint Sauveur
was home to numerous masons: Pierre Morin, mason and bourgeois of
Paris (December 15, 1623); Gilles de Harlay, master mason and sworn
mason to the king (February 24, 1579); Jeanne Legrand, his wife (July
13, 1580); Pierre Breau, employed on royal construction projects and
excelling in masonry (January 8, 1606); Anne Breau, his wife (October
18, 1617).
An intriguing indication of the connection of Saint Sauveur to the
Templars is its proximity to Trinity Hospital, located on the corner of
rue Saint Denis and the rue Darnetal or Greneta in the censive district
of the Temple.* This hospital, one of the oldest in Paris, was founded
in 1202 by two private citizens, Jean Palee and Guillaume Estuacol, to
take care of "poor pilgrims." Sometime around 1210 a chapel was
erected at the hospital, which was long administered by the members of
a religious community, the Premontres d'Hermieres. "This order,"
writes Pierre Bonfons, "was continued charitably for a good length of
time until the abbot of Hermieres placed there other monks who were
more inclined to seek their own personal profit than to give charity of
- This is indicated from the status of the Templar domain according to the harvest
record of 1247: "It is in a splendid site before the Trinity." Also: "In the year 1217, there
was mention of the church of the Trinity, in front of which church there were houses of
the Episcopal censive district belonging to the Templars" (Lebeuf, vol. 1, 115). It should
be specified that the rue Greneta was also partially in the censive district of the
Benedictine abbey Saint Magloire.