TheMotherChurch 35
being of a place or people (plebs) meant worshiping together in a particular
church.^112 Modern parishes, independent churches with baptismal rights, did
not replace this system until well into the fourteenth century.^113 In Pistoia,
division of the pievi happened only in the late 1400 s.^114
Within the city walls, a different system reigned. In the mid- 1100 s most
pastoral care within the city was already divided among urban chapels
(calledcappelle) similar to the subordinate chapels of a rural pieve but depen-
dent on the cathedral itself.^115 Although variations existed, city dwellers now
used the termparrocchia(parish), as the canonist Gratian did in 1140 , for the
diocese, not their local chapel. In town, the single ‘‘parish’’ was that of the
cathedral.^116 When tithe lists become available in the mid- 1200 s, the cathe-
dral as single urban parish was the rule almost everywhere. The earliest
datable tithe list containing sufficient information to reveal the network of
city chapels is from Parma in 1230. That city had sixty-three urban chapels.
All but twelve belonged either to the Ecclesia Matrix or to the bishop him-
self. Other chapels depended on the monasteries of San Paolo, Sant’Older-
ico, and San Giovanni.^117 In 1299 , the date of next extant list showing chapel
organization at Parma, the number of urban chapels had increased to sixty-
eight. Of these, all but eight (still subject to the monastery of San Giovanni)
were under the Ecclesia Matrix.^118 By then the contado had also been reor-
ganized. The rural chapels had been consolidated into forty-five districts,
each under an archpriest.
In spite of the consolidation of pastoral functions at the cathedral, the
lower clergy of the city chapels and the outlying parishes remained essential
to the day-to-day spiritual life of the people. These priests heard confessions
and sang daily Mass; they visited the sick and buried the dead. The lower
clergy’s ministry was of concern to the commune itself. At Parma in the
1250 s, after many of the clergy had fled their churches during a period of
civil strife, one of the first acts of Gilberto de Gente, the new podesta of the
reconciled city, was a negotiation with the bishop’s vicar to get the clergy to
- As at the pieve of Gavi in northern Liguria in 1227 – 28 : Pistarino, ‘‘Diocesi,’’ 660 ; there the
phrasehabere parochiam et parochianos(‘‘to have a parish and parishioners’’) meanshabere populum, et homines,
et mulieres(‘‘to have people, both men and women’’);carere parochia et parochianis(‘‘to lack a parish and
parishioners’’) meanscarere populo(‘‘to lack people’’). - M. Tangheroni, ‘‘Vita religiosa e strutture ecclesiastiche nella Garfagnana del Trecento,’’Pievi e
parrocchie,ed. Erba et al., 2 : 764 , e.g., for the Garfagnana. - Ferrali, ‘‘Pievi,’’ 42.
- For this division and dating at Pisa, see Ronzani, ‘‘Organizzazione,’’ 79 – 80. On the cappelle of
Faenza, see G. Lucchesi, ‘‘I santi titolari delle parrocchie nella diocesi di Faenza,’’Bollettino di diocesi di
Faenza, 27 – 28 ( 1940 – 41 ). - Andre ́Vauchez, ‘‘Conclusion,’’La parrocchia nel Medio Evo,ed. Paravicini Bagliani and Pache,
305 – 6 , links ‘‘parishes’’ in the modern sense with the decreeUtriusque Sexus( 1215 ). The effect of this decree
in Italy was designation of thecappellanoof the neighborhood chapel as confessor for the community. - Rat. Dec. Aem. (Parma, 1230 ), 331 – 34.
- Ibid. (Parma, 1299 ), 361 – 69.