Parròquia i societat rural al Bisbat de Girona, segles XIII i XIV

Abstract

The parish, undervalued by the medieval historiography, was a fundamental institution for the arrangement of the rural society of the diocese of Girona between the 10th and the 13th centuries. It was a well delimited territory, whose inhabitants received the ecclesiastic sacraments of the clergymen who ruled the church and, across the fabric fund and the churchwardens, they took part in the management of the parish and of its economy. The parish influenced directly in the organisation of the rural settlement not only through the ecclesiastical villages, or "celleres", but also through the isolated manses into the boundaries of the parish. Besides, the parish was an important source of revenues: through the documentation generated by the bishop of Girona, the tithe appears as a revenue mainly in hands of feudal lords, gentlemen and important ecclesiastic institutions; the parochial clergymen only were receiving the first fruits, or primícies, and other rights of minor value. Finally, the parish contributed significantly in the rural communities configuration of most of the diocese of Girona.