L’ordre canonial dans le comté de Flandre depuis l’époque mérovingienne jusqu’à 1155

Abstract

When the landslide founding and reform movement came to a standstill in 1155, the county of Flanders and its subsidiary seigniories totalled 57 houses of canons. Of these, thirty three were houses of regular canons, leading a life according to the spirit of the vita apostolica; the remaining twenty four were secular chapters, who lived by the Institutio Aquisgranensis of 816. This multitude and diversity were the outcome of a process that had started half a millennium earlier, and in the course of which each period of the history of the canon order had established its specific kind of institution. By setting up a typology of the houses and a chronology of the foundations and reforms, the present article wishes to point out the dynamism and flexibility that are so typical of the ordo canonicus within the boundaries of Flanders. Nonetheless, one can also distinguish three constants which, no matter what the period or the circumstances, have played an important role in the shaping of this canonical landscape, viz. the celebration of divine service and the importance of the cult of relics, the relation between monastic and canonical order, and finally the synergy between worldly and religious leaders.

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