Abbey of Saint-Pierre de la Couture () was a Benedictine monastery in Le Mans. All that survives of it is the abbey church and some of the abbey buildings; the latter date to a rebuild between 1760 and 1775 and are now used to house the prefecture for Sarthe. Dating to the 11th century, the monastery was considered one of the most powerful in western France before the French Revolution.
History Foundation The founder of the abbey was Saint Bertrand, Bishop of Le Mans from 586 to 616, who founded the monastery "de la couture" in honour of Peter and Paul. The name couture or was chosen because of the cultivated fields that surrounded the monastery at the time. From the 10th century onwards, the term took on the meaning of : worship of God. At that time, the city's inhabitants had taken refuge behind the defensive walls. Only the suburb of Saint-Nicolas was then a modest place to live on this side of the Sarthe. In local folklore, the Archangel Michael is said to have come down to earth to indicate the precise place of creation in Saint-Bertrand. The rural area was then located about 600 metres south of the end of the Gallo-Roman wall. The monastery quickly amassed a significant amount of land, starting in Maine with donations from local lords. But these possessions spread throughout France. The most famous were located in Bordeaux, Provence, Burgundy, and especially in England. Of these foreign possessions, the abbey always kept a symbol. The coat of arms of the abbey has always taken the double colours of the fleur-de-lis of the Kingdom of France and the three English lions.
A small town was formed between the suburb of Saint-Nicolas and the abbey. This is now the centre of the city. However, the hyper-centre, as we know it (Place Saint-Nicolas and not Place de la République) remains several hundred metres from the abbey.
However, the 9th and 10th centuries were not to the advantage of the religious. They were subjected to the law of the new secular lords, the Counts of Maine and were soon attacked by the Normans. The abbey was partially destroyed and its cultural possessions were burned. Gauzbert rebuilt the abbey of Saint-Pierre de la Couture in 990, supported this time by Hugues I, Count of Maine, in agreement with Avesgaud, Bishop of Le Mans. Although attracted by the Cluniac movement, Gauzday did not depend on it. However, like the Order of Cluny, La Couture tried as much as it could to guarantee its independence from the lordly and even episcopal powers. Above all, the bishopric of Le Mans, which was one of the most powerful in France because of its size, and also because of its financial capacities. The abbey tried, like many others, to place itself under the direct authority of the Pope. The abbey had to face a significant number of trials against local lords. If donations were important for the abbey at that time, it was mainly because it recovered land lost during conflicts or usurped by secular lords. With these recoveries, the abbey rebuilt the abbey church in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Around 1010, Geoffroy, Lord of Sablé, gave the monks of the Abbey of La Couture in Le Mans the church of Solesmes and its attached farm, thus creating Solesmes Abbey.
At the beginning of the 12th century, the abbey owned 30,000 hectares of land, this time collected in the Le Mans region. In 1288, Charles, Count of Anjou and Maine, grants rights to hold two fairs each year to the monks of LaCouture, on their domain of Moullins. It also has a number of other priories. During an outbreak of the plague which struck Le Mans in 1515, Dom Michel Bureau sent part of the community to shelter in Volnay Priory and took the others, including all the dignitaries to Moullins. Couture became the most powerful abbey in Maine and one of the largest in the whole kingdom. In 1399, abbots of La Couture were endowed with the dignity of bishops, with mitre, ring and cross. The churches of the city and the suburbs are subject to the authority of the abbey. But the Hundred Years' War soon caused much destruction to the abbey and its many priories. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the periods of English occupation were the most destructive. L'Épau Abbey was burned down to prevent the enemy from taking refuge there. However, it is also during this period that its autonomy is strengthened.
Decline
By 1518, it was again declining. First, abbots were now appointed by royal authority, which threatened the autonomy of the abbey. The abbots received the income due to them but did not perform the spiritual function for which they were responsible. This new system, the result of the Concordat of Bologna of 1516, allowed the king much more control of the clergy. Martin Fournier de Beaume, son of the Minister of Finance, replaced the monks at the "Maison de l'Etoile in Paris, with his mother and sister. Upon the capture of Le Mans by the Protestants in 1562, the congregations of the 7 monasteries of Le Mans had to flee. Nicolas Fumée resettled that of La Couture in Moullins. He housed his monks in nearby manor houses belonging to Moullins.
King Henry IV stayed in the abbey during the siege of Le Mans against the league on November 28, 1589. As early as 1657, Maurists were asked to reform the monastery. But the monks were against this. It was a renewal for the abbey in the second half of the 16th century; but its autonomy was non-existent, quite the opposite of before its establishment. She is integrated into the congregation appointing abbots for three years and now only a pawn in the great Congregation of Saint-Maur. It was also the time of the most violent tensions with the other "great" abbey of Le Mans: the abbey of Saint-Vincent, favoured by the Maurists. Much destruction was caused during the Religious Wars, not to mention the fires that partially damaged it. In 1760, the abbey was rebuilt, and by the eve of the Revolution, the abbey was extremely powerful, owning more than 6,000 hectares of land, 33 priories and 224 farms (plus 18 mills). It was already proposed to transform the buildings into a library. But after the concordat between Napoleon and Pius VII, the abbey church became a parish church.
The reconstruction of 1760 made it a remarkably large building for the small community of twenty-four that resided there. Although the initial project was even more gigantic in scope, the church stopped the reconstruction in light of the small congregation willing to live in the monastery. For example, the project was to open 21 windows on the main building and only 15 windows were finally created. The original monastery consisted of a main building located parallel to the nave to the south and two perpendicular wings running west of the South Tower of Notre-Dame and east of the south crossroads of its transept. The central space is divided in two by a kind of intermediate building giving to the north the cloister and to the south the kitchen courtyard. The plan was hardly more innovative than that of the old abbey, but it extended the east wing and the south wing to the north.
List of abbots Abbots
1.Gausbert, - † 15 October 1005 at Bourgueil, also abbé de Saint-Julien de Tours, Maillezais, Bourgueil (990) et Marmoutier (1001). 2.Ingelbaud, (1010 – 1015) 3.Evrard 4.Ascelin, 1050 5.Renaud Ier, (1072 – 1074) 6.Johel 7.Renaud II, 1080 8.Johel, (1094 - †1097) 9.Eudes de Buris, (1111 – 1112) 10.Renaud III, 1121 11.Guillaume Ier, 1133 12.Foulques, 1133 13.Ursion, (1143 – 1158) 14.Geoffroy Ier, (1164 – 1167) 15.Laurent, (1170 – 1171) 16.André, 1175 17.Richard, 1184 18.Thomas, 19.Robert, (1195 - 1205) 20.Geoffroi Bérillaut, † 6 août 1210, murdered by Lord Hamelin of La Faigne. 21.Guérin, (1211 - 1218) 22.Jean Ier, (1218 – 1219) 23.Pierre Ier de Brissent, (1220 – 1225) 24.Hamelin, (1229 – 1248) 25.Jacques Ier, (1261 - 1267) 26.Robert II, 1270 27.Jacques II, (1282 – 1292) 28.Gervais, (1296 - † 5 October 1311) 29.Hugues Gaudin, (7 November 1311 - † 15 August 1324) 30.Jean II du Coudray, (27 August 1324 – † 12 October 1343), first Prior of Loue. 31.Geoffroy de Coëtmoisan, (August 1343 – 30 November 1380) appointed in 1352 Bishop of Cornwall, then Bishop of Dol (1357) 32.Jean III, (1352 – 1359) 33.Mathieu de Juillé, (1362 – 1374) 34.Pascal Huguenot, (1386 - † 3 October 1399), doctor of law, former abbot of Lonlay (1370). 35.Guillaume Patri, (Octobre 1399 - † 15 septembre 1409), former Prior of Solesmes since 1362. 36.Guy de Baïf, 1409 elected in 1412 abbot of S. Aubin d'Angers, where he died on November 6, 1442. 37.Jean IV Chevalier, 1417, with a bachelor's degree in decrees. 38.Alain Le Doyen, 1420 – resigned in 1438, died on February 9 of the following year. 39.Gérard de Lorière, (1439 - † 19 June 1461) 40.Guillaume II Le Monnier, (1461 – † 9 December 1465) 41.Jean V de Tucé, (1465 - 1485), in opposition to a commendatory abbot, Guillaume de Malestroit, who gives up his place in exchange for a pension. 42.Mathieu de la Motte, (1486 – resigned in 1492) 43.Guillaume III Herbelin, (1492 - † 1496) 44.Michel Bureau, (1496 - † 6 June 1518, doctor of theology 45.Jean Bougler, 1518, Prior of Solesmes from 1505 to his death on April 11, 1556, aged 75
Commendatory abbots 46. Jean Calluau ou Colluant, 1518 - † 29 June 1522, canon of Saintes, then of Angoulême, also abbot of La Couronne (1515), bishop of Senlis from 1517 to his death. 46. Martin Fournier de Beaume, 1524 - † 2 July 1527, Archbishop of Tours from 1521 to his death. 48. Adam Fumée, 1530, resigned in 1546 and switched to Protestantism. 49. Nicolas Fumée, 1546, resigned in 1575 to assume the bishopric of Beauvais, nephew of the previous one, first canon of Paris, master of the King's chapel (1587), also abbot of Beaulieu-lès-Loches (1584), died in Chartres on 3 March 1593. 50. Charles Ier de Bourbon, cardinal de Vendôme, 1575, resigned in 1580, son of Charles de Bourbon and Françoise d'Alençon, also bishop of Nevers, of Saintes, then archbishop of Rouen and bishop of Beauvais, also abbot of Jumièges, Saint-Wandrille, Saint-Germain-des-Près, Corbie, Vendôme, Saint-Lucien, S.Michel-en-l'Herm, La Clarté-Dieu, Beaulieu-lès-Le-Mans, les Châtelliers, S.Etienne de Dijon, Montebourg, etc. uncle of Henri IV and proclaimed king of France under the name of Charles X by the League after the death of Henri III, he died captive in the castle of Fontenay-le-Comte on May 9, 1590. 51. Charles II de Bourbon, second cardinal of Vendôme, 1580 - † July 30, 1594, nephew of the previous one, archbishop of Rouen (1582), appointed cardinal by Gregory XIII on December 12, 1583, also abbot of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, S. Lucien de Beauvais, Bourgueil, Jumièges, Corbie... 52. Michel Dionneau, 1594, resigned in 1602, priest of Le Mans. 53. Jean ou Michel Legay, November 1602 - 1604, cleric of Paris, adviser to the King. 54. Léonore d'Étampes de Valençay, 27 July 1605, Bishop of Chartres (June 3, 1620), then Archbishop of Reims (December 16, 1641), also abbot of S. Martin de Pontoise, Bourgueil (1605–44), Beaulieu-lès-Loches, l'Epine, Vaas, Champagne, L'Epau, la Cour-Dieu and La Pelice, died in Paris on Holy Saturday, April 8, 1651, at the age of 62. 55. Balthazar Poitevin, 1620 – † 1632, also confidential abbot on behalf of the Count of Soissons de Jumièges, S. Oüen de Rouen and S. Michel-en-l'Herm. 56. Jean-Baptiste de Croisilles, 1632, deposed filed in 1637 for having married in secret, adviser to the King, also confidential abbot of S. Ouen de Rouen (1632–39), Jumièges (1632–38) and S. Michel-en-L'Herm (1636–37). 57. Guillaume de Montagne, (1638 – 1640) 58. Nicolas de Conty-Gramont, grandson of the Prince de Condé killed in Jarnac, also abbot of Bassac (1629) although Calvinist, died in 1648. 59. Henri-Louis Chasteigner de La Roche-Posay, 1644 - died of apoplexy on July 30, 1651, at Dissay at the age of 74, Bishop of Poitiers (1611), Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit, also Abbot of S. Cyran (1616–20), S. Cyprien de Poitiers and Nanteuil-en-Vallée (ca 1595).