Jen Mouflet of Sens
Sometimes, students wonder why, for the sake of justice, the medieval Church did not oppose serfdom. But the Church was part and parcel of the feudal system. Men like the abbot of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, in the Sénonais area of France, were perfect examples, for serfs worked the lands of their monasteries and owed them labor and taxes. Yet, in 1249, no doubt facing the economic crisis common to monasteries by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the abbot of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif had a document drawn up that manumitted Jean Mouflet, legally a serf, and made him a citizen of the town of Sens. For this privilege, Mouflet agreed to pay an annual tax to the monastery. Since by this time he had become a prosperous leather merchant, Jean Mouflet surely considered this a good deal. His manumission illustrates the social mobility that the circumstances of his period permitted to the lucky and the hardworking.
- Sens is the site of an important Gothic cathedral, which was already about 100 years old when Jean Mouflet was manumitted. Imagine the cathedral as he might have seen it at
http://www.beloit.edu/~arthist/historyofart/gothic/sens.htm
and, for interior views,
http://www.pitt.edu/~medart/menufrance/sensint.html
- This chapter's "Individuals in Society" shows two ways of manumission, one discussed in the text, the other depicted in the illustration. Read about other kinds of manumission at
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1080england-slaves.html and
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/manumission.html
- Jean Mouflet prospered as a leather merchant. Read a detailed description of medieval leathercraft at
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/leather/plwt.html
