2) The ground level of the present cloister is about fifteen centimeters below the level of the church suggesting that even the archaeological layers below ground were probably destroyed as well. Back To Text
3) Charvin, II: &#; 131. Back To Text
4) Charvin, I: &#; 112. Back To Text
5) Charvin, III: &#; 279 and &#; 285. Back To Text
6) Charvin, IV: &#; 205 and &#; 206. Back To Text
7) Ibid., and Charvin, IV: &#; 349. The refectory is also mentioned in the "Ordinnées" for the General Chapter in 1685 (VII: p. 234). Back To Text
8) Charvin, III: &#; 279 and &#; 281. Back To Text
9) Charvin, II: &#; 323. Back To Text
10) Indications of this portal are still visible on the interior of the church. The masonry at the west end of the south aisle wall does not course continuously along the length of the entire bay. The blocks adjacent to the angle between the wall and the doorway to the stairs are fill. Nonetheless, the east edge of the break is not marked by ashlar blocks, which we would expect if there had been a door jamb at this point. Perhaps they were all removed when the door was blocked up; this would not have been the easiest way of doing it. Neither of Millet's plans (Fig. 3), nor the one from 1841 (Fig. 5) show a door in this location. Similarly, not one of the three shows the door in the west wall of the south cross arm. Back To Text
11) Whitney S. Stoddard, Monastery and Cathedral in France (Middletown, CT: 1966): Fig. 8). Back To Text
12) For the cloister of Cluny II, see Conant, 1968: figs. 4 and 5; for that of Cluny III, ibid.: fig. 6. Back To Text
13) The new cloister must have been built sometime before Pontius' fall in 1122. Back To Text
14) The only possible early textual references to a cloister or, at least, to buildings generally associated with a cloister are not entirely reliable. Charter &#; 133 from the Paray cartulary relates that a donation of Gui de la Curt took place "en chapitre à Paray"; C: &#; 133. Unfortunately, this charter exists only in translated summary, and it is unclear if the French word &";chapitre&"; refers to the chapter house, or the daily chapter meeting. One might surmise, however, that it is extremely unlikely that Gui and his witnesses, presumably all laymen, would be present at a daily chapter meeting of the priory's community. Gui may have been the Wido [de Corte] of charter &#; 95, who during the tenure of Girardus (in office during the middle of the twelfth century, cf. C: &#; 206, dated 2 nones (i.e. the sixth of) May 1147) caused the priory much trouble and later repented. Perhaps, this is the same Wido de la Curt who was a witness for two other charters (C: &#; 115 and &#; 204), though this would suggest Wido lived for quite some time, since Jean Richard (Le cartulaire de Marcigny-sur-Loire (1045-1144): Essai de reconstruction d'un manuscrit disparu (Dijon: 1957): 243) believes the subject of Charter &#; 115, Dalmace of Bourbon, died before 1082. Charter &#; 200 also mentions that Hugo de Borbon (Bourbon-Lancy) also &";in capitulo Paredi venit,&"; and disavowed all the earlier claims and trouble he had caused the priory, &";in praesencia domni Burchardi prioris et fraterum.&"; Again, the location and architectural setting is not certain, though, it could well be a chapter house, in which Prior Burchard held court, as the seigneur of Paray's lands. Burchard's dates are uncertain, but he seems to have held the priorship of Paray after Artaud who was in office in 1123 and before Girard (discussed above); see M. Canat de Chizy, Origines du Prieuré de Paray-le-Monial (Chalon-sur-Saô:ne: 1876): 126. Back To Text
Send any comments or suggestions to Minott Kerr at:
mkerr@reed.eduLast Modified: 21 May 1996