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Emma Grivotte
Published on
Nov 15 2024 at 1:30 p.m
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Follow The Awakening of Pont-Audemer
Written in Latin in applied calligraphy, the letter is dated 1368. “It is the only manuscript from the time of the abbey found to date, written by Abbot Robert le Brument »exults Éric Dumont.
The president of the Musicales de Cormeilles association, when he has free time, spends it investigate the past of Cormeille Abbeys, a large monument of which almost no trace remains today, on its site in Saint-Pierre-de-Cormeilles (Eure).
Until now, the documents available to historians and local history enthusiasts were later and external to the abbey.
It's extraordinary to have found this, because all the books say that no documents remain from the time of the abbey.
Preserved in England
But they hadn't gone to check outside France! Éric Dumont unearthed a nugget following a travel to the United Kingdom a few months ago, which he carried out with the specific aim of investigating the monument. What is better to do research in “the places which had been possessions of the abbey of Cormeilles” ! For example, the Chepstow priories in Wales, and Newent in England.
In Newent, Éric Dumont came into contact with a local historical society. “His director told me thathe had a copy of a document concerning the abbey of Cormeilles in his living room »relates Cormeillais.
He tells her that the original is kept in the “National Archives” in London and gives her the reference. The enthusiast then requests a copy from the service, which “sent him after six months”, free of charge.
In this letter, Robert le Brument, who was abbot of Cormeilles from 1365 to 1405, names Jean Lefevre, a monk, to the position of bailiff, or prior of Newent, a position just below abbot in the hierarchy.
“To maintain and direct the said bailiwick, comprising the church of Beckford, and to direct their priory of Striguil (Chepstow) in Wales in the event of a vacancy,” the translation says. “It was a Norman who was sent to run the priory of Newent”he points out, at the time when the Duke of Normandy was king of England, and the abbey was very famous in the Perfidious Albion.
The ink is still clearly visible, not transparent. It is a document that has been very well preserved, in good conditions.
Note that Robert le Brument is one of the rare abbots truly from the region : he was born in Cormeilles. His successor was also Abbot Donnel, who participated in the trial of Joan of Arc in Rouen (by the Anglo-Norman camp) and in having her condemned.
Cormeilles recovered the coat of arms?
On the wax seal which accompanies the document, “we can see very clearly the abbot, his crosier, as well as a last representation of the abbey, and even its coat of arms”, exclaims Éric Dumont. These coats of arms are supposed to represent a deer on a red background, like those of the commune of Cormeilles which recovered them in 1856.
On the seal, however, Éric Dumont cannot distinguish the animal. He would like to explore this point and has appealed to the mayor and the bishop of Évreux to search the ecclesiastical archives of the diocese:
To identify the coat of arms, the town hall had to do research because they belonged to the diocese.
After this first discovery, Éric Dumont cherishes the hope of “finding other manuscripts” linked to the old abbey. “When I return to England I will go to the National Archives in Kew to see if they know of any others. »
For him, a supreme joy would be to find a representation of the buildingin drawing or painting, to always be able to bring it back to life in people's minds.
Two stones from the old abbey placed in the presbytery
If the building, dismantled after the Revolution, is no longer visible at all apart from its surrounding wall and the priory which had been built next to it, a few relics were nevertheless able to be brought together thanks to the research of Éric Dumont. In the spring, the municipality of Cormeilles dedicated a space and a plaque at the entrance to the presbytery garden for two stones from the monument, made of Caen stone.
The biggest was at the town hall: “Everyone knew” that it came from the abbey. The other, a stone from the cloister, was kept by the family of a former owner of the land, a doctor, who had organized private and unsupervised excavations at the site of its remains in 1902. “There are holes because the stones fit together like Legos to make the columns”, notes Éric Dumont, who hopes to soon repatriate another piece.
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