La délimitation des territoires paroissiaux dans les pays de moyenne Garonne (Xe-XVe siècles)

Abstract

The process of bounding parish territories in Quercy (10th-15th c.). In the confluence area of the Tarn, the Aveyron and the Garonne, documentary evidence shows a wide variety of parishes, attached to different kinds of churches (secondary church, monastic church...). These differences seem to bear more on legal or fiscal status than on the reality of the parish or on parishioners'practice. The process of bounding parish territories was late, and its completion was slow to come about. It was determined by three inter-related factors : the influence of patterns of the past, the topographical constraints, and incidental local circumstances.