La motte et le clocher : l'affrontement des symboles ?

Abstract

The increase in the number of mottes in the XIth century has often been considered as the testimony of the weakening of the comtal power. Their frequent setting up just beyond the parochial area gets us to reconsider grounds of their erection. Mottes belonged to relatives whose main members were small milites who held churches and the incomes that were linked to them. The important transfer of these possessions to monks from the second half of the XIth century didn't occur without difficulty. Hit in their rank of local worthies, a lot of milites reacted sharply and built a motte just beyond the parochial border. Inspired by the morphology of many major castles, the motte and its tower thus formed a real counter-symbol of the church and its steeple.