Securing Power through Religious Patronage

Abstract

The sentiments expressed in the charter issued by Jeanne to the Cistercian abbey of Spermalie in 1239, presented in the introduction, illustrate the medieval understanding of the relationship between power as it pertained to rulers and religious patronage. In articulating her belief that the secular power she wielded stemmed from God, Jeanne acknowledged her obligation to use that power on behalf of others. In a sense, she viewed her position as a divine mandate to use the resources at her disposal as countess on behalf of those who sought a religious life.1 While she would have been prompted primarily by spiritual concerns, religious patronage was a complex act that could have a variety of outcomes, secular as well as sacred. Many of the monastic and religious foundations that dominated the landscape of thirteenth-century Flanders and Hainaut were the direct result of comitial patronage. As such, they would have functioned as visible symbols of the countesses’ power as well as their piety.