Tart Abbey, also Le Tart Abbey, was the first

nunnery A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican C ...

of the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

movement. It was located in the present commune of Tart-l'Abbaye in

Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

(

Côte-d'Or Côte-d'Or (; literally, "Golden Slope") is a département in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of Northeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 534,124.Genlis, on the banks of the River Ouche and only a few miles away from Cîteaux Abbey, the Cistercian mother house. The community moved to

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

in 1623, and the abbey buildings in Tart were destroyed by war shortly afterwards; only ruins remain.

History

Tart

Foundation and first century

The foundation charter of Tart Abbey is dated 1132, although the deed mentions three previous gifts from 1125. The founder was Arnoul Cornu, lord of Tart-le-Haut, and his wife Emeline, and their gift consisted of the land of Tart, the

tithes A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...

of Rouvres and Tart-la-Ville and the grange of Marmot. It seems clear that the creation of this community was the result of a lengthy series of transactions, which may have begun in about 1120, involving not only Arnoul but the lord of Vergy (his overlord); Josserand de Brancion, Bishop of Langres; the family of

Hugh II, Duke of Burgundy Hugh II of Burgundy (1084 – c. 6 February 1143) was Duke of Burgundy between 1103 and 1143. Hugh was son of Odo I, Duke of Burgundy. Hugh was selected ''custos'' for the monastery of St. Benigne, and this office would be held by his descen ...

; the cathedral chapter of Langres; and

Stephen Harding Stephen Harding (french: Étienne Harding) ( 106028 March 1134) was an English-born monk and abbot, who was one of the founders of the Cistercian Order. He is honoured as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Life There is little archival ev ...

, abbot of the nearby Cîteaux Abbey. The first abbess was Elizabeth de Vergy, widow of Humbert de Mailly, lord of Faverney or

Fauverney Fauverney () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France. Population See also *Communes of the Côte-d'Or department The following is a list of the 698 communes of the Côte-d'Or department of France. The communes coop ...

, daughter of Savary de Donzy, Count of Chalon-sur-Saône. She was previously a novice in a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

nunnery, Jully Abbey or Priory, at

Jully-les-Nonnains Jully () is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. See also *Communes of the Yonne department The following is a list of the 423 communes of the Yonne Yonne () is a department in the Bourgo ...

, from where the new foundation at Tart was settled. She remained its head for the next 40 years. Pope Eugene III put the abbey under Papal protection by a bull of 1147, confirmed by his successors. Borne domaniale abbaye de Tart

Thanks to its support from the upper echelons of society, if not to more popular appeal, the abbey received sufficient endowments to ensure its financial stability through the difficult times to come. Its lands included several vineyards, and the sale of wine was a significant element in the abbey's economy: five hectares of the ''Vignoble de Bourgogne'', others located at Beaune,

Chambolle-Musigny Chambolle-Musigny () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or ''département'' in eastern France. It is one of the wine villages situated on the Côte-d'Or escarpment, and is one of the twelve Côte d'Or communes of France which added or adopted the name ...

Morey-Saint-Denis Morey-Saint-Denis () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France. Population Wine Morey-Saint-Denis is situated in the Northern section of the Côte d'Or called Côte de Nuits. It is one of the principal wine producing vill ...

, Chézeaux and Vosne-Romanée. Physical labour in the fields and vineyards was regarded as too strenuous for female religious, and the work was undertaken by

lay brothers Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers, particularly in the Catholic Church, who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choir, ...

from Cîteaux. These were often in short supply, and the nuns were obliged to hire day-labourers to make up the shortfall. The abbot of Cîteaux also oversaw the spiritual discipline of the nunnery and was responsible for the appointment of the abbess, who was not elected by the community, as was the practice elsewhere. Tart soon became the head of the female branch of the Cistercians, and was directly responsible for the foundation of many further nunneries in France and more in Spain. By the end of the 13th century, when the supply of gifts was drying up, the abbey had amassed sufficient wealth, mostly in the form of land, and gained sufficient ability to manage it, to secure their future through the hardships to come, of which there were many: the

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French Crown, ...

, the ''Grandes Compagnies'' and the ''Écorcheurs'', and the epidemics and calamities that these brought with them, lasted more or less right up to the start of the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estim ...

Decadence and reform

For the first century of its existence, under the close supervision of the mother house at Cîteaux, Tart Abbey maintained very high standards of devotion and rigour, which assured its predominant position at the head of the women's houses of the Cistercian Order. After that, however, a decline began to set in, brought about partly by deteriorating external conditions - wars, famine, pestilence, economic crisis and so on - but also by the tendency, which affected most if not all medieval women's religious foundations, for wealthy and influential families to use them as secure accommodation for their unmarried and widowed female relatives. Such women were by no means always inclined to the religious life, and their presence in any numbers inevitably affected a community's spiritual practice and discipline for the worse. By the 16th century the abbey was in a state of advanced decadence and moral collapse, which neither bishops nor popes were able to remedy, and was notorious for its worldly life and sexual impropriety. In 1617, however, Jeanne-Françoise de Courcelles de Pourlan (b. 1591), who had been educated as a girl at Tart, returned as abbess, with a strong determination to bring about the required reform. Despite the great resistance of the rest of the community, she found a powerful ally in Sébastien Zamet, Bishop of Langres. Opposition to the reform, inside and outside the nunnery, was so great that there was an attempt on the bishop's life. Eventually they decided that reform was impossible as long as the community remained in the abbey at Tart, and that the only way to bring it about was to transfer the nunnery to

, on the basis that in a town it was far easier to maintain seclusion and the discipline of the spiritual life. Accordingly, those of the community who were willing to accept the new and stricter life - five, plus two novices - moved to Dijon on 24 May 1623.

Dijon

The first few years in Dijon were not comfortable. There were long delays in preparing suitable premises, made longer by the severe reduction in the income of the community in Dijon that resulted when in 1636 the troops of Matthias Gallas sacked and burnt the abbey buildings at Tart in the course of the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

, except for an isolated chapel. After the election of an opponent of the reform, Pierre Nivelle, as abbot of Cîteaux, Jeanne de Pourlan (who had taken the religious name of Jeanne de Saint Joseph) put herself under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Langres. At the same time she changed the previous system, whereby the abbot of Cîteaux had directly nominated the abbess, to a three-yearly election by the nuns. The community was dissolved during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. After passing through a number of uses, the buildings are now a museum of Burgundian life, the ''Musée Perrin de Puycousin'', and the former church is now the Dijon Museum of Sacred Art (''Musée d'art sacré de Dijon'').

Notes

References

*Bazin, Jean-François, 1991: ''Chambertin, Le Grand Bernard des Vins de France''. Editions Jacques Legrand *Blondel, Madeleine, 1998: ''Un monastère cistercien à Dijon: Les Dames de Tart''. Dijon *Bourée, Edme-Bernard, 1699: ''La vie de Madame Courcelle de Pourlan''. Lyon: Jean Certe *Bouton, J., Chauvin, B., Grosjean, E., nd: ''L'Abbaye de Tart et ses Filiales au Moyen-Age''. ''Mélanges'' *Chauvin, B., 1990: '' L'Église, la vigne et le vin dans le massif jurassien''. Cercle Girardot: Section d'archéologie de la société d'émulation du Jura *Chauvin, B., Blondel, M., 2004: ''De Tart à Dijon''. Monsenay: Éditions Gaud *Didier, Anselme, 1984: ''Histoire cistercienne'', vol 3: ''Abbayes, Moines'', Article 146, t. II. Pupillin *Francken, J., 1932: ''Agnès Arnault''. Nijmegen *Goussard, J., 1861: ''Nouveau guide pittoresque du voyageur à Dijon''. Dijon *Gruère, H., 1939: ''Histoire des Dames de Tart'': Dijon: Dactyl *Helyot, R. P., 1792: ''Histoire des ordres religieux et militaires''. Paris: T. V. *Marilier, Jean, 1991: ''Histoire de l’Église en Bourgogne''. Éditions du Bien Public *Petit, Ernest, 1881: ''Cartulaire du Prieuré de Jully-les-Nonnains''. Auxerre

External links

*
« Études d’histoire et d’archéologie cisterciennes »
'' Benoît Chauvin, Bulletin du Centre d'études médiévales d'Auxerre, 10 (2006) *
Claude Chapuis, Cahiers du CEREN 13 (2005), ''Le Clos de Tart, Le Patrimoine viticole des Dames de Tart'', 2005
' {{Authority control Cistercian nunneries in France 1132 establishments in Europe 1130s establishments in France Buildings and structures in Côte-d'Or Christian monasteries established in the 12th century Tourist attractions in Côte-d'Or