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Origin and history

The abbey of Montbenoît, located in the Doubs in Burgundy-Franche-Comté, is a former august abbey founded towards the year Mil by a hermit named Benoît. Originally Benedictine community, it adopted the rule of St Augustine in the 12th century under the influence of Archbishop Anseric of Besançon (1117-1134). Its architecture reflects centuries of evolution, with a 12th–15th century cloister, a flamboyant Gothic choir (XVIe), and Renaissance stalls. The monastery also dominated the seigneury of the Saugeese, whose customs it established as early as 1251 through a charter signed with Archbishop William II of the Tower.

In the Middle Ages, the abbey received major donations: forests, tithes, churches (like Nods or Pontarlier) and feudal rights offered by the sisters of Joux, his protectors. These lords, known as warriors, were buried there (e.g. Henry I in 1228, represented in armor on his tomb). The customary of the Saugeois (1458), sealed by Henri Bouchet for Philippe III of Burgundy, codifies 112 articles governing local life, from monastic rights to appointments of judges (messiers). The abbey then manages 20 dependent establishments (prieurés, churches) and collects royalties in salt, wine or chores.

The building was destroyed in the 17th century during the Richelieu Wars, when the troops of Bernard de Saxe-Weimar (called "Swedish") vandalized its interior. Despite fires and conflicts, it remains the only intact medieval religious ensemble in the Doubs. Its elements are protected in stages: cloister classified in 1846, church (excluding bell tower) in 1922, other buildings in 1935, and neo-Gothic bell tower (rebuilt in 1906) registered in 2013. His cloister and choir, symbols of his spiritual and political influence, testify to his central role in the feudal organization of Upper Doubs.

The foundation of the abbey is rooted in the eremitical tradition: Benedict, a solitary one attracting disciples, establishes a Benedictine community before his conversion to the Augustinian rule. The archives mention priors such as Narduin (mid-12th century), the first to wear the Abbatial buttock, or Ferry Carondelet, which in 1522 inspired the reconstruction of the choir and chapels. The charters of the 12th to 13th centuries detail the royalties of the inhabitants of the Saugeese (12 deniers per house, chores) and the rights of the abbey over marriages or inheritances. These texts reveal a rural society structured around the monastery, where seigneurial, ecclesiastical and customary powers intersect.

Joux's sires, a lineage "fearing" according to chronicles, play an ambiguous role as protectors and oppressors. Their decline in the 14th century (extinction in 1326) coincides with the affirmation of the abbey as an economic actor, thanks to dispersed properties: salines de Salins, mills, tolls (e.g. La Cluse), or vineyards. The donations of Pope Innocent II (1141) and Archbishops (such as Humbert de Scey) extend his heritage to Pontarlier or Saint-Gorgon. In the 18th century, architectural changes (wood vaults) preceded the restorations of the 20th century, marked by the reconstruction of the bell tower in Gothic Revival style (1906).

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