Abstract EN:

Bayeux and lisieux are two former roman towns which became episcopal towns in the middle ages. They experienced a momentary growth in the eleventh or in the twelfth century. From the thirteenth century, they became small ecclesiastical towns. Bayeux built up an amazing system of eighteen parishes (compared with only three at lisieux). Both these towns had a residential area, inhabited by clerics and bourgeois, located in the former roman city. The poor areas were excluded outside the walls of the town. In the fourteenth and the fifteenth century, the population was reduced to three or four thousand inhabitants. At lisieux, the count-bishop exercised a dominating power. At bayeux, the bishop and the chapter had to conform with the royal authority, represented by the viscount. This was even more true (like at lisieux) during the english occupation. In the laic society, the bourgeois were revived at the end of the middle ages. At lisieux, where a new enclosure had been built, they managed in establishing a town government organization. The bourgeois grew richer by the farming of the taxes or the clergy's possessions. They aspired to careers as royal or episcopal officiers. They dreamt of reaching the ranks of the noble class. Some succeeded and acquired rural fiefs. The economy of both these towns was rather limited. However, the world of trades at lisieux was more dynamic : it was successfull in establishing structures. Bayeux and lisieux exercised their influence on small regions (such as bessin on one hand, pays d'auge and lieuvin on the other hand) but that one did not stretch beyond a distance of fifteen kilometers of the surrouding area.