The fief of Castrum Sepulchri is mentioned in a document of 954 concerning the donation of this territory by Count Guidone of Ventimiglia to the Cistercian fathers of Lérins: a territory of about 55 km² bordering San Remo to the north (Republic of Genoa) and Perinaldo to the south (Kingdom of Savoy), Ospedaletti to the east and Vallebona to the west (Republic of Genoa), together with the chaplaincy of Saint Michael in Ventimiglia (today the church of Saint Michael in the diocese of Ventimiglia-Sanremo), as far as Moulinet (France).
This document, considered apocryphal — probably because the original had been lost — was reworked in 1304 by Abbot Sicard (source: municipal administration of Seborga, 1963) with the information in his possession and contained in the original document; that reworking was held to be authentic until 1757, when the archivists of Turin demonstrated that it was false.
The only document never disputed and regarded as original, dated 1177 and surviving to this day, concerning a dispute between the monks of Lérins and the counts of Ventimiglia over the boundaries of their respective properties between Vallebona and Seborga, confirms the existence of the former abbatial principality of Seborga.
After the deed of donation of 954, the territory of Seborga continued to depend administratively on the abbey of Lérins, in the county of Provence, which, after belonging to the Angevins of Naples, was annexed to the Kingdom of France in 1481.
In 1261 the prior of the church of Saint Michael in Ventimiglia, Giacomo Costa, drew up the Statutes and Regulations of the Principality on the authority of the abbot of Lérins.
The Provençal monks drew little profit from the revenues of the estate and were often obliged to borrow money to relieve the wretched life of their subjects.
In December 1666 Prince-Abbot Cesare Barcillon, in order to obtain substantial income, opened a mint on the lower floor of the abbatial palace on Piazza San Martino in Seborga: the first master of the mint was Bernardo Bareste of Mougins. Several coins were struck and the activity lasted until October 1689. The Luigini, however, contained little silver and were therefore not valued, even in the East, partly because of competition from other currencies such as that of the county of Tassarolo.
Louis XIV of France ordered the mint closed.
Princely rank and the right to strike coin were prerogatives of the Holy Roman Emperor and of the pope, who could extend them to their vicars. In the case of Seborga it is assumed that the source is not imperial since, besides the fact that no document proves it, the possessions of the county of Provence, which had died out, passed to the Kingdom of France, wholly independent of the Empire.
Its origin must therefore have been exclusively papal: each abbot could grant himself, with papal authorisation, titles of nobility. This is what the abbots of Lérins did, naming themselves “Princes” and attaching to Seborga their aristocratic predicate, as deputies of the authority of the Holy See over the monastery. As Prince-Abbot, he depended not on the secular clergy but on the Pope alone (“nullius diocesis”): he directed the parishes of the territory and appointed the provost of Seborga.
The Prince-Abbot did not often stay in Seborga, and his absence was poorly received by the villagers. He appointed a vicar, called Podestà, whose term ran from six months to three years and was renewable. Assisted by two mayors and two consuls, the vicar administered the fief under the close supervision of the absent abbot, to whom he had to submit continual reports on his public activities.
The prince sometimes visited him and stayed in the abbatial palace: he was entitled to the style of “His Reverend Lordship” or “His Most Reverend Highness”, his office being ad vitam, as laid down by the rules of the Cistercian order, under which every abbot is elected for life.
But the monks, weary of this delegated administration which yielded little because of the debts contracted — first with the Genoese in 1584, under a contract drawn up by the notary Nicolò Vigano, then with other monasteries and a French nobleman — decided to sell the Principality. The first sale was made to the Republic of Genoa on account of the debt previously contracted, then to Duke Victor Amadeus of Savoy in 1697, both annulled by the Supreme Pontiff; finally the alienation took place on 30 January 1729 in favour of the king of Sardinia, Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, who wished to draw ever closer to the coveted sea.
The House of Savoy, unwilling to give up the strategic territory it so desired, persuaded the abbot of Lérins to convene the congregation of the fathers of Lérins on 11 December 1728 and to confirm the desired alienation to the king of the House of Savoy, so that the sale could take place in Paris on 30 January 1729.
In an exchange of letters of 12 January 1729 between the lawyer Lea and the archbishop-prince of Embrun, Pierre Guérin de Tencin, apostolic commissioner and papal delegate for the approval of the sale — which mentions among other things the sale already attempted in 1697 — reference is made to a letter of Pope Benedict XIII of 13 October 1728 (Nostra Apostolica Petitum) authorising the sale on condition that the debts burdening the principality be paid. That letter states literally (source: Archivio di Stato di Torino): “…in exstravaganti ambitiosa contrabona Eccelsia alienantes statutis…”.
The archbishop and prince of the metropolitan city of Embrun, Pierre Guérin de Tencin, was delegated by the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XIII to settle the dispute between the Republic of Genoa, which could count on the friendship of the Podestà of Seborga, Monsignor Giuseppe Biancheri, and the Abbot of Lérins, who had been pressed by Savoy to alienate the former abbatial Principality of Seborga.
The apostolic commissioner conducted a meticulous enquiry, begun in Paris and completed at Versailles on 8 July 1728. The document sets out no fewer than nine points to be observed. It is essential to stress that the definitive alienation required the authorisation of the Fathers of the Abbey of Montmajour in Arles: under the original deed of donation by Count Guidone, dated 954, should the Cistercian Fathers and Monks of the Island of Lérins attempt to alienate the said territory of Seborga, including the Chaplaincy of Saint Michael in Ventimiglia, the bequest would pass automatically to the Fathers of Montmajour in Arles.
The delegate of the Supreme Pontiff, archbishop and prince of Embrun, therefore approached the said Fathers of Arles, who set the compensation at 15,000 Savoyard lire.
The sale price, set at 147,000 Savoyard lire, was therefore to be reduced by the 15,000 Savoyard lire set as compensation for the Fathers of Montmajour in Arles. The remaining 132,000 Savoyard lire, according to the document available in the Turin Archives drawn up by the delegate, archbishop and prince of the metropolitan city of Embrun, should have been paid to the Republic of Genoa to settle the debts contracted in 1584, with a receipt to be attached to the deed of alienation.
In any event, the archbishop and prince of the metropolitan city of Embrun, delegated by the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XIII, authorised the sale without further papal authorisation.
The contract of sale was drawn up by the lawyer Francesco Lea, in the presence of a representative of the late Prince-Abbot His Most Reverend Highness Monsignor Fauste de Balon, the Reverend Father Benoit de Benoit, bursar of the abbey of Lérins. The sum was set at 147,000 Savoyard lire. The sale took place in Paris before a notary who registered the instruments.
A copy of this deed of alienation to Savoy is kept in the State Archives of Turin (I).
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