On 13 May 1259, at Anagni, Pope Alexander IV issued the bull “Abbati Monasterii euisque fratibus”.
This bull confirms the privileges, property and rights of the abbey of Lérins, confirming that the monastery is subject to the Apostolic See alone and thereby establishing the right of “Nullius Diocesis”, forbidding any clerical authority to interfere in the running of the abbey, which was directly linked to the Holy See. It states in so many words: “We forbid any harassment by archbishops, bishops, archdeacons and any ecclesiastical person…”.
With this authority the monks of the abbey of Lérins, unable to establish a principality on the island of Saint-Honorat since it belonged to the territories of the Holy Roman Empire, were able to use this complete autonomy by establishing two priories: one in the village of Sabourg, the former Castrum Sepulchri, known today as Seborga, and the other at the Chaplaincy of Saint Michael in Ventimiglia, which held the Grange. These territories were declared by Count Guido in the deed of donation to the monks of Lérins in the year of grace 954 as “libero et mero imperio” (free and absolute dominion). It may therefore be affirmed that the birth of the Principality of Sabourg is of exclusively papal origin, and not imperial as others claim without historical evidence. This is why, from 1261 onwards, each abbot had the right to take, with the pope's authorisation, the title of Prince of Sabourg, assigning to the granted territories their aristocratic predicate, as deputies of the authority of the Holy See over the monastery. As a prince, the abbot of Sabourg did not depend on the secular clergy but only on the pope: he directed the parishes of the territory and appointed the provost (prior) of Sabourg and of the Chaplaincy of Saint Michael in Ventimiglia.
After the constitution of the Principality of Sabourg in 1261, and following the papal bull of Alexander IV of 1259, the Prince-Abbots reigned until 1729 by virtue of the right of “nullius diocesis”, exercised in the free territories of the Empire.
(Extract from the book “Il Principato del Sabourg”, a collection of studies by His Most Reverend Highness Mgr Giovanni Luca de Sabourg, forthcoming.)
Related sites
castrumsepulchri.com