PANCHARTA. - The name by which, in the medieval period, the privileges issued by sovereign authority to confirm to churches or monasteries all previous grants were designated, especially when earlier documents had been lost or destroyed.
At the abbey of St-Martin de Tours the term p. is attested in the sense of “cartulary” or “liber privilegiorum.” Restricted to Frankish territory, and concomitant with the use of the Christian era in the French style (the beginning of the year on Easter Day), is the name of p. paschalis given to the table containing the chronological indications for the new year, which was hung on the Paschal candle during the Holy Saturday service. More widespread, however, in the Carolingian period, is the term p. in the sense of appennes (v.).