Vendôme

VENDÔME. - The Benedictine abbey of the Most Holy Trinity of V., in the department of Loir-et-Cher in France, was founded in 1034 by Geoffrey, Count of Angers.

V., today a subprefecture of Loir-et-Cher, was an ancient town of Gaul, for which the Romans substituted the city of Vindocinum, whence the present name. At the end of the 10th century it became an independent county founded by Bouchard I, called the Old; in the second half of the 12th century there was prolonged fighting there until the Treaty of V. in 1227. It was taken and sacked by the English in 1362. By inheritance the county passed in 1375 to the house of Bourbon, in 1515 it became a duchy, through Charles I of Bourbon-V., paternal grandfather of Henry IV, who in 1589 dismantled its castle; in 1598 he gave it to his natural son César de V.; it was reunited to the crown in 1712.

The church was dedicated on 31 May 1040 by Geoffrey Martel, but the work had been begun in 1035. In 1063 the abbots of V. were granted the privilege of becoming, upon their election, cardinals of the title of St. Prisca, with the obligation of providing that 12 monks should assure the service there. The monastery was under the direct dependence of the Holy See, an exemption accepted by Theodoric, bishop of Chartres, and confirmed in 1056 by King Henry I. It was visited by Hildebrand; the abbot Geoffrey in 1094 came to Rome to Urban II, who went to V. from 19 Feb. to 3 March 1098 and on 26 Feb. consecrated the altar beneath the Crucifix, at the entrance of the choir. The abbey in 1621 accepted the Maurist reform. On 9 Dec. 1790 everything was dispersed by the Revolution.

Enrico Josi