The chapter and its "attendants"

It was not the first, nor the last time in history that in 1528 tensions between the chapter of St. Servaas and the city council of Maastricht once again ran high. What was the problem? The chapter was not only a community of clergy, but also an economically powerful institution with large revenues from tithes, rents and offerings from believers. Characteristic of relations was that the chapters of St. Servaas and Our Lady determined the official price of grain in the market twice a year together with the city council. In addition, the chapter was an important employer. For the many services in the church there was a need for bell ringers, sextons, singers and procession-bearers. There were also administrative staff members, cooks, brewers, bakers, construction workers, school teachers and notaries. And then there were the officials at the various courts connected with the chapter. These positions were nearly always part-time jobs that citizens in the city held in addition to their regular jobs. Perhaps the earnings were not that high, but a special status as an "attendant" of the chapter meant that the person was not subject to the laws and regulations for "ordinary" citizens.

Over time this number of staff employed by the church had grown to unacceptable levels for the city government. Their status was not only a form of legal inequality, it was also a group over which the city government had little control. Among this army of attendants there were "bigamists," people who did not take church marriage morals very seriously and were therefore unworthy of service at the altar. There were also unnecessary duplications of functions, singers who could not sing, read or write, bakers, brewers and also chaplains who defrauded the city taxes and "conscientious objectors" to the city civil guard.

The annoyance at City Hall was therefore not surprising. The chapter's reaction was also predictable. The canons invoked a series of centuries-old royal and imperial charters that established the "freedom" or special status of the chapter. In 1109 King Hendrik V stipulated that all servants from the chapter's villages and personnel such as bakers, cooks, cellar masters, brewers, bellmen and so on would be free from any foreign law and civil law. The aldermen of Maastricht were not authorised to adjudicate matters or persons within the chapter territory (charter no. 3). In the following century those rights were confirmed in virtually the same terms by Emperor Frederick II in 1215 (charter no. 10), Roman catholic King Hendrik VII in 1222 (charter no. 12) and Roman catholic King Rudolf in 1273 respectively (charter no. 36). The old texts were transcribed, as it were. This happened several more times after 1300. Conversely, the Maastricht city council had also recognised these freedoms very early on, as evidenced by a declaration from 1227 in which bailiffs, aldermen and the citizens of Maastricht promised to forever observe the privileges, freedoms and rights of the Chapter of St. Servaas in Maastricht from then on (charter no. 14). But paper - or in this case parchment - is patient. After each incident - the conflict of 1528 is just one example from a long series - the chapter and city council tried to prove themselves right and stretch their rights with new interpretations of old charters. This is how the conflict of 1528 ended with a ruling by arbitrators. That resulted in peace and quiet again for some time, but it also planted the seed for another clash....