Les insinuations ecclésiastiques

Abstract : The ecclesiastical insinuations were created in the sixteenth century in France in order to put on end to frauds during the benefice transfers. The relating law, which has often been modified, has made it possible to register in each diocese various deeds which provide the historian with serials. The example of the 57 registers preserved for the diocese of Langres shows the abundance of documents for studying the regular and secular clergy and its origins. This documentation gives useful information about the «career» of clerics, about commendam, about the universities' graduates and so on. Above all, it allows us to analyse the benefice system from the sixteenth century up to the French Revolution. The importance of this source of information leads to make a nation-wide investigation into these documents, which has been sketched out here in the case of Burgundy and Champagne and which aims at working out a Catalogue of the ecclesiastical insinuations which could be used by researchers.