Vicarius

Il apparaît nécessaire de revenir sur des recherches menées il y a une vingtaine d'années sur les circonscriptions carolingiennes du Limousin, afin de préciser ou rectifier différentes hypothèses proposées alors et d'ouvrir de nouvelles perspectives de recherches. Même si les sources écrites sont mal réparties sur le territoire, le système administratif carolingien apparaît dans le comté carolingien de Limoges comme un ensemble cohérent et homogène que l'on peut estimer formé de soixante à quatre-vingts vicariae, apparemment dotées de limites fixes et confiées chacune à un vicarius. Ces entités, peut-être mises en place dans le premier quart du IXe siècle, paraissent établies à partir d'un pôle de nature publique, même si, dans certains cas, c'est un lieu secondaire, mais relevant peut-être lui-même de la puissance publique, qui sert à désigner la circonscription. En Limousin, la trame de ces vicariae ne semble pas avoir eu d'influence notable lors de la mise en place des nouvelles divisions territoriales après l'an mil.

The statistical analysis of cartularies from Limousin shows that the carolingian civil circumscriptions were used almost systematically by writers of acts to localize domains from IXth to c. 990. The study of their area shows clearly correspondences with the first parochial structure, while the geographical, historical and archaeological study of their eponymous site testifies two very different types of population's centers, on the one hand, public places, vici, castra, crossroads..., on the other hand, country villae, with some characteristics allowing to think that they were fiscal domains. In fact, every circumscription seems have been organized from a site of the first category, often a center of a large baptismal parish, but it had also a rural domain to be used perhaps as a giving or a residence for the vicarius who held the vicaria whose its name was this of the one of these sites.

This bachelor thesis aims to critically compare the current theses concerning the integration of the province of Mauretania Tingitana into the diocese of Hispaniae. The results and own additions to this subject tries to eliminate the less plausible explanations and which will build upon the more plausible ones. This will hopefully renew the scholarly debate around Mauretania Tingitana and hence provide more insight in the reasoning behind the choices that were made concerning the creation of the Roman dioceses.