The privilege of Saint Romain

One Tuesday at Pentecost Pierre Guéroult and 12 of his friends went to Bosc le Hard to enjoy themselves. A quarrel broke out between a Bosc le Hard boy and a boy from Clères. They all started fighting, attacking each other with fists and stones, daggers and swords. Guéroult knifed Jean Trevet from Grigneuseville through his body and Auber from Grigneuseville finished him off. Three others were killed and several more were wounded.

On Ascension day in 1584 Pierre Guéroult from Frichemesnil, aged 23, was set free by the cathedral chapter, by virtue of the St Romain privilege. 

The origin of this privilege is unknown. In 1210, under Philippe Auguste, an inquiry was carried out and the privilege was found to have existed already in the middle of 12th century and was thus difficult to dispute.

Successive kings disliked statutes that decided an individual’s life or death, since they only possessed this privilege. Saint Romain was Bishop of Rouen in the 7th century. Numerous  miracles were attributed to him and one of them was used to justify this privilege. St Romain defeated the Gargoyle, a monster who terrorised the people of Rouen, with the help of a condemned man whom he brought with him. Afterwards, every year a person condemned to death was freed in honour of this amazing feat.  The chapter and the brotherhood left the cathedral through the Libraires gate  and continued in procession past St Maclou church to the Haute Vieille Tour square where the person pardoned awaited them. This person had to raise the casket containing the relics of St Romain before proceeding to the cathedral for the celebration, which was followed by a large crowd. The ceremony took place at the exit of the castle prison, built by the dukes of Normandy before its demolition in 1204 by Louis Auguste. This place subsequently was preserved and the raising of the relics took place after ascending the steps of the Fierte, built in 1542, and which still exist today on the Haute Vielle Tour square. 

This practice ended with the revolution and the last ceremony took place in 1790.

Fierte in old French signified a casket or reliquary and came from the latin ‘feretum’, meaning coffin.