A reading of the obituaries of several cathedrals in northern France, XIIth-XVth centuries

Composed from the XIIth century onwards, obituaries, which identified-in the form of a timeline-the dead for whom the clergy were obliged to pray each day for all eternity, testify to the importance ascribed to the maintenance-in these churches as in so many others-of individual memories intended for the salvation of each person's soul. Being regularly updated, they also recorded the donations made to finance these daily commemorations, and thus the monetary distributions that canons, chaplains, and clerics earned, which maintained their living standard and gave rise to substantial and regularly increased incomes. Bishops and canons were the most frequent beneficiaries of these anniversaries. A specific church would first of all ensure the salutary remembrance of its members, although a small number of church members were made to participate by founding a church. An individual's earthly family also became involved. Nonetheless, lay people with no blood relation to them, with the exception of the princes of the region, were faced with increasing exclusion.