LOUIS XV 1715 - 1774 - Lot 208

LOUIS XV 1715 - 1774 DAT ESCAM ESURIENTIBUS. She feeds the hungry. In the exergue: LES COMMISSAIRES DES PAUVRES D. ST SULPICE 1756. Charity seated on the left, distributing and bread to one child, while she breastfeeds another. another. R/. CURAT CUSTODIT ET ORNAT. He watches, protects and adorns. In exergue: LES MARGUILLERS D. ST SULPICE 1756. Trophy of religious ornaments. Edge fluted. ♦ Feuardent 4340 Silver token of the Commissioners of the Poor of Saint Sulpice 1756. (9.30 g) Ø 30.62 mm. Trace of gumming. T.B. The marguilliers or churchwardens were lay people in charge of administering the parish's revenues: as officers of the Christian religion, they were responsible for registering the church's poor and entering them in the alms register. They set church pew and burial fees, and appointed cantors, bedeaux and bellringers. Along with the parish priest, they had custody of the church keys and ornaments. Elected from among the parish's notables, they often played the role of municipal magistrates. The Commissaires des pauvres were burghers chosen by the churchwardens to collect taxes for the relief of the poor. The term is used in Eugène Le Roy's "Jacquou le croquant" and Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables".