Groschen - Pasteur of Serrats

The Bishopric of Embrun occupied an awkward political position throughout the mid-fourteenth century, sandwiched between the expanding Dauphiné and the County of Provence, each pressing territorial claims across the Alpine passes the bishopric controlled. Episcopal coinage from Embrun in this period reflects that pressure directly — bishops minted aggressively to assert jurisdictional independence at precisely the moments when that independence was most threatened. The Pasteur of Serrats type belongs to the episcopate's sustained effort to maintain monetary authority in its own right rather than defer to neighboring secular powers.