ABSTRACT
This chapter examines developments in the Church in France and incidents that affected the links between Church and crown occurring within his realm. There is clearly an overlap between Philip Augustus’s relations with the Church in France and his relationship with the papacy. He developed further the royal link with the abbey of St-Denis both as a place which had become ‘a family necropolis’ and as an extension of the idea that Denis was the royal patron saint. A number of Philip’s early military exploits were in defence of the Church; the first example being against the lord of Charentan in Berry, in order to protect the Burgundian Church. The king’s encouragement of the development of Paris was also appreciated by the papacy through its interest in the new university, which indeed became a university proper only under Philip.
