the three towns were all brought directly under the court of Boudry. During the Middle Ages, the parish church of Boudry was located in Pontareuse, north of the town. At that time the parish comprised a part of Cortaillod, Boudry, Bôle, Rochefort and Brot and stretched, in the north, to the border with the County of Burgundy. The right of présentation (the ability to present a candidate for an office, who could only be rejected if his appointment would break a law) was held by the cathedral chapter of Lausanne. During the Protestant Reformation in 1534, the parish priest, Claude Gauthier, kept Boudry Roman Catholic while the surrounding parishes converted to the Reformed faith. The church at Pontareuse then became a shared church and thus served both denominations for several years. The remains of this church were still visible in 1815, but have since vanished. At the beginning of the 17th Century the inhabitants of Rochefort and Bôle both had a deacon who specially supervised their churches. In 1645–47, a Reformed church was built in the center of town. The Reformed parish included only the inhabitants of the town. In 1832 the parish was absorbed by Areuse. The municipal community of Boudry gained a number of rights in the 16th century. In 1510 they were allowed to build a town hall and in 1513 they built a mill. In 1523, the community received permission to lease their communal lands, followed in 1526, by the right to build houses outside the walls. Starting in 1540, they were allowed to appoint two mayors who administered the municipal lands. They were allowed to build a clock tower in 1548. Through various purchases the community acquired considerable rights in Champ-du-Moulin. The maintenance of the walls, the gates of the bridge and the town hall was paid from a fund which was managed by Boudry and Cortaillod together. The funds came from a special tax (Eminem de la porte), which was only paid by the inhabitants of Cortaillod. This tax led to a number of conflicts between the two communities until its abolition in 1813. In the course of the 18th century, the membership in the municipal community became closed. Only members of the citizen or the permanent resident (the so-called bourgeois non-communities) classes were allowed to join the municipal community, were not granted. Boudry became the district capital in 1848. In the 18th Century