The village of Venasque is said to have given its name to the Comtat Venaissin, a denomination deriving from Comitatus Vendascensis - or Committee of Venasque in French - that designated an alliance between the inhabitants of the villages of Venasque's region against exterior attacks. Committee would have evolved into County and later Comtat. The name Venaissin appeared in the early Middle Ages, and most historians associate it with Vendasca or Venasque, which played an important role in housing bishops between the 5th and 9th centuries.