Through the fourteenth century the provostry became a place of authentication — in Slovak a hodnoverné miesto, an office where charters were drawn up, sealed and kept safe. In a kingdom that had no notaries, that is what a monastery could offer: if you sold a field, divided an inheritance or swore an oath anywhere in Hont, the record of it was written here. That single function is why a settlement of this size existed at all on a thinly held stretch of river, and it is why Šahy took on the character of a town in this century instead of staying a village at a monastery gate. The market days followed the paperwork, not the other way round.V priebehu 14. storočia sa prepoštstvo stalo hodnoverným miestom — úradom, kde sa spisovali, pečatili a uschovávali listiny. V kráľovstve bez notárov to bola služba, ktorú vedel poskytnúť práve kláštor: kto v Honte predal pole, delil dedičstvo alebo skladal prísahu, mal o tom zápis odtiaľto. Táto jediná funkcia vysvetľuje, prečo na riedko osídlenom úseku rieky vôbec vyrástlo sídlo takejto veľkosti a prečo Šahy práve v tomto storočí nadobudli mestský charakter namiesto toho, aby zostali dedinou pred bránou kláštora. Trhy prišli za listinami, nie naopak.
