The abbey of Aniane was a Benedictine monastery in southern France between 782 and 1790. Founded by Benedict of Aniane with the support of Charlemagne, it was a major reforming monastery in the Carolingian era. It went into decline in the 16th century, when it was placed under custodianship (1542) and sacked by Calvinists (1562). After 1633, it was a Maurist house. It was closed during the French Revolution.
Aniane was founded in 782 in the diocese of Maguelone as a Benedictine monastery. [1] [2] Its founder was Witiza, son of the count of Maguelone and a friend of Charlemagne. He took the religious name Benedict. [2] [3]
The abbey was located on the banks of the brook Anian, now called Corbières, just upstream from where it joins the Hérault. It took its name from the brook. [3] Its original dedicated was to Our Lady (Notre-Dame) and the Holy Saviour (Saint-Sauveur). [2] [3] In its early years it also had altars dedicated to Saint Michael and Saints Peter and Paul. [3]
Aniane was endowed by Charlemagne. [1] [2] [3] In 787, he also granted it immunity. [2] By 800, it had 300 monks. [2] [3] Duke William of Toulouse retired from secular life to entre Aniane. In 806, with Benedict's authorization, he and some fellow monks founded the abbey of Gellone. [3]
Aniane was one of the "exemplary cloisters" of the Carolingian monastic reform. [1] At the request of Bishop Theodulf of Orléans, it sent monks to reform Saint-Mesmin de Micy. [3] In 817, the council of Aachen imposed the customs of Aniane on all monasteries in the empire. [2] Its monks spread their renewed emphasis on the Benedictine rule to the houses of Cormery, Île-Barbe , Sainte-Colombe-lès-Sens , Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe and Celleneuve. [2] [3] According to the Notitia de servitio monasteriorum of 819, the monasterium Anianum owed the emperor prayers only, neither military aid nor aid in kind. [4]
During the Carolingian era, the Chronicon Anianense was written at Aniane. The monk Smaragdus Ardo wrote a biography of Witiza. [2] [3] So prominent was the abbey that, in 822, Archbishop Agobard of Lyon and Nimfridius of Narbonne attended the abbatial election. [3]
In 890, the abbey and its rich holdings were occupied by Archbishop Rostang of Arles. [2] [3] He managed to pass control of it down to his successor, Manasses Afterwards it was acquired by the bishop of Béziers. By the 11th century, it had regained its independence. [3]
In the 11th century, Aniane was involved in a serious dispute with its daughter house of Gellone. [1] Abbot Emneno, himself a former monk of Gellone, claimed authority over it. The monks of Aniane produced false documents to support their claims. [3] These did not fool the pope, who confirmed the independence of Gellone. Aniane was also involved in a dispute with the abbey of La Chaise-Dieu over the priory of Gourdaignes . The parties reached a compromise settlement under Pope Adrian IV. [2] [3]
In the 14th century, the abbots of Aniane were prominent at the papal curia when the papacy was in Avignon. The abbey was highly favoured and several abbots became bishops of Béziers, Montpellier, Nîmes and Saint-Papoul. [2] [3] After the start of the Great Schism in 1378, the abbots continued to support the popes at Avignon. Benedict XIII rewarded Abbot Philippe by appointing him vicar general in the archdiocese of Arles. The result was that the abbey suffered a punitive visitation and reform in 1411 from the Roman pope Gregory XII. [3]
In the 16th century, Aniane went into decline. It was placed in commendam in 1542. [2] At the start of the French Wars of Religion, the Calvinists gained the ascendancy in the region. On 29 December 1561, they forced the abandonment of Catholic services in the church. [3] On 15 April 1562, they sacked the abbey, razing the buildings and burning the archives and furnishings. [1] [2] [3] The commendatory abbot himself, Jean de Saint-Chamond , soon abandoned Catholicism and converted. [3]
The abbey's property was acquired by the Bonzi family that controlled the diocese of Béziers between 1616 and 1703. The Bonzis charity and religious zeal assured that the irregularity of the acquisition was ignored. Clément de Bonzi initiated a Maurist reform in 1633. Pierre de Bonzi rebuilt the church, laying the first stone on 28 April 1679 and consecrating it on 10 February 1688. [2] [3]
Despite the Bonzis interest in Aniane, the abbey had declined to ten monks in 1768. [2] It was secularized during the French Revolution in 1790. [1] [2] [3] The abbey church became the parish church of the village of Aniane. The other buildings were declared biens nationaux . At first they served as a cotton mill, later a jail. [2] [3]
The following list is from the Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques . [3]
Bec Abbey, formally the Abbey of Our Lady of Bec, is a Benedictine monastic foundation in the Eure département, in the Bec valley midway between the cities of Rouen and Bernay. It is located in Le Bec Hellouin, Normandy, France, and was the most influential abbey of the 12th-century Anglo-Norman kingdom.
Benedict of Aniane, born Witiza and called the Second Benedict, was a Benedictine monk and monastic reformer who had a substantial impact on the religious practice of the Carolingian Empire. His feast day is either February 11 or 12, depending on the liturgical calendar.
William of Gellone, the medieval William of Orange, was the second Duke of Toulouse from 790 until 811. In 804, he founded the abbey of Gellone. He was canonized a saint in 1066 by Pope Alexander II.
Villemagne-l'Argentière is a commune near Bédarieux in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in southern France.
The Diocese of Nice is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the Department of Alpes-Maritimes. The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Marseille.
The former French Catholic Archbishopric of Arles had its episcopal seat in the city of Arles, in southern France. At the apex of the delta (Camargue) of the Rhone River, some 40 miles from the sea, Arles grew under Liburnian, Celtic, and Punic influences, until, in 46 B.C., a Roman military veteran colony was founded there by Tiberius Claudius Nero, under instructions from Julius Caesar. For centuries, the archbishops of Arles were regional leaders in creating and codifying canon law, through councils and synods.
The Diocese of Orléans is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese currently corresponds to the Départment of Loiret. The current bishop is Jacques André Blaquart, who was appointed in 2010.
The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Montpellier (–Lodève–Béziers–Agde–Saint-Pons-de-Thomières) is a Latin archdiocese of the Catholic Church in south-western France. The current metropolitan archbishop is Pierre-Marie Carré; the immediate past Archbishop Emeritus is Guy Marie Alexandre Thomazeau. On September 16, 2002, as part of the reshuffling of the map of the French ecclesiastical provinces, the diocese of Montpellier ceased to be a suffragan of Avignon and was elevated to archdiocese and metropolitan of a new ecclesiastical province, with the dioceses of Carcassonne, Mende, Nimes and Perpignan–Elne as suffragans.
The former Catholic diocese of Narbonne existed from early Christian times until the French Revolution. It was an archdiocese, with its see at Narbonne, from the year 445, and its influence ran over much of south-western France and into Catalonia.
The former French Catholic diocese of Alet was created in 1317 from territory formerly in the diocese of Narbonne. The diocese continued until the French Revolution when it was suppressed by the Concordat of 1801.
The former French Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint-Papoul, now a Latin titular see, was created by Pope John XXII in 1317 and existed until the Napoleonic Concordat of 1811.
The former French Catholic diocese of Saint-Pons-de-Thomières existed from 1317 until the French Revolution. Its see at Saint-Pons-de-Thomières in southern France is in the modern department of Hérault. There was the Abbey of St-Pons, founded in 936 by Raymond, Count of Toulouse, who brought there the monks of St-Géraud d'Aurillac.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Béziers was situated in France. It is no longer an independent diocese, and is part of the Diocese of Montpellier.
The Archdiocese of Toulouse is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the Department of Haute-Garonne and its seat is Toulouse Cathedral. Archbishop Guy de Kerimel has been its head since 2021.
The ancient residential diocese of Orange in the Comtat Venaissin in Provence, a fief belonging to the papacy, was suppressed by the French government during the French Revolution. It was revived in 2009 as a titular see of the Catholic Church.
Richard de Millau (Milhau) was an 11th-century Cardinal and a major player in the Gregorian reform implemented in the South of France at the turn of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Raymond de Canillac was a French lawyer, bishop, and cardinal. He was born at Roche de Canilhac, the family castle, in the diocese of Mende in the Gevaudan in central France, the son of Guillaume de Canillac and a sister of Cardinal Bertrand de Déaulx. Both of his uncles, Pons and Guy, were successively abbots of Aniane, as was a nephew of the Cardinal, also called Pons. In 1345 his niece Garine, the daughter of his brother Marquis and of Alixène de Poitiers-Valentinois, married Guillaume Roger, Vicount of Beaufort, the brother of Cardinal Pierre Roger de Beaufort, who became Pope Clement VI. Raymond became a member of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine (CRSA). He studied law at the University of Montpellier, and obtained the degree of Doctor in utroque iure.
Lyre Abbey was a monastery in Normandy, founded in 1046 at what is now the village of La Vieille-Lyre. From the mid-12th century it was a Benedictine house. It was abolished at the French Revolution and the abbey buildings mostly destroyed.
Rostang of Arles was Archbishop of Arles from 870 to 913. He supported the coup d'état of Boso of Provence against the Carolingians in 879.
Aurillac Abbey, otherwise the Abbey of Saint Gerald, Aurillac, founded around 895 in Auvergne by Count Gerald of Aurillac, destroyed during the French Wars of Religion and suppressed with the Revolution, was one of the oldest Benedictine abbeys, and probably influenced, in its arrangements and organization, the foundation of Cluny itself.