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The Gallia Christiana, a type of work of which there have been several editions, is a documentary catalogue or list, with brief historical notices, of all the Catholic dioceses and abbeys of France from the earliest times, also of their occupants.
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The Gallia Christiana, a type of work of which there have been several editions, is a documentary catalogue or list, with brief historical notices, of all the Catholic dioceses and abbeys of France from the earliest times, also of their occupants.
In 1621, Jean Chenu , an avocat at the Parlement of Paris, published Archiepiscoporum et episcoporum Galliæ chronologica historia. Nearly a third of the bishops are missing, and the episcopal succession as given by Chenu was very incomplete.
In 1626, Claude Robert, a priest of Langres, published with the approbation of André Fremiot, Archbishop of Bourges, a Gallia Christiana. [1] He entered a large number of churches outside of Gaul, and gave a short history of the metropolitan sees, cathedrals, and abbeys.
Two brothers, Scévole and Louis de Sainte-Marthe , appointed royal historiographers of France in 1620, had assisted Chenu and Robert. At the assembly of the French Clergy in 1626, a number of prelates commissioned these brothers to compile a more definitive work. They died before the completion of their work, and it was issued in 1656 by Scévole's sons, Pierre de Sainte-Marthe (1618–90), himself historiographer of France, Abel-Louis de Sainte-Marthe (1620–71), theologian, and later general of the Oratory, and Nicolas-Charles de Sainte-Marthe (1623–62), prior of Claunay.
On 13 September 1656, the Sainte-Marthe brothers were presented to the assembly of the French Clergy, who accepted the dedication of the work on condition that a passage suspected of Jansenism be suppressed. The work formed four volumes in folio, the first for the archdioceses, the second and third for the dioceses, and the fourth for the abbeys, all in alphabetical order. [2] It reproduced a large number of manuscripts. Defects and omissions, however, were obvious. The Sainte-Marthe brothers themselves announced in their preface the early appearance of a second edition corrected and enlarged.
As early as 1660, the Jesuit Jean Colomb published at Lyons the Noctes Blancalandanæ, which contains certain additions to the work of the Sammarthani, as the brothers and their successors are often called. "The name of Sainte-Marthe", wrote Voltaire, "is one of those of which the country has most reason to be proud." The edition promised by the Sainte-Marthe brothers did not appear.
In 1710, the Assembly of the French Clergy offered four thousand livres to Denys de Sainte-Marthe (1650–1725), a Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Saint-Maur renowned for his polemics against the Trappist Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé on the subject of monastic studies, on condition that he should bring the revision of the Gallia Christiana to a successful conclusion. The Assembly required that the first volume should appear at the end of four years, and that de Sainte-Marthe's congregation should continue the undertaking after his death. Through de Sainte-Marthe's efforts, the first volume appeared in 1715, devoted to the ecclesiastical provinces of Albi, Aix, Arles, Avignon, and Auch. In 1720, de Sainte-Marthe produced the second volume dealing with the provinces of Bourges and Bordeaux; and in 1725 the third, which treated Cambrai, Cologne, and Embrun.
After de Sainte-Marthe's death, the Benedictines issued the fourth volume (1728) on Lyons, and the fifth volume (1731) on Mechelen and Mainz. Félix Hodin and Etienne Brice, who were preparing the latter volumes of the Gallia Christiana, were expelled from Saint-Germain-des-Prés between 1731 and 1740, on account of the controversies over the bull Unigenitus . They returned to Paris in 1739 and issued the sixth volume, dealing with Narbonne, also (1744) the seventh and eighth volumes on Paris and its suffragan sees.
Michel Toussaint Chrétien Duplessis united his efforts with Hodin and Brice, and the ninth and tenth volumes, both on the province of Reims, appeared in 1751. The eleventh volume (1759), dealing with the province of Rouen, was issued by Pierre Henri and Jacques Taschereau. In 1770, the twelfth volume, on the province of Sens and province of Tarentaise, appeared, and in 1785 the thirteenth, on the provinces of Toulouse and Trier.
At the outbreak of the revolution, four volumes were lacking: Tours, Besançon, Utrecht, and Vienne. Barthélemy Hauréau published (in 1856, 1860 and 1865), for the provinces of Tours, Besançon and Vienne, respectively, and according to the Benedictine method, the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth volumes of the Gallia Christiana.
The province of Utrecht alone has no place in this great collection, but this defect has been remedied in part by the Bullarium Trajectense, edited by Gisbert Brom, and extending from the earliest times to 1378 (The Hague, 1891–96).
Volumes I to V and XI to XIII of the new Gallia Christiana were reprinted by Léon-Paul Piolin between 1870 and 1877, and volumes VI to IX and XII by the publisher H. Welter. The new edition places after each metropolitan see its suffragan sees, and after each see the abbeys belonging to it. The original documents, instead of encumbering the body of the articles, are inserted at the end of each diocese under in a section titled Instrumenta.
In 1774, Hugues Du Tems , vicar-general of Bordeaux, undertook an abridgement of the Gallia under the title Le clergé de France. Only four volumes appeared, out of a planned seven.
About 1867 Honoré Fisquet undertook the publication of an episcopal history of France (La France Pontificale), in which, for the early period, he utilized the Gallia, at the same time bringing the history of each diocese down to modern times. Twenty-two volumes appeared.
Joseph-Hyacinthe Albanès projected a complete revision of the Gallia Christiana, each ecclesiastical province to form a volume. Albanès, who was one of the first scholars to search the Lateran and Vatican libraries, in his efforts to determine the initial years of some episcopal reigns, found occasionally either the acts of election or the Bulls of provision. He hoped in this way to remove certain suppositious bishops who had been introduced to fill gaps in the catalogues, but died in 1897 before the first volume appeared. Through the use of his notes and the efforts of Ulysse Chevalier three addition volumes of this Gallia Christiana (novissima), treating Arles, Aix, and Marseilles, appeared at Montbéliard.
Jean-Barthélemy Hauréau was a 19th-century French historian, journalist and administrator.
The Diocese of Gap and Embrun is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southern France.
The Diocese of Digne is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in France. Erected in the 4th century as the Diocese of Digne, the diocese has been known as the Diocese of Digne–Riez–Sisteron since 1922. The diocese comprises the entire department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, in the Region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The diocese was a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Aix-en-Provence and Arles until 2002 and is now a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Marseille. The Bishop of Digne's cathedra is found in Digne Cathedral at the episcopal see of Digne-les-Bains.
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 Diocese of Agen is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in France.
The Diocese of Amiens is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the department of Somme, of which the city of Amiens is the capital.
Odet de Coligny was a French aristocrat, cardinal, Bishop-elect of Beauvais, Peer of France, and member of the French Royal Council. From 1534 he was usually referred to as the Cardinal of Châtillon.
The Diocese of Rodez (–Vabres) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The episcopal see is in Rodez. The diocese corresponds exactly to the Department of Aveyron.
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François Guillaume de Castelnau de Clermont-Lodève (1480–1541) was a French diplomat and Cardinal. He was the son of Pierre-Tristan, Seigneur de Clermont et de Clermont-Lodève and Vicomte de Nébouzan, and Catherine d'Amboise. His father was a member of the Order of Saint Michael. François' grandmother had been heiress of Dieudonné Guillaume de Clermont. He had an elder brother, Pierre de Castelnau, who was heir to the family estates. François was also the nephew of Cardinal Georges d'Amboise (1498-1510), who was largely responsible for François' swift rise to prominence in the Church. Cardinal d'Amboise had been Archbishop of Narbonne from 1491 to 1494.
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The Archdiocese of Auch-Condom-Lectoure-Lombez, more commonly known as the Archdiocese of Auch, is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. The archdiocese now comprises the department of Gers in south-west France. The archdiocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Toulouse, and the current bishop, who therefore does not wear the pallium, is Maurice Marcel Gardès, appointed in 2004.
The Archdiocese of Rennes, Dol, and Saint-Malo is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese is coextensive with the department of Ille et Vilaine. The Archdiocese has 8 suffragans: the Diocese of Angers, the Diocese of Laval, the Diocese of Le Mans, the Diocese of Luçon, the Diocese of Nantes, the Diocese of Quimper and Léon, the Diocese of Saint-Brieuc and Tréguier, and the Diocese of Vannes.
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Robert de Lenoncourt was a French bishop, Cardinal, and diplomat. He was the son of Thierry de Lenoncourt, Seigneur de Vignory, Councillor and Chamberlain of the King, and Jeanne de Ville. He had a brother, Henry, Sire de Lenoncourt and Baron of Vignory, a sister named Jacquette, who married Jean d'Aguerre, son of the Governor of Mouzon, and a sister named Nicole, who married Érard du Châtelet. Robert's paternal uncle, also called Robert de Lenoncourt, was Archbishop of Reims.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Embrun was located in southeastern France, in the mountains of the Maritime Alps, on a route that led from Gap by way of Briançon to Turin. It had as suffragans the Diocese of Digne, Diocese of Antibes and Grasse, Diocese of Vence, Diocese of Glandèves, Diocese of Senez and Diocese of Nice. Its see was the Cathedral of Nôtre Dame in Embrun.
The former French Catholic diocese of Grasse was founded in the 4th or 5th century as the diocese of Antibes. It was originally suffragan to the Archbishop of Aix, and then to the Archbishop of Embrun. The see moved from Antibes to Grasse in 1244. It remained at Grasse Cathedral until the French Revolution. The diocese was suppressed by the Concordat of 1801, its territory passing to the diocese of Nice.
The Diocese of Pamiers, Couserans, and Mirepoix is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in southern France. The diocese comprises the department of Ariège and is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Toulouse. The diocese of Pamiers is divided into five Deaneries: Pamiers, Foix, Haut-Ariège, Couserans, and Pays-d'Olmes-Mirapoix. The episcopal see is the Cathedral of Saint Antoninus in the city of Pamiers.
The Diocese of Montauban is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese is coextensive with Tarn-et-Garonne, and is currently a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Toulouse. The episcopal seat of the Diocese of Montauban is in Montauban Cathedral.
Saint-Sever Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Saint-Sever, Landes, France. It was founded at the end of the 10th century by William II Sánchez of Gascony. It was listed by France as a historic monument on 18 November 1911 and in 1998 it and other sites were jointly designated as the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France World Heritage Site.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Gallia Christiana". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.