In 1099 Bethlehem was conquered by Catholic forces in the First Crusade. A new monastery and cloister were built by the Augustinians to the north of the Church of the Nativity, with a tower to the south and an episcopal palace to the west. The Orthodox clergy (the Christian presence in the area had until then been Greek Orthodox) were ejected and replaced by Catholic clergy. On his birthday in 1100, Baldwin was crowned King of Jerusalem in Bethlehem — that same year, at Baldwin's request, Pope Paschal II established Bethlehem (never before an episcopal see) as a Catholic bishopric,[1] a suffragan of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.[2]
In 1187 the Ayyubid Sultan Saladin (of Egypt, Syria and more in the Levant) reconquered Bethlehem and the Catholic clergy was forced to let the Greek Orthodox clergy return. Saladin himself in 1192 allowed two Catholic priests and two deacons to return to the diocese, though Bethlehem's economy still suffered from the drastic reduction in pilgrims from Europe.[1]
In 1229 Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth and Sidon briefly returned to the Kingdom of Jerusalem under a treaty between Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and the Ayyubid Sultan Al-Kamil, in exchange for a ten-year truce between the Ayyubids and the Crusaders. That treaty expired in 1239 and Bethlehem was then reconquered by the Muslims in 1244.[3]
In 1250, with the Mamluks' risen to power, tolerance for Christians in Palestine declined — the Catholic clergy left Bethlehem, whose walls were demolished in 1263. The Catholics then returned to Bethlehem only in the 14th century and settled in the monastery adjacent to the Church of the Nativity. The Greek Orthodox in the meantime took over control of the Church of the Nativity and shared control of the Milk Grotto with the Catholics and the Armenians.[1]
The crusading William IV, Count of Nevers, dying in the Holy Land in 1168, had left the building known as the Hospital of Panthenor or Pantenor[8] in the town of Clamecy in Burgundy, together with some land, to the Bishops of Bethlehem, in case Bethlehem should fall under Muslim control. In 1223, the then Bishop of Bethlehem took up residence in his Burgundian property, which remained the seat of residential (nearly titular) Bishops of Bethlehem for almost 600 years, until the French Revolution of 1789.[9][10]
From 1223, therefore, the 'exiled' Bishops of Bethlehem exercised jurisdiction over the hospital and the faubourg that was their property. Their successors were chosen by the Counts, later the dukes of Nevers, with the approval of the Pope and the King, although (neighbouring) French bishoprics contested their diocesan legitimity. In 1413, Charles VI tried to obtain for them the privileges enjoyed by the diocesan bishops of the realm, but because of the opposition of the French clergy they continued to be considered bishops in partibus infidelium. In 1635, the assembly of the French clergy granted them an annual pension. Christopher d'Authier of Sisgau, founder of the Missionary Priests of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and celebrated for his sermons to the galley-slaves of Marseilles, was Bishop of Bethlehem 1651–63.[11]
The immediate aftermath of the French Revolution extinguished the title to property that was once attached to the titular bishopric of Bethlehem, making it like any other of the titular sees listed by the Catholic Church in the Annuario Pontificio.[12]
Titular see
Circa 1462 the crusader diocese was nominally restored by Rome, alongside Clamecy (which was in obedience to the Antipopes of Avignon), but now as a regular Latin Titular bishopric of Bethlehem (English) / Bethléem (français) / Betlemme (Italiano) / Bethleem (latine) / Bethleemitan(us) (Latin). It had the following incumbents, all of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank:
Circa 1603 it was suppressed, but in 1840 restored as Titular bishopric of Bethlehem (English) / Bethléem (French) / Betlemme (Curiate Italian) / Bethleem (Latin) / Bethleemitan(us) (Latin), this time however with Apostolic succession to the former 'Burgundy-exiled' Diocese of Bethléem à Clamecy.
(in French) Honoré Fisquet, La France pontificale, histoire chronologique et biographique des archevêques et évêques de tous les diocèses de France. Métropole de Sens. Nevers - Bethléem, Paris, pp.143–172
Louis de Mas Latrie, Trésor de chronologie d'histoire et de géographie, Paris 1889, coll. 1391-1394
Paul Riant, L'église de Bethléem et Varazze en Ligurie, in Atti della Società ligure di Storia patria, vol. XVII, 1885, pp.543–705 (cfr. tabella sinottica dei vescovi p.641)
Paul Riant, Études sur l'histoire de l'église de Bethléem, vol. I 1889, vol. II 1896
Paul Riant, Eclaircissements sur quelques points de l'histoire de l'église de Bethléem-Ascalon, in Revue de l'Orient latin, vol. I, pp.140–160, 381–412, 475–524; t. II, pp.35–72
G. Levenq, lemma 'Bethléem' in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. VIII, 1935, coll. 1248-1251
Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, pp.516–517
Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 1, pp.134–135; vol. 2, pp.XVI e 105; vol. 3, p.133; vol. 4, p.114; vol. 5, p.119; vol. 6, p.122
Papal bulla 'Qui Christi Domini', in Bullarii romani continuatio, vol. XI, Rome 1845, pp.245–249
Papal breve 'In amplissimo', in Bullarium pontificium Sacrae congregationis de propaganda fide, vol V, Rome 1841, p.196
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem is the Latin Catholic ecclesiastical patriarchate in Jerusalem, officially seated in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was originally established in 1099, with the Kingdom of Jerusalem encompassing the territories in the Holy Land newly conquered by the First Crusade. From 1374 to 1847 it was a titular see, with the patriarchs of Jerusalem being based at the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura in Rome. Pope Pius IX re-established a resident Latin patriarch in 1847.
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A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan", "titular archbishop" or "titular bishop", which normally goes by the status conferred on the titular see.
The Archbishop of Nazareth is a former residential Metropolitan see, first in the Holy Land, then in Apulian exile in Barletta, which had a Latin and a Maronite successor as titular sees, the first merged into Barletta, the second suppressed.
Clamecy is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bethléem à Clamecy was a crusader bishopric in residential exile with see at Clamecy, Nièvre in Burgundy, eastern France, made exempt.
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Diocese of Bethlehem may refer to the following ecclesiastical jurisdictions :
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William IV, was count of Nevers, Auxerre, and Tonnerre from 1161 until his death.
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Roman Catholic Diocese of Bethlehem may refer to the following ecclesiastical jurisdictions :
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Erythrum was a city and bishopric in Roman Africa, which remains a Catholic titular see.
Catholic dioceses in the Holy Land and Cyprus is a multi-rite, international episcopate in Israel and Cyprus.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sidon was a bishopric in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th and 13th centuries.
The Latin Diocese of Tripoli was established in 1104 in the aftermath of the First Crusade. It remained a residential bishopric until 1289, after which it became a titular bishopric, which it remains today in the Catholic Church.
Paul Edouard Didier Riant was a French historian and scientific editor specializing in the Crusades.
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