Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/288

 METZ

248

METZ

Metz became the capital of the nepartment of Mo- selle, creatrti in 17!I0. The revolvitioii hroughl fjreirt calamities upon the eily. In the cauipaigns of ISl 1 and 1S15 the allied armies twice besieged the city, but were unable to take it. During the Franco- Prussian War of 1S70-71 Metz \v:is the headquarters and rendezvous of the thinl Tix-nch Army Corps imder Bazaine. Through the operations of the German army, Bazaine, aflerthe battles of t'olombey, Mars-la- Tour, and tlravelotte (1-4-lS August) was besieged in Metz. The (lerman anny of investment was com- mandetl by Prince Trt'derick Charles of Prussia; as the few sort ies of the garrison were unable to break the Cierman lines, Metz w:»s forced to surrender (27 Oc- tober), with the result that 6000 French officers and 170,000 men were taken prisoners. By the Treaty of Frankfort, .Metz became once more a German city, and since then has lieen made a most important gar- rison and a first-class fortress. The city, after the levelling of the fortifications on the south and east (ISOS). secured space for growth and development. In l!i.') the city had 60,41!) inhabitants, of whom 43.0S2 were Catholics, 1.5, .5.50 Protestants, and IfiOl Jews; by 1910 the number of inhabitants, through the absorption of several villages, has increased to 68,100. II. The See oj- Metz. — The first fully authenti- cated Ijishop is Sperus or Hesperus, who took part in the Synoil of Clermont (5.35). The most important of the early bishops is the holy Arnulf (611-27), founder of the race of the Carlovingians. His re- mains were transferred in 643 by his successor Abbo (627-42) to the church of St. John outside the city and henceforth known as St. Arnulf's church. The bishops were usually abbots of the monastery of St. Arnulf. The boundaries of the diocese stretched originally to the Khine. but after the See of Strasburg was fovmded, only to the ^'osges mountains; from the top of the northern Vosges mountains the diocese embraced the upper Saar and adjoining districts, and extended to the Moselle and a little beyond Dieden- hofen; the southern boundary followed the left tribu- tary of the Moselle, Rupt de Mad, then up the Mo- selle to the mouth of the Meurthe, and in a slight cur\'e to the upper Meurthe. This district, which is not to be confounded with the temporal province, comprised practically the diocese up to the nineteenth century. Prominent bi.shops of the eighth century included Chrodcgang (742—46), w'ho founded the Ab- bey of Gorze and gave to his clergy a special rule for a canonical life, modelled after the Benedictine rule, the basis of the rita communis of the regular clergy. Then followed Angilram (768-91), the friend of Charles the Great, who, like his predecessor, received the pallium. Yet the archiepiscopal dignity was not transferred to the see itself; Metz was always re- garded as being a suffragan of Trier. Bishop Drogo (823-55), son of the Emperor Charles, remained loyal to his brother Louis the Pious, and exerted consider- able influence. In the administration of the dioceses, the suffragan bishops Amalarius and Lantfried sup- ported him. In the important position Metz as- sumed after the division of the Frankish dominions into West and East Franconia, the German rulers took care that only men who would be loyal to them were appointed to the episcopal see. After the unworthy Wigerich orWitgerof Lorraine (917-27), Henry I ap- pointed the Swaliian Bruno, who, in the second year of his administration, blinded by the inhabitants of Metz, returned to his hermitage. Adalbert (928-62), although at first an opponent of Otto I, received on the death of the Duke of Metz (945) a portion of the privileges of count, a fact which went far to increase the secular power of the bishops : in 959, through the division of the Duchy of Lorraine into I'pper and Lower Lorraine, the diocese was withdrawn from the ducal authority and placed immediately under the imperial. After the death of Adalbert, Otto's brother,

Bruno of Cologne, governed the see; then Dietrich II (964 S4),a cousin of Olio; Adalliert II (iisl 1005) • Adalbert 111 (1006); Dicliich 111 (1006 47), brother of the Empress Kuiiigumlc; Adalbert l\' (1047-72), all closely related to the reigning liou.se. In spite of this, however, the choice of bishops was generally an excellent one. The lirst church refonn mo\ement, of which the monasteries of St. Clement, St. Arnulf. and St. (ilossinde were the focus, origiiuited with Adal- bert I and Bruno; under Dietrich I the monastery of St. Syraphorus was again restored, and the new cathe- dral of St. Stephen biiilt by Dietrich III in 1039.

This friendly relation received a serious set-back through the investiture controversy, which many bishops carried on with the assistance of the emperor's adversaries. The Sa.xon Herman (1073-90) appealed to the pope ami was in con.sequence de]iosed by the emperor, and two other bishops apj)ointed in his stead. Until the conclusion of tlie Conctirdat of Worms a papal and an imperial bishop were continu- ally opposed to each other. Even Stephen of Bar (1120-63), appointed by Calixtus II, only obtained possession of his see after this Concordat. In an endeavour to free themselves from the episcopal power, the inhabitants of Metz sought to make use of these quarrels between the emperor and the bishop, but Stephen once more restored the sovereignty of the bishops. Bishop Bertrand (1179-1212) gave the city the system of government described above. Under his successor Conrad I of Scharfenberg (1212-24) the first settlements of the new orders of Mendicant Friars, the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Car- melites, were made in the diocese. With John of As- premont (1224-38), the first bishop to be elected solely by cathedral chapter, and Jacob of Lorraine (1239-60), who once more upheld the rights of the bishops against the city, the development of the tem- poral possessions of the bishopric came to a halt. These temporal possessions were obtained through the gifts of the Carlovingians, always friendly to Metz. In 770 it received full rights over the property of the Senones Abbey under Drogo, overthe Maursmiinster Abbey, in 923 over Zabem, in 931 over Saarburg, anil many others. On the dissolution of the old countships in the tenth century, the bishopric, subject only to the im- perial government, enlarged its possessions and ac- quired sovereignty in the old District of Moselle, in the Saar District, and in the Blies District. The most important acquisitions at that time and later were Rdmilly (984), Saarbriicken (998), the lord.ship of Puttlingen (1135), and Lutzelburg (1143), the fiefs of the countship of Dagsburg (1225), the lordship of Briey (1225), Rixingen and Miirsberg (125.5). Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries began the decline of these possessions, prineinally on account of the quarrels of almost all the bishops; namely, Ramald of Bar (1302-16), Adhemer of Mon- teil (1327-61), vmder whom the present cathedral was begun, Dietrich IV Bayer of Boppard (1365-S4) with the Dukes of Lorraine and the Counts of Bar and Luxemburg. During the thirteenth century sover- eignty over the city of Metz and its environs (the pai/s Messin) was lo.st; the continiial need of money by the bishops and the cathedral chapter forced them to pledge the title deeds of their domains, fiefs, and taxes to the Dukes of Lorraine, the Counts of Bar, the city of Metz, and even to the burgesses.

Another element was the fact that during the great Western Schism, for a long time two bishops had made the diocese a scene of strife, unt il liudolf of Coucy re- ceived general recognition (1387 1415). His suc- ces.sors Conrad II Bayer of Boppard (141.5-59), and George I of Bavaria (1459-84) were the la.st German bishops of the old see to once more work for the main- tenance of a loyal sentiment in the city and see. With Henry II of Lorraine (1484-1.505) began and contin- ued (luring the next one hundred and twenty years,