Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/601

 MONTPELLIER

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MONTPELLIER

his translation of Dante's "DivinaCommedia" (1811-

1813) which was rated very hiRhly, Artaiid do Montor left important historical wurks : " Marhiavcl, son genie et SOS orreurs" (Paris, ISM.ll ; thr vdliinioon t lie history of Italy in the collection of tlio " I'nivors i)ittorosque" (Paris, 1834); "Histoire du paije Pie Vll" (2 vols., Paris, 1836); "Histoire de Dante Alighicri" (Paris, 1841); "Histoire des souverains pontifes romains" (8 vols., Paris, 1842); "Histoire de Li5on XII" (Paris, 1843); " Histoire de Pie VIII" (Paris, 1843). Shortly before his death, he published in 1849 when Pius IX was banished to Goeta, a work entitled: "Lapapaut6 et les i5meutes romainos". His recollections and his observations as a diplomat form the valuable feature of Artaud de Montor's historical works. He was a member of the Academie des Inscriptions et belles lettres from 17 Dec, 1830.

Qu^RAHD, La lilterature frani^aise contemporaine. I (Paris, 1840), 78-82; LoRENZ, Catalogue GinSrat de la Librairie Fran^aise, I (Paris, 1892), 79. GeORGBS GoYAU.

Montpellier, Diocese op (Montis Pessulani), comprises the department of Hijrault, and is a suffra- gan of Avignon. When the Concordat of 1802 re- established this diocese, it accorded to it also the department of Tarn, which was detached from it in 1822 by the creation of the Archdiocese of Albi; and from 1802 to 1822, Montpellier was a suffragan of Toulouse. A Brief of 16 June, 1877, authorized the bishops of Montpellier to call themselves bishops of Montpellier, Beziers, Agde, Lodeve, and Saint-Pons, in memory of the different dioceses united in the pres- ent Diocese of Montpellier.

(A) Diocese of Montpellier. — Maguelonne was the original diocese. Local traditions, recorded in 1583 by Abb(S Gariel in his "Histoire des ^v^ques de Mague- lonne", affirm that St. Simon the Leper, having landed at the mouth of the Rhone with St. Lazarus and his sisters, was the earliest apostle of Maguelonne. Gariel invokes in favour of this tradition a certain manuscript brought from Byzantium. But the chron- icler. Bishop Arnaud de Verdale (1339-1352) was ignorant of this alleged Apostolic origin of Mague- lonne. It is certain that the tombstone of a Christian woman named Vera was found at Maguelonne; Le Blant assigns it to the fourth century. The first his- torically known Bishop of Maguelonne was Ba>tius, who assisted at the Council of Narbonne in 589. Maguelonne was completely destroyed in the course of the wars between Charles Martel and the Saracens. The diocese was then transferred to Substantion, but Bishop Arnaud (1030-1060) brought it back to Ma- guelonne which he rebuilt. Near Maguelonne had grown up by degrees the two villages of Montpellier and Montpellieret. According to legend, they were in the tenth century the property of the two sisters of St. Fulcran, Bishop of Lodeve. About 975 they gave them to Ricuin, Bishop of Maguelonne. It is certain that about 990 Ricuin possessed these two villages; he kept Montpellieret and gave Montpellier in fief to the family of the Guillems. In 1085 Pierre, Count of Substantion and Melgueil, became a vassal of the Holy See for this countship, and relinquished the right of nomination to the Diocoso of Maguelonne. Urban II charged the Bishop of Maguelonne to exercise the papal suzerainty, and he spent five days in this town when he came to France to preach the Crusade. In 1215 Innocent III gave the countship of Melgueil in fief to the Bishop of Maguelonne, who thus became a temporal lord.

From that time the Bishop of Maguelonne had the right of coinage. Clement IV reproached (1266) Bishop B^renger de Fr^dol with causing to be struck in his diocese a coin called "Miliarensis", on which was read the name of Mahomet; in fact at that date the bishop, as well as the King of Aragon and the Count of Toulouse, authorized the coinage of Arabic money, not intended for circulation in Maguelonne, X.— 35 __

but to be sold for exportation to the merchants of the Mediterranean.

In July, 1201, Montpellier pas.sod into the hands of Peter of .Aragon, ,-«in-in-law of the last of the Guillems; Jaime I, son of Peter II, united the city to the King- dom of Majorca. In 1282 the King of Majorca paid homage to the King of France for Maguelonne. Berenger de Fredol, Bishop of Maguelonne, ceded Montpellier to Philip IV (1292). Jaime III of Ma- jorca sold Montpellier to Philip VI (1349); and the city, save for the period from 1365 to 1382, was hence- forth French. Urban V (Guillaume de Grimoard) had studied theology and canon law at Montpellier and was crowned pope by Cardinal Ardouin Aubert, nephew of Innocent VI, and Bishop of Maguelonne from 1352 to 1354; hence the attachment of Pope Urban for th's diocese which he favoured greatly. In

Cathedral, Montpelueh

1364 he caused the foundation at Montpellier, of a Benedictine monastery under the patronage of St. Germain, and came himself to Montpellier to see the new church (9 Jan.-8 March, 1367). He caused the city to be surrounded by ramparts, in order that the scholars might work there in safety; and finally he caused a large canal to be begun by which Montpellier might communicate with the sea. At the request of King Francis I, who pleaded the epidemics and the ravages of the pirates which constantly threatened Maguelonne, Paul III transferred the see to Mont- pellier (27 March, 1536). Montpellier, into which Calvinism was introduced in Feb., 1560, by the pastor, Guillaume Mauget, was much troubled by the wars of religion. Under Henry III a sort of Calvinistic repub- lic was installed there. The city was reconquered by Louis XIII (October, 1622).

Among the 54 bishops of Maguelonne, and the 18 bish- ops of Montpellier, may be mentioned: Blessed Louis Aleman (1418-23), later Bishop of Aries; Guillaume Pellicier (1,527-68), whom Francis I sent as an am- bassador to Venice, and whose learning as a humanist and naturalist made him after Sc6vole de Sainte- Marthe, "the most learned man of his century"; the preacher Pierre Fenouillet (1608-.')2); Francois de Bosquet (1657-76), whose historical labours were