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 MONTPELLIER

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MONTPELLIER

very' useful to the celebrated Baluzp; the bibliophile Colbert de Croissy (1096-1738), who induced the Oratorian Pouget to compose in 1702 the famous "Catechism of Montpellier", condemned by the Holy See in 1712 and 1721 for Jansenistic tendencies; F'our- nier (1800-34), who in 1801 was confined for a time in the madhouse at Hicctre at the command of Napoleon, for a sermon against the Revolution. Among the numerous councils and synods held at Montpellier, the following merit mention: the council of 1162 in which Alexander III excommunicated the antipope, Victor; the provincial synod of 1195, which was occupied with the Saracens of Spain and the Albi- genses; the council of 1215, which was presided over by Peter of Benevento, legate of the Holy See and passed important canons concerning discipline, and declared also that subject to the approval of the pope, Toulouse and all the other towns taken from the Albigenses should be given to Simon de Montfort; the council of 1224, which rejected the request of Raymond, Count of Toulouse, who promised to pro- tect the Catholic Faith and demanded that Amaury de Montfort withdraw his claims to the countship of Toulouse; the council of 1258, which by permitting the seneschal of Bcaucaire to arrest ecclesiastics taken in the act of crime, in order to hand them over to the bishop, made way for royal magistrates to exercise a certain power within the limits of ecclesi- astical jurisdiction and thus inaugurated the move- ment as a result of which, under the name of "privi- leged cases", a certain number of offences committed by ecclesiastics became amenable to lay justice.

(B) Diocese of Agde. — Local traditions designate as the first Bishop of Agde, St. Venustus, said to have suffered martyrdom during the legendary invasion of the barbarian, Chrocus, about 407 or 408. The first historically known Bishop of Agde is Sophronius who assisted at the Council of Agde in 506.

(C) Diocese of B^ziers — Local traditions assign as the first Bishop of Beziers the Egj-ptian saint, Aphro- disius, said to have sheltered the Holy Family at Her- mopolis and to have become a disciple of Christ, also to have accompanied Sergius Paulus to Gaul when the latter went thither to found the Church of Narbonne, and to have died a martyr at Beziers. The first his- torically known bishop is Paulinus mentioned in 418; St. Guiraud was Bishop of Beziers from 1121 to 1123; St. Dominic refused the See of Beziers to devote him- self to the crusade against the Albigenses.

Among the fifteen synods held at Beziers must be mentioned that of 356 held by Saturninus of Aries, Arian archbishop, against St. Hilary; those of 1233, 1246, and 1255 against the Albigenses.

Local traditions made St. Aphrodisius arrive at Bdziers mounted on a camel. Hence the custom of leading a camel in the procession at Beziers on the feast of the saint; this lasted until the Revolution.

(D) Diocese of Lodeve. — Since the fourteenth cen- tury local tradition has made St. Florus first bishop of Lodfeve, and relates that as a disciple of St. Peter, he afterwards evangelized Haute-Auvergne and died in the present village of St -Flour. It is historically cer- tain that bishops of Lodeve have existed since 421; the first historically known bi.shop is Matemus, who was present at the Council of Agde in .506. Among the bishops of Lodeve are: St. George (863-884), previously a Benedictine monk; St. Fulcran (949- 1006), who in 975 dedicated the cathedral of St. Gen^s and founded the Abbey of St. Sauveur; the Dominican Bernard Guidonis (1324-1331); Cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville (14.50-1453). who played an important part as papal legate, also in the rehabili- tation of Joan of Arc; the brothers Guillaume Bri- goniKt (1489-1516) and Denis Bri?onnet (1516-1.520).

(E) Diocese of Saint- Pons -de-Thomidres. — The Abbey of St-Pons was founded in 936 by Raymond, Count of Toulouse, who brought thither the monks of

St. Gcraud d'Aurillac. By a Bull of 18 Feb., 1318, John XXII raised the abbey to a see.

Special honour is paid in the present Diocese of Montpellier to St. Pons (Pontius) de Cimiez, martyr under Valerian, patron of St-Pons-dc-Thomieres; Sts. Tiberius and Modestus and St. Florence, martyrs at Agde under Diocletian; St. Sevcrus, Abbot of St. Andr<^, at Agde (d. about 500); St. Maxentius, a native of Agde and founder of the Abbey of St-Maix- ent, in Poitou (447-515); St. Benedict of Aniane, and his disciple and first historian. Saint Ardo Smaragdus (d. in 843); St. Guillem, Duke of Aquitaine. who in 804, founded near Lodeve, on the advice of St. Bene- dict of Aniane, the monastery of Gellone (later St- Guillem du Desert), died there in 812, and under the name of "Guillaume au Court Ncz" became the hero of a celebrated epic chanson; St. Etienne, Bishop of Apt (97.5-1046), born at Agde; Blessed Guillaume VI, Lord of Montpellier from 1121 to 1149 and who died a Cistercian at Grandselve; Bl. Peter of Castel- nau. Archdeacon of Maguelonne. inquisitor (d. in 1208); St. Gerard (or Gcri), Lord of Lunel (end of thirteenth century) ; the celebrated pilgrim, St. Roch, who was born at Montpellier about the end of the thirteenth century, saved several cities of Italy from the pest, and returned to Montpellier to live as a her- mit, where he died in 1325. The Benedictine Abbey of Aniane (see Benedict op Aniane) was in the ninth century a centre of monastic reform. The Benedic- tine Abbey of Valraagne was founded in 1138 by Ray- mond of Trencavcl. Viscount of Beziers. As early as 1180 the Hospital of the Holy Ghost at Montpellier received exposed or abandoned children.

The chief pilgrimages of the diocese are: Notre Dame de I'Ermitage at St-Guillem du Desert (four- teenth century); Notre Dame de Grdce at Gignac, on the site of a sanctuary built by St. Flour, first Bishop of Lodeve; Notre Dame de Cirau near Agde, on the site of an oratory built in 456 by St. Severus; Notre Dame de Mougeres at Mougeres (fifteenth century); Notre Dame de Montaigu at Ceyras, a pilgrimage founded by the Franciscans in the first half of the seventeenth century; Notre Dame de Roubignac (dating from the tenth century) ; Notre Dame du Sue at Brissac, established by the Benedictines; Notre Dame de Tredos, a pilgi image already in existence in 1612; Notre Dame des Tables at Montpellier, dating from the ninth century, and particularly developed after miracles in 1189. The Church of Notre Dame des Tables disappeared after the Revolution; but the cult transferred to the chapel of the Jesuits is still in vogue, and in 1889, Mgr de Cabrieres crowned the statue in the name of the pope. Before the applica- tion of the Law of 1901 there were in the diocese, Car- thusians, Jesuits, Franciscans, Lazarists, Mission- aries of la Salette, Carmelites, Salesians of Dom Bosco, and various orders of teaching brothers. Con- gregations of women native to the diocese are: The Augustinian Sisters of Charity of Our Lady, hospital- lers, founded at Beziers in 1646; Sisters of Christian Doctrine, founded in 1853 (mother-house at Ceilhes) ; Dominican religious founded in 1855 (mother-house at Cette); the Nursing Sisters of Notre Dame auxilia- trice, founded 1845 by the AbW' Soulas (mother-house at MontpeUier). At the beginning of the twentieth century the congregations directed in the diocese 2 creches, 53 infant schools, 1 school for the blind, 1 school for deaf mutes, 8 orphanages for boys, 15 orphanages for girls, 1 institution of preservation, 1 establishment for correction, 1 institution of rehabili- tation, 8 houses of mercy, 15 establishments for nurs- ing the sick in their homes, 1 hospital for the insane, 6 hospitals or infirmaries.

In 1908 the diocese numbered 482,779 inhabitants, 43 parishes, 310 chapels, 27 vicariates.