Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/531

 PARIS

481

PARIS

Tiberius by the Nautce Parisiaci, on which are repre- sented several deities borrowed from the Roman pantheon; (2) by the remains of a pedestal (found in 1871 on the site of the old Hotel-Dieu), which doubt- less supported a statue of Germanicus, and on which is represented Janus Quadrifrons, the Roman symbol of peace. At the end of the third century Lutetia was destroyed by the barbarians, but an important mili- tary camp was at once installed in this district. Csesar Julian, later emperor and known as Julian the Apos- tate, defended Lutetia against fresh invasions from the north over the road from Senlis to Orleans. There, in 360, he was proclaimed Augustus by his soldiers, and Valentian I also sojourned there. The ruins found in the garden of the Musee de Cluny have, since the twelfth century, been regarded as the ruins of the Thcriniv, Ijut in 1903-04 other therma were discovered a little distance away, which must be either those of the palace of Julian the Apostate, or, accord- ing to M. Julian, those of the communal house of the Nautcc Parisiaci. Ruins have also been discovered of an arena capable of holding from SOOO to 9000 persons.

Beginnings of Christianity at Paris. — Paris was a Christian centre at an early date, its first apostles being St. Denis and his com- panions, Sts. Rusti- cus and Eleuthcrius. Until the li.'Vdlulion the ancient tradition of the Parisian Church commemc i- rated the seven sta- tions of St. Denis, the stages of his aposto- late and martyrdom :

(1) the ancient mon- astery of Notre- Dame - des - Chamjjs of which the crypt, it

was said, had been Chtrch of tde

dedicated to the Blessed Virgin by St. Denis on his arrival in Paris;

(2) the Church of St-Etienne-des-Gres (now disap- peared), which stood on the site of an oratory erected by St. Denis to St. Stephen; (3) the Church of St-Benoit (disappeared), where St. Denis had erected an oratory to the Trinity {Deus Benedic- tus); (4) the chapel of St-Denis-du-Pas near Notre- Dame (disappeared), on the site of the tribunal of the prefect Sicinnius, who tried St. Denis; (5) the Church of St-Denis-de-la-Chatre, the crypt of which was re- garded as the saint's cell (now vanished) ; (6) Mont- martre, where, according to the chronicle written in 830 by Abbot Hilduin, St. Denis was executed; (7) the basilica of St-Denis (see below). The memorials of the saint's activity in Paris have thus survived, but even the date of his apostolate is a matter of contro- versy. The legend stating St. Denis came to Gaul in the time of St. Clement, dates only from the end of the eighth century. It is found in the "Passio Dionisii", written about 800, and in the "Gesta Dagoberti", written at the Abbey of St-Denis at the beginning of the ninth century. Still later than the formation of this legend Abbot Hilduin identified St. Denis of Paris with Denis the Areopagite (see D_ioNysiDS_ the Pseudo-.\reopagite), but this identification is no longer admitted, and history is inclined to accept the opinion of St. Gregory of Tours, who declares St. Denis one of the seven bishops sent by Pope Fabian about 250. It is certain that the Christian commu- nity of Paris was of some importance in the third cen-

XI.— 31

tury. Recent discoveries seem to prove that the cata- combs of the Gobelins and of St. Marcellus on the left bank were the oldest necropolis of Paris; here have been found nearly 500 tombs, of which the oldest date from the end of the third century. Doubtless in this quarter was situated the church spoken of by St. Gregory of Tours as the oldest in the city; here was the sarcophagus of the virgin Crescentia, granted that our hypothesis agrees with a legend referring to this region the foundation of the chapel under the patron- age of Pope St. Clement, in which Bishop St. Marcel- lus was buried in the fifth century. This bishop, who was a native of Paris, governed the Church of Paris about 430; he is celebrated in popular tradition for his victory over a dragon, and his life was written by For- tunatus.

Merovingian Paris. — Paris was preserved from the invasion of Attila through the prayers and activ- ity of St. Genevieve (q. v.), who prevailed on the Parisians not to abandon their city. Clovis, King of the Franks, was received there in 497 after his conver- sion to Christianity, and made it his cap- ital. The coming of the Franks brought about its great reli- gious development. At the summit of the hill on the left bank Clovis founded, in honour of the Apos- tles Peter and Paul, a basilica to which the tomb of St. Gene- vieve drew numbers of the faithful, and in which St. Clotilde, who died at Tours, was buried. On the right bank were built as early as the fifth century two churches consecrated to St. Martin of Tours — one near the present Notre-Dame, the ADELEi.NE, P.«is ^^ijgj. further in the

country, in the place where the Church of St-Martin- des-Champs now stands. Childebert (d. 558), son of Clovis, having become King of Paris in 511, added to the religious prestige of the city. After his campaign in Spain, he made peace with the inhabitants of Sara- gossa on condition that they would deliver to him the sacred vessels and the stole of St. Vincent, and on his return, at the instance of St. Germain (q. v.), built a church in honour of St. Vincent, which later took the name of Germain himself. The present church of St- Germain-des-Pres still preserves some columns from the triforiuin, which must date from the first building. After the death of Caribert, son of Clotaire I (567), Paris was not divided among the other sons of Clo- taire, but formed a sort, of municijjal republic under the direction of St. Germain. Owing to this excep- tional situation Paris escaped almost entirely the con- sequences of the civil wars with which the sons of Clotaire, and later Fredegunde and Brunhilde, dis- turbed Merovingian France. Mgr Duchesne concedes a certain authority to an ancient catalogue of the bishops of Paris, preserved in a sacramentary dating from the end of the ninth or the beginning of the tenth century. After St. Germain other bishops of the Merovingian period were: St. C6ran (Ceraunus, 606- 21), who collected and compiled the Acts of the Mar- tyrs, and during whose episcopate a council of seventy- nine bishops (the first national council of France) was held at the basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul; St. Landry (650-6), who founded under the patronage of St.