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 VITORIA

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VITORIA

Neapolitan campaign, wished to enter Toscanella, but being denied admission sacked the city and destroyed a great part of it. On 12 September, 1870, it wsis annexed to the Kingdom of Italy. Toscanella was the native city of Cardinal Consalvi.

The episcopal See of Viterbo was transferred from Toscanella, which venerates the martyrs Sts. Secun- dianus, Verianus, and companions (who, however, were Romans). They suffered not far from the city, to which their relics were translated in the seventh century by Bishop Maurus, the first bishop known (649). Among the successors of Maurus may be men- tioned Homobonus, to whom Leo IV (8.50) addressed a letter determining the boundaries of the diocese. In 876 Joannes, in the name of John VIII, carried the imperial insignia to Charles the Bald. During the tenth century Toscanella was for .some time under the Bishop of Centumcelte. The succession of its bishops recommences with Joannes (1027); another Joannes distinguished himself in the reform of Benedict (1049) and brought back the clergy of Tuscania to the com- mon life. Gilbert (10.59) and Giselbert (1080) were also promoters of reform, while Richard (1086) adhered to the antipope Clement III, who united with Toscanella the sees of Centumcelte and Blera (Bieda). In 1192 Celestine III formed Viterbo into a diocese, combining it with that of Toscanella. Among other bishops to be noted is Ranieri (c. 1200), in whose episcopate the Paterini came to Viterbo, and this heresy had still to be combated in 1304. After him Cardinal Raniero Capocci was for a long time the administrator.

In the fourteenth century the clergy of Toscanella repeatedly refused to recognize the bishop elected by the chapter of Viterbo, so that Clement V (1312) reserved to the Holy See the right of appointment. Bishop Angelo Tignosi (1318) laboured for peace among his fellow citizens. Niccol6 dei Vetuh (1351) was famous as a physician and man of letters, and held an important diocesan synod at Montalto. In 1435 the Diocese of Cometo was separated and joined with the then recently erected Diocese of Montefias- cone. In 1467 was commenced the church of the image, or picture, of the Madonna della Querela, a pictiu-e painted on a tile which had been hung by a peasant upon an oak tree (quercia). Other bishops were: Gian Pietro Gratti (1.533), a distinguished WTitcr; Sebastiano Gualtieri (1.551), the author of a diary of the Council of Trent; Cardinal Francesco Gambara (1.561), a munificent restorer of churches; Alessandro Sforza Cesarini (1636), who began the seminary of Viterbo, completed by Cardinal IVan- cesco Brancacci (16.38), a model of all the virtues; Michelangelo Conti (1712), afterw.ards Pope Innocent XII; Cardinal Gabriele Severoli (1806), nuncio at Vienna. The present bishop, Mgr. Ant. M. Grasselli (1899), O. M. C, was formerly delegate Apostohc at Constantinople.

The canons of Viterbo received from Benedict XIII the privilege of the mitre, ring, and bugia. The seminary is interdiocesan for the dioceses of the Roman province north of Rome. Toscanella also has a seminary of its own for clerical studies. Of Blera (Bieda) seventeen bishops are known, the first of whom was Maximus (487). Other ancient dioceses are Barbarano (Martaraniim) of which one bishop, Reparatus (647), is known, and Ferentum, the native place of the Emperor Olho, a famous bi.shop of which was St. Bonifacius (sixth century). Here is the Cemetery of S. Eutichio.

The diocese is immediately .subject to the Holy See. It has 34 parishes, with 47,000 souls, 90 secular and .58 regular priests, 8 houses of religious men, 18 houses of Sisters, 2 schools for boys and 4 for girls.

Cappelletti, Le chienf d' lialm, VI ; PiNzi. Storia di Vitrrbo, III (1S87); SlONORELLl. Vilnrho nrlla Slnrin dHla Chitiui, I (Vi- terbo. IflOT); EoiDI. L'archivio delta caUedrale di Vilerba (Homo, 1906J ; Caupanabi, Tuscania e i suoi Monujnenti (Mootcfiascooe,

(Rome, 1849); AuBBU,

U. Benigni.

Vitoria, Diocese op (Victoriensis), suffragan of Burgos, in Spain, bounded on the north by the Bay of Biscay; on the east by Guipuzcoa and Navarre; on the south by Logrono; and on the west by Burgos. It comprises the Basque Provinces and the greater part of the Province of Alava. The principal city, Vitoria, has more than 27,000 inhabitants. Prior to the tenth century the city was called Gazteiz, a Basque word meaning "the height of the fray", and belonged to the very ancient Federation of Arriaga, a federation of the towns of Alava. It occupied the upper portion of the present city, which is called el Campillo, or Villa de Suso. The name Gazteiz is found in adocumentof the Conde Fernan Gonzalez, dated 9.34, preserved in the monastery of San Millan de Rioja. The Navar- rese king D. Sancho the Wise took possession of this region in 1181, giving it the name of Victoria, which has been converted into Vitoria by the peculiarities of the local phonetics, and conferred upon it the privileges of a town. He built two castles, siurounded the town with walls, appointed Pedro Ramirez its military chief, and granted it the fucro, or charter, of Logrono. Alfonso VIII conquered it for Castile and conferred upon it still further fueros and privileges, which were confirmed by Ferdinand III and Alfonso X the Wise. John II conferred a city charter upon it on 20 November, 1431. Isabella the Catholic obtained from Pope Alexander VI the transfer of the collegiate Church of Armentia to the parochial Church of Santa Maria de Vitoria, the present cathedral, and in 1862 the Diocese of Vitoria was erected, in con- formity with the Concordat of 1851, under the Bull of Pius IX, 5 October, 1861.

When Calahorra was conquered by the Moors, its episcopal see was established in the Church of Armen- tia, and the kings of Asturias then gave it the name of Diocese of Alava. Theodomir, Reccared, and Vivere (eighth and ninth centuries) signed as bishops of Calahorra, although they resided in Armentia. Bishop Fortunius was one of those who defended the use of the Mozarabic Rite before Alexander II, and at his death (1088) the Diocese of Alava was sup- pressed, the Church of San .\ndr^s de Armentia taking rank .simply as a collegiate with canons and digni- taries, the Archdean of Alava being the principal. This was transferred to Vitoria in 1498. In the fif- teenth century Vitoria was disturbed by the factions of the Cnllejac (Aristocrats) and the Agalas (Demo- crats); the former held their meetings in the Church of San Pedro, and the latter in that of S.an Miguel. Ferdinand the Cathohc made strenuous efforts to restore peace.

The three distinct periods of its existence can easily be traced in the city of Vitoria. The most ancient city, the Campillo, or Villa, de Suso, surrounded by walls and ramparts, now for the most part in ruins; the old city, built at the foot of the Villa de Suso and now shut in by the modern Vitoria with its handsome edifices. The Cathedral of Santa Maria, the ancient collegiate church, which in 1181 was a fortress as well as a church, w;is situated in the old city. It dis- appeared when the fourteenth-century edifice was built. This is a Gothic structure of the second period; its beautiful open portico is .surmounted by a clock tower; it has three naves and a transept; the main chapel (capilh mnynr) has a beautiful taber- nacle, the work of Olaguibel, and reredos by Valdivi- eso, both natives of Alava. In the sacristy is the "Immaculate Conception" by Juan de Carreno, a "Pieta" attributed to Van Dyck, and some small pictures by Zurharan and Juan de Juanes. The processional cross is attributed to Benvenuto Cellini. The image of the Blessed Virgin, called de In escUinilud, because she holds an S and a nail (clavo) in her hand,