Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/182

 AUTUN

144

AUXENTIUS

not a poet of the first rank, is a writer whose noble sentiments, chaste imagination, and religious feeling will always endear him to lovers of pure and re- freshing poetry. All his works are remarkable for their purity of expression, the music of their rhythm, and a profound feeling for the beauties of nature.

Anthotogie des poilts iranfais (Paris, 1S92) 302; Df. JuLLEVIJvLE, Hist, de la langue et de la litterature francaises (Paris, 1899), VII, 355; de Laprade, Preface des auvres compliUa d'Autran (1874-81).

Je-^n Le Bars. Autun (Augustodoxum), Diocese of, com- prises the entire Department of Saone et Loire in France. It was suffragan to the Archdiocese of Lj'- ons under the okl regime. The sees of Chalons-sur- Saone and Macon were united to Autun after the Revo- lution, and it then became suffragan to Besangon (1S02), afterwards to Lyons (1822). Christian teach- ing reached Autun at a very early period, as we know from the famous Greek inscription of Pectorius which dates from the third century. It was found in 1839 in the cemetery of St. Peter I'Estrier at Autun and bears testimony to the antiquity and efficacy of baptism and the sacramental words of the Holy Eucharist. Local recensions of the "Passion" of St. Symphorianus of Autvm exhibit St. Polycarp on the eve of the persecution of Septimius Severus, assigning to St. Irenaeus two piiests and a deacon (Sts. Benignus, Andochius, and Thyrsus), all three of whom depart for Autun. St. Benignus goes on to Langres, while the others remain at Autim. Ac- cording to tliis legendary cycle, which dates from about the first half of the sixth centurj', it was not then believed at Autun that the city was an episcopal see in the time of St. Irenieus (c. 1-10-c. 211). St. Ama- tor, whom Autun tradition designates as its first bishop, probably occupied the see about 250. The first bishop known to history is St. Reticius, an ecclesiastical writer, and contemporary of the Em- peror Constantine (30(5-337). The Bishop of .\utun enjoys the right of wearing the pallium, in virtue of a privilege accorded to the see in 599 by St. Gregory the Great (59O-60-1). In the Merovingian period two Bishops of Autun figured prominently in political affairs; St. Syagrius, bishop during the second half of the sixth century, a contemporary of St. Germanus, Bishop of Paris (a native of Autun), and St. Leo- degarius (Leger), bishop from 663 to 680, celebrated on account of his conflict with Ebroin and put to death by order of Thierry III. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the future diplomat, was Bishop of Autun from 1788 to 1790, when he re- signed. The last bishop of this see, appointed in 1882 (d. 1906), was Cartlinal Perraud, member of the French Academy. In 670, an important council was held at Autun for the purpose of regulating the discipline of the Benedictine monasteries. The present cathedral of Autun dates from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and was formerly the chapel of the Dukes of Burgundy; their palace was the actual episcopal residence. In the Diocese of Autun are yet to be seen the ruins of the Benedictine Abbey of Tournus and the great Abbey of Cluny. to which 2,000 monasteries were subject, and which gave to the Church the great pope, Gregory VII (1073-85). Gelasius II (1118-19) died at Cluny. and there also was held the conclave that elected Calixtus II (1119- 24). The devotion to the Sacred Heart originated in the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial, founded in 1644, and now the object of frequent pil- grimages. At the end of the year 1905 the Diocese of Autun contained 618,227 inhabitants, 65 parishes, 458 succursal, or auxiliary, churches, and 68 vicariates. Gallia Christiana, ed. nova (1728), IV, 314-437 and Docu- ments. 39-126; De Fo.vtenay. Autun. ses monuments (.\utun, 1889); Duchesne, Fastes episcopaux de Vancienne Gauie, I, 48-56, and II, 174-182 (Paris, 1894 and 1900); CBEVAilEH, Topo-bibl. (Paris, 1894-99), 269-272.

Georges Goyau.

CotTNciLS OF Autun. — The first council, held in 663 (or 670) orders all ecclesiastics to learn by heart the Apostles' Creed and the Atlianasian Creed, and this seems to be the earliest mention of the latter in France. Cardinal Pitra says in his "Histoire de St. L^ger" that this canon may have been directed against Monothelitism, then seeking entrance into the GalHcan churches, but condemned beforehand in the latter of these creeds. The Rule of St. Bene- dict was also prescribed as the normal monastic code. In the Council of 1065, Saint Hugues, Abbot of Cluny, accomplished the reconcihation of Robert, Duke of Burgimdy, w-ith the Bishop of Autun. In 1077 Hugues, Bishop of Die. held a council at Autun, by order of St. Gregoiy VII; it deposed Manasses, Bishop of Reims, for simony and usurpation of the see, and reproved other bishops for absence from the council. In 1094 Hugues, Archbishop of Lyons, and thirty-three other bishops renewed at Autun the excommunication of Henry IV of Germany, the .\ntipope Guibert, and their partisans, also that of King Philip of France, guilty of bigamy. Simony, ecclesiastical disorders, and monastic usurpations provoked other decrees, only one of which is extant, forbidding the monks to induce the canons to enter monasteries.

Ma.s-si. CoW. Cone (1748). Supp. 1. 497. XI. 126, XIX, 10 sqq.: Supp. II, 25, XX, 483; Gallia Christiana, ed. nova (1728), IV, 314-437, 39-126; Gaguard, Hist, de Veglise d'Autun (Autun. 1774); Chev.\lier, Topo-bibl. (Paris, 1894-99), 270.

Thomas J. Shahan.

Auxentius, name of several early Christian per- sonages. — Au.XENTius OF Milan, native of Cap- padocia, ordained (343) to the priesthood by Gregory, the intruded Bishop of Alexandria. After the ban- ishment of Dionysius of Milan in 355, Auxentius was made bishop of that see through Arian in- trigue, though ignorant of the Latin tongue. Some of the principal Western bishops attempted, but in vain, to bring him to accept the Nicene Creed. He was publicly accused at Milan, in 364, by St. Hilary of Poitiers, and convicted of error in a dis- putation held in that city by order of the Emperor Valentinian. His submission was only apparent, however, and he remained powerful enough to compel the departure of St. Hilary from Milan. In 359 he forced many bishops of lUjTicum to sign the creed of Rimini. Though St. Athana- sius procured his condemnation by Pope Damasus at a Roman synod (369), he retained possession of his see until his death in 374, when he was suc- ceeded by St. Ambrose. — Auxentius. Junior, origi- nally Mercurinus, a Scythian, and a disciple of Ulfilas. or Wulfila, of whose life and death he wrote an ac- coimt that the Arian bishop, Maximinus, included (3S3) in a work directed against St. Ambrose and the Synod of Aquileia, 381. This favourite of Jus- tina was the anti-bishop set up in Jlilan by the Arians, on the occasion of the election of Ambrose. He challenged the latter in 386 to a public dispute in which the judges were to be the court favourites of the Arian empress; he also demanded for the Arians the use of the Basilica Portiana. The refusal to surrender this church brought about a siege of the edifice, in which Ambrose and a multitude of his faithful Milanese had shut themselves up. The empress e\entually abandoned her fa\'Ourite and made peace with Ambrose. (Baimard, Saint Am- broise. Paris, 1872, 332-348; Hcfele, History of tlu Councils, I). — AuxEXTius of Mopsuestia (360). Baronius places this bishop in the Roman martyrology, because of the story told by Pliilostorgius (in Suidas) that he was at one time an officer in the army of Licinius, and gave up his commission rather than obey the imperial command to lay a bunch of grapes at the feet of a statue of Bacchus. Tillemont (M^moires, VI, 786-7) is inclined to believe that