Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/877

 DIGEST

793

DIGNE

Sib Kenelm Digbt — Van Dyck

(Windsor Castle)

Digby's fame was now great, and in 1632 there was even talk of his becoming a secretary of state, but misfortune was nigh. On May Day, 1633, his beloved wife, wliose marriage with him had for some years been made pulilic. died suddenly. Various poets, Ben Jonson and William Habington among them, put forth rapturous poems in her praise. Digby withdrew into Gresham (^ollege, where he spent two years, lead- ing in strange mourning garb a life of study and seclu- sion. By this time he had forsaken the Catholic Church, to which, however, he was reconciled in 1636, apparently in France. In 1639 he was back in Eng- land, where the times were daily growing worse and worse. His intimacy as a Catholic with the king and queen roused the ire of the Long Parliament, who summoned him to their Bar in 1641, and next year im- prisoned him. He was discharged, however, after a while, on condition of his immediate departure for France. His prop- erty they after- wards proceeded to confiscate. Dig- by accordingly transferred his abode to Paris, where in 1644 he brought out his two great philo- sophical treatises of the "Nature of Bodies" and the "Immortality of Reasonable Souls". In 1645 lie was sent by the English Catholic Committee at Paris upon a diplomatic mission to Rome, whither he went again in 1647, but failed to accomplish anything to the purpose. After another journey to England in 1649 and another banishment, he got leave to return and came back in 1654. He now became intimate with Cromwell, who employed him abroad upon various diplomatic affairs. He returned to England for good at the Restoration Upon the incorporation of the Royal Society in 1663, Sir Kenelm was appointed one of the council. He died of stone on the anniversary of his sea-fight off Iskanderun, and was f^uried beside his wife in Christ Church, Newgate Van Dyck painted several (extant) portraits of Sir Kenelm and Lady Digbj', and Cornelius Janssen one of the latter.

Lee in Did. Xal. Biog., XV, 60 sqq.; Gillow. BM. Did. En^. Calh, 11,70 sqq.; yioOD, Alhencc Uxon., Ill, 68H; Journey of Scanderoon Voyage, ed. Camden See. (Westminster, 1868); Evelyn's Diary, passim.

C. T. BOOTHMAN.

Digest of Justinian. See Law.

Digne (Dinia), Diocese op (Diniensis), com- prises the entire department of the Basses- Alpes and is suffragan of the Archbishopric of Ai.x. By the Concordat of 1801, this diocese was made to include the two departments of the Hautes- and Basses- Alpes, i. e. in addition to the former Diocese of Digne, the Archdiocese of Embrun, the Dioceses of Gap, Sisteron, and Senez, a verj' considerable part of the Dioceses of Glandeves and Riez, and fourteen parishes in the Archdiocese of Aix and the Diocese of Apt. In 1822 Gap was made an episcopal see and, thus divested of the department of the Hautes- Alpes, the present Dio- cese of Digne covers the territorj' formerly included in the Dioceses of Digne, Senez, Glandeves, Riez, and Sisteron.

Former Diocese of Digne. — This diocese was evange- lized by Sts. Domninus and Vincentius who came from Africa in the second half of the fourth centurj'

with St. Marcellinus, the Apostle of Embrun. It is not certain that they were bishops. The first his- torically known bishop was Pentadius who attended the Council of .\gde in 506. .Vmong the incumbents of the See of Digne may be mentioned; Elzdar de Vil- leneuve (1334-41), author of a celebrated form of oath to be taken by Jews; Pierre III de Verceil (1432- 39), who represented the clergy and the Count of Pro- vence at the Council of Basle; Guillaume V d'Estoute- ville (1439-55), closely connected with the history of the Pragmatic Sanction (q. v.) and later Archbishop of Rouen; Antoine III H<5roiiet (1552-68), poet and translator of Plato; Forbin-Janson (1664-68), after- wards a cardinal and ambas.sador to Poland; MioUis (1805-38), whose kindness was proverbial, and who was the original of "Mgr. Myriel" in Victor Hugo's "Les Mis^rables", and Sibour (1839^8), who died Archbishop of Paris.

Diocese of Senez. — Marcellus I, the first known Bishop of the Diocese of Senez, attended the Council of Agde in 506; nevertheless, Senez nnist have been an episcopal city as early as 439. Jean IV Soanen, the Oratorian, noted for his opposition to the Bull " Uni- genitus", was Bishop of Senez from 1696 until the time of his deposition in 1727.

Diocese of GlanrHres. — Claudius, the first kno-wn bishop of the diocese, ascended the episcopal throne in 54i, but Glandeves was probably a .see as early as 439. Among its bishojjs were Symphorien BuUioud (1508-20), also ambassador from Francis I to Julius II and chaplain to Francis I; Fran(ois I Faure (1651-53), the pulpit orator, later Bishop of Amiens, and de Belloy (1752-55), who died a centenarian in 1808, as Archbishop of Paris.

Diocese of Sisteron. — Johannes, the first known Bishop of Sisteron, appears early in the sixth century. Owing to the ungracious reception accorded Bishop Gerard by the Chapter of Sisteron, the bishops of that see remained at Forcalquier from 1061 to 1169 and, until the time of the Revolution, the church at Forcal- quier bore the title of cathedral. Laffittau, the Jesuit, who was agent of Cardinal Dubois, anil also an his- torian, occupied the See of Sisteron from 1719 to 1764.

Diocese of Riez. — According to an unsupported tradition, the establishment of the Church in this dio- cese is attributed to the first century and to Euscbius or Eudochius, companion of St. Lazarus. A certain St. Prosper of Reggio in Emilia (at the beginning of the fifth century) figures in the history of Riez and was perhaps its bishop; however, the first certainly known bishop is St. Maximus (433-60), who succeeded St. Honoratus as Abbot of L/'rins and who, in 439, held a council at Riez with a view to improving the deplorable condition of the churches of Southern Gaul. His successor, St. Faustus (461-93), also Abbot of L^rins, was noted for his -OT-itings against Predestina- tionists; it was to him that Sidonius Apollinaris dedi- cated his "Carmen Eucharisticum " in gratitude for hospitality received at Riez. Robert Ceneau, the pulpit orator (15.30-32), afterwards Bishop of Avran- ches and Gui Bentivoglio (l22-25), who was nuncio in France and defender of French interests at Rome and who played an important role under I>ouis XIII, are al.so mentioned among the bishops of Riez.

The Diocese of Digne numbers the following saints: St. ThjTsiis of Sisteron and St. Promatius of Forcal- quier, both perhaps of the third century; the abbots St. Marius and St. Donatus (fifth, sixth centuries), na- tives of Orleans and fovmdeis of monasteries near Forcalquier and Sisteron; St. Mayeul (or Majolus) (910-94), born at Valensole and noted as Abbot of Cluny and a friend of Emperor Ot to II ; St. Bevon (tenth century), born at Noyers, helped to deliver Provence from the Saracens; Blessed fi^rard, fovmdcr of the Hospitallers of Jeru.salem, who died in 1120, his relics being preserved at Manosque; St. John of Matha (1160-1213), bom at Faucon and founder of the