The former Catholic diocese of Narbonne existed from early Christian times until the French Revolution. It was an

archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

, with its see at

Narbonne Narbonne ( , , ; ; ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was ...

, from the year 445, and its influence ran over much of south-western France and into

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

. At the beginning of the 18th century, the ecclesiastical province of Narbonne included the dioceses of: Agde, Alais, Béziers, Carcassonne, Alet, Lodève, Montpellier, Nimes, Elne, Saint-Pons, and Uzès.

History

Bishop Selva (c. 633–638) subscribed as a metropolitan bishop at the Council of Toledo in 633. In a bull of 20 August 896, which confirmed the rights, privileges, and possessions of Narbonne,

Pope Stephen VI Pope Stephen VI (; died August 897) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 22 May 896 until his death in August 897. He is best known for instigating the Cadaver Synod, which ultimately led to his downfall and death. Famil ...

granted the church of Narbonne the right to elect a bishop without outside interference, even from the king. In 908, at the command of

Charles the Simple Charles III (17 September 879 – 7 October 929), called the Simple or the Straightforward (from the Latin ''Carolus Simplex''), was the king of West Francia from 898 until 922 and the king of Lotharingia from 911 until 919–923. He was a memb ...

, King of the Western Franks, Archbishop Arnustus of Narbonne consecrated, with the assistance of bishops Nantigius of Urgel and Teudericus of Barcelona, one of the members of the king's court, Vigo (Guigui) to be bishop of Gerona. On 21 November 908, a meeting of the clergy, nobility, and people was held in the church of S. Felix in Gerona at the call of Count Wifred of Barcelona, Gerona, and Ausona (Osona), to acknowledge, elect, and install their new bishop. The consecrators were present. The proceedings demonstrate the power and influence of lay magnates over church appointments. Archbishop Arnustus (893–912) was assassinated by his enemies while he was on his way to a council to be held in Barcelona. In preparing for the election of a successor, the clergy and people of Narbonne invited each of the suffragan bishops of the archdiocese, and, following an old custom, the archbishop of Arles and his suffragans as well. Archbishop Rostagnus of Arles set out, but when he reached Agde, he and the bishops of Uzès and Maguelonne uncanonically elected and consecrated Gérard, who was the nephew of Bishop Amelius of Uzès. The bishops of the province of Narbonne and the clergy and people of the archdiocese immediately elected the abbot Agius, and sent a letter of protest to

Pope Anastasius III Pope Anastasius III (c. 865 — June 913) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from April 911 to his death. Anastasius was a Roman by birth. A Roman nobleman, Lucian, is sometimes recognized as his father, although other sources ...

, asking that the election of Gérard be voided, and that archbishop-elect Agius be dispensed from having to appear at the Roman court due to the danger of travel. Gérard, however, set off for Rome. Pope Anastasius died in October 913, and it was left to his successor

Pope John X Pope John X (; died 28 May 928) was the bishop of Rome and nominal ruler of the Papal States from March 914 to his death. A candidate of the counts of Tusculum, he attempted to unify Italy under the leadership of Berengar of Friuli, and was in ...

to deal with the case. Gérard did not wait, however, but forged some papal documents in his favor and returned to Narbonne, hoping to expel Archbishop Agius. The bishops of the province of Narbonne wrote to the pope again with additional particulars, and Pope John voided the election of Gérard. He sent the archbishop of Besançon to Narbonne to bestow the ''

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : pallia) is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolitan bish ...

'' on Archbishop Agius and to drive Gérard out of the diocese. A provincial synod was held in Narbonne by Archbishop Aymeric on 27 March 1247. The principal business was a petition presented by the clergy and people of

Elne Elne (; ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. It lies in the former province of Roussillon, of which it was the first capital, being later replaced by Perpignan. Its inhabitants are still called ''Illibéri ...

for a new bishop. In discussion at the council, the representatives of Elne came to agree on Riculf, a choice which was approved by the council. Several months later, Archbishop Aymeric held a synod in the diocese of Elne, at a place called ''in Fontis'', in which the bishops of Gerona and Urgel were deposed. in accordance with a decree of

Pope Innocent IV Pope Innocent IV (; – 7 December 1254), born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 June 1243 to his death in 1254. Fieschi was born in Genoa and studied at the universities of Parma and Bolo ...

, though they were restored by the council as an act of mercy.

French Revolution

The National Constituent Assembly ordered the replacement of political subdivisions of the ''ancien régime'' with subdivisions called "departments", to be characterized by a single administrative city in the center of a compact area. The decree was passed on 22 December 1789, and the boundaries fixed on 26 February 1790, with the effective date of 4 March 1790. A new department was created, called "Aude", and its administrative center was fixed at Carcassonne, with Narbonne as one of its districts. The National Constituent Assembly then, on 6 February 1790, instructed its ecclesiastical committee to prepare a plan for the reorganization of the clergy. At the end of May, its work was presented as a draft

Civil Constitution of the Clergy The Civil Constitution of the Clergy () was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that sought the Caesaropapism, complete control over the Catholic Church in France by the National Constituent Assembly (France), French gove ...

, which, after vigorous debate, was approved on 12 July 1790. There was to be one diocese in each department, a policy later adhered to by Napoleon. Under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the diocese of Narbonne was combined with the dioceses of Carcassonne, Alet, Saint-Papoul and Mirepoix into the new Diocese of the Aude, with its seat at Narbonne. It included 565 parishes. It was a part of the Métropole du Sud, which included ten départements.

Restoration

The

French Directory The Directory (also called Directorate; ) was the system of government established by the Constitution of the Year III, French Constitution of 1795. It takes its name from the committee of 5 men vested with executive power. The Directory gov ...

fell in the coup engineered by Talleyrand and

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

on 10 November 1799. The coup resulted in the establishment of the

French Consulate The Consulate () was the top-level government of the First French Republic from the fall of the French Directory, Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire on 9 November 1799 until the start of the First French Empire, French Empire on 18 May 1804. ...

, with Napoleon as the First Consul. To advance his aggressive military foreign policy, he decided to make peace with the Catholic Church in France and with the Papacy. In the

concordat of 1801 The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between the First French Republic and the Holy See, signed by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII on 15 July 1801 in Paris. It remained in effect until 1905, except in Alsace–Lorraine, ...

with

Pope Pius VII Pope Pius VII (; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823) was head of the Catholic Church from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. He ruled the Papal States from June 1800 to 17 May 1809 and again ...

, and in the enabling papal bull, "Qui Christi Domini", the constitutional diocese of Aude and all the other dioceses in France, were suppressed. This removed all the institutional contaminations and novelties introduced by the Constitutional Church, and voided all of the episcopal appointments of both authentic and constitutional bishops. In restoring the pre-revolutionary ecclesiastical structure, the template provided by the Constitutional Church was followed, in providing for only ten metropolitan archbishoprics. The ecclesiastical province of Narbonne was not restored, nor was the archdiocese of Narbonne. The dioceses of the ecclesiastical province were either transferred to other ecclesiastical provinces, or were not restored. The territory of the former diocese of Narbonne was merged under the

Concordat of 1801 The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between the First French Republic and the Holy See, signed by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII on 15 July 1801 in Paris. It remained in effect until 1905, except in Alsace–Lorraine, ...

into the

diocese of Carcassonne The Diocese of Carcassonne and Narbonne (Latin: ''Dioecesis Carcassonensis et Narbonensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Carcassonne et Narbonne'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese c ...

, and the diocese of Carcassone was assigned to the ecclesiastical province of Toulouse. After the Restoration of the Bourbons following Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, new national boundaries were drawn by the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...

and the

Treaty of Paris (1815) The Treaty of Paris of 1815, also known as the Second Treaty of Paris, was signed on 20 November 1815, after the defeat and the abdication of Napoleon (1815), second abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte. In February, Napoleon had escaped from his e ...

. This required, on the part of the Papacy, the negotiation of new concordats with the various Powers, in the light of events of the previous quarter-century. This resulted in a treaty between

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

and

, the

Concordat of 11 June 1817 The Concordat of 11 June 1817 was a concordat between the Bourbon Restoration in France, kingdom of France and the Holy See, signed on 11 June 1817. Not having been enacted into law by the French parlement, it never came into force in France. The ...

. The archdiocese of Narbonne was to be reestablished through the bull "Commissa divinitus", The proposed concordat was submitted to the French National Assembly, but it was defeated by members who were still of liberal political persuasion and hostile to the reactionary policies of the Bourbon government. On 6 October 1822, a revised version of the bull of 1817, "Commissa divinitus", now called "Paternae charitatis", was signed, and on demand of the king was enacted into French law in 1823. In paragraph 13 of that bull, the decision is taken not to restore the ecclesiastical province of Narbonne or the diocese. The archdiocese of Toulouse became the archdiocese of Toulouse-Narbonne.

Modern times

After more than a century, a new metropolitan see was created for the Languedoc region, with the elevation of the bishopric of Montpellier to the rank of Metropolitan Archbishop on 8 December 2002. The diocese of Carcassonne was transferred from the metropolitanate of Toulouse to that of Montpellier, and on 14 June 2006 the name of the diocese of Carcassonne was changed to the Diocese of Carcassonne and Narbonne. Toulouse no longer carries the title Toulouse-Narbonne.

Bishops and archbishops

To 1000

* /nowiki> Paul of Narbonne ">Paul_of_Narbonne.html" ;"title="/nowiki> Paul of Narbonne">/nowiki> Paul of Narbonne /nowiki> * [ Saint Etienne (third century) ] * [ (359) : Gavidius ] * (417–422) : Hilarius * (427–461) : Rusticus of Narbonne, Rusticus (427, 461, c. 441–445) * [ (462) : Hermes ] * Caprarius ( 506) * (560) : Aquilinus *

Athaloc Athaloc was the Visigothic Arian Archbishop of Narbonne at the time of the Third Council of Toledo in 589. He was the metropolitan of his province in parallel with the Catholic hierarchy. Early in 589, Reccared I sent word of his conversion to ...

(c. 589) * (c. 589–597) : Migetius (Migecio) * (c. 610) : Sergius * Selva (c. 633–638) *

Argebaud Argebad or Argebaud was the Visigothic Archbishop of Narbonne (fl. c. 672). He played a major role in the Septimania Septimania is a historical region in modern-day southern France. It referred to the western part of the Roman province of '' Gal ...

(c. 672) * Sunifred (c. 683–688) * /nowiki> Aribertus (c. 768) /nowiki> * Daniel (c. 769–c. 798) * ( 790–c. 825) :Nebridius (Nefridius) (c. 790–822 or c. 799–c. 825) * (c. 827–844) : Bartholomeus * (c. 842–c. 850) : Berarius * (c. 855–872) : Fredoldus * (873–885) : Sigebaud * (885–893) :

Theodard :''Theodard was also the murdered bishop Theodard of Maastricht.'' Saint Theodard () (ca. 840–1 May, ca. 893) was an archbishop of Narbonne. He may have been born to the nobility and served as a subdeacon at a church council at Toulouse. ...

* (893–912) : Arnustus * /nowiki> (912) : Gerard /nowiki> * (912–924) : Agio * (926–977) : Aimery * (977–1017/1019) : Ermengaud (Ermengol)

1000–1300

* (1019–1079) : Guifred de Cerdagne : /nowiki> (1079–1085) : [ * (1081–1097) : Dalmatius * (1097–1106) : Bertrand de Montredon * (1106–1121) : Richard de Millau">Bertrand de Montredon">/nowiki> (1079–1085) : [ * (1081–1097) : Dalmatius * (1097–1106) : Bertrand de Montredon * (1106–1121) : Richard de Millau (Milhau) * (1121–1149) :Arnaud de Lévezou * (1150–1156) : Pierre d'Anduze * (1156–1162) : Berenger of Narbonne * (1162–1181) : Pons D'Arce * (1182–1191) : Bernard Gaucelin * (1191–1212) : Berengar of Barcelona * (1212–1225) : Arnaldus Amalric, O.Cist. * (1226–1245) : Pierre Amiel (Petrus Amelii) * (1245–1257) : Guillaume de Broue * (1257–1259) : Jacques * (1259–1261) :

Guy de Foulques Pope Clement IV (; 23 November 1190 – 29 November 1268), born Gui Foucois (; or ') and also known as Guy le Gros (French for "Guy the Fat"; ), was bishop of Le Puy (1257–1260), archbishop of Narbonne (1259–1261), cardinal of Sabina (126 ...

* (1263–1272) : Maurinus * (1272–1286) : Pierre de Montbrun * (1287–1311) :

Gilles I Aycelin de Montaigu Gilles I Aycelin de Montaigu or Montaigut (1252 – 23 June 1318), was a French Archbishop and diplomat who became Lord Chancellor of France. Gilles I Aycelin de Montaigu was Archbishop of Narbonne (1287–1311) and Archbishop of Rouen (1311– ...

1300–1500

* (1311–1341) : Bernard de Fargis * (1341–1346) : Gausbert du Val (Cardinal) * (1347–1375) : Pierre de La Jugie * (1375–1391) : Jean Roger * (1391–1432) : François de Conzié * (1433–1436) : Francesco Condulmer (Cardinal) ''in commendam'' * (1436–1451) : Jean D'Harcourt * (1451–1460) : Louis D'Harcourt * (1460–1472) : Antoine du Bec-Crespin * (1473–1482) : Renaud de Bourbon * (1482–1484) :

Georges d'Amboise Georges d'Amboise (1460 – May 25, 1510) was a French Roman Catholic cardinal and minister of state. He belonged to the house of Amboise, a noble family possessed of considerable influence: of his nine brothers, four were bishops. His fath ...

* (1484–1491) : François Ilallé * (1492–1494) : Georges d'Amboise, second time * (1494–1502) : Pierre D'Abzac

after 1500

* (1502–1507) : François-Guillaume de Castelnau * (1507–1514) : Cardinal Guillaume Briçonnet * (1515–1523) : Cardinal Giulio de Medici (later Pope Clement VII) * (1524–1550) :

Jean, Cardinal of Lorraine Jean de Lorraine (9 April 1498 – c. 18 May 1550) was the third son of the ruling Duke of Lorraine, and a French cardinal, who was (at one time or another) archbishop of Reims (1532–1538), Lyon (1537–1539), and Narbonne (1524–1550), bishop ...

* (1550–1551) : Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, Cardinal of Ferrara * (1551–1563) :

Francesco Pisani Francesco Pisani (1494 – 28 June 1570) was an Italian Cardinal (Catholicism), Cardinal, born in Venice, the son of Alvise Pisani the noted banker, who was Procurator of S. Mark's, a member of the Council of Ten, and a Councilor of the Doge of ...

(Cardinal) * (1563–1572) : Cardinal Ippolito d'Este * (1572–1575) :

Simon Vigor Simon Vigor (b. at Evreux, Normandy, about 1515; d. at Carcassonne, 1 November 1575) was a French Catholic bishop and controversialist. Life Son of Raynaud Vigor, a court physician, he went to Paris about 1520, where his studies included Greek, ...

* (1581–1588) : Cardinal

François de Joyeuse François de Joyeuse (24 June 1562 – 23 August 1615) was a French churchman and politician. Biography Born at Carcassonne, François de Joyeuse was the second son of Guillaume de Joyeuse and Marie Eléanor de Batarnay. As the younger son of ...

* (1588–1594) : Raymond Cavalésy, O.P. * (1600–1628) : Louis de Vervins, O.P. * (1628–1659) : Claude de Rebé * (1659–1673) :

François Fouquet François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * François Amoudruz (1926–2020), French resistance fighter * François-Marie Arouet (better known as Voltaire; 16 ...

* (1673–1703) :

Pierre de Bonzi Piero de Bonzi (also ''Pierre''; 15 April 1631 - 11 July 1703) was an Italian-French Roman Catholic cardinal. His last name is also listed as Bonsi. Biography file:(Narbonne) Armoiries de Pierre de Bonzy - Escalier du palais des Archevêques.jp ...

* (1711–1715) : Charles Legoux de La Berchère * (1726–1738) : René-François de Beauvau du Rivau * (1739–1751) :

Jean-Louis de Berton de Crillon Jean-Louis is a given name, especially for French males. Notable people named "Jean-Louis" include: * Jean-Louis Alléon-Dulac, French naturalist * Jean-Louis Aubert, French singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer and producer * Jean-Louis Baribe ...

* (1752–1762) : Charles-Antoine de La Roche-Aimon * (1763–1790) : Arthur Richard de Dillon (1806) ;;Constitutional church (schismatic) * (1791–4 February 1801) :

Guillaume Besaucèle Guillaume Besaucèle (Saissac, 3 September 1712Carcassonne, 4 February 1801) was an ecclesiastic who was constitutional bishop of Aude from 1791 to 1801. Biography Guillaume Besaucèle was pastor of Limousis before becoming the vicar general of ...

(Constitutional Bishop of Aude)Besaucèle had been Dean of the Chapter of Carcassonne before the Revolution. He was consecrated at Toulouse by Archbishop Antoine-Pascal-Hyacinthe Sermet of the Haute-Garonne on 15 May 1791. He was 78 years old.

Notes

Bibliography

Reference works

* pp. 582–584. (Use with caution; obsolete) * (in Latin) pp. 356. * (in Latin) p. 199. * p. 253. * pp. 252. * pp. 280. * p. 301. *

Studies

* rchbishops of Narbonne * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Narbonne, Ancient Diocese of

* 445 establishments 5th-century establishments in sub-Roman Gaul 1801 disestablishments in France History of Narbonne