Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lyon
Encyclopedia
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lyon is a Roman Catholic
Metropolitan
archdiocese in France
. It incorporates the ancient Archdiocese of Vienne. The current Cardinal-Archbishop is Philippe Barbarin. He is the successor of Saint Pothinus
and Saint Irenaeus
, the first and second bishops of Lyon, respectively, and is called "Primate of the Gauls."
during the persecution of 177, was probably a deacon installed at Vienne
by the ecclesiastical authority of Lyon. The confluence of the Rhône and the Saône, where sixty Gallic tribes had erected the famous altar to Rome and Augustus
, was also the centre from which Christianity was gradually propagated throughout Gaul. The presence at Lyon of numerous Asiatic Christians and their almost daily communications with the Orient
were likely to arouse the susceptibilities of the Gallo-Romans. A persecution arose under Marcus Aurelius. Its victims at Lyon numbered forty-eight, half of them of Greek
origin, half Gallo-Roman, among others Saint Blandina, and Saint Pothinus, first Bishop of Lyon, sent to Gaul by Saint Polycarp about the middle of the 2nd century. The legend according to which he was sent by Saint Clement
dates from the 12th century and is without foundation. The letter addressed to the Christians of Asia and Phrygia in the name of the faithful of Vienne and Lyon, and relating the persecution of 177, is considered by Ernest Renan
as one of the most extraordinary documents possessed by any literature; it is the baptismal certificate of Christianity in France. The successor of Saint Pothinus was the illustrious Saint Irenaeus (177-202).
The discovery on the Hill of Saint Sebastian of ruins of a naumachia
capable of being transformed into an amphitheatre, and of some fragments of inscriptions apparently belonging to an altar of Augustus, has led several archæologists to believe that the martyrs of Lyon suffered death on this hill. Very ancient tradition, however, represents the church of Ainay as erected at the place of their martyrdom. The crypt of Saint Pothinus, under the choir of the church of St. Nizier was destroyed in 1884. But there are still revered at Lyon the prison cell of Saint Pothinus, where Anne of Austria
, Louis XIV, and Pius VII came to pray, and the crypt of Saint Irenaeus built at the end of the 5th century by Saint Patiens, which contains the body of Saint Irenaeus. There are numerous funerary inscriptions of primitive Christianity in Lyon; the earliest dates from the year 334. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the See of Lyon enjoyed great renown throughout Gaul, witness the local legends of Besançon and of several other cities relative to the missionaries sent out by Saint Irenaeus. Faustinus, bishop in the second half of the 3rd century, wrote to Saint Cyprian and Pope Stephen I
, in 254, regarding the Novatian tendencies of Marcian, Bishop of Arles. But when Diocletian
's new provincial organization (tetrarchy
) had taken away from Lyon its position as metropolis of the three Gauls, the prestige of Lyon diminished for a time.
(Egypt
) and was renowned for the orthodoxy of his doctrine in the struggle against Arianism
(the church of the Maccabees, whither his body was brought, was as early as the 5th century a place of pilgrimage under the name of the collegiate church of Saint Justus), Saint Alpinus and Saint Martin (disciple of Saint Martin of Tours; end of 4th century); Saint Antiochus (400-410); Saint Elpidius (410-422); Saint Sicarius (422-33); Saint Eucherius
(c. 433-50), a monk of Lérins
and the author of homilies, from whom doubtless dates the foundation at Lyon of the "hermitages" of which more will be said below; Saint Patiens (456-98) who successfully combated the famine and Arianism, and whom Sidonius Apollinaris
praised in a poem; Saint Lupicinus
(491-94); Saint Rusticus (494-501); Saint Stephanus (d. before 515), who with Saint Avitus of Vienne
convoked a council at Lyon for the conversion of the Arians; Saint Viventiolus (515-523), who in 517 presided with Saint Avitus at the Council of Epaone; Saint Lupus, a monk, afterwards bishop (535-42), probably the first archbishop, who when signing in 438 the Council of Orléans added the title of "metropolitanus"; Saint Sardot or Sacerdos
(549-542), who presided in 549 at the Council of Orléans, and who obtained from King Childebert the foundation of the general hospital; Saint Nicetius
or Nizier (552-73), who received from the pope the title of patriarch, and whose tomb was honoured by miracles. The prestige of Saint Nicetius was lasting; his successor Saint Priseus (573-588) bore the title of patriarch
, and brought the council of 585 to decide that national synods should be convened every three years at the instance of the patriarch and of the king; Saint Ætherius (588-603), who was a correspondent of Saint Gregory the Great and who perhaps consecrated Saint Augustine
, the Apostle of England; Saint Aredius (603-615); Saint Annemundus
or Chamond (c. 650), friend of Saint Wilfrid, godfather of Clotaire III
, put to death by Ebroin
together with his brother, and patron of the town of Saint-Chamond
; Saint Genesius
or Genes (660-679 or 680), Benedictine abbot of Fontenelle
, grand almoner and minister of Queen Bathilde; Saint Lambertus (c. 680-690), also abbot of Fontenelle.
At the end of the 5th century Lyon was the capital of the Kingdom of Burgundy
, but after 534 it passed under the domination of the kings of France. Ravaged by the Saracens in 725, the city was restored through the liberality of Charlemagne
who established a rich library in the monastery of Ile Barbe. In the time of Saint Patiens and the priest Constans (d. 488) the school of Lyon was famous; Sidonius Apollinaris was educated there. The letter of Leidrade to Charlemagne (807) shows the care taken by the emperor for the restoration of learning in Lyon. With the aid of the deacon Florus he made the school so prosperous that in the 10th century Englishmen went there to study.
had no more active enemies than Leidrade (798-814) and Agobard
(814-840). When Felix of Urgel continued rebellious to the condemnations pronounced against Adoptionism from 791-799 by the Councils of Ciutad, Friuli, Ratisbon, Frankfort, and Rome, Charlemagne conceived the idea of sending to Urgel with Nebridius
, Bishop of Narbonne, Benedict of Aniane
, and Archbishop Leidrade, a native of Nuremberg and Charlemagne's librarian. They preached against Adoptionism in Spain, conducted Felix in 799 to the Council of Aachen
, where he seemed to submit to the arguments of Alcuin, and then brought him back to his diocese. But the submission of Felix was not complete; Agobard, "Chorepiscopus" of Lyon, convicted him anew of Adoptionism in a secret conference, and when Felix died in 815 there was found among his papers a treatise in which he professed Adoptionism. Then Agobard, who had become Archbishop of Lyon in 814 after Leidrade's retirement to the Abbey of St. Medard, Soissons, composed a long treatise against that heresy.
and to various superstitions. His rooted hatred for all superstition
led him in his treatise on images into certain expressions which savoured of Iconoclasm. The five historical treatises which he wrote in 833 to justify the deposition of Louis the Pious
, who had been his benefactor, are a stain on his life. Louis the Pious having been restored to power, caused Agobard to be deposed in 835 by the Council of Thionville, but three years later gave him back his see, in which he died in 840. During the exile of Agobard the See of Lyon had been for a short time administered by Amalarius of Metz
, whom the deacon Florus charged with heretical opinions regarding the "triforme corpus Christi", and who took part in the controversies with ottschalk of Orbais|Gottschalk on the subject of predestination.
Amolon (841-852) and Saint Remy (852-75) continued the struggle against the heresy of Valence, which condemned this heresy, and also was engaged in strife with Hincmar. From 879-1032 Lyon formed part of the Kingdom of Provence and afterwards of the second Kingdom of Burgundy. When in 1032 Rudolph III of Burgundy
, ceded his states to Conrad II
, the portion of Lyon situated on the left bank of the Saône became, at least nominally, an imperial city. Finally Archbishop Burchard, brother of Rudolph, claimed rights of sovereignty over Lyon as inherited from his mother, Matilda, daughter of Louis IV of France
; in this way the government of Lyon instead of being exercised by the distant emperor, became a matter of dispute between the counts who claimed the inheritance and the successive archbishops.
Lyon attracted the attention of Cardinal Hildebrand, who held a council there in 1055 against the simoniacal bishops. In 1076, as Gregory VII, he deposed Archbishop Humbert (1063–76) for simony
.
Saint Gebuin (Jubinus), who succeeded Humbert, was the confidant of Gregory VII and contributed to the reform of the Church by the two councils of 1080 and 1082, at which were excommunicated Manasses of Reims
, Fulk of Anjou, and the monks of Marmoutiers.
It was under the episcopate of Saint Gebuin that Gregory VII (20 April 1079) established the primacy of the Church of Lyon over the Provinces of Rouen, Tours, and Sens, which primacy was specially confirmed by Callistus II, despite the letter written to him in 1126 by Louis VI
in favour of the church of Sens
. As far as it regarded the Province of Rouen
this letter was later suppressed by a decree of the king's council in 1702, at the request of Jacques-Nicolas Colbert
, Archbishop of Rouen
.
Hugh of Die
(1081–1106), the successor of Saint Gebuin, the friend of Saint Anselm
, and for a while legate of Gregory VII in France and Burgundy, had differences later on with Victor III, who excommunicated him for a time, also with Paschal II. The latter pope came to Lyon in 1106, consecrated the church of Ainay Abbey, and dedicated one of its altars in honour of the Immaculate Conception. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception
was solemnized at Lyon about 1128, perhaps at the instance of Saint Anselm of Canterbury
, and Saint Bernard wrote to the canons of Lyon to complain that they should have instituted a feast without consulting the pope.
, Archbishop of Canterbury
, had been proclaimed Blessed (1173), his cult was instituted at Lyon. Lyon of the 12th century thus has a glorious place in the history of Catholic
liturgy
and even of dogma
, but the 12th century was also marked by the heresy of Peter Waldo
and the Waldenses, the Poor Men of Lyon, who were opposed by John of Canterbury
(1181–1193), and by an important change in the political situation of the archbishops.
In 1157 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa confirmed the sovereignty of the Archbishops of Lyon; thenceforth there was a lively contest between them and the counts. An arbitration effected by the pope in 1167 had no result, but by the treaty of 1173 Guy, Count of Forez, ceded to the canons of the primatial church of St. John his title of count of Lyon and his temporal authority.
Then came the growth of the Commune, more belated in Lyon than in many other cities, but in 1193 the archbishop had to make some concession to the citizens. The 13th century was a period of conflict. Three times, in 1207, 1269, and 1290, grave troubles broke out between the partisans of the archbishop who dwelt in the château of Pierre Seize, those of the count-canons who lived in a separate quarter near the cathedral, and those of the townsfolk. Gregory X attempted, but without success, to restore peace by two Acts, 2 April 1273, and 11 November 1274. The kings of France were always inclined to side with the commune; after the siege of Lyon by Louis X
(1310) the treaty of 10 April 1312, definitively attached Lyon to the Kingdom of France, but until the beginning of the 15th century the Church of Lyon was allowed to coin its own money.
If the 13th century had imperilled the political sovereignty of the archbishops, it had on the other hand made Lyon a kind of second Rome. Gregory X was a former canon of Lyon, while Innocent V, as Peter of Tarantaise, was Archbishop of Lyon from 1272 to 1273. Innocent IV and Gregory X sought refuge at Lyon from the Hohenstaufen
, and held there two general councils of Lyon. Local tradition relates that it was on seeing the red hat of the canons of Lyon that the courtiers of Innocent IV conceived the idea of obtaining from the Council of Lyon its decree that the cardinals should henceforth wear red hats. The sojourn of Innocent IV at Lyon was marked by numerous works of public utility, to which the pope gave vigorous encouragement. He granted indulgence
s to the faithful who should assist in the construction of the bridge over the Rhône, replacing that destroyed about 1190 by the passage of the troops of Richard Cœur de Lion
on their way to the Crusade. The building of the churches of St. John and St. Justus was pushed forward with activity; he sent delegates even to England to solicit alms for this purpose and he consecrated the high altar in both churches.
At Lyon were crowned Clement V (1305) and Pope John XXII
(1310); at Lyon in 1449 the antipope Felix V
renounced the tiara; there, too, was held in 1512, without any definite conclusion, the last session of the schismatical Council of Pisa
against Julius II. In 1560 the Calvinists took Lyon by surprise, but they were driven out by Antoine d'Albon, Abbot of Savigny and later Archbishop of Lyon. Again masters of Lyon in 1562, they were driven thence by the Maréchal de Vieuville. At the command of the famous Baron des Adrets they committed numerous acts of violence in the region of Montbrison. It was at Lyon that Henry IV of France
, the converted Calvinist king, married Marie de' Medici
(9 December 1600).
M. Guigue has catalogued the eleven "hermit
ages" (eight of them for men and three for women) which were distinctive of the ascetical life of Christian Lyon in the Middle Ages; these were cells in which persons shut themselves up for life after four years of trial. The system of hermitages along the lines described by Grimalaius and Olbredus in the 9th century flourished especially from the 11th to the 13th century, and disappeared completely in the 16th. These hermitages were the private property of a neighbouring church or monastery, which installed therein for life a male or female recluse. The general almshouse of Lyon, or charity hospital, was founded in 1532 after the great famine of 1531 under the supervision of eight administrators chosen from among the more important citizens.
The institution of the jubilee of Saint Nizier dates beyond a doubt to the stay of Innocent IV at Lyon. This jubilee, which had all the privileges of the secular jubilees of Rome, was celebrated each time that Low Thursday, the feast of Saint Nizier, coincided with 2 April, i.e. whenever the feast of Easter itself was on the earliest day allowed by the paschal cycle
, namely 22 March. In 1818, when this coincidence occurred, the feast of Saint Nizier was not celebrated. But the cathedral of St. John also enjoys a great jubilee each time that the feast of Saint John the Baptist coincides with Corpus Christi
, that is, whenever the feast of Corpus Christi falls on 24 June. It is certain that in 1451 the coincidence of these two feasts was celebrated with special splendour by the population of Lyon, then emerging from the troubles of the Hundred Years' War
, but there is no document to prove that the jubilee indulgence existed at that date. However, Lyonnese tradition places the first great jubilee in 1451; subsequent jubilees took place in 1546, 1666, 1734 and 1886.
"Among the Churches of France", wrote Saint Bernard to the canons of Lyon, "that of Lyon has hitherto had ascendancy over all the others, as much for the dignity of its see as for its praiseworthy institutions. It is especially in the Divine Office
that this judicious Church has never readily acquiesced in unexpected and sudden novelties, and has never submitted to be tarnished by innovations which are becoming only to youth".
, contrary to the Bull of Pius V on the breviary
, changed the text of the breviary and the missal
, from which there resulted a century of conflict for the Church of Lyon. The efforts of Pope Pius IX
and Cardinal Bonald to suppress the innovations of Montazet provoked resistance on the part of the canons, who feared an attempt against the traditional Lyonnese ceremonies. This culminated in 1861 in a protest on the part of the clergy and the laity, as much with regard to the civil power as to the Vatican. Finally, on 4 February 1864, at a reception of the parish priests of Lyon, Pius IX declared his displeasure at this agitation and assured them that nothing should be changed in the ancient Lyonnese ceremonies; by a Brief of 17 March 1864, he ordered the progressive introduction of the Roman breviary and missal in the diocese. The primatial church of Lyon adopted them for public services on 8 December 1869. One of the rites of the ancient Gallican liturgy, retained by the Church of Lyon, is the blessing of the people by the bishop at the moment of communion.
, at first a locksmith, whose piety was remarked by the bishop, Saint Viventiolus; he became a cleric at the Abbey of St. Justus, then subdeacon, and died about 760; the thermal resort of "Aquæ Segestæ", in whose church Viventiolus met him, has taken the name of Saint Galmier; Saint Viator
(d. about 390), who followed the Bishop, Saint Justus, to the Thebaid
; Saints Romanus
and Lupicinus
(5th century), natives of the Diocese of Lyon, who lived as solitaries within the present territory of the Diocese of Saint-Claude; Saint Consortia, d. about 578, who according to a legend, criticized by Tillemont, was a daughter of Saint Eucherius; Saint Rambert, soldier and martyr in the 7th century, patron of the town of the same name; Blessed Jean Pierre Néel, b. in 1832 at Ste. Catherine sur Riviere, martyred at Kay-Tcheou in 1862.
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
Metropolitan
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...
archdiocese in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It incorporates the ancient Archdiocese of Vienne. The current Cardinal-Archbishop is Philippe Barbarin. He is the successor of Saint Pothinus
Saint Pothinus
Saint Pothinus is a figure of uncertain historicity, who is first mentioned in a letter attributed to Irenaeus of Lyon. The letter was sent from the Christian communities of Lyon and Vienne to the Roman province of Asia....
and Saint Irenaeus
Irenaeus
Saint Irenaeus , was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire . He was an early church father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology...
, the first and second bishops of Lyon, respectively, and is called "Primate of the Gauls."
Persecution
The "Deacon of Vienne", martyred at LyonLyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
during the persecution of 177, was probably a deacon installed at Vienne
Vienne
Vienne is the northernmost département of the Poitou-Charentes region of France, named after the river Vienne.- Viennese history :Vienne is one of the original 83 departments, established on March 4, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Poitou,...
by the ecclesiastical authority of Lyon. The confluence of the Rhône and the Saône, where sixty Gallic tribes had erected the famous altar to Rome and Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
, was also the centre from which Christianity was gradually propagated throughout Gaul. The presence at Lyon of numerous Asiatic Christians and their almost daily communications with the Orient
Orient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
were likely to arouse the susceptibilities of the Gallo-Romans. A persecution arose under Marcus Aurelius. Its victims at Lyon numbered forty-eight, half of them of Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
origin, half Gallo-Roman, among others Saint Blandina, and Saint Pothinus, first Bishop of Lyon, sent to Gaul by Saint Polycarp about the middle of the 2nd century. The legend according to which he was sent by Saint Clement
Pope Clement I
Starting in the 3rd and 4th century, tradition has identified him as the Clement that Paul mentioned in Philippians as a fellow laborer in Christ.While in the mid-19th century it was customary to identify him as a freedman of Titus Flavius Clemens, who was consul with his cousin, the Emperor...
dates from the 12th century and is without foundation. The letter addressed to the Christians of Asia and Phrygia in the name of the faithful of Vienne and Lyon, and relating the persecution of 177, is considered by Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan was a French expert of Middle East ancient languages and civilizations, philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...
as one of the most extraordinary documents possessed by any literature; it is the baptismal certificate of Christianity in France. The successor of Saint Pothinus was the illustrious Saint Irenaeus (177-202).
The discovery on the Hill of Saint Sebastian of ruins of a naumachia
Naumachia
The naumachia in the Ancient Roman world referred to both the re-enactment of naval battles and the basin in which this took place....
capable of being transformed into an amphitheatre, and of some fragments of inscriptions apparently belonging to an altar of Augustus, has led several archæologists to believe that the martyrs of Lyon suffered death on this hill. Very ancient tradition, however, represents the church of Ainay as erected at the place of their martyrdom. The crypt of Saint Pothinus, under the choir of the church of St. Nizier was destroyed in 1884. But there are still revered at Lyon the prison cell of Saint Pothinus, where Anne of Austria
Anne of Austria
Anne of Austria was Queen consort of France and Navarre, regent for her son, Louis XIV of France, and a Spanish Infanta by birth...
, Louis XIV, and Pius VII came to pray, and the crypt of Saint Irenaeus built at the end of the 5th century by Saint Patiens, which contains the body of Saint Irenaeus. There are numerous funerary inscriptions of primitive Christianity in Lyon; the earliest dates from the year 334. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the See of Lyon enjoyed great renown throughout Gaul, witness the local legends of Besançon and of several other cities relative to the missionaries sent out by Saint Irenaeus. Faustinus, bishop in the second half of the 3rd century, wrote to Saint Cyprian and Pope Stephen I
Pope Stephen I
Pope Saint Stephen I served as Bishop of Rome from 12 May 254 to 2 August 257.Of Roman birth but of Greek ancestry, he became bishop of Rome in 254, having served as archdeacon of Pope Lucius I, who appointed Stephen his successor....
, in 254, regarding the Novatian tendencies of Marcian, Bishop of Arles. But when Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
's new provincial organization (tetrarchy
Tetrarchy
The term Tetrarchy describes any system of government where power is divided among four individuals, but usually refers to the tetrarchy instituted by Roman Emperor Diocletian in 293, marking the end of the Crisis of the Third Century and the recovery of the Roman Empire...
) had taken away from Lyon its position as metropolis of the three Gauls, the prestige of Lyon diminished for a time.
Merovingian period
At the end of the empire and during the Merovingian period several saints are counted among the Bishops of Lyon: Saint Justus (374-381) who died in a monastery in the ThebaidThebaid
The Thebaid or Thebais is the region of ancient Egypt containing the thirteen southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan. It acquired its name from its proximity to the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes....
(Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
) and was renowned for the orthodoxy of his doctrine in the struggle against Arianism
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
(the church of the Maccabees, whither his body was brought, was as early as the 5th century a place of pilgrimage under the name of the collegiate church of Saint Justus), Saint Alpinus and Saint Martin (disciple of Saint Martin of Tours; end of 4th century); Saint Antiochus (400-410); Saint Elpidius (410-422); Saint Sicarius (422-33); Saint Eucherius
Eucherius of Lyon
Saint Eucherius, bishop of Lyon, was a high-born and high-ranking ecclesiastic in the Christian Church of Gaul. He is remembered for his letters advocating extreme self-abnegation. Henry Wace ranked him "except perhaps St. Irenaeus the most distinguished occupant of that see".On the death of his...
(c. 433-50), a monk of Lérins
Lérins Abbey
Lérins Abbey is a Cistercian monastery on the island of Saint-Honorat, one of the Lérins Islands, on the French Riviera, with an active monastic community....
and the author of homilies, from whom doubtless dates the foundation at Lyon of the "hermitages" of which more will be said below; Saint Patiens (456-98) who successfully combated the famine and Arianism, and whom Sidonius Apollinaris
Sidonius Apollinaris
Gaius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius or Saint Sidonius Apollinaris was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul" according to Eric Goldberg...
praised in a poem; Saint Lupicinus
Lupicinus of Lyon
Saint Lupicinus was an Abbot and the Bishop of Lyon from 491 to 494. His brother was Saint Romanus of Condat.. St. Lupicinus is noted for founding the abbeys of Saint-Claude in the Jura mountains and in the Lauconne districts of France. His successor was St...
(491-94); Saint Rusticus (494-501); Saint Stephanus (d. before 515), who with Saint Avitus of Vienne
Avitus of Vienne
Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus was a Latin poet and archbishop of Vienne in Gaul.Avitus was born of a prominent Gallo-Roman senatorial family in the kinship of Emperor Avitus.-Life:...
convoked a council at Lyon for the conversion of the Arians; Saint Viventiolus (515-523), who in 517 presided with Saint Avitus at the Council of Epaone; Saint Lupus, a monk, afterwards bishop (535-42), probably the first archbishop, who when signing in 438 the Council of Orléans added the title of "metropolitanus"; Saint Sardot or Sacerdos
Sacerdos of Lyon
Saint Sacerdos of Lyon is a French saint whose Feast Day is September 12. He was Archbishop of Lyon, France from 544 to September 12, 551. He was the son of St. Rusticus, Archbishop of Lyon, and wife....
(549-542), who presided in 549 at the Council of Orléans, and who obtained from King Childebert the foundation of the general hospital; Saint Nicetius
Nicetius of Lyon
Saint Nicetius was Archbishop of Lyon, then Lugdunum, France, during the 6th century. He served from 552 or 553. He was ordained as a priest by Agricola, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne. He was the nephew of Saint Sacerdos, bishop of Lyon, and his successor. He revived ecclesiastical chant in his...
or Nizier (552-73), who received from the pope the title of patriarch, and whose tomb was honoured by miracles. The prestige of Saint Nicetius was lasting; his successor Saint Priseus (573-588) bore the title of patriarch
Patriarch
Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...
, and brought the council of 585 to decide that national synods should be convened every three years at the instance of the patriarch and of the king; Saint Ætherius (588-603), who was a correspondent of Saint Gregory the Great and who perhaps consecrated Saint Augustine
Augustine of Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597...
, the Apostle of England; Saint Aredius (603-615); Saint Annemundus
Annemund
Saint Annemund, also known as Annemundus, Aunemundus and Chamond, was Archbishop of Lyon. His father, Sigon, was a prefect in Lyon, while his brother, Dalfin, was Count of Lyons....
or Chamond (c. 650), friend of Saint Wilfrid, godfather of Clotaire III
Clotaire III
Chlothar III was the eldest son of Clovis II, king of Neustria and Burgundy, and his queen Balthild...
, put to death by Ebroin
Ebroin
Ebroin was the Frankish mayor of the palace of Neustria on two occasions; firstly from 658 to his deposition in 673 and secondly from 675 to his death in 680 or 681...
together with his brother, and patron of the town of Saint-Chamond
Saint-Chamond
Saint-Chamond is a commune in the Loire department in the Rhône-Alpes region in central France.-Overview:It is situated 13 km east of the city of Saint-Étienne and approximately 45 km southwest of Lyon...
; Saint Genesius
Genesius of Lyon
-Life:He was a native of France, not of Arabia or Armenia as is sometimes stated and became a religious and abbot , attached to the court and camp of Clovis II. There he acted as chief almoner to the queen, Bathildis....
or Genes (660-679 or 680), Benedictine abbot of Fontenelle
Fontenelle Abbey
Fontenelle Abbey or the Abbey of St. Wandrille is a Benedictine monastery in the commune of Saint-Wandrille-Rançon near Caudebec-en-Caux in Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France.-First foundation:...
, grand almoner and minister of Queen Bathilde; Saint Lambertus (c. 680-690), also abbot of Fontenelle.
At the end of the 5th century Lyon was the capital of the Kingdom of Burgundy
Kingdom of Burgundy
Burgundy is a historic region in Western Europe that has existed as a political entity in a number of forms with very different boundaries. Two of these entities - the first around the 6th century, the second around the 11th century - have been called the Kingdom of Burgundy; a third was very...
, but after 534 it passed under the domination of the kings of France. Ravaged by the Saracens in 725, the city was restored through the liberality of Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
who established a rich library in the monastery of Ile Barbe. In the time of Saint Patiens and the priest Constans (d. 488) the school of Lyon was famous; Sidonius Apollinaris was educated there. The letter of Leidrade to Charlemagne (807) shows the care taken by the emperor for the restoration of learning in Lyon. With the aid of the deacon Florus he made the school so prosperous that in the 10th century Englishmen went there to study.
Carolingian Period
Under Charlemagne and his immediate successors, the Bishops of Lyon, whose ascendancy was attested by the number of councils over which they were called to preside, played an important theological part. AdoptionismAdoptionism
Adoptionism, sometimes called dynamic monarchianism, is a minority Christian belief that Jesus was adopted as God's son at his baptism...
had no more active enemies than Leidrade (798-814) and Agobard
Agobard
Agobard of Lyon was a Spanish-born priest and archbishop of Lyon, during the Carolingian Renaissance. The author of multiple treatises, ranging in subject matter from the iconoclast controversy to Spanish Adoptionism to critiques of the Carolingian royal family, Agobard is best known for his...
(814-840). When Felix of Urgel continued rebellious to the condemnations pronounced against Adoptionism from 791-799 by the Councils of Ciutad, Friuli, Ratisbon, Frankfort, and Rome, Charlemagne conceived the idea of sending to Urgel with Nebridius
Nebridius
Saint Nebridius was bishop of Egara and then bishop of Barcelona from 540 to around 547 AD. His feast day falls on February 9. A native of Girona, Nebridius, according to tradition, had three brothers were also saints. They were Saint Justus, bishop of Urgell; Saint Elpidius; and Saint...
, Bishop of Narbonne, Benedict of Aniane
Benedict of Aniane
Saint Benedict of Aniane , born Witiza and called the Second Benedict, was a Benedictine monk and monastic reformer, who left a large imprint on the religious practice of the Carolingian Empire...
, and Archbishop Leidrade, a native of Nuremberg and Charlemagne's librarian. They preached against Adoptionism in Spain, conducted Felix in 799 to the Council of Aachen
Council of Aachen
A number of significant councils of the Roman Catholic Church were held at Aachen in the early Middle Ages.In the mixed council of 798, Charlemagne proclaimed a capitulary of eighty-one chapters, largely a repetition of earlier ecclesiastical legislation, that was accepted by the clergy and...
, where he seemed to submit to the arguments of Alcuin, and then brought him back to his diocese. But the submission of Felix was not complete; Agobard, "Chorepiscopus" of Lyon, convicted him anew of Adoptionism in a secret conference, and when Felix died in 815 there was found among his papers a treatise in which he professed Adoptionism. Then Agobard, who had become Archbishop of Lyon in 814 after Leidrade's retirement to the Abbey of St. Medard, Soissons, composed a long treatise against that heresy.
Agobard
Agobard displayed great activity as a pastor and a publicist in his opposition to the JewsJews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and to various superstitions. His rooted hatred for all superstition
Superstition
Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....
led him in his treatise on images into certain expressions which savoured of Iconoclasm. The five historical treatises which he wrote in 833 to justify the deposition of Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
, who had been his benefactor, are a stain on his life. Louis the Pious having been restored to power, caused Agobard to be deposed in 835 by the Council of Thionville, but three years later gave him back his see, in which he died in 840. During the exile of Agobard the See of Lyon had been for a short time administered by Amalarius of Metz
Amalarius of Metz
Amalarius of Metz was a liturgist. He wrote extensively on the Mass and was involved in the great Medieval debates regarding predestination. We must rely on his enemy, Florus of Lyon, for an account of Amalar's condemnation at Quierzy, 838. While the exact date of his death is not known, it is...
, whom the deacon Florus charged with heretical opinions regarding the "triforme corpus Christi", and who took part in the controversies with ottschalk of Orbais|Gottschalk on the subject of predestination.
Amolon (841-852) and Saint Remy (852-75) continued the struggle against the heresy of Valence, which condemned this heresy, and also was engaged in strife with Hincmar. From 879-1032 Lyon formed part of the Kingdom of Provence and afterwards of the second Kingdom of Burgundy. When in 1032 Rudolph III of Burgundy
Rudolph III of Burgundy
Rudolf III of Burgundy was the last King of an independent Burgundy. He was the son of Conrad, King of Burgundy, and Matilda of France...
, ceded his states to Conrad II
Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor
Conrad II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1027 until his death.The son of a mid-level nobleman in Franconia, Count Henry of Speyer and Adelaide of Alsace, he inherited the titles of count of Speyer and of Worms as an infant when Henry died at age twenty...
, the portion of Lyon situated on the left bank of the Saône became, at least nominally, an imperial city. Finally Archbishop Burchard, brother of Rudolph, claimed rights of sovereignty over Lyon as inherited from his mother, Matilda, daughter of Louis IV of France
Louis IV of France
Louis IV , called d'Outremer or Transmarinus , reigned as King of Western Francia from 936 to 954...
; in this way the government of Lyon instead of being exercised by the distant emperor, became a matter of dispute between the counts who claimed the inheritance and the successive archbishops.
Lyon attracted the attention of Cardinal Hildebrand, who held a council there in 1055 against the simoniacal bishops. In 1076, as Gregory VII, he deposed Archbishop Humbert (1063–76) for simony
Simony
Simony is the act of paying for sacraments and consequently for holy offices or for positions in the hierarchy of a church, named after Simon Magus , who appears in the Acts of the Apostles 8:9-24...
.
Saint Gebuin (Jubinus), who succeeded Humbert, was the confidant of Gregory VII and contributed to the reform of the Church by the two councils of 1080 and 1082, at which were excommunicated Manasses of Reims
Manasses I, Archbishop of Reims
Manasses I, known as Manasses de Gournay, was the Archbishop of Reims, and thus primate of France, from 1069 to his deposition on 27 December 1081....
, Fulk of Anjou, and the monks of Marmoutiers.
It was under the episcopate of Saint Gebuin that Gregory VII (20 April 1079) established the primacy of the Church of Lyon over the Provinces of Rouen, Tours, and Sens, which primacy was specially confirmed by Callistus II, despite the letter written to him in 1126 by Louis VI
Louis VI of France
Louis VI , called the Fat , was King of France from 1108 until his death . Chronicles called him "roi de Saint-Denis".-Reign:...
in favour of the church of Sens
Sens
Sens is a commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy in north-central France.Sens is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is crossed by the Yonne and the Vanne, which empties into the Yonne here.-History:...
. As far as it regarded the Province of Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
this letter was later suppressed by a decree of the king's council in 1702, at the request of Jacques-Nicolas Colbert
Jacques-Nicolas Colbert
Jacques-Nicolas Colbert was a French churchman.Youngest son of Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, he was educated for a career in the church, tutored by Noël Alexandre, a Dominican theologian and philosopher later condemned for his Jansenist views.The young Colbert was abbot at Le Bec-Hellouin before...
, Archbishop of Rouen
Archbishop of Rouen
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rouen is an Archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. As one of the fifteen Archbishops of France, the ecclesiastical province of the archdiocese comprises the majority of Normandy....
.
Hugh of Die
Hugh of Die
Hugh of Die was a French papal legate, and Archbishop of Lyon from 1081 to 1106. He was a nephew of Hugh I, Duke of Burgundy.He became bishop of Die, Drôme, in 1074. He was a strong supporter of the Gregorian reform. He was excommunicated at the 1087 Council of Benevento, for his criticisms of...
(1081–1106), the successor of Saint Gebuin, the friend of Saint Anselm
Saint Anselm
Saint Anselm may be* Saint Anselm College - a Benedictine, Catholic liberal arts college in Goffstown, New Hampshire.* Saint Anselm of Canterbury* Saint Anselm of Lucca the Younger* Saint Anselm, Duke of Friuli...
, and for a while legate of Gregory VII in France and Burgundy, had differences later on with Victor III, who excommunicated him for a time, also with Paschal II. The latter pope came to Lyon in 1106, consecrated the church of Ainay Abbey, and dedicated one of its altars in honour of the Immaculate Conception. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
was solemnized at Lyon about 1128, perhaps at the instance of Saint Anselm of Canterbury
Anselm of Canterbury
Anselm of Canterbury , also called of Aosta for his birthplace, and of Bec for his home monastery, was a Benedictine monk, a philosopher, and a prelate of the church who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109...
, and Saint Bernard wrote to the canons of Lyon to complain that they should have instituted a feast without consulting the pope.
Sovereignty
As soon as Thomas BecketThomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
, Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, had been proclaimed Blessed (1173), his cult was instituted at Lyon. Lyon of the 12th century thus has a glorious place in the history of Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
and even of dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
, but the 12th century was also marked by the heresy of Peter Waldo
Peter Waldo
Peter Waldo, Valdo, or Waldes , also Pierre Vaudès or de Vaux, is credited as the founder of the Waldensians, a Christian spiritual movement of the Middle Ages, descendants of which still exist in various regions of southern Europe...
and the Waldenses, the Poor Men of Lyon, who were opposed by John of Canterbury
John of Canterbury
John of Canterbury was bishop of Poitiers 1162 to 1181 and archbishop of Lyon 1181 to 1193. He became a “cosmopolitan and much-respected churchman”....
(1181–1193), and by an important change in the political situation of the archbishops.
In 1157 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa confirmed the sovereignty of the Archbishops of Lyon; thenceforth there was a lively contest between them and the counts. An arbitration effected by the pope in 1167 had no result, but by the treaty of 1173 Guy, Count of Forez, ceded to the canons of the primatial church of St. John his title of count of Lyon and his temporal authority.
Then came the growth of the Commune, more belated in Lyon than in many other cities, but in 1193 the archbishop had to make some concession to the citizens. The 13th century was a period of conflict. Three times, in 1207, 1269, and 1290, grave troubles broke out between the partisans of the archbishop who dwelt in the château of Pierre Seize, those of the count-canons who lived in a separate quarter near the cathedral, and those of the townsfolk. Gregory X attempted, but without success, to restore peace by two Acts, 2 April 1273, and 11 November 1274. The kings of France were always inclined to side with the commune; after the siege of Lyon by Louis X
Louis X of France
Louis X of France, , called the Quarreler, the Headstrong, or the Stubborn was the King of Navarre from 1305 and King of France from 1314 until his death...
(1310) the treaty of 10 April 1312, definitively attached Lyon to the Kingdom of France, but until the beginning of the 15th century the Church of Lyon was allowed to coin its own money.
If the 13th century had imperilled the political sovereignty of the archbishops, it had on the other hand made Lyon a kind of second Rome. Gregory X was a former canon of Lyon, while Innocent V, as Peter of Tarantaise, was Archbishop of Lyon from 1272 to 1273. Innocent IV and Gregory X sought refuge at Lyon from the Hohenstaufen
Hohenstaufen
The House of Hohenstaufen was a dynasty of German kings in the High Middle Ages, lasting from 1138 to 1254. Three of these kings were also crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In 1194 the Hohenstaufens also became Kings of Sicily...
, and held there two general councils of Lyon. Local tradition relates that it was on seeing the red hat of the canons of Lyon that the courtiers of Innocent IV conceived the idea of obtaining from the Council of Lyon its decree that the cardinals should henceforth wear red hats. The sojourn of Innocent IV at Lyon was marked by numerous works of public utility, to which the pope gave vigorous encouragement. He granted indulgence
Indulgence
In Catholic theology, an indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the Catholic Church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution...
s to the faithful who should assist in the construction of the bridge over the Rhône, replacing that destroyed about 1190 by the passage of the troops of Richard Cœur de Lion
Richard I of England
Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
on their way to the Crusade. The building of the churches of St. John and St. Justus was pushed forward with activity; he sent delegates even to England to solicit alms for this purpose and he consecrated the high altar in both churches.
At Lyon were crowned Clement V (1305) and Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII , born Jacques Duèze , was pope from 1316 to 1334. He was the second Pope of the Avignon Papacy , elected by a conclave in Lyon assembled by Philip V of France...
(1310); at Lyon in 1449 the antipope Felix V
Antipope Felix V
-External links:*...
renounced the tiara; there, too, was held in 1512, without any definite conclusion, the last session of the schismatical Council of Pisa
Council of Pisa
The Council of Pisa was an unrecognized ecumenical council of the Catholic Church held in 1409 that attempted to end the Western Schism by deposing Benedict XIII and Gregory XII...
against Julius II. In 1560 the Calvinists took Lyon by surprise, but they were driven out by Antoine d'Albon, Abbot of Savigny and later Archbishop of Lyon. Again masters of Lyon in 1562, they were driven thence by the Maréchal de Vieuville. At the command of the famous Baron des Adrets they committed numerous acts of violence in the region of Montbrison. It was at Lyon that Henry IV of France
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
, the converted Calvinist king, married Marie de' Medici
Marie de' Medici
Marie de Médicis , Italian Maria de' Medici, was queen consort of France, as the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the House of Bourbon. She herself was a member of the wealthy and powerful House of Medici...
(9 December 1600).
Later Middle Ages
Gerson, whose old age was spent at Lyon in the abbey of St. Paul, where he instructed poor children, died there in 1429. Saint Francis de Sales died at Lyon on 28 December 1622. The Curé Colombet de St. Amour was celebrated at St. Etienne in the 17th century for the generosity with which he founded the Hôtel-Dieu (the charity hospital), also free schools, and fed the workmen during the famine of 1693.M. Guigue has catalogued the eleven "hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
ages" (eight of them for men and three for women) which were distinctive of the ascetical life of Christian Lyon in the Middle Ages; these were cells in which persons shut themselves up for life after four years of trial. The system of hermitages along the lines described by Grimalaius and Olbredus in the 9th century flourished especially from the 11th to the 13th century, and disappeared completely in the 16th. These hermitages were the private property of a neighbouring church or monastery, which installed therein for life a male or female recluse. The general almshouse of Lyon, or charity hospital, was founded in 1532 after the great famine of 1531 under the supervision of eight administrators chosen from among the more important citizens.
The institution of the jubilee of Saint Nizier dates beyond a doubt to the stay of Innocent IV at Lyon. This jubilee, which had all the privileges of the secular jubilees of Rome, was celebrated each time that Low Thursday, the feast of Saint Nizier, coincided with 2 April, i.e. whenever the feast of Easter itself was on the earliest day allowed by the paschal cycle
Paschal cycle
The Paschal cycle in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, is the cycle of the moveable feasts built around Pascha . The cycle consists of approximately ten weeks before and seven weeks after Pascha. The ten weeks before Pascha are known as the period of the Triodion...
, namely 22 March. In 1818, when this coincidence occurred, the feast of Saint Nizier was not celebrated. But the cathedral of St. John also enjoys a great jubilee each time that the feast of Saint John the Baptist coincides with Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi (feast)
Corpus Christi is a Latin Rite solemnity, now designated the solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ . It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic Churches. Like Trinity Sunday and the Solemnity of Christ the King, it does not commemorate a particular event in...
, that is, whenever the feast of Corpus Christi falls on 24 June. It is certain that in 1451 the coincidence of these two feasts was celebrated with special splendour by the population of Lyon, then emerging from the troubles of the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
, but there is no document to prove that the jubilee indulgence existed at that date. However, Lyonnese tradition places the first great jubilee in 1451; subsequent jubilees took place in 1546, 1666, 1734 and 1886.
"Among the Churches of France", wrote Saint Bernard to the canons of Lyon, "that of Lyon has hitherto had ascendancy over all the others, as much for the dignity of its see as for its praiseworthy institutions. It is especially in the Divine Office
Liturgy of the hours
The Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office is the official set of daily prayers prescribed by the Catholic Church to be recited at the canonical hours by the clergy, religious orders, and laity. The Liturgy of the Hours consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns and readings...
that this judicious Church has never readily acquiesced in unexpected and sudden novelties, and has never submitted to be tarnished by innovations which are becoming only to youth".
Montazet controversy
In the 18th century Archbishop Antoine de MontazetAntoine de Montazet
Antoine de Montazet was a French theologian, of Jansenist tendencies, who became bishop of Autun and archbishop of Lyon. He was elected to the Académie française in 1756, but did not produce significant literary works....
, contrary to the Bull of Pius V on the breviary
Breviary
A breviary is a liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially by bishops, priests, and deacons in the Divine Office...
, changed the text of the breviary and the missal
Missal
A missal is a liturgical book containing all instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year.-History:Before the compilation of such books, several books were used when celebrating Mass...
, from which there resulted a century of conflict for the Church of Lyon. The efforts of Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
and Cardinal Bonald to suppress the innovations of Montazet provoked resistance on the part of the canons, who feared an attempt against the traditional Lyonnese ceremonies. This culminated in 1861 in a protest on the part of the clergy and the laity, as much with regard to the civil power as to the Vatican. Finally, on 4 February 1864, at a reception of the parish priests of Lyon, Pius IX declared his displeasure at this agitation and assured them that nothing should be changed in the ancient Lyonnese ceremonies; by a Brief of 17 March 1864, he ordered the progressive introduction of the Roman breviary and missal in the diocese. The primatial church of Lyon adopted them for public services on 8 December 1869. One of the rites of the ancient Gallican liturgy, retained by the Church of Lyon, is the blessing of the people by the bishop at the moment of communion.
Saints
The Diocese of Lyon honours as saints: Saint Epipodius and his companion Saint Alexander, probably martyrs under Marcus Aurelius; the priest Saint Peregrinus (3rd century); Saint Baldonor (Galmier), a native of AveizieuxAveizieux
Aveizieux is a commune in the Loire department in central France....
, at first a locksmith, whose piety was remarked by the bishop, Saint Viventiolus; he became a cleric at the Abbey of St. Justus, then subdeacon, and died about 760; the thermal resort of "Aquæ Segestæ", in whose church Viventiolus met him, has taken the name of Saint Galmier; Saint Viator
Viator of Lyons
Viator of Lyons is a French saint of the fourth century. The Clerics of Saint Viator take their name from him. According to tradition, he was a lector or a catechist at the cathedral of Lyons, and was held in high esteem by the bishop of Lyons, Justus , and by the congregants. After Justus...
(d. about 390), who followed the Bishop, Saint Justus, to the Thebaid
Thebaid
The Thebaid or Thebais is the region of ancient Egypt containing the thirteen southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan. It acquired its name from its proximity to the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes....
; Saints Romanus
Romanus of Condat
Saint Romanus of Condat is a saint of the fifth century. At the age of thirty five he decided to live as a hermit in the area of Condat. His younger brother Lupicinus followed him there. They became leaders of a community of monks that included Saint Eugendus.Romanus and Lupicinus founded...
and Lupicinus
Lupicinus of Lyon
Saint Lupicinus was an Abbot and the Bishop of Lyon from 491 to 494. His brother was Saint Romanus of Condat.. St. Lupicinus is noted for founding the abbeys of Saint-Claude in the Jura mountains and in the Lauconne districts of France. His successor was St...
(5th century), natives of the Diocese of Lyon, who lived as solitaries within the present territory of the Diocese of Saint-Claude; Saint Consortia, d. about 578, who according to a legend, criticized by Tillemont, was a daughter of Saint Eucherius; Saint Rambert, soldier and martyr in the 7th century, patron of the town of the same name; Blessed Jean Pierre Néel, b. in 1832 at Ste. Catherine sur Riviere, martyred at Kay-Tcheou in 1862.
List of Archbishops of Lyon (incomplete)
- RemigiusRemigius of LyonRemigius was archbishop of Lyon.Nothing is known of him before his elevation to the episcopate on March 31, 852. He played a prominent part in French ecclesiastical history. He was Archicapellanus from 855 to 863, which was a position of influence.He figures among the leading members of several...
(852-875) - HalinardHalinardHalinard was Archbishop of Lyon from 1046 to 1052. He was once a candidate for the papacy, but turned it down. He spoke fluent Italian....
(1046–1052) - Renaud of Semur (1128–1129)
- Guy III d'Auvergne, Cardinal de Boulogne (1340–1342), papal diplomat
- 1342-1354, Henri II de Villars
- 1356-1358, Raymond Saquet
- 1358-1365, Guillaume II de Thurey
- 1365-1375, Charles d'Alençon
- 1375-1389, Jean II de Talaru
- 1389-1415, Philippe III de Thurey
- 1415-1444, Amédée II de Talaru
- 1444-1446, Geoffroy II de Versailles
- 1447-1488, Charles II de Bourbon
- 1488-1499, Hugues II de Talaru
- 1499-1500, André d'Espinay (cardinal)
- François II de Rohan (1501–1536)
- John, Cardinal of LorraineJohn, Cardinal of LorraineJean de Lorraine was a French cardinal, who was archbishop of Reims, Lyon and Narbonne, bishop of Metz, Toul, Verdun, Thérouanne, Luçon, Albi, Valence, Nantes and Agen...
(1537–1539) - Ippolito II d'EsteIppolito II d'EsteIppolito d'Este was an Italian cardinal and statesman. He was a member of the House of Este, and nephew of the other Ippolito d'Este, also a cardinal.-Biography:...
(1539–1550), whom king Francis I of FranceFrancis I of FranceFrancis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
named Cardinal protectorCardinal protectorSince the thirteenth century it has been customary at Rome to confide to some particular Cardinal a special solicitude in the Roman Curia for the interests of a given religious order or institute, confraternity, church, college, city, nation etcetera. Such a person is known as a Cardinal Protector...
of the crown of France at the court of Pope Paul IIIPope Paul IIIPope Paul III , born Alessandro Farnese, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1534 to his death in 1549. He came to the papal throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527 and rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation...
, and a patron of scholars - Cardinal François de TournonFrançois de TournonFrançois de Tournon was a French Augustinian diplomat and Cardinal. From 1536 he was also a military leader of French forces operating in Provence, Savoy and Piedmont. In the same year he founded the Collège de Tournon. For a period he was effectively France's foreign minister.-External links:*...
(1550–1562), who negotiated several times between Francis I and Emperor Charles V, combated the Reformation and founded the Collège de Tournon, which the Jesuits later made one of the most celebrated educational establishments of the kingdom - Antoine d'Albon (1562–1574), editor of RufinusTyrannius RufinusTyrannius Rufinus or Rufinus of Aquileia was a monk, historian, and theologian. He is most known as a translator of Greek patristic material into Latin—especially the work of Origen.-Life:...
and AusoniusAusoniusDecimius Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician, born at Burdigala .-Biography:Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Bordeaux in ca. 310. His father was a noted physician of Greek ancestry and his mother was descended on both sides from long-established aristocratic Gallo-Roman families... - Pierre d'Epinac (1573–1599), active auxiliary of the League
- Alphonse-Louis du Plessis de RichelieuAlphonse-Louis du Plessis de RichelieuAlphonse-Louis du Plessis de Richelieu was a French Carthusian, bishop and Cardinal. He was brother to Armand Cardinal Richelieu, the celebrated minister of Louis XIII....
(Sep 1628 - 23 Mar 1653) - Camille de Neufville de VilleroyCamille de Neufville de VilleroyCamille de Neufville de Villeroy was archbishop and count of Lyon and primate of the Gauls from 1653 to 1693. He was the second of five sons of Charles I de Neufville de Villeroy, marquis d'Halincourt, and grandson of Nicolas IV de Neufville de Villeroy, minister to the kings of France...
( 1653–1693) - François-Paul de Neufville de Villeroy (15 Aug 1714 - 6 Feb 1731 )
- Charles de Châteauneuf de Rochebonne ( 1732–1739 )
- Pierre Guérin de TencinPierre Guérin de TencinPierre-Paul Guérin de Tencin , French ecclesiastic, was archbishop of Embrun and Lyon, and a cardinal. His sister Claudine was a spur to his career....
(11 Nov 1740 - 2 Mar 1758 ) - Antoine de Malvin de Montazet (16 Mar 1758 - 2 May 1788 ), of Jansenist tendencies, and who had published for his seminary by the Oratorian Joseph Valla, six volumes of "Institutiones theologicæ" known as "Théologie de Lyon", and spread throughout Italy by Scipio Ricci until condemned by the Index in 1792
- Yves-Alexandre de MarbeufYves-Alexandre de MarbeufYves-Alexandre de Marbeuf was a French bishop of Autun and archbishop of Lyon, and statesman. He was an opponent of the European Enlightenment thinking, and of Jansenism.He went into exile after the French Revolution....
(12 May 1788 - 15 Apr 1799 ) - Antoine Adrien Lamourette (1742–1794), constitutional bishopConstitutional bishopDuring the French Revolution, a constitutional bishop was a Roman Catholic bishop elected from among the clergy who had sworn to uphold the Civil Constitution of the Clergy between 1791 and 1801. Constitutional bishops were often priests with less or more moderate Gallican and partisan ideas, of a...
of Lyon from 27 March 1791, to 11 January 1794, the date of his death on the scaffold. - Joseph FeschJoseph FeschJoseph Fesch was a French cardinal, closely associated with the family of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was also one of the most famous art collectors of his period.-Biography:Fesch was born at Ajaccio in Corsica...
(29 Jul 1802 - 13 May 1839 ) - Joachim-Jean d'Isoard (13 Jun 1839 - 7 Oct 1839 )
- Louis-Jacques-Maurice de Bonald (4 Dec 1839 - 25 Feb 1870 )
- Jacques-Marie Ginoulhiac (2 Mar 1870 - 17 Nov 1875 ), known for his "Histoire du dogme catholique pendant let trois premiers siècles".
- Louis-Marie Caverot (20 Apr 1876 - 23 Jan 1887 )
- Joseph-Alfred FoulonJoseph-Alfred FoulonJoseph-Alfred Foulon was a French Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Lyon.He was born in Paris and studied in the Saint-Sulpice Seminary. He was ordained priest on December 18, 1847, in Paris, where he taught for twelve years in the minor seminary.He was elected bishop of Nancy on March 27,...
(23 Mar 1887 - 23 Jan 1893 ) - Pierre-Hector CoulliePierre-Hector CoulliePierre-Hector Coullié was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and was former Archbishop of Lyon.Pierre-Hector Coullié was born in Paris, France. He was educated at the Saint-Sulpice Seminary, Paris.-Priesthood:...
(14 Jun 1893 - 11 Sep 1912) - Hector SévinHector SévinHector Sévin was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and was former Archbishop of Lyon.Hector Sévin was born in Simandre, France. He was educated at the Seminary of Belley and he received the diaconate on 22 May 1875....
(2 Dec 1912 - 4 May 1916 ) - Louis-Joseph MaurinLouis-Joseph MaurinLouis-Joseph Maurin was a Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Lyon.Maurin was ordained to the priesthood on 8 April 1882 in Rome. He did pastoral work in the diocese of Marseille from 1882 until 1911...
(1 Dec 1916 - 16 Nov 1936 ) - Pierre-Marie GerlierPierre-Marie GerlierPierre-Marie Gerlier was a French Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Lyon from 1937 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1937.-Biography:...
(30 Jul 1937 - 17 Jan 1965 ) - Jean-Marie Villot (17 Jan 1965 - 7 Apr 1967)
- Alexandre RenardAlexandre RenardAlexandre Charles Albert Joseph Renard was a Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Lyon. He was ordained on July 12, 1931 in Lille....
(28 May 1967 - 29 Oct 1981) - Albert DecourtrayAlbert DecourtrayAlbert Florent Augustin Decourtray S.T.D. was a French Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Lyon.-Early life:...
(29 Oct 1981 - 16 Sep 1994) - Jean Marie BallandJean Marie BallandJean Marie Balland was a Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Lyon.-Early life:...
(27 May 1995 - 1 Mar 1998) - Louis-Marie BilléLouis-Marie BilléLouis Marie Billé was a French clergyman, archbishop of Lyon from 6 September 1998 and a cardinal until his death in office.- Life :...
(10 Jul 1998 - 12 Mar 2002) - Philippe Barbarin (16 Jul 2002 - )