Le Puy

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(Aniciensis).

Diocese comprising the whole Department of Haute Loire, and is a suffragan ofBourges. The territory of the ancient Diocese of Le Puy, suppressed by theConcordat of 1801, was united with the Diocese of Saint-Flour and became adiocese again in 1823. The district of Brioude, which had belonged to thediocese of Saint-Fluor under the old regime, was thenceforward included in the new Diocese of Le Puy.

The Martyrology of Ado and the first legend of St. Front ofPérigueux (written perhaps in the middle of the tenth century, by Gauzbert,chorepiscopus ofLimoges) speak of a certainpriest named George who was brought to life by the touch of St. Peter's staff, and who accompanied St. Front, St. Peter's missionary and firstBishop ofPérigueux. A legend ofSt. George, the origin of which, according to Duchesne is not earlier than the eleventh century, makes that saint one of the seventy-two disciples, and tells how he founded theChurch of Civitas Vetula in the County of Le Velay, and how, at the request ofSt. Martial, he caused an altar to theBlessed Virgin to be erected on Mont Anis (Mons Anicius). After St. George, certain local traditions of very late origin point to Sts. Macarius, Marcellinus, Roricius, Eusebius, Paulianus, and Vosy (Evodius) asbishops of Le Puy. It must have been from St. Paulianus that the town of Ruessium, now St. Paulien, received its name; and it was probably St. Vosy who completed the church of Our Lady of Le Puy at Anicium and transferred theepiscopal see from Ruessium to Anicium. St. Vosy was apprised in a vision that theangels themselves had dedicated thecathedral to theBlessed Virgin, whence the epithetAngelic given to thecathedral of Le Puy. It is impossible to say whether this St. Evodius is the same who signed the decrees of the Council ofValence in 374. Neither can it be affirmed thatSt. Benignus, who in the seventh century founded ahospital at the gates of the basilica, and St. Agrevius, the seventh-centurymartyr from whom the town of Saint-Agrève Chiniacum took its name, were reallybishops. Duchesne thinks that thechronology of these earlybishops rests on very little evidence and that very ill supported by documents; before the tenth century only sixindividuals appear of whom it can be said withcertainty that they werebishops of Le Puy. The first of these, Scutarius, the legendary architect of the firstcathedral, dates, if we may trust the inscription which bears his name, from the end of the fourth century.

Among thebishops of Le Puy are mentioned: Adhémar of Monteil (1087-1100), author of the ancient antiphon, "Salve Regina", whomUrban II, coming to Le Puy in 1095 to preach theCrusade, appointed hislegate, and who died under the walls of Antioch; Bertrand of Chalencon (1200-13), who himself led the soldiers of his province against theAlbigenses under the walls of Béziers; Guy III Foulques (1257-59), who becamepope asClement IV; thetheologian Durandus of Saint-Pourçain (1318-26); Lefranc de Pompignan (1733-74), the great antagonist of thephilosophes; De Bonald (1823-39), afterwardsArchbishop ofLyons.

Legend traces the origin of thepilgrimage of Le Puy to an apparition of the Blessed Virgin to a sickwidow whomSt. Martial had converted. NoFrenchpilgrimage was more frequented in theMiddle Ages.Charlemagne came twice, in 772 and 800; there is a legend that in 772 he established a foundation at thecathedral for ten poor canons (chanoines de paupérie), and he chose Le Puy, with Aachen and Saint-Gilles, as a centre for the collection ofPeter's Pence. Charles the Bald visited Le Puy in 877, Eudes in 892, Robert in 1029,Philip Augustus in 1183.Louis IX met the King ofAragon there in 1245; and in 1254 passing through Le Puy on his return from the Holy Land, he gave to thecathedral an ebony image of the Blessed Virgin clothed in gold brocade. After him, Le Puy was visited by Philip the Bold in 1282, byPhilip the Fair in 1285, by Charles VI in 1394, by Charles VII in 1420, and by the mother ofBlessed Joan of Arc in 1429. Louis XI made thepilgrimage in 1436 and 1475, and in 1476 halted three leagues from the city and went to thecathedral barefooted. Charles VIII visited it in 1495,Francis I in 1533. Theodulph,Bishop ofOrléans, brought to Our Lady of Le Puy, as an ex-voto for his deliverance, a magnificent Bible, the letters of which were made of plates of gold and silver, which he had himself put together, about 820, while inprison at Angers. St. Mayeul, St. Odilon, St. Robert,St. Hugh ofGrenoble,St. Anthony of Padua,St. Dominic, St. Vincent Ferrer,St. John Francis Regis werepilgrims to Le Puy.

TheChurch of Le Puy received, on account of its great dignity and fame, innumerable temporal and spiritual favours. Concessions made in 919 by William the Young, Count of Auvergne and Le Velay, and in 923 by King Raoul, gave it sovereignty over the whole population of the town (bourg) of Anis, a population which soon amounted to 30,000souls. In 999, Sylvester IIconsecrated his friend Théodard, amonk of Aurillac,Bishop of Le Puy, to replace Stephen of Gevaudan, whom his uncle Guy,Bishop of Le Puy, had in his lifetime, designated to be his successor, and whom a Roman council hadexcommunicated. Sylvester II exempted Théodard from allmetropolitanjurisdiction, a privilege whichLeo IX confirmed to the Bishops of Le Puy, also granting them the right, until then reserved toarchbishops exclusively of wearing thepallium. "Nowhere", he said in hisBull, "does the Blessed Virgin receive a more special and more filial worship." It was from Le Puy thatUrban II dated (15 August, 1095) the Letters Apostolic convoking the Council ofClermont, and it was a canon of Le Puy, Raymond d'Aiguilles, chaplain to the Count ofToulouse, who wrote the history of thecrusade. Gelasius II,Callistus II,Innocent II andAlexander III visited Le Puy topray, and with the visit of one of thesepopes must be connected the origin of the great jubilee which is granted to Our Lady of Le Puy wheneverGood Friday falls on 25 March, the Feast of the Annunciation. It is supposed that this jubilee was instituted byCallistus II, who passed through Le Puy, in April, 1119, or byAlexander III, who was there in August, 1162, and June, 1165, or byClement IV, who had beenBishop of Le Puy. The first jubilee historically known took place in 1407, and in 1418 the chronicles mention aBull ofMartin V prolonging the duration of the jubilee It took place three times in the nineteenth century — in 1842, 1853, and 1864 — and will take place again in 1910. Lastly, during theMiddle Ages, everyone who had made thepilgrimage to Le Puy had the privilege of making a willin extremis with only two witnesses instead of seven.

Honoured with such prerogatives as these, theChurch of Le Puy assumed a sort of primacy in respect to most of the Churches ofFrance, and even ofChristendom. This primacy manifested itself practically in aright to beg, established with the authorization of theHoly See, in virtue of which the chapter of Le Puy levied a veritable tax upon almost all theChristian countries to support itshospital of Notre-Dame. In Catalonia thisdroit de quete, recognized by Spanish Crown, was so thoroughly established that the chapter had its collectors permanently installed in that country. A famous "fraternity" existed between the chapter of Le Puy and that ofGerona inCatalonia. The efforts ofM. Rochet to establish his contention, that this "fraternity" dated from the time ofCharlemagne, have been fruitless; M. Coulet hasproved that the earliest document in which it is mentioned dates only from 1470, and he supposes that at thisdate the chapter ofGerona, in order to escape the financial thraldom which bound it, like so many other Catalonian Churches, to the chapter of Le Puy, alleged its "fraternity" involving its equality — with theChurch of Le Puy. In 1479 and in 1481 Pierre Bouvier, a canon of Le Puy, came toGerona, when the canons invoked against him certain legends according to whichCharlemagne had taken Gerona, rebuilt itscathedral, given it a canon of Le Puy for abishop, and established a fraternity between chapters ofGerona and Le Puy. In support of these legends they appealed to the Office which they chanted for the feast ofCharlemagne — an Office, dating from 1345, but in which they had recently inserted these tales of theChurch of LePuy. In 1484Sixtus IV prohibited the use of this Office, whereupon there appeared atGerona the "Tractatus de captione Gerunde", which reaffirmed the Gerona legends about the fraternity with Le Puy. Down to the last days of the old regime the two chapters frequently exchanged courtesies; canons of Le Puy passing through Gerona and canons ofGerona passing through Le Puy enjoyed special privileges. In 1883 the removal by theBishop ofGerona of thestatue ofCharlemagne, which stood in thatcathedral, marked the definitive collapse of the whole fabric of legends out of which thehermandad between Le Puy and Gerona had grown.

Thestatue of Our Lady of Le Puy and the other treasures escaped the pillage of theMiddle Ages. The roving banditti were victoriously dispersed, in 1180, by the Confraternity of theChaperons (Hooded Cloaks) founded at the suggestion of a canon of Le Puy. In 1562 and 1563 Le Puy was successfully defended against theHuguenots bypriests and religious armed with cuirasses and arquebusses. But in 1793 thestatue was torn from its shrine and burned in the public square.Père de Ravignan, in 1846, and the Abbé Combalot, in 1850, were inspired with theidea of a great monument to the Blessed Virgin on the Rocher Corneille.Napoleon III placed at the disposal of Bishop Morlhon 213 pieces of artillery taken by Pélissier at Sebastopol, and the colossalstatue of "Notre-Damede France" cast from the iron of these guns, amounting in weight to 150,000 kilogrammes, or more than 330,000 lbs. avoirdupois, was dedicated 12 September, 1860.

Thesaints speciallyvenerated in thediocese are: St. Domninus,martyr, whose body is preserved in thecathedral; St. Julian of Brioude,martyr in 304, and his companion, St. Ferréol; St. Calminius (Carmery), Duke of Auvergne, who prompted the foundation of the Abbey of Le Monastier, and St. Eudes, firstabbot (end of the sixth century); St. Theofredus (Chaffre),Abbot of Le Monastier andmartyr under theSaracens (c. 735); St. Mayeul,Abbot of Cluny, who, in the second half of the tenth century, cured a blind man at the gates of Le Puy, and whose name was given, in the fourteenth century, to theuniversity in which theclergy made their studies; St. Odilon,Abbot of Cluny (962-1049), who embraced the life of a regular canon in themonastery of St. Julien de Brioude; St. Robert d'Aurillac (d. 1067) who founded themonastery of Chaise Dieu in the Brioude district; St. Peter Chavanon (d. 1080), a canon regular, founder and firstprovost of the Abbey of Pébrac. At the age of eighteenM. Olier, afterwards the founder of Saint-Sulpice, was Abbotin commendam of Pébrac and, in 1626 was an "honorary count-canon of the chapter of St. Julien de Brioude". We may mention as natives of thisdiocese: theBenedictine, Hughes Lanthenas (1634-1701), who edited the works ofSt. Bernard andSt. Anselm, and was the historian of the Abbey of Vendôme; theBenedictine, Jacques Boyer joint author of"Gallia Christiana"; Cardinal de Polignac (d. 1741), author of the "Antilucretius".

Thecathedral of Le Puy, which forms the highest point of the city, rising from the foot of the Rocher Corneille, exhibits architecture of every period from the fifth century to the fifteenth. Formerly, the visitor passed through aporch standing well out from the building and, after descending beneath the pavement, emerged by a stairway in front of thehigh altar; the principal stairway is now covered by a bold vaulting which serves as base for one half of the church. Thearchitectural effect is incredibly audacious and picturesque. The four galleries of thecloister were constructed during a period extending from theCarlovingian epoch to the twelfth century. TheBenedictinemonastery of the Chaise Dieu united in 1640 to the Congregation of St-Maur, still stands, with the fortifications which Abbot de Chanac caused to be built between 1378 and 1420, and the church, rebuilt in the fourteenth century byClement VI, who had made his studies here, and byGregory XI, his nephew. This church contains thetomb ofClement VI. The fine church of S. Julien de Brioude, in florid Byzantine style, dates from the eleventh or twelfth century. Besides the greatpilgrimage of Le Puy, we may mention those of Notre-Dame de Pradelles, at Pradelles, apilgrimagedating from 1512; of Notre-Dame d'Auteyrac, at Sorlhac, which was very popular before theRevolution; of Notre-Dame Trouvée, at Lavoute-Chilhac.

Before the passage of the Law of Associations (1901) there were at Le Puy,Jesuits,Franciscans, Religious of St. Mary of the Assumption, and,Little Brothers of Mary. Two important congregations of men originated and had their mother-house, in the diocese. Of these theBrothers of the Sacred Heart, founded in 1821 with the object of giving commercial instruction, have their mother-house at Paradis and important boarding-schools atLyons, as well as in theUnited States (chiefly Baie Saint-Louis) and inCanada (chiefly at Athabaskaville). The Labourer Brothers, or Farmer Brothers, of St. John Francis Régis were founded in 1850 by Père de Bussy, aJesuit, and possess seven model farms for theeducation of poor children. A certain number of congregations ofwomen originated in the diocese. TheDominicans of Mère Agnès, who taught and served as sick nurses and housekeepers, were founded in 1221; the teaching Sisters of Notre-Dame, in 1618; the religious of St. Charles, teachers and nurses, in 1624, by Just de Serres,Bishop of Le Puy; thehospital and teachingSisters of St. Joseph, in 1650, by Père Médaille, who were the first congregation placed under the patronage of St. Joseph; the contemplative religious of the Visitation of St. Mary were founded in 1659; those of the Instruction of the Infant Jesus, for teaching in 1667, by the celebrated Sulpician Tronson,parishpriest of St. Georges, and his penitent, Mlle Martel; the Sisters of the Cross, forhospital service and teaching, in 1673.

At the end of the nineteenth century the religious congregations possessed in the Diocese of Le Puy: 69 infantschools (écoles maternelles), 2schools for deaf mutes, 2orphanages for boys, 6orphanages for girls, 1 refuge for penitentwomen, 20hospitals or hospices, 1lunatic asylum, 3 old men's homes, 57 houses of religiouswomenconsecrated to the care of the sick at home. In 1905 (end of the Concordat period) the diocese had 314,058 inhabitants, 33parishes, 243 auxiliaryparishes (succursales), and 195 state-paid vicariates.

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