Diocese of Belley-Ars
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This article incorporates unedited text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia, which may be out of date, or may reflect the point of view of the Catholic Church as of 1913. It should be edited to reflect broader and more recent perspectives. (August 2007) |
The Diocese of Belley-Ars, renamed in 1988 from the former Diocese of Belley (Bellicium), is coextensive with the civil department of Ain and a suffragan of the Archbishopric of Besançon. The seat of the bishops is at Belley Cathedral.
Although suppressed at the time of the Napoleonic Concordat (1801), the diocese of Belley was re-established in 1822 and took from the Archdiocese of Lyon the arrondissements of Belley, Bourg, Nantua and Trévoux, and from the Archdiocese of Chambéry the arrondissement of Gex.
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[edit] History
Local tradition maintains that Belley was evangelized in the second century by the martyrs Marcellus and Valerian, companions of St. Pothinus. The first bishop of historic certainty is Vincentius, mentioned in 552. Others who occupied the see were St. Hippolytus, Abbot of Condat (eighth century); St. Anthelm (1163-78), seventh General of the Carthusian Order; St. Arthaud (1179-90), founder of the Carthusians at Arvières; Camus (1609-29), a noted preacher and romancist; and Monseigneur François M. Richard (1872-75), later Cardinal and Archbishop of Paris.
Belley honours in a special manner St. Amandus, Bishop of Maastricht, who founded the Abbey of Nantua about 660; St. Vulbas, a patrician of Bourgogne and a war companion of King Dagobert, treacherously assassinated in 642; St. Rambert, killed by order of Ebroin in the seventh century, whose name has been given to a city of the diocese; St. Trivier, the solitary, who died about 650; St. Barnard (ninth century), who founded the great Benedictine Abbey of Ambronay and died Archbishop of Vienna; St. Lambert (twelfth century), founder of the Cistercian Abbey at Chezery; St. Roland (twelfth century), Abbot of Chezery; St. Stephen of Chatillon, who founded the Carthusian monastery at Portes in 1115, and died Bishop of Die; St. Stephen of Bourg, who founded the Carthusian monastery at Meyria in 1116; and Saint Jean-Baptiste Vianney (1786-1859), parish priest at Ars.
The Diocese of Belley which, in the Middle Ages, had no less than eight Carthusian monasteries, was the birthplace of the Joséphistes, a congregation founded by Jacques Crétenet (1606-67), a layman and surgeon who became a priest after the death of his wife; of the teaching order of the Sisters of St. Charles, founded by Charles Demia of Bourg (1636-89); and of three teaching orders founded in the first half of the nineteenth century: the Brothers of the Society of the Cross of Jesus; the Brothers of the Holy Family of Belley, and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Bourg. In 1858 a Trappist monastery was established in the unhealthy Dombes district.
Cardinal Louis Aleman (1390-1450) and Soeur Rosalie (1787-1856), noted in the history of modern Parisian charities, were both native of the Diocese of Belley. Blessed Pierre-Louis-Marie Chanel was born at Cuet near Bourg. For thirty years of its existence (1701-31), "Le Journal de Trévoux", a valuable repertory of the literary and religious history of the period, was published by the Jesuits at Trévoux, in this diocese. The church at Brou, near Bourg, was built between 1511 and 1536 under the direction of Margaret of Austria, widow of Philibert II the Fair, Duke of Savoy.
[edit] Bishops of Belley
[edit] To 1000
- Audax
- Tarniscus
- Migetius
- Vincent 555-567
- Evrould
- Claude I
- Félix 585-589
- Aquilin
- Florentin v.650
- Hypodimius
- Ramnatius(Pracmatius)
- Bertere
- Ansemonde 722
- Saint-Hipolyte
- Gondoal
- Agisle
- Euloge
- Adorepert
- Ermonbert
- Rodoger
- Rhitfroy
- Étienne I v.790
- Ringuin
- Sigold
- Adabald 886-899
- Étienne II v.900
- Elisachar 915-927
- Isaac
- Jérôme v.932
- Hérice
- Didier
- Herdulphe 985
- Eudes I 995-1003
[edit] 1000-1300
- Aimon v.1034-1044
- Gauceran v.1070
- Ponce I 1091-1116
- Amicon v.1118-1121
- Ponce de Balmey v.1124-1129
- Berlion v.1134
- Bernard de Portes 1134-1140
- Guillaume I 1141-1160
- Ponce de Thoire v.1162
- Saint-Anthelme 1163-1178
- Renaud 1178-1184
- Artaldus 1188-1190
- Eudes II 1190
- Bernard II 1198-1207
- Benoit de Langres v.1208
- Bernard de Thoire-Villars 1211-1212
- Boniface de Thoire-Villars 1213
- Jean de Rotoire
- Pierre de Saint-Cassin
- Boniface de Savoie 1232-1240
- Bernard IV 1244
- Pierre II 1244-1248
- Thomas de Thorimbert 1250
- Jean de Plaisance 1255-1269
- Bernard V v.1272
- Berlion D`Amisin v.1280-1282
- Guillaume
- Pierre de La Baume 1287-1298
- Jean de La Baume
[edit] 1300-1500
- Thomas II 1309
- Jacques de Saint-André 1325
- Amédée 1345
- Guillaume de Martel 1356-1368
- Edouard de Savoie 1370-1373
- Nicolas de Bignes 1374-1394
- Rodolphe de Bonet 1413
- Guillaume Didier 1430-1437
- Perceval de La Baume
- Aimeric Segaud
- Pierre de Bolomier v.1458
- Guillaume de Varax v.1461-1467
- Jean de Varax v.1467-1505
[edit] 1500-1800
- Claude de Estavayer 1507-1530
- Philippe de La Chambre 1530-1536
- Antoine de La Chambre 1536-1575
- Jean-Godefroi Ginod 1576-1604
- Jean-Pierre Camus 1608-1629
- Jean de Passelaigne 1629-1663
- Jean-Albert Belin 1663-1677
- Pierre du Laurent 1678-1705
- François Madot 1705-1712
- Jean du Doucet 1712-1745
- Jean-Antoine Tinseau 1745-1751
- Gabriel Cortois de Quincey 1751-1790, last bishop of Belley
- Jean-Baptiste Royer 1791-1793, constitutional bishop
