Roman Catholic Diocese of Évreux

Diocese of Évreux
Dioecesis Ebroicensis
Diocèse d'Evreux

Location
Country France
Ecclesiastical province Rouen
Metropolitan Archdiocese of Rouen
Statistics
Area 6,040 km2 (2,330 sq mi)
Population
- Total
- Catholics		 (as of 2013)
571,000
348,800 (61.1%)
Parishes 32
Information
Denomination Roman Catholic
Sui iuris church Latin Church
Rite Roman Rite
Established 3rd Century
Cathedral Cathedral of Notre Dame in Evreux
Patron saint Assumption of Mary
Secular priests 77
7 religious priests
Current leadership
Pope Francis
Bishop Christian Nourrichard
Metropolitan Archbishop Jean-Charles Marie Descubes
Emeritus Bishops Jacques David (since 2006)
Website
Website of the Diocese

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Évreux is a Roman Catholic Latin Rite diocese in France. The diocese comprises the department of Eure within the Region of Normandy. The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Rouen, and the current bishop is Christian Nourrichard, appointed in 2006.

History

Tradition has it that the diocese of Evreux was founded by Saint Taurinus. That tradition claims that he was born during the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian (81-96), and was baptized by Pope Clement I (ca, 91-101). He set out for Gaul in the company of Saint Denis, who founded the Church of Paris. He went on an embassy to Rome, where he received the blessing of Pope Sixtus (ca. 116-125), after which he returned to Gaul. Shortly after the death of Sixtus, the barbarians overran the province. The last remark, on top of the unlikeliness of the other statements, makes it clear that the story is fiction. An attempt to fix the chronology places Taurinus in the time of Sixtus II (257-258), not Sixtus I. There were indeed barbarian incursions under the Emperor Gallienus (253-268) in those years, and Saint Denis is usually put in the third century; but then the part of the story involving Taurinus' first-century origins must be jettisoned, leaving practically nothing; and one must admit that the third-century date depends on a scholarly conjecture. [1]

Other writers suggest other dates. Chassant and Sauvage opt for dates of ca. 380-410.[2] Le Brasseur indicates a preference for the time of the Vandals in the fifth century,[3] but neither presents any evidence. Gams assigns a date of 412 in his list of Bishops of Évreux, and provides a day of death, August 11.[4] Fisquet provides a rationale for the date of 412, but it too is composed of suppositions and conjectures, not facts.[5] In reality there are no facts at all.

There is, however, a body. The remains were discovered by an inhabitant of Evreux named Laudulphus,[6] who had retired to a nearby cave for prayer and meditation. In a dream he heard a heavenly choir chanting that the day was the Feast of Saint Taurinus. Laudulphus set off to inform his bishop, Bishop Viator,[7] but amazingly the bishop died before Laudulphus could tell him the tale. Laudulphus was elected Viator's successor, and he immediately had a second vision, of a column extending from heaven to a certain spot on earth, where, upon investigation, they found a tomb, conveniently supplied with the inscription: HIC REQUIESCIT BEATUS TAURINUS, PRIMUS EPISCOPUS EBROICAE CIVITATIS ('Here lies Blessed Taurinus, first Bishop of Évreux). A little wooden chapel was built on the spot, out of which grew the Abbey of Saint-Taurin.[8] During the invasions of the Northmen under Rollo (ca. 875 ff.), the body was moved twice, first to the Auvergne and then to Castrum Laudosum (Lezoux).[9] When the remains were taken up, the translators found the inscription just quoted, which may have given rise to an element in the traditional story. The sack of Evreux by Rollo was witnessed by Bishop Seibardus.[10]

In the eighteenth century the Chapter of the Cathedral had a Dean, three archdeacons (Evreux, Neubourg and Ouche), a Treasurer, a Cantor, and a Penitentiary; there were thirty-one Canons, of whom the Abbot of Bec was the first. Eight of the senior canons were considered barons, and the most senior was the Baron of Angerville. There was also a Succentor and forty-five chaplains. There were some 550 parish churches in the diocese, of which eight were in Evreux itself.[11]

Cathedral

Part of the lower portion of the nave of Évreux Cathedral dates from the 11th century; the west facade with its two ungainly towers is, for the most part, the work of the late Renaissance, and various styles of the intervening period are represented in the rest of the church. A thorough restoration was completed in 1896. The elaborate north transept and portal are in the flamboyant Gothic; the choir, the finest part of the interior, is in an earlier Gothic style. Cardinal de la Balue, bishop of Évreux in the latter half of the 15th century, constructed the octagonal central tower, with its elegant spire; to him is also due the Lady chapel, which is remarkable for its finely preserved stained glass. Two rose windows in the transepts and the carved wooden screens of the side chapels are masterpieces of 16th-century workmanship.

The episcopal palace, a building of the 15th century, adjoins the south side of the cathedral. An interesting belfry, facing the handsome modern town hall, also dates from the 15th century. The church of St Taurin, in part Romanesque, has a choir of the 14th century and other portions of later date; it contains the shrine of St Taurin, a work of the 13th century.

From 1982 to 1995 the bishop of Évreux was the dissident cleric Jacques Gaillot who was subsequently demoted to the titular see of Partenia.

Bishops

To 1000

  • ? Saint Taurinus (Taurin)
  • ? Maximus (Mauxe)[12]
  • ? Etherius[13]
  • Maurusius 511 (Council of Orléans)
  • Licinius (Councils of Orleans of 538, 541 and 549)[14]
  • Ferrocinctus[15] attested in 557 (Council of Paris of 557)[16]
  • Viator
  • Laudulfus 585[17]
  • Erminulfus 615 (Council of Paris, 10 October 615)[18]
  • Waldus (Gaud) ca. 648
  • Ragnericus 650
  • Concessus ca. 667
  • Aeternus (Ethernus, Detherus, Eterne) around 670
  • Aquilinus[19] (Aquilin) 673-695
  • Desiderius (Didier)[20] after 684, and before 692.
  • Stephan c. 752
  • Maurinus (attested in 762)
  • Gervold 775-787 (resigned to become Abbot of Fontanelle)
  • Ouen
  • Joseph 833-846
  • Guntbertus 847-863
  • Hilduinus 864-870
  • Sebardus (Sébar) 870-893
  • Cerdegarius attested ca. 893 ?
  • Hugo (Hugues) [21] attested in 933
  • Guichard[22] (Guiscard, called Gunhard by Mabillon) ca. 954 - ca. 970
  • Gérard (Géraud) ca. 970 - ca. 1011

1000-1300

  • Gilbert[23] around 1012 – 1014
  • Hugo (Hugues) 1014-1046
  • Guillaume Flertel 1046-1066
  • Bauduin (Baldwin) 1066-1070
  • Gilbert (d'Arques) 1071-1112 (Giffard)
  • Audin de Bayeux or Ouen 1113-1139
  • Rotrou de Warwick 1139-1165
  • Gilles du Perche[24] 1170-1179
  • Jean (John Fitz Luke)[25] 1180-1192
  • Garin de Cierrey 1193-1201[26]
  • Robert de Roye[27] 1201-1203[28]
  • Lucas[29] 16 February 1203 – 30 January 1220[30]
  • Raoul de Cierrey[31] 2 June 1220 – 18 March 1223[32]
  • Richard de Bellevue[33] 17 July 1223 – 4 April 1236[34]
  • Raoul de Cierrey[35] 2 June 1236 – 1 January 1243
  • Jean de La Cour d'Aubergenville[36] 1244-1256

[Sede Vacante 1256 – 1259][37]

  • Raoul de Grosparmi[38] 1259-1263 (named Cardinal Bishop of Albano)[39]
  • Raoul de Chevry (Chevriers)[40] 1263-1269
  • Philippe de Chaourse[41] 1270-1281
  • Nicolas d'Auteuil 1281 – 17 May 1298[42]
  • Gaufredus (Geoffrey) de Bar 1298 – 18 April 1299
  • Mathieu des Essarts[43] 1299 – 1 October 1310

1300-1500

  • Geoffroy du Plessis 1310 - 13 November 1327
  • Adam de L'Île † 1328 (never consecrated)[44]
  • Jean du Prat 1329-1333
  • Guillaume des Essarts 1333-1334
  • Vincent des Essarts 1334-1335
  • Geoffroy de Faé 1335-1340
  • Robert de Brucourt 1340-1374
  • Guillaume D`Estouteville 1374-1376
  • Bernard de Caritis 1376-1383
  • Philippe de Moulins 1384-1388
  • Guillaume de Vallau 1388-1400
  • Guillaume de Cantiers 1400-1418
  • Paolo Capranica[45] 1420-1427[46] (never visited Normandy)
  • Martial Formier 1427-1439
  • Pasquier de Vaux 1439-1443
  • Pierre I. de Treignac de Comborn[47] 1443-1463
  • Guillaume de Flocques 7 January 1425 - November 1464
  • Jean IV de La Balue 1464-1467
  • Pierre Turpin de Crissé 1470-1473
  • Jean Héberge 1473-1479
  • Raoul du Faon 1479-1511

1500-1700

  • Ambroise Le Veneur de Tillières 1511-1531
  • Gabriel Le Veneur de Tillières 1531-1574
  • Claude de Sanctes 1575-1591
  • Jacques Davy du Perron 1591-1606 (Cardinal, 1603-1618)[48]
  • Guillaume de Péricard[49] 1608-1613
  • François de Péricard 1613-1646
  • Jacques Le Noël du Perron[50] 30 August 1646 – 17 February 1649
  • Gilles Boutaut 15 November 1649 – 1661
    • Joseph Zongo Ondedei, Bishop of Fréjus (refused the royal appointment to Evreux in March 1661)
  • Henri Cauchon de Maupas du Tour 1664-1680
  • Louis-Joseph de Grignan 1681
  • Jacques Potier de Novion 1682-1709 (later Bishop of Sisteron)

1700-1800

  • M. de Heudicourt 1709
  • Jean Le Normand 10 November 1710 – 7 May 1733[51]
  • Pierre-Jules-César de Rochechouard-Montigny (15 February 1734 - 1753)[52] (transferred to Bayeux)
  • Arthur-Richard Dillon[53] (26 September 1753 - 18 July 1758)[54] (transferred to Toulouse)
  • Léopold-Charles Choiseul de Stainville (1758-1759)
  • Louis-Albert de Lézay-Marnésia (1759-1773)
  • François de Narbonne-Lara[55] (1774-1792)
    • Robert Thomas Lindet[56] (1791-1793) (Constitutional Bishop of l'Eure)
    • Charles Robert Lamy[57] (1799–1801) (Constitutional Bishop of l'Eure)

1802–1900

From 1900

References

  1. ↑ Gallia christiana XI, pp. 564-566. For a critique, see: Amélie Bosquet (1845). La Normandie, romanesque et merveilleuse: traditions, légendes, et superstitions populaires de cette province (in French). Paris: J. Techener. pp. 388–396.
  2. ↑ Chassant and Sauvage (1846), p. 1.
  3. ↑ Le Brasseur (1727), pp. 26-27.
  4. ↑ Gams (1873), p. 549. The date, however, is only the day on which the festival of 'Saint Taurinus' was held.
  5. ↑ Fisquet (1864), p. 3.
  6. ↑ Acta sanctorum: Acta sanctorum Augusti (in Latin). Tomus II. Antwerp: Bernard Albert vander Plassche. 1735. pp. 643–644.
  7. ↑ Bishop Viator is not mentioned in the medieval catalogues of Bishops of Évreux: Duchesne, p. 226.
  8. ↑ Bosquet, pp. 394-395. Debedour (p. 21) points out that the wooden church was named in honor of St. Martin, not a putative Saint-Taurin. One must not imagine that the visions were only an electoral ploy by Laudulphus (Saint-Laud).
  9. ↑ Acta Sanctorum, pp. 646-647, a text of the twelfth century.
  10. ↑ Duchesne, p. 230, with references cited in n. 3.
  11. ↑ Gallia christiana XI, pp. 564-565.
  12. ↑ Maximus is omitted from the list of Bishops of Evreux by Duchesne, p. 227.
  13. ↑ Etherius is omitted from the list of Bishops of Evreux by Duchesne, p. 227.
  14. ↑ Duchesne, p. 227, no. 3.
  15. ↑ Chassant and Sauvage, p. 9. Bishop Ferrocinctus is not mentioned in the medieval catalogues of the bishops of Evreux. Guillaume Bessin (1717). Concilia Rotomagensis provinciae... (in French and Latin). Rouen: Francois Vaultier. p. 373.
  16. ↑ The name of Bishop Ferrocinctus appears, but not the name of his diocese: J.-D. Mansi (ed.), Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio editio novissima Tomus IX (Florence 1762), p. 747.
  17. ↑ Duchesne, p. 228, points out that his date is very uncertain, and he does not vouch for 585: La place que je leur attribue ici n'est pas certainement la leur.
  18. ↑ List of Bishops who signed the decrees of the Council of Paris: Johann Friedrich (1867). Drei unedirte Concilien aus der Merovingerzeit: mit einem Anhange über das Decretum Gelasii (in German and Latin). Bamberg: Reindl. pp. 15, 47.
  19. ↑ "De Sancto Aquilino," Acta Sanctorum: Octobris Tomus VIII (Bruxelles: Alphonse Greuse 1853), pp. 488-505. Duchesne, p. 226, no. 10.
  20. ↑ Duchesne, p. 226, no. 11.
  21. ↑ Fisquet, pp. 10-11.
  22. ↑ Fisquet, pp. 10-11.
  23. ↑ Fisquet, p. 11.
  24. ↑ Chassant and Sauvage, pp. 48-50.
  25. ↑ Chassant and Sauvage, pp. 51-52.
  26. ↑ Eubel, I, p. 234.
  27. ↑ Chassant and Sauvage, pp.55-56.
  28. ↑ Eubel, I, p. 234.
  29. ↑ Chassant and Sauvage, pp. 57-59.
  30. ↑ Eubel, I, p. 234.
  31. ↑ Chassant and Sauvage, pp. 60-61.
  32. ↑ Eubel, I, p. 234.
  33. ↑ Chassant and Sauvage, pp. 62-63.
  34. ↑ Eubel, I, p. 234.
  35. ↑ Raoul was Canon and Archdeacon of Évreux when elected bishop. He was ordained a priest on the Saturday of Quatre-Temps (Ember Days) in September, and consecrated bishop the next day. Chassant and Sauvage, pp. 64-65.
  36. ↑ Le Brasseur, pp. 188-191. Chassant and Sauvage, pp. 66-68. Burey, pp. 92-93.
  37. ↑ In 1256 there was a double election, of Raoul de Grosparmi and of Raoul d'Aubusson. Aubusson won the approval of neither King Louis nor Pope Alexander IV and finally gave way. Le Brasseur, p. 193. Chassant and Sauvage, p. 69.
  38. ↑ Burey, pp. 169-170.
  39. ↑ Raoul had been Chancellor of King Louis IX. Eubel, I, p. 8. 17 December 1261. He began subscribing papal documents on 9 January 1263. He was Papal Legate on Louis' last crusade, and died with the king at Tunis in August 1270.
  40. ↑ Burey, p. 81.
  41. ↑ Burey, p. 73. Bishop Philippe was an executor of the Testament of King Louis IX. Louis had founded the convent of Dominicans in Évreux
  42. ↑ Eubel, I, p. 234.
  43. ↑ Jacques Le Batelier d'Aviron (1865). P.-F. Lebeurier, ed. Le mémorial historique des évêques, ville et Comté d'Evreux écrit au XVIIe siècle (in French). Evreux: P. Huet. pp. 93–95.
  44. ↑ L'Île made his promise of payment to the Apostolic Chamber on 18 February 1328, but he died on 24 March. Fisquet, p. 33.
  45. ↑ Paolo Capranica was the brother of Cardinal Domenico Capranica (1426-1458). Eubel, I, p. 34; II, p. 6.
  46. ↑ Capranica was named Archbishop of Benevento on 16 June 1427; he died on 31 December 1428. Eubel, I, p. 133.
  47. ↑ Fisquet, pp. 44-46.
  48. ↑ Gauchat, Hierarchia catholica IV, p. 7.
  49. ↑ Théodore Eloi Lebreton (1861). Biographie normande: recueil de notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les personnages célèbres nés en Normandie (in French). III. Rouen: A. Le Brument. p. 200.
  50. ↑ Le Noël was the nephew of Jean du Perron, Archbishop of Sens, and of Cardinal Jacques Davy du Perron, whose name he adopted. Auguste Lerosey (1891). Histoire religieuse et civile de Périers et ses notabilités ... (in French). Paris: Berche. pp. 293–296. He took his oath to the King on 24 August 1648. Gauchat, Hierarchia catholica IV, p. 180.
  51. ↑ Ritzler, V, p. 191 and n. 5.
  52. ↑ Nominated by King Louis XV on 28 August 1733. Ritzler, VI, p. 204 and n. 2.
  53. ↑ Fisquet, pp. 75-78.
  54. ↑ Dillon was nominated by King Louis XV on 15 August 1753, and consecrated on 28 October. Ritzler, VI, p. 204 and n. 3.
  55. ↑ Chassant and Sauvage, pp. 177-179. Fisquet, pp. 81-83.
  56. ↑ Fisquet, pp. 84-86.
  57. ↑ Fisquet, p. 86.
  58. ↑ Boulier was nominated bishop by Napoleon Bonaparte by an arrêt of 9 April 1802. In 1804 he founded a diocesan seminary at the former Monastery of Saint-Taurin. Fisquet, pp. 87-90.

Bibliography

Reference works

Studies


Coordinates: 49°01′28″N 1°09′03″E / 49.02444°N 1.15083°E / 49.02444; 1.15083

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