Archbishopric of Bordeaux
Encyclopedia
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bordeaux, the full name of which since 20 November 1937 has been the Archdiocese of Bordeaux-Bazas, is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church
in France
. The episcopal seat is located in Bordeaux
, Aquitaine
. It comprises the entire département of the Gironde
and was established conformably to the Concordat of 1802 by combining the ancient Diocese of Bordeaux (diminished by the cession of born to the Bishopric of Aire) with the greater part of the suppressed Diocese of Bazas.
, Poitiers
and La Rochelle
, the see of Bordeaux received in 1822, as additional suffragans, those of Agen
, withdrawn from the metropolitan of Toulouse
, and the newly re-established Périgueux
and Luçon
. In 1850 were added the three (then colonial) Bishoprics of Fort-de-France
(Martinique
), Basse-Terre
(Guadeloupe
), and Saint-Denis
(Réunion
), later detached. Since 2002 the province of Bordeaux (corresponding historically with Aquitania Secunda) has been substantially modified following the suppression of the province of Auch and the creation of that of Poitiers.
legends which date back to the beginning of the eleventh century, Bordeaux
was evangelized in the first century by St Martial (Martialis), who replaced a temple to the unknown god, which he destroyed, with one dedicated to St Stephen. The same legends represent St Martial as having brought to the Soulac coast St Veronica, who is still especially venerated in the church of Notre-Dame de Fin des Terres at Soulac; as having cured Sigebert, the paralytic husband of the pious Benedicta, and made him Bishop of Bordeaux; as addressing beautiful Latin letters to the people of Bordeaux, to which city he is said to have left the pastoral staff which has been treasured as a relic by the Chapter of Saint-Seurin (for this cycle of legends see Limoges).
The first Bishop of Bordeaux known to history, Orientalis, is mentioned at the Council of Arles, in 314. By the close of the fourth century Christianity had made such progress in Bordeaux that a synod was held there (384) for the purpose of adopting measures against the Priscillianists, whose heresy had caused popular disturbances. This was during the episcopate of Delphinus of Bordeaux (380–404), who attended the Councils of Saragossa
in 380 and maintained correspondence with St Ambrose and with St Paulinus of Nola.
At the beginning of the 5th century a mysterious personage who, according to St Gregory of Tours, came from the East, appeared at Bordeaux: St Seurin (or Severinus), in whose favour Bishop Amand abdicated the see from 410 to 420, resuming it after Seurin's death and occupying it until 432. In the sixth century Bordeaux had an illustrious bishop in the person of Leontius II (542–564), a man of great influence who used his wealth in building churches and clearing lands and whom the poet Fortunatus calls patriae caput.
During this Merovingian period the cathedral church, founded in the fourth century, occupied the same site that it does today, back to back against the ramparts of the ancient city. The Faubourg Saint-Seurin outside the city was a great centre of popular devotion, with its three large basilicas of St Stephen, St Seurin, and St Martin surrounding a large necropolis from which a certain number of sarcophagi are still preserved. This faubourg was like a holy city; and the cemetery of St Seurin was full of tombs of the Merovingian period around which the popular imagination of later ages was to create legends. In the high noon of the Middle Ages it used to be told how Christ had consecrated this cemetery and that Charlemagne
, having fought the Saracens near Bordeaux, had visited it and laid Roland
's wonderful horn Olivant on the altar of Saint Seurin.
Dessus l'autel de Saint Seurin le baron, Il met l'oliphant plein d'or et de mangons says the "Chanson de Roland". Many tombs passed for those of Charlemagne's gallant knights, and others were honored as the resting-places of Veronica and Benedicta. At the other extremity of the city, the Benedictines filled in the marshes of L'Eau-Bourde and founded there the monastery of Sainte-Croix. While thus surrounded by evidences of Christian conquest, the academic Bordeaux of the Merovingian period continued to cherish the memory of its former school of eloquence, whose chief glories had been the poet Ausonius
(310–395) and St Paulinus (353–431), who had been a rhetorician at Bordeaux and died Bishop of Nola
.
was archbishop in 870, when he fled the city in the face of Viking
raids.
In the late tenth century, ecclesiastical power was once again concentrated in the hands of the archbishop of Bordeaux when Gombald
, brother of William II of Gascony and bishop of all the Gascon
sees became archbishop (989). In 1027 the duke of Gascony
, Sancho VI, and the duke of Aquitaine
, William V
, joined together to select Geoffrey II
, an Aquitanian Frank, as archbishop. This represented a new ecumenical rôle for the archbishop in the region covering both Aquitaine and Gascony. The reigns of William VIII
and William IX
(1052–1127), were noted for the splendid development of Romanesque architecture
in Bordeaux. Parts of the churches of Sainte-Croix and Saint-Seurin belong to that time, and the Cathedral of Saint-André was begun in 1096.
In the Middle Ages, a struggle between the metropolitan sees of Bordeaux and Bourges
was brought about by the claims of the latter to the primacy of Aquitaine. This question has been closely investigated by modern scholars, and it has been ascertained that a certain letter from Nicholas I
to Rodolfus, which would date the existence of the primacy of Bourges from the ninth century, is not authentic. As the capital of the Roman province Aquitania prima, Bourges at an early date vaguely aspired to pre-eminence over the provinces of Aquitania secunda and Aquitania tertia, and thence over Bordeaux. It was about 1073 that these aspirations were more formally asserted; between 1112 and 1126 the papacy acknowledged them, and in 1146 Pope Eugenius III confirmed the primacy of Pierre de la Chatre, Archbishop of Bourges, over Bordeaux. In 1232, Gregory IX
gave the Archbishop of Bourges, as patriarch
(sic), the right to visit the province of Aquitaine, imposed upon the Archbishop of Bordeaux the duty of assisting, at least once, at the councils held by his "brother" of Bourges, and decided that appeals might be made from the former to the latter. Occasionally, however, as in 1240 and 1284, the Archbishops of Bourges coming to Bordeaux, found the doors of the churches closed against them, and answered with excommunication the solemn protests which the Bordeaux clergy made against their visits.
Aquitaine was lost to France by the annulment of that marriage between Louis VII
and Eleanor of Aquitaine
which was celebrated in the Cathedral of Bordeaux in the year 1137, and Bordeaux became the capital of the English possessions in France. Thereupon the struggle between the metropolitans of Bordeaux and Bourges assumed a political character, the King of France necessarily upholding the claims of Bourges. Most of the archbishops were conspicuous as agents of English policy in Aquitaine, notable amongst them being Guillaume Amanieu (1207–26), on whom King Henry III of England
conferred the title of seneschal
and guardian of all his lands beyond the sea, and who took part in Spain in the wars against the Saracens, Gérard de Mallemort (1227–60), a generous founder of monasteries, who acted as mediator between St. Louis
and Henry III, and defended Gascony
against the tyranny of Simon de Montfort
, Earl of Leicester. During the episcopate of Gerard de Mallemort the old Romanesque church of Saint-André was transformed into a Gothic
cathedral.
Pope Clement V
(1305–14) was unfavourable to the claims of Bourges. He was a native of Villandraut
near Bazas
, where he had built a beautiful collegiate church, was Archbishop of Bordeaux from 1300 to 1305, and political adviser to king Philip the Fair
. When he became pope, in spite of his French sympathies, his heart was set upon the formal emancipation of Bordeaux from Bourges. By the late fourteenth century, the archbishops, like Francesco Uguccione
, were supporters of the English.
Blessed Pierre Berland
, or Peyberland as tradition calls him (1430–57), was an Archbishop of Bordeaux, illustrious for his intelligence and holiness, founder of the University of Bordeaux
and of the College of St Raphael for poor students, who, after helping the English to defend Bordeaux against the troops of Charles VII of France
, received Dunois into his episcopal city and surrendered it to France. It was during his episcopate that the beautiful campanile known as the Pey Berland Tower was added to the cathedral.
The rich and powerful chapter
s of Saint-André and Saint-Seurin subsisted in the Middle Ages as a vestige of that duality which was already noticeable in Merovingian Bordeaux. Between the two there were frequent and very animated conflicts. The artistic feeling of the canons in the thirteenth century is attested by the Gothic portal of Saint-Seurin which is still extant. At the end of the fourteenth century Canon Vital de Carle established the great Hospital of Saint-André, which he placed under the protection of the municipality; and it was through the exertions of the chapter of Saint-André that the first city library of Bordeaux was founded towards the year 1402.
During the Middle Ages Bordeaux was a great monastic city, with its Carmelite, Franciscan
, and Dominican
convents, founded respectively in 1217, 1227, and 1230. In 1214 an important council was held in Bordeaux against usurers, highwaymen, and heretics. When, after the Hundred Years' War
, Bordeaux again became French, Louis XI flattered its citizens by joining the confraternity of Notre-Dame de Montuzet, a religious association formed of all the mariners of the Gironde by heaping favours on the church of Saint-Michel, the tower of which, built in the period between 1473 and 1492, was higher than the Pey Berland, and by furthering the canonization of its former archbishop, Pierre Berland.
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...
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...
. The episcopal seat is located in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, Aquitaine
Aquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...
. It comprises the entire département of the Gironde
Gironde
For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...
and was established conformably to the Concordat of 1802 by combining the ancient Diocese of Bordeaux (diminished by the cession of born to the Bishopric of Aire) with the greater part of the suppressed Diocese of Bazas.
History
Constituted by the same Concordat metropolitan to the suffragan Bishoprics of AngoulêmeAngoulême
-Main sights:In place of its ancient fortifications, Angoulême is encircled by boulevards above the old city walls, known as the Remparts, from which fine views may be obtained in all directions. Within the town the streets are often narrow. Apart from the cathedral and the hôtel de ville, the...
, Poitiers
Poitiers
Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...
and La Rochelle
La Rochelle
La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...
, the see of Bordeaux received in 1822, as additional suffragans, those of Agen
Agen
Agen is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in Aquitaine in south-western France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. It is the capital of the department.-Economy:The town has a higher level of unemployment than the national average...
, withdrawn from the metropolitan of Toulouse
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toulouse
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toulouse, is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The diocese comprises the Department of Haute-Garonne...
, and the newly re-established Périgueux
Périgueux
Périgueux is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.Périgueux is the prefecture of the department and the capital of the region...
and Luçon
Luçon
Luçon is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France.It is the seat of the Diocese of Luçon and Luçon Cathedral.-References:*...
. In 1850 were added the three (then colonial) Bishoprics of Fort-de-France
Fort-de-France
Fort-de-France is the capital of France's Caribbean overseas department of Martinique. It is also one of the major cities in the Caribbean. Exports include sugar, rum, tinned fruit, and cacao.-Geography:...
(Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
), Basse-Terre
Basse-Terre
Basse-Terre is the prefecture of Guadeloupe, an overseas region and department of France located in the Lesser Antilles...
(Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
), and Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis, Réunion
Saint-Denis is the préfecture of the French overseas region and department of Réunion, in the Indian Ocean. It is located at the island's northernmost point, close to the mouth of the Rivière Saint-Denis....
(Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
), later detached. Since 2002 the province of Bordeaux (corresponding historically with Aquitania Secunda) has been substantially modified following the suppression of the province of Auch and the creation of that of Poitiers.
Early history
According to old LimousinLimousin (province)
Limousin is one of the traditional provinces of France around the city of Limoges. Limousin lies in the foothills of the western edge of the Massif Central, with cold weather in the winter...
legends which date back to the beginning of the eleventh century, Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
was evangelized in the first century by St Martial (Martialis), who replaced a temple to the unknown god, which he destroyed, with one dedicated to St Stephen. The same legends represent St Martial as having brought to the Soulac coast St Veronica, who is still especially venerated in the church of Notre-Dame de Fin des Terres at Soulac; as having cured Sigebert, the paralytic husband of the pious Benedicta, and made him Bishop of Bordeaux; as addressing beautiful Latin letters to the people of Bordeaux, to which city he is said to have left the pastoral staff which has been treasured as a relic by the Chapter of Saint-Seurin (for this cycle of legends see Limoges).
The first Bishop of Bordeaux known to history, Orientalis, is mentioned at the Council of Arles, in 314. By the close of the fourth century Christianity had made such progress in Bordeaux that a synod was held there (384) for the purpose of adopting measures against the Priscillianists, whose heresy had caused popular disturbances. This was during the episcopate of Delphinus of Bordeaux (380–404), who attended the Councils of Saragossa
Councils of Saragossa
Councils of Saragossa was a series of Christian councils held in Zaragoza, in what is now Spain.In or about 380 a council of Spanish and Aquitanian bishops adopted at Saragossa eight canons bearing more or less directly on the prevalent heresy of Priscillianism...
in 380 and maintained correspondence with St Ambrose and with St Paulinus of Nola.
At the beginning of the 5th century a mysterious personage who, according to St Gregory of Tours, came from the East, appeared at Bordeaux: St Seurin (or Severinus), in whose favour Bishop Amand abdicated the see from 410 to 420, resuming it after Seurin's death and occupying it until 432. In the sixth century Bordeaux had an illustrious bishop in the person of Leontius II (542–564), a man of great influence who used his wealth in building churches and clearing lands and whom the poet Fortunatus calls patriae caput.
During this Merovingian period the cathedral church, founded in the fourth century, occupied the same site that it does today, back to back against the ramparts of the ancient city. The Faubourg Saint-Seurin outside the city was a great centre of popular devotion, with its three large basilicas of St Stephen, St Seurin, and St Martin surrounding a large necropolis from which a certain number of sarcophagi are still preserved. This faubourg was like a holy city; and the cemetery of St Seurin was full of tombs of the Merovingian period around which the popular imagination of later ages was to create legends. In the high noon of the Middle Ages it used to be told how Christ had consecrated this cemetery and that 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...
, having fought the Saracens near Bordeaux, had visited it and laid Roland
Roland
Roland was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. Historically, Roland was military governor of the Breton March, with responsibility for defending the frontier of Francia against the Bretons...
's wonderful horn Olivant on the altar of Saint Seurin.
Dessus l'autel de Saint Seurin le baron, Il met l'oliphant plein d'or et de mangons says the "Chanson de Roland". Many tombs passed for those of Charlemagne's gallant knights, and others were honored as the resting-places of Veronica and Benedicta. At the other extremity of the city, the Benedictines filled in the marshes of L'Eau-Bourde and founded there the monastery of Sainte-Croix. While thus surrounded by evidences of Christian conquest, the academic Bordeaux of the Merovingian period continued to cherish the memory of its former school of eloquence, whose chief glories had been the poet Ausonius
Ausonius
Decimius 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...
(310–395) and St Paulinus (353–431), who had been a rhetorician at Bordeaux and died Bishop of Nola
Bishop of Nola
The Diocese of Nola is a Roman Catholic diocese in Italy, with its seat in the ancient city Nola. The diocese is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Naples....
.
Middle Ages
FrothariusFrotharius, Archbishop of Bordeaux
Frotharius, Frotar, or Frotaire was the Archbishop of Bordeaux and then of Bourges in the ninth century. In 870, Viking raids forced him to abandon Bordeaux.Frotharius was related to the Counts of Toulouse and Rouergue...
was archbishop in 870, when he fled the city in the face of Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
raids.
In the late tenth century, ecclesiastical power was once again concentrated in the hands of the archbishop of Bordeaux when Gombald
Gombald, Archbishop of Bordeaux
Gundobald or Gombald was the Archbishop of Bordeaux from 989 to his death. He was the episcopus Gasconum, bishop of the Gascons, from 978, holding the episcopal dignity in all the Gascon sees. He was the third son of Sancho IV of Gascony and thus a brother of Sancho V and William II, successive...
, brother of William II of Gascony and bishop of all the Gascon
Gascony
Gascony is an area of southwest France that was part of the "Province of Guyenne and Gascony" prior to the French Revolution. The region is vaguely defined and the distinction between Guyenne and Gascony is unclear; sometimes they are considered to overlap, and sometimes Gascony is considered a...
sees became archbishop (989). In 1027 the duke of Gascony
Duke of Gascony
The Duchy of Vasconia , later known as Gascony, was a Merovingian creation: a frontier duchy on the Garonne, in the border with the rebel Basque tribes...
, Sancho VI, and the duke of Aquitaine
Duke of Aquitaine
The Duke of Aquitaine ruled the historical region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of Frankish, English and later French kings....
, William V
William V of Aquitaine
William V , called the Great , was Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou from 990 until his death. He was the son and successor of William IV by his wife Emma of Blois, daughter of Theobald I of Blois. He seems to have taken after his formidable mother, who ruled Aquitaine as regent until 1004...
, joined together to select Geoffrey II
Geoffrey II, Archbishop of Bordeaux
Geoffrey II was a Frankish archbishop of Bordeaux. He was selected by William V of Aquitaine and Sancho VI of Gascony at Blaye in 1027....
, an Aquitanian Frank, as archbishop. This represented a new ecumenical rôle for the archbishop in the region covering both Aquitaine and Gascony. The reigns of William VIII
William VIII of Aquitaine
William VIII , born Guy-Geoffrey , was duke of Gascony , and then duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitiers between 1058 and 1086, succeeding his brother William VII ....
and William IX
William IX of Aquitaine
William IX , called the Troubador, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101...
(1052–1127), were noted for the splendid development of Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
in Bordeaux. Parts of the churches of Sainte-Croix and Saint-Seurin belong to that time, and the Cathedral of Saint-André was begun in 1096.
In the Middle Ages, a struggle between the metropolitan sees of Bordeaux and Bourges
Archdiocese of Bourges
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bourges is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The Archdiocese comprises the departements of Cher and Indre in the Region of Val de Loire....
was brought about by the claims of the latter to the primacy of Aquitaine. This question has been closely investigated by modern scholars, and it has been ascertained that a certain letter from Nicholas I
Pope Nicholas I
Pope Nicholas I, , or Saint Nicholas the Great, reigned from April 24, 858 until his death. He is remembered as a consolidator of papal authority and power, exerting decisive influence upon the historical development of the papacy and its position among the Christian nations of Western Europe.He...
to Rodolfus, which would date the existence of the primacy of Bourges from the ninth century, is not authentic. As the capital of the Roman province Aquitania prima, Bourges at an early date vaguely aspired to pre-eminence over the provinces of Aquitania secunda and Aquitania tertia, and thence over Bordeaux. It was about 1073 that these aspirations were more formally asserted; between 1112 and 1126 the papacy acknowledged them, and in 1146 Pope Eugenius III confirmed the primacy of Pierre de la Chatre, Archbishop of Bourges, over Bordeaux. In 1232, Gregory IX
Pope Gregory IX
Pope Gregory IX, born Ugolino di Conti, was pope from March 19, 1227 to August 22, 1241.The successor of Pope Honorius III , he fully inherited the traditions of Pope Gregory VII and of his uncle Pope Innocent III , and zealously continued their policy of Papal supremacy.-Early life:Ugolino was...
gave the Archbishop of Bourges, as 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...
(sic), the right to visit the province of Aquitaine, imposed upon the Archbishop of Bordeaux the duty of assisting, at least once, at the councils held by his "brother" of Bourges, and decided that appeals might be made from the former to the latter. Occasionally, however, as in 1240 and 1284, the Archbishops of Bourges coming to Bordeaux, found the doors of the churches closed against them, and answered with excommunication the solemn protests which the Bordeaux clergy made against their visits.
Aquitaine was lost to France by the annulment of that marriage between Louis VII
Louis VII of France
Louis VII was King of France, the son and successor of Louis VI . He ruled from 1137 until his death. He was a member of the House of Capet. His reign was dominated by feudal struggles , and saw the beginning of the long rivalry between France and England...
and Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. As well as being Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she was queen consort of France and of England...
which was celebrated in the Cathedral of Bordeaux in the year 1137, and Bordeaux became the capital of the English possessions in France. Thereupon the struggle between the metropolitans of Bordeaux and Bourges assumed a political character, the King of France necessarily upholding the claims of Bourges. Most of the archbishops were conspicuous as agents of English policy in Aquitaine, notable amongst them being Guillaume Amanieu (1207–26), on whom King Henry III of England
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
conferred the title of seneschal
Seneschal
A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...
and guardian of all his lands beyond the sea, and who took part in Spain in the wars against the Saracens, Gérard de Mallemort (1227–60), a generous founder of monasteries, who acted as mediator between St. Louis
Louis IX of France
Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...
and Henry III, and defended Gascony
Gascony
Gascony is an area of southwest France that was part of the "Province of Guyenne and Gascony" prior to the French Revolution. The region is vaguely defined and the distinction between Guyenne and Gascony is unclear; sometimes they are considered to overlap, and sometimes Gascony is considered a...
against the tyranny of Simon de Montfort
Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester
Simon IV de Montfort, Seigneur de Montfort-l'Amaury, 5th Earl of Leicester , also known as Simon de Montfort the elder, was a French nobleman who took part in the Fourth Crusade and was a prominent leader of the Albigensian Crusade...
, Earl of Leicester. During the episcopate of Gerard de Mallemort the old Romanesque church of Saint-André was transformed into a Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
cathedral.
Pope Clement V
Pope Clement V
Pope Clement V, born Raymond Bertrand de Got was Pope from 1305 to his death...
(1305–14) was unfavourable to the claims of Bourges. He was a native of Villandraut
Villandraut
Villandraut is a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
near Bazas
Bazas
Bazas is a commune in the Gironde department in southwestern France.-Geography:Bazas stands on a narrow promontory above the Beuve valley 60 km/37 mi southeast of Bordeaux and 40 km/25 mi southwest of Marmande.-History:...
, where he had built a beautiful collegiate church, was Archbishop of Bordeaux from 1300 to 1305, and political adviser to king Philip the Fair
Philip IV of France
Philip the Fair was, as Philip IV, King of France from 1285 until his death. He was the husband of Joan I of Navarre, by virtue of which he was, as Philip I, King of Navarre and Count of Champagne from 1284 to 1305.-Youth:A member of the House of Capet, Philip was born at the Palace of...
. When he became pope, in spite of his French sympathies, his heart was set upon the formal emancipation of Bordeaux from Bourges. By the late fourteenth century, the archbishops, like Francesco Uguccione
Francesco Uguccione
Francesco Uguccione was the Archbishop of Bordeaux from 1384 until his death. He was a lawyer from Urbino and a staunch supporter of the King of England in the Hundred Years' War....
, were supporters of the English.
Blessed Pierre Berland
Pey Berland
Blessed Pey Berland was the Archbishop of Bordeaux from 1430 until his abdication, during a pivotal time in the history of the city and of Gascony...
, or Peyberland as tradition calls him (1430–57), was an Archbishop of Bordeaux, illustrious for his intelligence and holiness, founder of the University of Bordeaux
University of Bordeaux
University of Bordeaux is an association of higher education institutions in and around Bordeaux, France. Its current incarnation was established 21 March 2007. The group is the largest system of higher education schools in southwestern France. It is part of the Academy of Bordeaux.There are seven...
and of the College of St Raphael for poor students, who, after helping the English to defend Bordeaux against the troops of Charles VII of France
Charles VII of France
Charles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was King of France from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled much of France including the capital, Paris...
, received Dunois into his episcopal city and surrendered it to France. It was during his episcopate that the beautiful campanile known as the Pey Berland Tower was added to the cathedral.
The rich and powerful chapter
Chapter (religion)
Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....
s of Saint-André and Saint-Seurin subsisted in the Middle Ages as a vestige of that duality which was already noticeable in Merovingian Bordeaux. Between the two there were frequent and very animated conflicts. The artistic feeling of the canons in the thirteenth century is attested by the Gothic portal of Saint-Seurin which is still extant. At the end of the fourteenth century Canon Vital de Carle established the great Hospital of Saint-André, which he placed under the protection of the municipality; and it was through the exertions of the chapter of Saint-André that the first city library of Bordeaux was founded towards the year 1402.
During the Middle Ages Bordeaux was a great monastic city, with its Carmelite, Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
, and Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
convents, founded respectively in 1217, 1227, and 1230. In 1214 an important council was held in Bordeaux against usurers, highwaymen, and heretics. When, after 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...
, Bordeaux again became French, Louis XI flattered its citizens by joining the confraternity of Notre-Dame de Montuzet, a religious association formed of all the mariners of the Gironde by heaping favours on the church of Saint-Michel, the tower of which, built in the period between 1473 and 1492, was higher than the Pey Berland, and by furthering the canonization of its former archbishop, Pierre Berland.
List of Archbishops of Bordeaux
- Gombald (989 – after 998)
- Geoffrey II (1027–1043)
- William the Templar (1173–1187), previously Abbot of ReadingReading AbbeyReading Abbey is a large, ruined abbey in the centre of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. It was founded by Henry I in 1121 "for the salvation of my soul, and the souls of King William, my father, and of King William, my brother, and Queen Maud, my wife, and all my ancestors...
- Raymond Bertrand de GotPope Clement VPope Clement V, born Raymond Bertrand de Got was Pope from 1305 to his death...
(1297–1305), future Pope Clement V - Guillaume ArrufatGuillaume ArrufatGuillaume Arrufat , also known as Guillaume D'Arrufat, Guillaume Ruffat des Forges, Guillelmus Rufati, Guglielmo Rufati, etc., was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church....
(1305–1311) - Francesco UguccioneFrancesco UguccioneFrancesco Uguccione was the Archbishop of Bordeaux from 1384 until his death. He was a lawyer from Urbino and a staunch supporter of the King of England in the Hundred Years' War....
(1384–1412) - Pey BerlandPey BerlandBlessed Pey Berland was the Archbishop of Bordeaux from 1430 until his abdication, during a pivotal time in the history of the city and of Gascony...
(1430–1456) - François d'Escoubleau de Sourdis (5 July 1599 – 18 Jun 1628)
- Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis (1629 – 18 Jun 1645)
- Henri de Béthune (1646 – 11 May 1680)
- Louis d'Anglure de Bourlemont (6 Sep 1680 – 9 Nov 1697)
- Ferdinand de Rohan-Guémené (26 Dec 1769 – 28 Jan 1781)
- Jérôme-Marie Champion de Cice (28 Jan 1781 – 8 Oct 1801 )
- Charles-François d'Aviau Du Bois de Sanzay (9 Apr 1802 – 11 Jul 1826 )
- Jean-Louis Lefebvre de CheverusJean-Louis Lefebvre de CheverusJean-Louis Anne Madelain Lefebvre de Cheverus , French ecclesiastic, was the first Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boston, Massachusetts.-Early life:...
(30 Jul 1826 – 19 Jul 1836 ) - François Donnet (30 Nov 1836 – 23 Dec 1882 )
- Aimé Guilbert (5 Jun 1883 – 15 Aug 1889 )
- Victor-Lucien-Sulpice LécotVictor-Lucien-Sulpice LécotVictor-Lucien-Sulpice Lécot was a French archbishop and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.He was born in Montescourt-Lizerolles, and studied at the Minor Seminary of Compiègne and Major Seminary of Beauvais. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 24, 1855, and then taught at the Minor...
(3 Jun 1890 – 19 Dec 1908 ) - Pierre AndrieuPierre AndrieuPierre-Paulin Andrieu was a French Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and archbishop of Bordeaux et Bazes....
(2 Jan 1909 – 14 Feb 1935) - Maurice FeltinMaurice FeltinMaurice Feltin was a French Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Paris from 1949 to 1966, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII.-Biography:...
16 Dec 1935 – 15 Aug 1949) - Paul Marie André RichaudPaul Marie André RichaudPaul-Marie-André Richaud was a French Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Bordeaux from 1950 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1958.-Biography:...
(10 Feb 1950 – 5 Feb 1968) - Marius MaziersMarius MaziersMarius-Félix-Antoine Maziers was French prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.Maziers was born in Siran, France and was ordained a priest on October 9, 1938 in the Roman Catholic faith...
(5 Feb 1968 – 31 May 1989) - Pierre EytPierre EytPierre Étienne Louis Eyt S.T.D. was a French Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Metropolitan Archbishop of Bordeaux and Bazes.-Early life and ordination:...
(31 May 1989 – 11 Jun 2001 ) - Jean-Pierre Ricard (21 Dec 2001 – )