Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Poitiers

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Poitiers (Lat: Archidioecesis Pictaviensis) is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The archepiscopal see is in the city of Poitiers. The Diocese of Poitiers includes the two Departments of Vienne and Deux-Sèvres. The Concordat of 1802 added to the see besides the ancient Diocese of Poitiers a part of the Diocese of La Rochelle and Saintes.

Erected in the third century, as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Bordeaux, the diocese was elevated to an archdiocese in 2002. The archdiocese is the metropolitan of the Diocese of Angoulême, the Diocese of La Rochelle, the Diocese of Limoges, and the Diocese of Tulle.

Vatican Information Service (VIS) reported that Archbishop Albert Jean-Marie Rouet, who was appointed in 1994, resigned on Saturday, February 12, 2011, having reached the age of 75, at which all bishops must offer to submit their resignations to the Pope for possible acceptance. The Archdiocese of Poitiers is now a vacant see (sede vacante).

History

Louis Duchesne holds that its earliest episcopal catalogue represents the ecclesiastical tradition of Poitiers in the twelfth century. The catalogue reckons twelve predecessors of Hilary of Poitiers, among them Nectarius, Liberius, and Agon, and among his successors Sts. Quintianus and Maxentius. Duchesne does not doubt the existence of these saints but questions whether they were bishops of Poitiers. According to him, Hilary (350-67 or 8) is the first bishop of whom we have historical evidence.

Among his successors were St. Pientius (c. 544-60); St. Fortunatus (c. 599); St. Peter (1087-1115), exiled by William IX, Count of Poitiers, whose divorce he refused to sanction; Gilbert de la Porrée (1142-54); William Tempier (1184-97), who, as Barbier de Montault has shown, was irregularly venerated as a saint in certain parts of the diocese since he died subsequent to the declaration of Pope Alexander III which reserved canonizations to the Holy See; Blessed Gauthier de Bruges (1278-1306); Arnauld d'Aux (1306-12), made cardinal in 1312; Guy de Malsec (1371-5), who became cardinal in 1375; Simon de Cramaud (1385-91), indefatigable opponent of the antipope Benedict XIII, and who again administered the diocese (1413-23) and became cardinal in 1413; Louis de Bar (1394-5), cardinal in 1397; Jean de la Trémouille (1505-7), cardinal in 1507; Gabriel de Gramont (1532-4), cardinal in 1507; Claude de Longwy de Givry (1538-52), became cardinal in 1533; Antonio Barberini (1652-7), cardinal in 1627; Abbé de Pradt (1805-9), afterwards Archbishop of Mechlin, Louis Pie (1849-80), cardinal in 1879.

St. Emmeram was a native of Poitiers, but according to the Bollandists and Duchesne the documents which make him Bishop of Poitiers (c. 650) are not trustworthy; on the other hand Bernard Sepp (Analec. Boll., VIII) and Dom Chamard claim that he did hold the see, and succeeded Didon, bishop about 666 or 668 according to Dom Chamard.

As early as 312 the Bishop of Poitiers established a school near his cathedral; among its scholars were Hilary, St. Maxentius, Maximus, Bishop of Trier, and his two brothers St. Maximinus of Chinon and St. John of Marne, Paulinus, Bishop of Trier, and the poet Ausonius. In the sixth century Fortunatus taught there, and in the twelfth century intellectual Europe flocked to Poitiers to sit at the feet of Gilbert de la Porrée.

Charles VII of France erected a university at Poitiers, in opposition to Paris, where the majority of the faculty had hailed Henry VI of England, and by Bull of 28 May 1431, Pope Eugene IV approved the new university. In the reign of Louis XII there were in Poitiers no less than four thousand students — French, Italians, Flemings, Scots, and Germans. There were ten colleges attached to the university. In 1540, at the Collège Ste. Marthe, the famous Marc Antoine Muret, whom Gregory XIII called in later years the torch and the pillar of the Roman School, had a chair. The famous Jesuit Maldonatus and five of his confrères went in 1570 to Poitiers to establish a Jesuit college at the request of some of the inhabitants. After two unsuccessful attempts, they were given the Collège Ste. Marthe in 1605. François Garasse, well known for his violent polemics and who died of the plague at Poitiers in 1637, was professor there (1607-8), and had as a pupil Guez de Balzac. Among other students at Poitiers were Achille de Harlay, President de Thou, the poet Joachim du Bellay, the chronicler Brantome Descartes, François Viète the mathematician, and Francis Bacon. In the seventeenth century the Jesuits sought affiliation with the university and in spite of the opposition of the faculties of theology and arts their request was granted. Jesuit ascendancy grew; they united to Ste. Marthe the Collège du Puygareau. Friction between them and the university was continuous, and in 1762 the general laws against them throughout France led to the Society leaving Poitiers. Moreover, from 1674 the Jesuits had conducted at Poitiers a college for clerical students from Ireland.

In 1806 the State reopened the school of law at Poitiers and later the faculties of literature and science. These faculties were raised to the rank of a university in 1896. From 1872 to 1875 Cardinal Pie was engaged in re-establishing the faculty of theology. As a provisional effort he called to teach in his Grand Séminaire three professors from the Collegio Romano, among them Père Schrader, the commentator of the Syllabus, who died at Poitiers in 1875.

Bishops

To 1000

• Agon
• Hilarius 349–367
• Pascentius
• Quintianus
• Gelais
• Antheme
• Maixent
• Adelphius 533
• Daniel 541
• Pient 555 or 557–561
• Pescentius 561
• Marovée (Maroveus) 573–594
• Platon 594
• Venantius Fortunatus 599–610
• Caregisile 614
• Ernnoald 614–616
• Johann I. 616–627
• Dido (Desiderius) 629–669
• Ansoald
• Eparchius
• Maximin
• Gaubert
• Godon de Rochechouart c.757
• Magnibert
• Bertauld
• Benoit
• Johann II.
• Bertrand I.
• Sigebrand c.818
• Friedebert
• Ebroin c.839
• Engenold c.860
• Frotier I.
• Hecfroi
• Frotier II. c.900
• Alboin c.937
• Peter I. c.963
• Giselbert c.975

1000 to 1300

• Isembert I. c.1021
• Isembert II. c.1047
• Peter II. c.1087
• Wilhelm I. Gilbert 1117
• Wilhelm II. Adelelme 1124
• Grimoard 1140
• Gilbert de La Porrée 1142
• Calo 1155
• Laurent 1159
• Jean aux Belles Mains 1162
• William Tempier 1184
• Ademar du Peirat 1197
• Maurice de Blaron 1198
• Guillaume Prévost 1217
• Philipp Balleos 1224
• John de Melun 1235
• Hugo de Châteauroux1259
• Gauthier de Bruges 1279

1300 to 1500

• Arnaud d'Aux (card.) 1306
• Fort d'Aux en 1314
• Johann V. de Lieux 1357
• Aimery de Mons 1363
• Guy de Malsec (Gui de Maillesec) 1371
• Bertrand de Maumont 1376
• Simon of Cramaud 1385
• Louis of Bar 1391 (Administrator 1392)
• Ythier de Mareuil 1395
• Gérard de Montaigu 1405
• Peter III. Trousseau 1409
• Louis of Bar 1423-1424 (Administrator)
• Hugo de Combarel 1424
• Wilhelm V. Gouge de Charpaignes 1441
• Jacques Juvénal des Ursins 1449
• Léon Guérinet 1457
• Johann VI du Bellay 1462
• Wilhelm VI. de Cluny 1479
• Peter IV. d'Amboise 1481

1500 to 1800

• Jean de La Trémoïlle 1505
• Claude de Husson 1510
• Louis de Husson 1521
• Gabriel de Grammont 1532
• Claude de Longwy de Givry 1541
• Jean d'Amoncourt 1551
• Charles de Pérusse des Cars 1560
• Jean du Fay 1571
• Geoffroy de Saint-Belin 1577
• Henri-Louis Chasteigner de La Roche-Posay 1612
• Gilbert Clérembault de Palluau 1657
• 1680–1685: Hardouin Fortin de La Hoguette
• 1686–1698: François-Ignace de Baglion de Saillant
• 1698–1702: Antoine Girard de Borna
• 1702–1732: Jean-Claude de La Poype de Vertrieu
• 1732–1749: Jean-Louis de Foudras de Courtenay
• 1749–1759: Jean-Louis de La Marthonie de Caussade
• 1759–1802: Martial-Louis de Beaupoil de Saint-Aulaire

From 1800

• 1802–1804: Jean-Baptiste-Luc Bailly
• 1804–1808: Dominique-Georges-Frédéric Dufour de Pradt
• 1817–1842: Jean-Baptiste de Bouillé
• 1842–1849: Joseph-Aimé Guitton
• 1849–1880: Louis-François-Désiré-Edouard Pie
• 1880–1888: Jacques-Edmé-Henri Philadelphe Bellot des Minières
• 1889–1893: Augustin-Hubert Juteau
• 1894–1911: Henri Pelgé
• 1911–1918: Louis Humbrecht
• 1918–1932: Olivier de Durfort de Civrac
• 1933–1956: Edouard Mesguen
• 1956–1975: Henri Vion
• 1975–1994: Joseph Rozier
• 1994–today: Albert Rouet (first Archbishop)

References

Coordinates: 46°34′50″N 0°20′47″E / 46.58056°N 0.34639°E / 46.58056; 0.34639