Roman period Lleida was the
Roman Ilerda, or
Herda. During the
Punic Wars it sided with the
Carthaginians; near it Hanno was defeated by
Scipio in 216 BC, and
Julius Cæsar defeated
Pompey's forces in 49 BC. La Canal says that the diocese was erected in 600, but others maintain it goes back to the third century, and there is mention of a St. Lycerius, or Glycerius, as Bishop of Lleida in AD 269. ===
Visigoth and Muslim period (until 1149)=== In 546AD (dated to 524AD in some sources), a Council to regulate ecclesiastical discipline was called in Lerida. The Council prohibited clerics from taking up arms and shedding blood, and addressed issues of abortion, infanticide, incest, and clerical discipline. The Council also addressed a practice that had developed in the Iberian Peninsula, whereby on the death of a bishop, lower ranking clerics (and on occasions the bishops relatives) would ransack and loot the deceased bishops home. The council confirmed that the deceased bishops
executors should occupy the bishops residence with guards and defend the premises. Three years later a synod at Valencia changed the protector to the nearest neighboring bishop. Clerics who were caught looting would also be excommunicated. The regulations of the Council were adopted by the General
Canon Law of the
Roman Catholic Church for implementation in all dioceses. The signatures of other bishops of Lleida are attached to various councils up to the year 716, when the
Moors took possession of the town, and the see was removed to
Roda. An unbroken list of bishops of Lleida goes back to the year 887. In 1101 King
Pedro I of
Aragon took the city of
Barbastro from the Moors and transferred the
see from Roda to
Barbastro. The first bishop, Poncio, went to
Rome to obtain the pope's permission for this transfer.
Diocese of Lleida (from 1149) The city of
Lleida was conquered from the
Moors by the Count
Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona in 1149, and the
episcopal see was again transferred to its original seat. A council in 1173 was presided over by Cardinal Giacinto Bobone, who afterwards became
Pope Celestine III. A council in 1246 absolved king
James I of Aragon from the sacrilege of cutting out the tongue of the Bishop of
Girona. The
seminary was founded in 1722. During the
Peninsular War the French held it (1810), and in 1823 Spain once more obtained possession of it. Owing to its natural position its strategic value has always been very great, and it was strongly fortified in 1910. The cathedral chapter prior to the
Concordat of 1851 consisted of 6 dignities, 24 canons, 22 benefices, but after the concordat the number was reduced to 16 canons and 12 beneficed clerics. In 1910 the Catholic population of the diocese was 185,000, scattered over 395 parishes and ministered to by 598 priests. Besides 395 churches for public worship, there were in the diocese five religious communities of men, six of women, and several hospitals in charge of nuns. The seminary accommodated 500 students.
1995–1998 Segregation of the Western Parishes In 1995, following the
Ilerdensis et Barbastrensis de finum mutatione decree, 84 culturally Catalan
La Franja parishes that had traditionally belonged to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lleida for over eight centuries, were segregated and transferred to the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Barbastro-Monzón. These were followed by a further 27 parishes in June 1998. The amputated parishes were in the
Llitera and
Baix Cinca Catalan-speaking
Aragonese areas. After the parish segregation a controversy began regarding the return of ancient works of art belonging to the segregated parishes and which were stored at the Lleida Diocesan Museum. The decree and the ensuing controversies were perceived as
anti-Catalan measures by many in Lleida and in the concerned parishes, as they were not previously consulted, and part of a strategy to
assimilate the
La Franja people into the Spanish-speaking mainstream congregation by cutting them off from their cultural roots. ==Bishops of Lleida (6th to 9th centuries)==