In the
Notitia Galliarum of the 5th century, the Roman
Provincia Gallia Lugdunensis Prima contained the cities of Metropolis civitas Lugdunensium (Lyon), Civitas Aeduorum (Autun), Civitas Lingonum (Langres), Castrum Cabilonense (Chaâlons-sur-Saône) and Castrum Matisconense (Mâcon). The confluence of the Rhône and the Saône, where sixty Gallic tribes had erected the altar to Rome and
Augustus, was also the centre from which Christianity was propagated throughout Gaul.
Persecution The presence at Lyon of numerous Asiatic Christians and their communications with the
Orient were likely to arouse the susceptibilities of the Gallo-Romans. A persecution arose under
Marcus Aurelius. Its victims at Lyon numbered forty-eight, half of them of
Greek origin, half Gallo-Roman, among others
Saint Blandina, and Saint Pothinus, first Bishop of Lyon, sent to Gaul by
Saint Polycarp about the middle of the 2nd century. The legend according to which Pothinus was sent by
Pope Clement I dates from the 12th century and is without foundation. The "Deacon of Vienne", mentioned in the letter of the faithful of Vienne and Lyon to the Christians of Asia and Phrygia, who was martyred at
Lyon during the persecution of 177, was probably a deacon installed at
Vienne by the ecclesiastical authority of Lyon. Tradition represents the
church of Ainay as erected at the place of their martyrdom. The crypt of Saint Pothinus, under the choir of the church of St. Nizier, was destroyed in 1884. But there still exists at Lyon the purported prison cell of Pothinus, where
Anne of Austria,
Louis XIV, and
Pius VII came to pray, and the crypt of Saint Irenaeus built at the end of the 5th century by Archbishop Patiens, which contains his remains. Irenaeus sent out missionaries through the Gauls, as local legends of Besançon and of several other cities indicate. There are numerous funerary inscriptions of primitive Christianity in Lyon; the earliest dates from the year 334. Faustinus, bishop in the second half of the 3rd century, wrote to
Cyprian of Carthage, who speaks of him in a letter to
Pope Stephen I, in 254, regarding the
Novatian tendencies of Marcian,
Bishop of Arles. But when
Diocletian's new provincial organization (
the Tetrarchy) had taken away from Lyon its position as metropolis of the three Gauls, the prestige of Lyon diminished.
Merovingian period From
Saint Eucherius (–50), a monk of
Lérins and the author of homilies, doubtless dates the foundation at Lyon of the "hermitages". Bishop Patiens (456-98) successfully combated famine and Arianism, and whom
Sidonius Apollinaris praised in a poem; Bishop Stephanus (d. before 515), with Bishop
Avitus of Vienne convoked a council at Lyon for the conversion of the Arians. Bishop
Viventolius (515-523) in 517 presided with Bishop Avitus at the Council of Epaone. When Burgundian power collapsed under the repeated assaults of the Franks in 534, its territory was divided up, and the third son of Clovis, the Merovingian
Childebert I, received Lyon.
Sacerdos (549-542) presided in 549 at the Council of Orléans, and obtained from King Childebert the foundation of the general hospital;
Saint Nicetius (552-73) received from the pope the title of patriarch, and whose tomb was honoured by miracles. The prestige of Saint Nicetius was lasting; his successor Saint Priseus (573-588) bore the title of
patriarch, and brought the council of 585 to decide that national synods should be convened every three years at the instance of the patriarch and of the king; Ætherius (588-603), who was a correspondent of
Pope Gregory I, and who perhaps consecrated
Saint Augustine, the Apostle of England;
Saint Annemundus or Chamond (c. 650), friend of
Saint Wilfrid, godfather of
Clotaire III, put to death by
Ebroin together with his brother, and patron of the town of
Saint-Chamond, Loire;
Saint Genesius or Genes (660-679 or 680), Benedictine abbot of
Fontenelle,
grand almoner and minister of Queen
Bathilde; Saint Lambertus (c. 680-690), also abbot of Fontenelle. shows the care taken by the emperor for the restoration of learning in Lyon. With the aid of the deacon
Florus he made the school so prosperous that in the 10th century Englishmen went there to study. His rooted hatred for all
superstition led him in his treatise on images into certain expressions which savoured of Iconoclasm. The five historical treatises which he wrote in 833 to justify the deposition of
Louis the Pious, who had been his benefactor, are a stain on his reputation. Louis the Pious, having been restored to power, caused Agobard to be deposed in 835 by the
Council of Thionville, but three years later gave him back his see, in which he died in 840. During the exile of Agobard the See of Lyon had been for a short time administered by
Amalarius of Metz, whom the deacon
Florus of Lyon, the master of the cathedral school, charged with heretical opinions regarding the "triforme corpus Christi." Florus also took part in the controversies with
Gottschalk on the subject of predestination. It has been contended that there was a university (
studium generale) at Lyons by the 13th century, but this has been strongly denied. Amolon (841-852) and Remy (852-75) continued the struggle against the heresy of predestination. At the Council of Valence in January 855, presided over by Archbishop Remy, this heresy was condemned. Remy also was engaged in strife with Archbishop
Hincmar of Reims.
Political realignments From 879-1032 Lyon formed part of the
Kingdom of Provence and afterwards of the
second Kingdom of Burgundy. In the next year, however, the monks of Cluny obtained a privilege from
Pope John XIX, which allowed their action.
Pope Victor II (Gebhard) was appointed at Mainz in September 1054 by the
Emperor Henry III, who had met there with representatives from Rome, including the Subdeacon Hildebrand, following the death of
Pope Leo IX. Victor was known to be a promoter of church reform. He immediately appointed two papal vicars for France, Archbishop Raimbaud of Arles and Archbishop Pontius of Aix.
The subdeacon Hildebrand, was sent to Lyon, where he held a council there in 1055, to deal with simoniacal bishops. In 1076, as Gregory VII, he deposed Archbishop Humbert (1063–76) for
simony. confirmed. The primacy of the Church of Lyon over the Provinces of Rouen, Tours, and Sens. In 1112, Archbishop Jauceran (1107–1118), having decided to hold a council at Anse, sent out summonses to attend to all the bishops of the ecclesiastical provinces of Sens, Rouen, and Tours, including the archbishop of Sens and all his suffragan bishops, including
Ivo of Chartres. Archbishop Daimbertus of Sens immediately held a provincial synod, and the bishops collectively sent a tart and lengthy synodal letter to Archbishop Jauceran, protesting the tone and content of his letter of summons, and his application of the relevant documents. They were happy, they said, to accept his
invitation, but not on the terms stated. It was unheard of that a bishop be summoned outside of his own province, except under papal orders. Archbishop Jauceran replied in a letter directed to Archbishop Daimbertus, relying on contentious rhetoric and fallacious reasoning. He also procured from
Pope Paschal II a bull, "Caritatis bonum est," dated 14 March 1116, confirming the privileges of the archbishops of Lyon, including the primacy over the ecclesiastical provinces of Rouen, Tours and Sens. The dignity was confirmed by
Callistus II, despite the letter written to him in 1126 by
Louis VI in favour of the church of
Sens. As far as it regarded the Province of
Rouen this letter was later suppressed by a decree of the king's council in 1702, at the request of
Jacques-Nicolas Colbert,
Archbishop of Rouen.
Metropolitan The archbishop of Lyon is the metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province which includes: •
Annecy •
Belley-Ars •
Archdiocese of Chambéry •
Grenoble-Vienne •
Saint-Étienne •
Valence (-Die-
Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux) •
Viviers Cathedral and Chapter The cathedral of the diocese of Lyon was originally dedicated to S. Stephen, but the dedication to S. John the Baptist was added later. The cathedral was administered by a corporation called the Chapter, which consisted of eight dignities and thirty-two canon-counts. The dignities were: the Dean, the Archdeacon, the Precentor, the Cantor, the Chamberlain, tÉhe Aedituus, the Provost, and the Chorus master. Each candidate for a canonry had to demonstrate nobility on both sides of his family for at least four generations.
Hugh of Die (1081–1106), the successor of Saint Gebuin, friend of
Saint Anselm, and for a while legate of Gregory VII in France and Burgundy, had differences later on with
Victor III, who excommunicated him for a time.
Pope Paschal II came to Lyon, and on 29 January 1107 (1106, Roman Style), consecrated the church of
Ainay Abbey, and dedicated one of its altars in honour of the Immaculate Conception. The Feast of the
Immaculate Conception was solemnized at Lyon about 1128, perhaps at the instance of Saint
Anselm of Canterbury, and Saint Bernard wrote to the canons of Lyon to complain that they should not have instituted a feast without consulting the pope. and the
Waldenses, the Poor Men of Lyon, who were opposed by Archbishop
John of Canterbury (Jean des Belles-Mains) (1181–1193). In 1157 Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa confirmed the sovereignty of the Archbishops over the city of Lyon, and the regalian rights over the extent of diocesan territory on the left bank of the Saône; they were also granted general jurisdiction over imperial territories, whether inside the diocese of Lyon or outside it; the archbishop was also named exarch of the royal palace in Burgundy and first dignitary in the imperial council. Thenceforth there was a lively contest between them and the counts. An arbitration effected by the pope in 1167 had no result, but by the treaty of 1173, Guy,
Count of Forez, ceded to the canons of the primatial church of St. John his title of count of Lyon and his temporal authority.
Counter-reformation Jean Charlier de Gerson, the former Chancellor of the University of Paris and leading theologian of the
Council of Constance, whose old age was spent at Lyon in the abbey of St. Paul, where he instructed poor children, died there in 1429. M. Guigue has catalogued the eleven "
hermitages" (eight of them for men and three for women) which were distinctive of the ascetical life of Christian Lyon in the Middle Ages; these were cells in which persons shut themselves up for life after four years of trial. The system of hermitages along the lines described by
Grimalaius and
Olbredus in the 9th century flourished especially from the 11th to the 13th century, and disappeared completely in the 16th. These hermitages were the private property of a neighbouring church or monastery, which installed therein for life a male or female recluse. The general almshouse of Lyon, or charity hospital, was founded in 1532 after the great famine of 1531; it was under the supervision of eight administrators chosen from among the more important citizens. In 1560 the Calvinists took Lyon by surprise, but they were driven out by
Antoine d'Albon,
Abbot of Savigny and later
Archbishop of Lyon. The Protestants again took Lyon in 1562; they were driven out by the
Maréchal de Vieuville. At the command of
Baron des Adrets they committed numerous acts of violence in the region of Montbrison. It was at Lyon that
Henry IV of France, the converted Calvinist king, married
Marie de' Medici (9 December 1600). The efforts of
Pope Pius IX and
Cardinal Bonald to suppress the innovations of Montazet provoked resistance on the part of the canons, who feared an attempt against the traditional Lyonnese ceremonies. This culminated in 1861 in a protest on the part of the clergy and the laity, as much with regard to the civil power as to the Vatican. Finally, on 4 February 1864, at a reception of the parish priests of Lyon, Pius IX declared his displeasure at this agitation and assured them that nothing should be changed in the ancient Lyonnese ceremonies; by a Brief of 17 March 1864, he ordered the progressive introduction of the Roman breviary and missal in the diocese. The primatial church of Lyon adopted them for public services on 8 December 1869. One of the rites of the ancient Gallican liturgy, retained by the Church of Lyon, is the blessing of the people by the bishop at the moment of Communion. A metropolitanate called "Metropole du Sud-est" was established, which consisted of nine departments. Lyon was named the departmental capital of Rhône et Loire. The National Constituent Assembly then, on 6 February 1790, instructed its ecclesiastical committee to prepare a plan for the reorganization of the clergy. At the end of May, its work was presented as a draft
Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which, after vigorous debate, was approved on 12 July 1790. There was to be one diocese in each department, requiring the suppression of approximately fifty dioceses, especially along the Rhône River. Both the establishment and the suppression of dioceses was a canonical matter, and was reserved to the pope, not to the National Constituent Assembly.
19th century changes The
Concordat of 1801, agreed between
Pope Pius VII and First Consul
Napoleon Bonaparte, assigned as the boundaries of the Archdiocese of Lyon the Departments of the
Rhône and
Loire and the
Ain, and as
suffragans the Dioceses of Mende, Grenoble, and Chambéry. The Archdiocese of Lyon was authorized by Letters Apostolic of 29 November 1801, to unite with its title the titles of the suppressed metropolitan
Sees of Vienne and
Embrun. The name of the archdiocese's was simplified to "Lyon" on December 15, 2006. The title of Vienne was assigned instead to Lyon's suffragan, the diocese of Grenoble. ==Saints==