The
Life of St. Samson, which cannot be of earlier date than the seventh century, mentions the foundation of the
monastery of Dol by
Samson of Dol. Georges Goyau speculates that Samson was most likely already a bishop when he arrived in
Armorica from Great Britain, but finds no evidence in the
Life that Samson founded the See of Dol or became its first bishop. In the twelfth century, to support its claim against the
Metropolitan of Tours, the Church of Dol produced the names of a long list of archbishops: St. Samson,
St. Magloire,
St. Budoc,
St. Génevée,
St. Restoald,
St. Armel,
St. Jumael,
St. Turian.
Louis Duchesne discounted and doubted this list. He was of the opinion that the abbey of Dol may have had at its head from time to time abbots with episcopal jurisdiction, but that Dol was not the seat of a diocese. When still Abbot of Borgueil, Baldric was accused of
simony by Bishop
Ivo of Chartres, for having attempted to bribe his way into the bishopric of Orleans in 1096. He held a diocesan synod in 1128, attended by a
papal legate, Gerard Bishop of Angoulême. •
Alain de Coëtivy (1456–74) had been Bishop of Avignon since 30 October 1437, and a cardinal since 20 December 1448. He was named bishop of Dol on 18 June 1456 by
Pope Calixtus III Since he would not personally take up episcopal functions in Dol, he had Bishop Ambroise de Cameraco of Alet appointed his coadjutor. He was sent as legate of Pope Callistus to France, to persuade King
Charles VII of France to participate in a crusade to assist the Greeks against the Turks who had seized Constantinople. Their only real fault was perhaps that they demanded eulogia from their priests when the latter came to synods. After listening to a deputation of Breton bishops and to St. Conwoïon, founder of the
Abbey of St-Sauveur at
Redon, who had been sent to Rome by Nomenoë, Leo IV declared that the charge of simony must be adjudicated by a competent tribunal of twelve bishops, and must be attested by seventy-two witnesses, thereby disputing Nomenoë's claim to a right to depose bishops. But Nomenoë did depose, and in a brutal manner, the four bishops of Vannes, Aleth, Quimper, and St. Pol de Léon, and made seven dioceses out of their four. One of the new dioceses had its seat in the abbey of Dol and became straightway an
archdiocese. The other two dioceses were established in the monasteries of St. Brieuc and Tréguier (
Pabu-Tutual). He paid no heed to them, and died 7 March 851.
Salomon, Nomenoë's second successor, requested
Pope Benedict IV to regularize the situation of the Breton hierarchy, but was unsuccessful. He tried again in 865 with
Pope Nicholas I, who replied on 26 May 865 that he would not send the
pallium to Bishop Festinianus of Dol, unless he could prove that it had been granted to his predecessors. In the name of the
Council of Savonnières (859) the seven metropolitans of the three kingdoms of
Charles the Bald, of
Lothair II, and of
Charles of Provence, wrote to the
Bishop of Rennes and to the bishops occupying the new Sees of Dol, St. Brieuc, and Tréguier, reproaching them with lack of obedience to the Metropolitan of Tours. This letter was not sent to the Bishops of Vannes, Quimper, Aleth, and St. Pol de Léon who wrongly occupied the sees of the legitimate bishops illegally deposed by Nomenoë. It achieved nothing. Pope Lucius was generous to Bishop Gaufridus, the current bishop of Dol, however, ruling that he could keep the
pallium, but that none of his successors should have it. On the same day, Lucius II issued an order to the bishops of Saint-Brieuc and Tréguier, releasing them from any obedience to the bishop of Dol, and ordering their obedience to the metropolitan of Tours. On 3 March 1154,
Pope Anastasius IV made the same ruling in favor of the metropolitan of Tours. Finally in a bull of 1 June 1199,
Pope Innocent III restored the old order of things, and subordinated anew all the dioceses of Brittany to the metropolitan of Tours; he did not, however, interfere with the diocesan boundaries set up by Nomenoë, which remained in force until the Revolution. The Bishop of Dol retained until 1789 the title and insignia of an archbishop, but without an archbishop's privileges or an ecclesiastical province. The agreement was put to the test at Dol in 1522, following the deaths of Pope Leo X on 1 December 1521, and of Archbishop Geoffrey de Coetmoisan on 10 (or 24) December 1521. The new pope,
Adrian VI, was in Spain, acting as Regent for the Emperor Charles V and Grand Inquisitor, when he was elected on 9 January 1522. He did not arrive in Rome until August, where he was confronted by a raging pestilence, which kept papal business to a minimum until Spring 1523. In the consistory of 29 June 1523, he appointed Thomas le Roy to the vacant see of Dol. Thomas was a native of Messe (diocese of Rennes), and held the degree of
Doctor in utroque iure; he was named archdeacon of Ploughastel (diocese of Treguier) and master of requests in the council of Brittany. He was sent by Queen
Anne of France to Rome on royal business, where
Pope Julius II and Pope Leo X made him a cleric of the Apostolic Chamber (Treasury), secretary of briefs, and president of apostolic letters. He was papal procurator at the
Fifth Lateran Council (1512–1517). In May 1522, he received a patent of nobility from King Francis, but when the king heard about his appointment to Dol without having received the royal nomination, he refused to accept the appointment and archbishop-elect Thomas never entered the diocese. He was still in Rome on 27 July 1524, when
Pope Clement VII wrote to the king, saying that he could not confirm the royal nomination of François de Laval, since Adrian VI had appointed Thomas Regis (le Roy). Thomas died shortly thereafter, never having been consecrated a bishop. In the consistory of 26 August 1524, Pope Clement VII appointed Joannes Staphileo as archbishop of Dol, but Joannes did not receive possession of the diocese, and his bulls were not sent. He died on 22 July 1528. On 23 November 1524,
sede vacante, the canons of the cathedral of Dol appointed a procurator to the Estates of Brittany. Following the death of Stephileo, in the consistory of 6 November 1528, Pope Clement appointed King Francis' nominee, François de Laval, to the post of archbishop of Dol, despite his youth and illegitimacy. He was consecrated a bishop on 10 December 1530.
Seminary The diocesan major seminary was established by Archbishop Jean-François de Chamillart (1692–1702) in 1701. It was abolished by the National Constituent Assembly in 1790, and its property seized and sold "for the benefit of the people." The buildings survived, however, and became a hospital, staffed after the restoration, by the Dames de Saint-Thomas-de-Villeneuve.
French Revolution Formed from the
National Assembly on 9 July 1789 during the first stages of the
French Revolution, the
National Constituent Assembly ordered the replacement of political subdivisions of the
ancien régime with subdivisions called
"departments", to be characterized by a single administrative city in the center of a compact area. The decree was passed on 22 December 1789, the boundaries fixed on 26 February 1790, with the institution to be effective on 4 March 1790. The territory of Dol was assigned to the Departement d' Ille-et-Vilaine, with its administrative center at Rennes. 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. The diocese of Dol was an obvious target, given the relatively small population, its scattered territories, and its strongly royalist stance. The suppression of ecclesiastical dioceses by the state was uncanonical. In 1801, when
Pope Pius VII restored the hierarchy in France, the diocese of Dol was not restored. Its scattered territories were distributed among the dioceses of Rennes and other dioceses.
Modern survival By a papal brief of
Pope Leo XIII, dated 13 February 1880, the archbishops of Rennes were permitted to add to their title the titles of Dol and Saint-Malo. ==Bishops==