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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Tours</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15002a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Archdiocese in France"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="15002a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/t.htm">T</a> > Archdiocese of Tours</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Archdiocese of Tours</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>(TURONENSIS.)</p> <p>Comprises the Department of Indre-et-Loire, and was re-established by the <a href="../cathen/04204a.htm">Concordat of 1801</a> with the Dioceses of Angers, <a href="../cathen/10681a.htm">Nantes</a>, <a href="../cathen/09143b.htm">Le Mans</a>, <a href="../cathen/12771b.htm">Rennes</a>, <a href="../cathen/15271b.htm">Vannes</a>, St-Brieue, and Quimper as suffragans. The elevation to <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolitan</a> rank of the <a href="../cathen/12771b.htm">Diocese of Rennes</a> in 1859, with the last three <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a> as suffragans, dismembered the Province of Tours. The Diocese of Laval, created in 1855, is a suffragan of Tours. For the early <a href="../cathen/07365a.htm">ecclesiastical history</a> of Tours we have an excellent document, the concluding chapter "De episcopis Turonicis" in <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">Gregory of Tours's</a> "History of the Franks", though Mgr Duchesne has shown that it requires some chronological corrections. The founder of the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">see</a> was <a href="../cathen/06392d.htm">St. Gatianus</a>; according to <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">Gregory of Tours</a> he was one of the seven apostles sent from <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> to Gaul in the middle of the third century. Two grottos cut in the hill above the Loire, opposite Tours, are held to have been the first sanctuaries where <a href="../cathen/06392d.htm">St. Gatianus</a> celebrated the Liturgy. According to Mgr Duchesne the tradition of Tours furnished <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">Gregory</a> with only the name of Gatianus, accompanied perhaps by the length, fifty years, of his episcopate; it was by comparison with the "Passio S. Saturnini" of <a href="../cathen/14795b.htm">Toulouse</a> that <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">Gregory</a> arrived at the date 250. Mgr Duchesne considers this date rather <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a>, but admits that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> of Tours was founded in the time of Constantine.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>After <a href="../cathen/06392d.htm">St. Gatianus</a>, according to Mgr Duchesne's <a href="../cathen/03738a.htm">chronology</a>, came: St. Litorius, or Lidoire (337-71); the illustrious St. Martin (4 July, 372-8 Nov., 397); St. Brice (397-444), who was accused to <a href="../cathen/03477c.htm">Celestine I</a> of immorality and absolved by the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>, but who remained absent seventeen years from the episcopal city, which was governed by the intruded Bishop Armentius; St. Eustochius (444-61); <a href="../cathen/11700a.htm">St. Perpetuus</a> (461-91); St. Volusianus (491-98), deprived of his <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">see</a> by the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoths</a>, exiled to <a href="../cathen/14795b.htm">Toulouse</a>, and perhaps <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyred</a>; Verus (498-509), also deprived of his <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">see</a> at the command of Alaric; St. Baud (546-52), chancellor of Clotaire I; St. Euphronius (55-73), who made at <a href="../cathen/12178c.htm">Poitiers</a> the solemn transfer of the <a href="../cathen/12734a.htm">relic</a> of the <a href="../cathen/04529a.htm">True Cross</a> to the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> founded by St. Radegunde; the historian <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">Gregory</a> (573-94). After <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">St. Gregory</a> the history of the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> for two centuries and a half is obscure and confused, but the study of various episcopal catalogues has made it possible for Mgr Duchesne to somewhat clear up this period. Landramnus, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> under Louis the Pious, was by this prince appointed <em>missus dominicus</em>, or royal commissary, in 825.</p> <p>Among subsequent <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> were: Raoul II (1086-1117), who despite the prohibition of Hugues, <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">legate</a> of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>, had dealings with the <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunicated</a> Philip I, and under whose episcopate Paschal II came to Tours (1107); Hildebert de Lavardin (1125-34); Etienne de Bourgueil (1323-35), who founded the College of Tours at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>; the jurisconsult Pierre Frétaud (1335-57); Jacques Gélu (1415-27), later <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Embrun (see <a href="../cathen/06378a.htm">DIOCESE OF GAP</a>); Philippe de Coetquis (1427-41), who, commissioned by Charles VII in 1429 to interrogate <a href="../cathen/08409c.htm">Joan of Arc</a>, recognized her perfect sincerity, and who was made a <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> by <a href="../cathen/01582a.htm">antipope</a> <a href="../cathen/06031b.htm">Felix V</a>. <a href="../cathen/02719a.htm">Hélie de Bourdeilles</a> (1468-84), <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> in 1483; Robert de Lenoncourt (1484-1501), afterwards <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/12725a.htm">Reims</a>; Dominic Carette, Cardinal de Final (1509-14); Alessandro Farnese (1553-54), <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> in 1534; De Maillé de Brézé (1554-97), who assisted the <a href="../cathen/07074a.htm#iv">Cardinal de Lorraine</a> at the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> and translated the <a href="../cathen/07448a.htm">homilies</a> of <a href="../cathen/02330b.htm">St. Basil</a>; Victor Bouthiller (1641-70), who played an important part in the religious renaissance of the seventeenth century; Boisgelin de Cicé (1802-4), who under the old regime had been <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/01237e.htm">Aix</a> and in 1802 was created <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a>; De Barral (1804-15); François Morlot (1843-57), <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> in 1853, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> at the time of his death; Joseph-Hippolyte Guibert (1857-71), <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> in 1873, later be came <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>; Guillaume-René Meignan (1884-96), <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> in 1893, known by his <a href="../cathen/05692b.htm">exegetical</a> works.</p> <p>Tours was the capital of the Third Lionize province. The <a href="../cathen/12514a.htm">ecclesiastical province</a> of Tours must have been established under the episcopate of St. Martin. Fifty years later it was in regular operation, as is <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> by, among other documents, the synodal epistles of the Councils of Angers and Vannes in 453 and 461. (Concerning the prolonged efforts of the Breton Churches to emancipate themselves from the <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolis</a> of Tours and the assistance given to this <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolis</a> by royalty see <a href="../cathen/12771b.htm">ARCHDIOCESE OF RENNES</a>.) About 480 the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoths</a> were masters of Tours and it was in the Island of Amboise in 504 that the interview took place as a result of which the <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frank</a> <a href="../cathen/04070a.htm">Clovis</a> and the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoth</a> Alaric shared Gaul between them. But the Arising of the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoths</a> eventually roused the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> of Tours and when in 507 <a href="../cathen/04070a.htm">Clovis</a> and his army entered the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigothic</a> kingdom Tours opened its gate to him, and he received in that city the consular insignia sent by Emperor Anastasius. The <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Saracens</a> threatened Tours when <a href="../cathen/03629a.htm">Charles Martel</a> defeated them in 732. From 853 to 903 the <a href="../cathen/11115b.htm">Northmen</a> made frequent inroads, terminated by the victory of St. Martin Beau. Henry II of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> became Count of Touraine in the middle of the twelfth century and the English dominion was maintained at Tours until John Lackland renounced it in 1214.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>In the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> Tours was composed of two cities, the Roman Caesarodunum and the Merovingian Martinopolis. The name of Tours was strictly reserved to the ancient Caesarodunum, and the territory of Tours depended on the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishops</a>. Martinopolis, which rose around the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of St-Martin, took, in the tenth century, the name of Chateauneuf and for five centuries was an independent community. Under Louis XI the two agglomerations were united in one which retained the name of Tours. The <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> of Tours, dedicated to <a href="../cathen/06392d.htm">St. Gatianus</a>, dates from the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. The windows, which belong to the thirteenth, are among the most beautiful in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. The towers belong to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The chapter of Tours is the oldest in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. It is said that it was established by St. Baud, who gave the canons <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> quite distinct from that of the arch-diocese. Simon de Brion, <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> from 1281 to 1285 under the name of <a href="../cathen/09724a.htm">Martin IV</a>, was canon and treasurer of the church of <a href="../cathen/09732b.htm">St. Martin of Tours</a>.</p> <p>The prestige of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> of Tours was very great during the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>. In a letter to Charles the Bald <a href="../cathen/01156a.htm">Adrian II</a> designates it as the second in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. <a href="../cathen/12001a.htm">Philip Augustus</a> in a letter to Lucius III says that he considers it one of the most beautiful jewels of his crown and that whosoever attacks this church attacks his own <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a>. Kings John II, Charles VII, Charles VIII, and Henry III would never consent when they gave Touraine in fief that this church should be separated from the crown. It owed this prestige chiefly to the Basilica of St. Martin. This was first built by <a href="../cathen/11700a.htm">St. Perpetuus</a> and dedicated in 472. It was there that <a href="../cathen/04070a.htm">Clovis</a> was clothed with the purple robe and the chlamys sent him with the title of consul by the Emperor Anastasius. As early as the sixth century St. Martin's was a real religious centre. Queen Clotilde died in 545 in the vicinity of the basilica, and in the same neighbourhood St. Radegunde founded a small <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, near which <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">St. Gregory of Tours</a> built the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> of the Holy Cross. Ingeltrude, daughter of Clotaire I, founded the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Notre-Dame-de-l'Ecrignole, St. Monegunde that of St-Pierre-le-Puellier. When <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>, before setting out to receive the imperial crown at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, assembled at Tours (800) the lords of his empire and divided his estates among his sons, his wife Luitgarde died there, and was buried at St-Martin. He gave the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> vast possessions in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and Normandy. Abbot Ithier, his chancellor, founded with some <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> from St-Martin the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Cormery. <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a>, who succeeded Ithier in 796 and was buried in the basilica in 804, founded there a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of calligraphy to which is due the preservation of many ancient works. At this <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>, directed after <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a> by <a href="../cathen/06252a.htm">Fredegisus</a> (804-34), Adelard (834-45), and Count Vivian (845-54), were copied and illustrated the celebrated Bible of Charles the Bald and the Gospels of Lothaire preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale of <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>, the Virgil in the <a href="../cathen/09227b.htm">library</a> of <a href="../cathen/02507b.htm">Berne</a>, the Arithmetic of Boetius in the <a href="../cathen/09227b.htm">library</a> of <a href="../cathen/02242c.htm">Bamberg</a>, and the superb Gospels preserved in the <a href="../cathen/09227b.htm">library</a> of Tours, written throughout in gold letters on white vellum, and on which the kings of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> took the <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oath</a> as <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of St-Martin. The beautiful artistic labours of the canons were disturbed by the Norman invasions.</p> <p>The body of St. Martin was transported by the canons to Auxerre in 853 to safeguard it against the invasions of the <a href="../cathen/11115b.htm">Northmen</a>. Count Ingelger had to march with 6000 men against Auxerre in 884, before the body was restored. From 845 the <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a> of St-Martin were <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">laymen</a>, namely the dukes of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, ancestors of <a href="../cathen/07515c.htm">Hugh Capet</a>. When, in 987, <a href="../cathen/07515c.htm">Hugh Capet</a> became King of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> he joined the dignity of <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of St-Martin with the Crown of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> in perpetuity. The Abbey of St-Martin had as honorary canons the Dukes of <a href="../cathen/03068a.htm">Burgundy</a>, Anjou, Brittany, Vendôme, and Nevers, the Counts of <a href="../cathen/06094b.htm">Flanders</a>, Dunois, the Earl of Douglas in <a href="../cathen/13613a.htm">Scotland</a>, the Lords of Preuilly and Parthenay. From <a href="../cathen/04070a.htm">Clovis</a>, doubtless until <a href="../cathen/12001a.htm">Philip Augustus</a>, it enjoyed the right of <a href="../cathen/11152a.htm">coinage</a>. Blessed Hervé, treasurer of the basilica, caused it to be rebuilt about 1000. It was in the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> rebuilt by Hervé that Philip I, King of <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, in 1092 arranged to meet Bertrade de Montfort, wife of Foulques le Réchin, and carried her off to the great <a href="../cathen/13506d.htm">scandal</a> of the kingdom. <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Urban II</a>, who came to Tours in 1096, refused to remove the <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunication</a> inflicted on Philip and Bertrade. Paschal II in 1107, Callistus 11 in 1119, <a href="../cathen/08012a.htm">Innocent II</a> in 1130, and <a href="../cathen/01287a.htm">Alexander III</a> in 1163 came thither to venerate the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> of St. Martin. <a href="../cathen/13041b.htm">Richard Coeur de Lion</a> in 1190 and John of Brienne in 1223 took there the pilgrim's staff prior to setting out on the <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">crusade</a>. Louis XI had great devotion to St. Martin. The day on which he learned in the basilica itself of the death of Charles the Bold he vowed to surround the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saint</a> with a silver grating, the cost of which would today equal 2,148,000 francs. In 1522 <a href="../cathen/06207a.htm">Francis I</a> seized this grating, despite the chapter and the people of Tours. The devastations of the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a> and the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a> destroyed the Basilica of St. Martin. There now remain only two large towers, but at the end of the nineteenth century Cardinal Meignan caused a new basilica to be erected on the site of the old one.</p> <p>According to the legend, the Abbey of St. Julian arose around a church the building of which was ordered by <a href="../cathen/04070a.htm">Clovis</a> after his victory of Vouille over the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoths</a>. It is historically certain that there were <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> from Auvergne there in the sixth century, on whom <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">Gregory of Tours</a> imposed the <a href="../cathen/02436a.htm">Rule of St. Benedict</a> and to whom he gave the <a href="../cathen/12734a.htm">relics</a> of St. Julian of Brioude. The <a href="../cathen/11115b.htm">Northmen</a> destroyed this first <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>; it was rebuilt about 937 by St. Odo, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny, and Archbishop Theotolon. The present Church of St. Julian is a beautiful monument of the thirteenth century.</p> <p>The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Marmoutier dates from St. Martin. Near the grottos where <a href="../cathen/06392d.htm">St. Gatianus</a> celebrated <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Mass</a> he established some cells. The cell of St. Brice is still to be seen. Another grotto, known as the grotto of the <a href="../cathen/05496a.htm">Seven Sleepers</a>, was inhabited by seven brothers, cousins of St. Martin, who all died on the same day after a lethargy. In the ninth century the Abbey of Marmoutier was ravaged by the <a href="../cathen/11115b.htm">Northmen</a>, and out of 140 religious only 20 escaped massacre and were sheltered by the canons of St-Martin. Marmoutier was subsequently inhabited by a small colony of canons, and in 982 the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a>, which had fallen into some disorders, was restored by St. Mayeul, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny, at the instance of Eudes I, Count of <a href="../cathen/02602b.htm">Blois</a> and of Tours, who died a <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> at Marmoutier. <a href="../cathen/15210a.htm">Urban II</a> came to Marmoutier in 1096 and dedicated the newly-built basilica. Hubaud, canon of St-Martin and brother of the heresiarch Bérenger, gave to Marmoutier superb pieces of religious gold work in order to secure <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> for Bérenger, who died at the <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priory</a> of St-Côme, which was dependent on Marmoutier. The fortune of the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> was considerable, a popular saying runs:</p> <blockquote><p>"De quelque cote que le vent vente, <br>Marmoutier a cens et rente." </p></blockquote> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>In the eleventh century 101 <a href="../cathen/12428b.htm">priories</a> were founded dependent on Marmoutier, ten of them in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>. Hugh I, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Marmoutier from 1210 to 1226, organized the estates of Meslay and Louroux, which were models of agricultural exploitation, and began the reconstruction of the basilica. The latter undertaking was hindered by the violent attacks made by the counts of <a href="../cathen/02602b.htm">Blois</a> on the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of Marmoutier. In 1253 St. Louis took the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> under his protection. In 1562 it was pillaged by the <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestants</a> and the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">Revolution</a> destroyed it almost entirely. The <a href="../cathen/04515c.htm">crosier</a> gateway (<em>Portail de la Crosse</em>) which remains standing dates from the thirteenth century. The origin of the town of Loches was the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> founded by <a href="../cathen/15230a.htm">St. Ours</a> about the beginning of the sixth century. He installed in the bed of the Indre a hand-mill which became a place of <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a>. Geoffroy Grisegonelle, Count of Anjou, founded at Loches a Byzantine collegiate church to which he gave a girdle of the Blessed Virgin. Repaired in the twelfth century by the prior, Thomas Pactius, this church still exists. In the dungeon of Loches, founded about 1000 by Foulques Nerra, were <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisoned</a> <a href="../cathen/02241b.htm">Cardinal la Balue</a> and the historian Comines. The <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> founded by St. Mexme, disciple of St. Martin (d. shortly after 463), was the origin of a gathering of people which formed the town of Chinon.</p> <p><a href="../cathen/13047a.htm">Cardinal de Richelieu</a> was born in 1585 at the castle of Richelieu in the diocese. He transformed it into an imposing château, built around it an entire city, which took the name of Richelieu, and joined to his ducal peerage the town of Champigny. The Sainte Chapelle of Champigny was built in 1508 by the princely house of Bourbon-Montpensier to receive a thorn of the crown of Christ and one of the thirty pieces of silver paid to <a href="../cathen/08539a.htm">Judas</a>. <a href="../cathen/15218b.htm">Urban VIII</a>, who prior to his pontificate had said <a href="../cathen/10006a.htm">Mass</a> there, later prevented its demolition; hence the preservation of this fine monument of the <a href="../cathen/12765b.htm">Renaissance</a> is due to him. The church of Cande, built between 1175 and 1215 on the site where St. Martin died, is remarkable as a monument not only of religious but also of military architecture. At Tours in 1163 <a href="../cathen/01287a.htm">Alexander III</a> <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunicated</a> the <a href="../cathen/01582a.htm">antipope</a> Victor and <a href="../cathen/06252b.htm">Frederick Barbarossa</a>. It was at the Château of Chinon in 1429 that <a href="../cathen/08409c.htm">Joan of Arc</a> first saw Charles VII and gave him confidence in her mission, and in the same year she sent to St-Catherine-de-Fierbois in the diocese to seek in the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> of an ancient <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">knight</a> the sword of <a href="../cathen/03629a.htm">Charles Martel</a>. In the fifteenth century Tours had a brilliant <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">painting</a>; unfortunately nothing remains of the <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">paintings</a> executed at Notre-Dame-la-Riche by <a href="../cathen/06161b.htm">Jehan Fouquet</a>. The studio of the <a href="../cathen/13641b.htm">sculptor</a> Michel Colomb was at Tours; his master production was the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> of Francis II of Brittany in the <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> of <a href="../cathen/10681a.htm">Nantes</a>. The <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> of the children of Charles VIII in the <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> of Tours was the collective work of Colomb and his pupils and of some Italian decorators.</p> <p>There are in Touraine a great many châteaux rich in historic memories, such as Plessis-les-Tours, the residence of Louis XI, Amboise, where was hatched the plot against the <a href="../cathen/07074a.htm">Guises</a> under King Francis II; Chenonceaux, built by <a href="../cathen/06207a.htm">Francis I</a>, the residence of Diana of <a href="../cathen/12178c.htm">Poitiers</a> and later of <a href="../cathen/03443a.htm">Catherine de' Medici</a>; Langeais, where Charles VIII wedded Anne of Brittany. Of the château of Chanteloup near Amboise, where the <a href="../cathen/03694a.htm">Duc de Choiseul</a> went into exile, there remains only the pagoda. A number of <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> are <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honoured</a> in a special manner or are connected with the <a href="../cathen/07365a.htm">religious history</a> of the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a>: Sts. Maura and Brigitta, virgins (end of fourth century); St. Flodovaeus (Flovier), <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a> (fifth century); <a href="../cathen/15230a.htm">St. Ursus</a> (Ours), founder of the Abbey of Sennevieres, patron of the town of Loches, d. about 508; St. Leubatius (Leubais), <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Sennevières (sixth century); St. Senoch, solitary and <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, d. in 579; St. Leobardus (Libert), <a href="../cathen/07280a.htm">hermit</a> of the grottos of Marmoutier, d. in 593; St. Odo, first <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">Abbot</a> of Cluny, d. at Tours in 942; St. Avertinus, <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacon</a>, companion in exile of <a href="../cathen/14676a.htm">St. Thomas Becket</a>, d. in Touraine about 1189; Bl. Jeanne-Marie de Maillé, d. in 1414 after having spent her <a href="../cathen/15617c.htm">widowhood</a> in the practice of a rigorously ascetic life near the Basilica of St. Martin. Among the natives of the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> were: the great prose writer Rabelais (1495-1553), b. at Chinon; the <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosopher</a> <a href="../cathen/04744b.htm">Descartes</a> (1596-1650), b. at La Haye-Descartes; the Abbé de Marolles (1600-81), b. at Genillé, celebrated for his translations, and whose collection of prints formed the basis of that of the Bibliothèque Nationale in <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a>; Saint-Martin, called the unknown <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosopher</a> (1743-1803), b. at Amboise; the poet Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863), b. at Loches; Balzac (1790-1850), b. at Tours.</p> <p>The chief places of <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> in the diocese besides the grottos of Marmoutier, are: Notre-Dame-la-Riche, a sanctuary erected on the site of a church <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">dating</a> from the third century, and where the founder <a href="../cathen/06392d.htm">St. Gatianus</a> is <a href="../cathen/05188b.htm">venerated</a>; Notre-Dame-de-Loches; St. Christopher and <a href="../cathen/06559a.htm">St. Giles</a> at St-Christophe, a <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">dating</a> from the ninth century; the <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> to the Holy Face, established by M. Dupont, "the Holy Man of Tours", who founded the Priests of the Holy Face canonically erected on 8 December, 1876, to administer the <a href="../cathen/03574b.htm">chapel</a>. Before the application of the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of 1901 there were in the diocese <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a>, <a href="../cathen/10357a.htm">Lazarists</a>, and various orders of teaching brothers. Several orders of <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> had their origin in the diocese the chief being: The Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, teaching and nursing, founded in 1684 at Sainville, in the <a href="../cathen/03635a.htm">Diocese of Chartres</a> by Mother Marie Poussepin, and in 1813 transported to La Breteche near Tours; the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, teaching, founded in 1805 by the Abbé Guepin, <a href="../cathen/12676c.htm">rector</a> of Notre-Dame-la-Riche, with mother-house at Tours; the Sisters of the <a href="../cathen/14637b.htm">Third Order</a> of Carmel, since 1824 called the Sisters of St-Martin, teaching, with its mother-house at Bourgeuil. The religious congregations were directing in the diocese at the end of the nineteenth century 5 foundling asylums, 36 infant <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, 3 special houses for sick children, 5 <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphanages</a> for boys, 7 for girls, 1 house of retreat, 1 house of refuge, 18 <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospitals</a> or hospices, 2 dispensaries, 3 houses of religious for the care of the sick in their homes, 1 home for convalescents, 5 private <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospitals</a> and retreats. In the year 1911 the Archdiocese of Tours numbered 337,916 inhabitants, 23 deaneries, 37 first class <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>, and 254 succursal <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">Gallia christiaina, nova, XIV (1856), 1-151, instr. 1-98; DUCHESNE, Les listes episcopales de la province de Tours (Paris, 1890); CHEVALIER, Les origines de l'église de Tours d'apres l'histoire (Tours, 1871); PITROU, L'episcopat tourangeau, notes biographiques (Tours, 1882) LAMBRON DE LIGNIN, Armorial des archeveques de Tours (Tours, 1858) DE LASTEYRIE, L'église S. Martin de Tours, etude critique sur l'histoire et Ia forme de ce monument du Ve au XIe siecle (Paris 1891) DELISLE, Memoirs sur l'ecole calligraphique de Tours au IX siecle (Paris, 1885); MARTENE, Histoire de l'abbaye de Marmoutver, ed. CHEVALIER (2 vols., Tours, 1874-75); CHANTELOU, Marmoutier cartulaire tourangeau et sceaux des abbes, ed. NOBILLAEU (Tours, 1879); CHEVALIER, Promenades pittoresques en Touraine (Tours, 1869); VITRY, Tours St less châteaux de Touraine (Paris 1905) VAUCELLES, Catalogus de lettres de Nicotas V, conc. la prov. eccl. de Tours (Paris, 1908).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Goyau, G.</span> <span id="apayear">(1912).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Archdiocese of Tours.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15002a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Goyau, Georges.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Archdiocese of Tours."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 15.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1912.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15002a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Scott Anthony Hibbs.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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