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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Bayeux</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/02358b.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Coextensive with the Department of Calvados, is suffragan to the Archbishopric of Rouen"> <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="02358b.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/b.htm">B</a> > Bayeux</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>Bayeux</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>DIOCESE OF BAYEUX (B<font size=-2>AJOCÆ</font>).</p> <p>Coextensive with the Department of Calvados; suffragan to the Archbishopric of <a href="../cathen/13208b.htm">Rouen</a>. At the time of the Concordat (1862) the ancient Diocese of Lisieux was united to that of Bayeux. A pontifical <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Brief</a>, in 1854, authorized the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Bayeux to call himself <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Bayeux and Lisieux.</p> <h2>The See of Bayeux</h2> <p>A local legend, found in the breviaries of the fifteenth century, makes <a href="../cathen/05731a.htm">St. Exuperius</a>, first <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Bayeux, an immediate disciple of <a href="../cathen/04012c.htm">St. Clement</a>, and his <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">see</a> a foundation of the first century. St. Regnobertus, the same legend tells us, was the successor of <a href="../cathen/05731a.htm">St. Exuperius</a>. But the <a href="../cathen/02630a.htm">Bollandists</a> and M. Jules Lair have shown how little ground there is for this legend; it was only towards the middle of the fourth century that <a href="../cathen/05731a.htm">St. Exuperius</a> founded the See of Bayeux; after him the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> St. Reverendus did much for the propagation of the Faith in these parts. A certain number of the successors of <a href="../cathen/05731a.htm">St. Exuperius</a> were <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>: Rufinianus; Lupus (about 465); Vigor (beginning of the sixth century), who destroyed a <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> temple, then still frequented; Regnobertus (about 629), who founded many <a href="../cathen/03041a.htm">churches</a>, and whom the legend, owing to an anachronism, made first successor to Exuperius; and Hugues (d. 730), simultaneously <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> of two other sees, <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> and <a href="../cathen/13208b.htm">Rouen</a>. We may also mention Odon of Conteville (1050-97), brother of William the Conqueror, who built the <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a>, was present at the Battle of Hastings, intrigued for the <a href="../cathen/14714c.htm">tiara</a> on the death of <a href="../cathen/06791c.htm">Gregory VII</a> (1085), and died a <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">crusader</a> in <a href="../cathen/13772a.htm">Sicily</a>; Cardinal Trivulce (1531-48), <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">papal legate</a> in the Roman Campagna during the siege and pillage of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> by the Constable de Bourbon; Cardinal d'Ossai (1602-04), an illustrious diplomatist prominently identified with the conversion of <a href="../cathen/07225a.htm">Henry IV</a>. Claude Fauchet, who after being court preacher to Louis XVI, became one of the "conquerors" of the Bastille, was chosen Constitutional <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Bayeux in 1791, and was beheaded 31 October, 1793. Mgr. Arnette, coadjutor, with right of succession to the <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">Cardinal</a> <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> was, until 1905, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Bayeux. In the municipal Musée Archéologique is preserved the famous "Bayeux Tapestry", one of the most remarkable <a href="../cathen/12734a.htm">relics</a> of <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> textile art. Its contemporary <a href="../cathen/05400a.htm">embroideries</a> reproduce scenes from the Norman Conquest of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> (1066) and are valuable as illustrations of eleventh-century costume and life.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2>The See of Lisieux</h2> <p>The first known <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Lisieux is Theodibandes, mentioned in connexion with a council held in 538. The most celebrated among his successors were Freculfus (d. 850), a pupil of the palace <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> founded by <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>, and author of a universal history; Arnoul (1141-81), statesman and writer; Nicole Oresne (1378-82), <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosopher</a>, mathematician, and tutor to Charles V; Pierre Cauchon (1432-42), concerned in the condemnation of <a href="../cathen/08409c.htm">Joan of Arc</a>; Thomas Basin (1447-74), the historian of Charles VII, and one of the promoters of the rehabilitation of <a href="../cathen/08409c.htm">Joan of Arc</a>; Guillaume du Vair (1618-21), the well-known <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosopher</a> who left the bench for the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>.</p> <p>In the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> both sees were very important. The <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Bayeux was senior among the Norman <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, and the chapter was one of the richest in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>. The See of Lisieux maintained the Collége de Lisieux at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> for poor students of the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a>. Important councils were held within this <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a>, at <a href="../cathen/03132a.htm">Caen</a>, in 1042 and 1061; in the latter was proclaimed <a href="../cathen/15068a.htm">"the Truce of God"</a>. The <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">statutes</a> of a <a href="../cathen/14388a.htm">synod</a> held at Bayeux about 1300, furnish a very fair <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of the discipline of the time.</p> <p>Among the <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> of the Diocese of Bayeux should be mentioned those of St. Stephen (Abbaye-aux-Hommes) and of the Trinity (Abbaye-aux-Dames), both founded at <a href="../cathen/03132a.htm">Caen</a> by William the Conqueror (1029-87) and his wife Matilda, in expiation of their unlawful marriage. The former of these <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> was governed by the celebrated <a href="../cathen/08784c.htm">Lanfranc</a>, afterwards <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>. Other <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> were those of Troarn of which <a href="../cathen/05208b.htm">Durand</a>, the successful opponent of <a href="../cathen/02487a.htm">Berengarius</a>, was <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a> in the eleventh century, and the Abbaye du Val, of which <a href="../cathen/12639a.htm">Rancé</a> was <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbot</a>, in 1661, prior to his reform of La Trappe. The Abbey of St. Evroul (Ebrulphus) in the Diocese of Lisieux, founded about 560 by St. Evroul, a native of Bayeux, is famous as the home of <a href="../cathen/11278a.htm">Ordericus Vitalis</a>, the chronicler (1075-1141). <a href="../cathen/05596a.htm">Venerable Jean Eudes</a> founded in 1641 in Caen the congregation of Notre Dame de Charité du Refuge, which is devoted to the protection of girls and includes 33 <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and elsewhere. At Tilly, in the Diocese of Bayeux, Michel Vingtras established, in 1839, the politico-religious <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> known as <em>La Miséricorde,</em> in connexion with the survivors of <em>La Petite Église</em>, which was condemned in 1843 by <a href="../cathen/07006a.htm">Gregory XVI</a>. <a href="../cathen/07513b.htm">Daniel Huet</a>, the famous savant (1630-1721) and <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Avranches, was a native of Caen.</p> <p>At the close of the year 1905 the Diocese of Bayeux included a population of 410,178, 73 pastorates, 640 mission churches, and 120 curacies remunerated by the State. According to the latest statistics (1907) obtainable, the Diocese of Bayeux has 2 <a href="../cathen/06159a.htm">infant asylums</a>, 16 infant <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, 1 deaf-mute institute, 1 <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphanage</a> where farming is taught, 9 girls' <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphanages</a>, 4 industrial <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, 2 trades <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, 1 refuge for young <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a>, 6 <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospitals</a> and hospices, 1 dispensary, 4 communities for the care of the sick in their homes, 3 private <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospitals</a>, 1 private insane asylum, 9 homes for the aged, all conducted by sisters; and 1 <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphanage</a> where farming is taught, conducted by brothers.</p> <p>In 1900 the following congregations were represented in the diocese: the <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscans</a> at <a href="../cathen/03132a.htm">Caen</a> and the <a href="../cathen/12387b.htm">Premonstratensians</a>, who have an <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbey</a> at Juaye-Mondaye. Among the local congregations are the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a> missionaries, stationed at the basilica of Notre Dame de la Déliverande, directors of several <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">educational institutions</a> throughout the diocese. In this <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> also was founded the congregation of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge established at <a href="../cathen/03132a.htm">Caen</a> in 1641 by Venerable Jean Eudes for the preservation of young girls. This congregation has 33 <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> and other countries.</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">     <em>Gallia christiana (nova)</em> (1759), XI, 346-405, 762-814, <em>Instrumenta,</em> 59-106, 199-218; <em>Acta SS. XVI, May</em>; LAIR, <em>Etudes sur les origines de l'évéché de Bayeux</em> in <em>Bibliotheque des Ecoles des Chartes</em> (1861-63); FARCY, <em>Abbayes du diocése de Bayeux</em> (Laval, 1886-88); CHEVALIER, <em>Topo-bibl.,</em> 327-331, 1707-08; CORTE, <em>Tapestry of Bayeux</em> (Paris, 1878).</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">(1907).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Bayeux.</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/02358b.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Goyau, Georges.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Bayeux."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 2.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1907.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02358b.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron.</span> <span id="dedication">In memory of Fr. John Hilkert, Akron, Ohio  Fidelis servus et prudens, quem constituit Dominus super familiam suam.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. 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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