SION
15
SION
fourth century. At first the diocese was a suffragan
of Vienne; later it became suffragan of Tarentaise.
In 5S0 the bishop, St. Heliodorus, transferred the see
to Sion, as Octodorum was frequently endangered by
the inundations of the Rlione and the Drance.
There were frequent disputes with the monks of the
Abbey of Saint-Maurice, who were jealously watch-
ful that the bishops should not extend their jurisdic-
tion over the abbey. Several of the bishops united
both offices, as: Wilcharius (764-SO), previously
Archbishop of Vienne, from which he had been driven
by the Saracens; St. .\lteus, who received from the
pope a Bull of exemption in favour of the monastery
(780); Aimo II, .son of Count Hubert of Savoy, who
entertained Leo IX at Saint-Maurice in 1049.
The last king of Upper Burgundy, Rudolph III, granted the Countship of Valais to Bishop Hugo (998-1017); this union of the spiritual and secular powers made the bishop the most powerful ruler in the valley of the Upper Rhone. Taking this donation as a basis, the bishops of Sion extended their .secular power, and the religious metropolis of t he valley became also the political centre. However, the union of the two powers was the cause of violent disputes in the following centuries. For, while the spiritual juris- diction of the bishop extended over the whole valley of the Rhone above Lake Geneva, the Countship of Valais included only the upper part of the valley, reaching to the confluence of the Trient and the Rhone. The attempts of the bishops of Sion to carry their secular power farther down the Rhone were bitterly and succe-ssfullj' opposed by the abbots of Saint-Maurice, who had obtained large possessions in Lower \'alais. The bishops were also opposed by the patrons of the abbey, the counts of Savoy, who used this position to increase their suzerainty over I>ower Valais. The medieval bishops of Sion belonged generally to noble families of Savoy and Valais and were often drawn into the feuds of these families. Moreover the bishops were vigorously opposed by the petty feudal nobles of Valais, who, tru,sting to their fortified castles on rocky heights, sought to evade the supremacy of the bishop who was at the same time count and prefect of the Holy Roman Empire. Other opponents of the bishops were the flourishing peasant communities of Upper Valais, which were called later the sieben Zehnten (seven- tenths). Their struggles with Savoy forced the bishops to grant continually increasing political rights to the peasant communities. Thus Bishop William IV of Raron (1437-57) was obliged to relinquish civil and criminal jurisdiction over the sieben Zehnten by the Treaty of Naters in 1446, while a revolt of his subjects compelled Bishop Jost of Silinen (1482- 96) to flee from the diocese. Walter II of Supersax (1457-82) took part in the battles of the Swiss against Charles the Bold of Burgundy and his confederate, the Duke of .Savoy, and in 147.5 drove the House of Savoy from Lower ^'alais. The most important bishop of this era was Matthew Schinner (1499-1522), a highly cultivated Humanist. Bishop Schinner, fearing that French supremacy would endanger the freedom of the .Swiss, placed the military force of the dioce.se at the disposal of the pope and in 1510 brought about an alliance for fi%e years between the Swiss Confederacy and the Roman Church. In return for this Julius II made the bishop a cardinal. In 151.3 the bishop had succeeded in having his diocese separated from the Archdiocese of Tarentaise and placed directly under the control of the pope. The defeat of the Swi.ss in 1515 at the battle of Marignano, at which Schinner himself fought, weakened his po,si- tion in the dioce.se, and the arbitrary rule of his brothers led to a revolt of his subjects; in 1518 he was obliged to leave the diocese.
The new doctrines of the Reformation found little acceptance jn Valais, although preachers were sent
into the canton from Berne, Zurich, and Basle. In
1529 Bishop Adrian I of Riedmatten (1529-48), the
cathedral chapter, and the sieben Zehnten formed an
alliance with the Catholic cantons of the Confedera-
tion, the purpose of which was to maintain and pro-
tect the Catholic Faith in all the territories of the
allied cantons against the efforts of the Reformed can-
tons. On account of this alliance Valais aided in gain-
ing the victory of the Catholics over the followers of
Zwingli at Cappel in 1531 ; this victory- saved the pos-
sessions of the Catholic Church in Switzerland. The
abbots of Saint-Maurice opposed all religious innova-
tions as energetically as did Bishops Adrian I of Ried-
matten, Hildcbrand of Riedmatten (1565-1604), and
Adrian II of Riedmatten (1604-13), so that the whole
of Valais remained Catholic. Both Adrian II and his
successor Hildebrand Jost (1613-38) .were again in-
volved in disputes with the sieben Zehnten in regard to
the exercise of the rights of secular .supremacy. In
order to put an end to these quarrels and not to en-
danger the Catholic Faith he relinquished in 1630 the
greater part of his rights as secular suzerain, and the
power of the bishop was thereafter limited almost en-
tirely to the spiritual sphere.
The secular power of the bishops was brought to an end by t he French Revolut ion. In 1 798 Valais, aft er an heroic struggle against the supremacy of France, was incorporated into the Helvetian Republic, and Bishop John Anthony Blatter (1790-1817) retired to Novara. During the sway of Napoleon ^'alais was separated from Switzerland in 1802 as the Rhodanic Republic, and in 1810 was united with France. Most of the monasteries were suppressed. In 1814 Valais threw off French supremacy, when the Allies entered the ter- ritory; in 1815 it joined Switzerland as one of the can- tons. As partial compensation for the loss of his sec- ular power the bishop received a post of honour in the Diet of the canton and the right to four votes. Dis- putes often arose as the Constitution of 1815 of the canton gave Upi)er Valais political iiri'dnminance in the cantonal government , not wit hst anding t he fact that its population was smaller than that of Lower Valais. This led in 1.840 to a civil war with Lower Valais, wherethe " YoungSwiss" party, hostileto the Church, were in control. The party friendly to the Church con- quered, it is true, and the influence of the Church over teaching was, at first, preserved, but on ac- count of the defeat of the Sonderbumt, with which Valais had united, a radical Government gained con- trol in 1847. The new administration at once showed itself unfriendly to the Church, secularized many church landed properties, and wnmg large sums of money from the bishop and monasteries. When in 18.56 the moderate party gained the cantonal election, negotiations were begun with Bishop Peter Joseph von Preux (1843-75), and friendly relations were re- stored between the diocese and the canton. In 1880 the two powers came to an agreement as to the lands taken from the Church in 1848; these, .so far as they had not been sold, were given back for their original uses. Since then the bishop and the Government have been on friendly terms. The new Constitution of 1907 declares the Catholic religion to be the re- ligion of the canton, and forbids any union of spiritual and secular functions. The ordinances regulating the election of a bishop which ha\-e been in existence from early times, at least, contradict this (see below). The present bishop is Julius Mauritius .Vbbet, b. 12 Sept., 1845, appointed auxiliary hiahop rum jure successionis 1 Oct., 1895, succeeded "to the see 26 Feb., 1901.
Stnlisticfi. — The boundaries of the Diocese of Valais have hardly been changed since it was fotmded; the diocese inchides the Upper Rhone Valley, that is, the Canton of Valais. with exception of the exempt .Ab- bey of Saint-.Maurice, an<l of the Catholic inhabitants of Saint-Gingolph, who belong to the French Diocese of Annccy; it al.so includes the parishes of Bex and
