TOULOUSE
797
TOULOUSE
of St. Sernin of Toulouse was begun by St. Sylvius at
the end of the fourth century, and completed In- St .
Exuperius, who transferred to it the remains of St.
Sernin, and later those of St. Papoul and St. Honesta,
disciples of St. Sernin, and of the bishops. Saints
Honoratus, Hilarj', and Sylvius. St. Exuperius him-
self was buried there. Charlemagne gave to St. Ser-
nin's the bodies of St. Suzanna of Babylon, of St.
Ascicla and her sister St. Victoria, martyrs of Cor-
dova. Under Charles the Bald the relics of the
QualtuoT Sancti Corormti, Claudius, Nioostratus,
Symphorianus, Castor, and their ])upil St. Simplicius,
were brought from Rome. The crusaders who in
1096 accompanied Raymond de Saint Gilles to the
East brought back the body of St. Baniabas, the
head of St. Bartholomew, and perhaps some wood
from the Crib or Manger, a stone from the Holy
Sepulchre, and a Crucifix known as the Crusaders'
Crucifix. In 1187 Guillaume Taillefer deposited
there other relics acquired in the E;ist, especially the
greater portion of the body of St . George. Louis VIII
brought thither the bodfes of St. Edmund, King of
England, and St. Gilbert, founder of the Gilbertines.
The people themselves brought the body of Saint
Gilles to save it from the Albigensians. Alphonse,
brother of Louis IX, last Count of Toulouse, on his
entry to the town in 1251 deposited in the church a
thorn from the Crown of Thorns, which Baldwin II,
Emperor of Constantinople, had given to St. Louis,
and a portion of the True Cross. About 1366 the
body of St. Thomas Aquinas, given by Urban V to the
Dominicans, was brought to Toulouse, and preserved
in their church until the Revolution, when it was
transferred to St. Sernin's.
As early as 1100 a confraternity was formed with twelve superintendents and seventy-two bayles-rr- gents (guardians), in memory of the number of the Apostles and Disciples; they took oath to watch in turn over the relics. Urban II consecrated St. Ser- nin's on 8 July, 1097, after it had been restored by the canon, St. Raymond; Callistus II dedicated an altar there and placed in it relics of SS. Peter and Paul, SS. Simon and Jude; Urban VIII granted the same indulgences to those who visited the seven altars of St. Sernin's as could be gained by visiting the seven altars of St. Peter's in Rome. The University of Toulouse was founded in 1229, in consequence of a treaty between Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, and Blanche of Castile, regent of France; its object was to prevent by higher theological studies a recru- descence of Albigensianism. Raymond VIII had to undertake to maintain in Toulouse at his own expense for ten years a certain number of masters of theology, law, and grammar. In the beginning the university was looked at askance by the people of the South, who considered it an instrument of repression. The teach- ing of theology' was given over to the Mendicant Friars, but the students who wished to take degrees had to pass some time at the L^niversity of Paris. John XXII and Innocent VI were students there. In 1329 John XXII reformed its statutes. In 1359 In- nocent VI founded the College of St. Martial for the support of twenty poor students at the university; in 1360 he definitively organized a faculty of theology with masters drawn exclusively from among its former pupils, and granted the chancellor authority to confer ilegreea. This was the university's period of pros-
Eerity. The new revision of the statutes after 1394 y a committee nominated by the antipope Clement VII was fatal to it; from the fifteenth centurv' to the end of the ancirn regime the University of Toulouse merely existed.
In 1751 the University of Cahors was merged into that of Toulouse. It was founded in 1332 by John XXII, a native of Cahors, at the instance of the municipal authorities. The pope granted the new university the rights enjoyed by that of Toulouse, and
in fact commanded the latter to communicate its
privileges to Cahors. The Bull of erection for Cahors
w;is almost identical with the "Parens Scientiarum"
for Paris. The privileges of Cahors were confirmed
in 1368 by Edward, Prince of Wales, the "Black
Prince", and in 1370 by Louis, Duke of Anjou. The
university also enjoyed the favour of Benedict XII,
Clement VI, Urban V, Clement VII, and Benedict
XIII. In 1460 Pius II ordered a revision of its
statutes. The main strength of the university lay
in its faculty of law which had as members such noted
jurists as Petrus Gregorius (1570), Cujas (1554), and
de Lacoste (1594). Of the colleges at Cahors the first
was founded by Raymond de Pelegry, canon of Lon-
don, who provided in his will (1365) for the mainte-
nance of thirteen poorscholars. The College of Rodez
was founded in 1371 by Bernard of Rodez, Arch-
bishop of Naples, whose birth-place was Cahors. The
College of St. Michel was established (1467) by Jean
Rubey, archdeacon of Tormes. Among the students
of Cahors the most illustrious was Fdnelon, who en-
tered upon his classical course there in 1663. During
the eighteenth century the university declined, abuses
crept in, especially in the matter of granting degrees.
The Irish Seminary at Toulouse was founded in 1659
by Anne of Austria to receive twelve Irish clerical
students. The Catholic Institute of Toulouse was
founded in 1877 by Archbishop Desprez and com-
pleted in 1879 by the addition of a faculty of theol-
ogy-. Cardinal Slathieu suppressed the chair of law,
and only retained about a dozen chairs of literarj' and
scientific studies; but under the rectorship of Mgr
Batiffol the Institute became, in the early part of the
twentieth centurj-, an important centre of sacred
studies, and has remained so to this date. Its "Bulle-
tin de littdrature ecclesiastique" is highly appreciated
in the scientific circles of France.
Toulouse is famous for its jeux Aoraux (floral games). The first meeting dates from early in May, 1324, and was organized by some troubadours. The contest was to laud the Blessed Virgin in a poem. Arnaud Vidal of Castelnaudary was the first to gain a prize. In the fifteenth century the "Clemency" of the Blessed Virgin was the theme of the rival poets; she was styled "Confort del monte Clemensa" (sup- port of the world and clemency). This word "Clem- ensa" gave rise to a legend which ran (hat a certain woman named CI6mence Isaure had instituted the floral games. GuiUaume Benoit, councillor of the Parlement of Toulouse (d. 1520), was the first to put faith in this legend. In 1527 Etienne Dolet wrote a poem on Clfmence Isaure; and the municipal magis- trates of Toulouse, in order to save some property from taxation, declared it had been given to the city by C16mence Isaure ; they even went .«o far as to erect a statue to her in the capitol of the town in 1557. Castel in 1633 assailed the legend in a very de<usive manner, but it died hard: an alleged poem was quoted on the Dugueschn campaign in Spain, in which during the fourteenth century reference is made to a Lady Clemence who was no other than Clemencc Isaure; then an ode appeared, said to have been recited in 1499; it has recently been proved that the i)oem is a seventeenth-century production, and the ode a nine- teenth-century forgery. Among the saints specially honoured in or connected with the dioce.se are: St. Orontius (Orens), Bishop of Auch (fourth century), to whom the inhabitants of Toulouse attribute an im- portant victory they gained in 422; St. Caudentius (O.audens) (sixth century), a .shepherd lad, beheaded by the Arian Visigoths, who gave his name to the town of Montctavezan, now- known asSaint-Gaudens; Saint Vidiaiius (Vezian), martyred by the Arians in the middle of the sixth century; St. William of Ixid^ve, or (iellon, Oiunt of Toulouse, who died in 812: Ble.s.sed Raymond, archdeacon of Toulouse, Bles-sed Stephen of Narbonne, inquisitor, Blessed Bernard of
