AVIGNON
159
AVIGNON
nroducts necessary to the maintenance of a numerous
court and of the visitors who fioclied to it; grain
and wine from Provence, from the south of France,
the Roussillon, and the country round Lyons. Fish
was brought from places as distant as Brittany; cloths,
rich stuffs, and tapestries came from Bruges and
Tournai. We need only glance at the account-books
of the Apostolic Chamber, still kept in the Vatican
archives, in order to judge of the trade of which
Avignon became the centre. The university founded
by Boniface VIII in 1303, had a good many students
under the French popes, drawn thither by the gener-
osit}- of the sovereign pontiffs, who rewarded them
with books or with benefices.
After the restoration of the Holy See in Rome, the spiritual and temporal government of Avignon was entrusted to a legate, the cardinal-nephew, who w-as replaced, in his absence by a vice-legate. When, however. Innocent XII abolished nepotism, he did a.vay mth the office of legate, and handed over the government of the Pontifical States to the Congre- gation of Avignon (1692), which resided at Rome, with the Cardinal Secretary of State as prefect, and exercised its jurisdiction through the vice-legate. This congregation, to which appeals were made from the decisions of the vice-legate, was united to the Congregation of Loretto; in 1774 the vice-legate was made president, thus depriving it of almost all authority. It was done away with under Pius VI.
The Public Council, composed of 48 councillors chosen by the people, four members of the clergy, and four doctors of the university, met under the presidency of the vir/uier. or chief magistrate, nominated, for a year, by the legate or vice-legate. Their duty was to watch over the material and finan- cial interests of the city; their resolutions, however, were to be submitted to the vice-legate for approval before being put in force. Three consuls, chosen annually by the Council, had charge of the admin- istration of the streets.
From the fifteenth century onward it became the policy of the Kings of France to vmite A^•ignon to their kingdom. In 147G, Louis XI, annoyed that Giuliano della Rovere should have been made legate, rather than Claarles of Bourbon, caused the city to be occupied, and did not withdraw liis troops until after his favourite had been made a cardinal. In 1536 Francis I invaded the papal territorj', in order to drive out Charles V, who held Provence. In return for the reception accorded him by the people of Avignon, Francis granted them the same privileges as tho.se enjoyed by the French, that, especially, of being eligible to offices of state. Henry III made a fruitless attempt to exchange the Marquisate of Saluces for Avignon, but Gregoiy XIII would not agree to it (1583). In 1663, Louis XIV, in conse- quence of an attack, led by the Corsiean Guard, on the attendants of the Due de Cr^qui, his ambassador in Rome, seized Avignon, which was declared an integral part of the Kingdom of France by the Parlia- ment of Provence. Nor was the sequestration raised until after Cardinal Chigi had made an apology (1664). Another attempt at occupation made in 1688. without success, was followed by a long period of peace, lasting till 1768.
Louis XV, dissatisfied at Clement XIII's action in regard to the Duke of Parma, caused the Papal States to be occupied from 1768 to 1774, and sub- stituted French institutions for those in force. These met with the approval of the people of Avignon, and a French party grew up which, after the .san- guinary massacres of La Glacicre, carried all before it, and induced the Constituent Assembly to decree the vinion of Avignon and the Comtat (district) Venaissin with France (14 September, 1791). Arti- cle 5of the Treaty of Tolentino (19 Feb., 1797) defin- itely sanctioned the annexation; it stated that "The
Pope renounces, purely and simply, all the rights to
which he might lay claim over the city and territory
of Avignon, and the Comtat Venaissin and its depend-
encies, and transfers and makes over the said rights
to the French Republic." Consalvi made an ineffec-
tual protest at the Treaty of Vienna, in 1815; Avignon
was not restored to the Holy See.
DuH-^MEL, Lcs origines du palais des papes (Tours, 1882); Charpenne. Histoire des reunions iemporaires d'Ai'ignon et du comtat Venaissin h la France (Paris, 1886); //ifltoire de la Revolution dans Avignon et le Comtat Venaissin et de leur reunion definitive a la France (Paris, 1892); Ehrle, Historia Bibliothecce Romanorum Pontificum (Rome. 1890); F.\NTONr C.\STRuccl. Istoria delta Citta d Avignone e del contado Vcnesino (Venice, 1678); Mollat, Jean XXII, jut il un avaref, in Revue d'Histoire Ecclesiastique (July, 1904, and Jan., 1905); Mollat and Samaran, La fiscalite pontifical en France au. XlVe siccle (Paris, 1905); MCntz, Les Sources de I'histoire des arts dans la ville d'Avignon pendant le XlVe siecle, in Bulletin Archeologique de la Commission des travaux hxstoriques (1887).
G. MoLL.\T.
Archdiocese of Avignon exercises jurisdiction over the territory embraced by the department of Vaucluse. Before the Revolution it had as suffragan sees, Carpentras, Vaison, and Cavaillon. By the Concordat of 1801 these three dioceses were united to Avignon, together with the Diocese of Apt, a suffragan of Aix. At the same time, however, Avignon was reduced to the rank of a bisho]5ric and was made a suffragan see of Aix. The Archdiocese of Avignon was re-established in 1822, and recei\'ed as suffragan sees the Diocese of Viviers (restored in 1822); Valence (formerly under Lyon); Nimes (re- stored in 1822) ; and Montpellier (formerly under Tou- louse). There is no evidence that St. Rufus, disciple of St. Paul (according to certain traditions the son of Simon the Cyrenean) and St. Justus, likewise held in high honour throughout the territorj' of A\ignon, were venerated in antiquity as bishops of that .see. The first bishop known to history is Nectarius, wlu> took part in several councils about the middle of the fifth century. St. Agricol (Agricolus), bisliop between 650 and 700. is the patron saint of Avignon. In 1475 Sixtus IV raised the Diocese of Avignon to the rank of an archbishopric, in favour of his nephew Giuliano della Rovere, who later became Pope Julius II. The memoiyof St. Eucherius still clings to tliree vast caves near the village of Beaumont, whither, it is said, the people of Lyons had to go in search of him when they sought him to make him their arch- bishop. As Bishop of Cavaillon, Cardinal Philippe de Cabassoles, Seigneur of Vaucluse, was the great protector of Petrarch. (For Avignon and its re- ligious architecture see Avignon, City of.) At the close of 1905 the Archdiocese of Avignon had 236,949 inhabitants, 29 cures, or parishes of the first class; 144 parishes of the second class, and 47 vicari-
Gallia Chrisliann, Nova (1715), I, 793-870, 1329; Instru- menta, 137-147; Duchesne, Fastes episropaux de I'ancimne Gaule, 1, 258-262; Granget, Histoire du diocbse d'Avignon (Avignon, 1862). GeoRGES GoyAU.
CouNcrLS OP Avignon. — Nothing is known of the council held here in 1060. In 1080 a council was held under the presidency of Hugues de Die, papal legate, in which Achard, usurper of the See of Aries, was deposed, and Gibelin put in his place. Three bishops elect (Lautelin of Embrun, Hugues of Gre- noble, and Didier of Cavaillon) accompanied the legate to Rome and were consecrated there by Pope Gregory VII. In the year 1209 the inhabitants of Toulouse were excommunicated by a Council of Avignon (two papal legates, four archbishops. and twenty bishops) for failing to expel the .Albi- gensian heretics from their city. The Count of Toulouse was forbidden, under threat of excommuni- cation, to impose exorbitant burdens on his subjects and, as he persisted, was finally excommunicated. In the Council of 1270, presided over by Bertrand de Malferrat, Archbishop of Aries, the usurpers of
