AVILA
160
AVILA
ecclesiastical property were severely threatened;
unclaimed legacies were allotted to pious uses; the
bishops were urged to mutual support; the individual
churches were taxed for the support of the papal
legate; and ecclesiastics were forbidden to convoke
the civil courts against their bishops. The Council
of 1279 was concerned with the protection of the
rights, privileges, and immunities of the dergj'.
Provision was made also for the protection of those
who had promised to join the Crusade ordered by
Gregory X, but had failed to go. It was also decreed
that to hear confessions, besides the permission of
his ordinary or bisliop, a monk must also have that
of his superior. In the Council of 1282 ten canons
were published, among them one urging the people
to frequent more regularly the parocliial churches,
and to be present in their own parish cliurches at
least on Sundays and feast days. The temporalities
of the Church and ecclesiastical jurisdiction occupied
the attention of the Coimcil of 1327. The seventy-
nine canons of the Council of 1337 are renewed from
earlier councils, and emphasize the duty of Easter
Communion in one's own parish church, and of
abstinence on Saturday for beneficed persons and
ecclesiastics, in honour of the Blessed Virgin, a
practice begun three centuries earlier on the occasion
of the Truce of God, but no longer universal. The
Council of 1457 was held by Cardinal de Foix, Arch-
bishop of Aries and legate of Avignon, a Franciscan.
His principal purpose was to promote the doctrine of
the Immaculate Conception, in the sense of the decla-
ration of the Council of Basle. It was forbidden to
preach the contrary doctrine. Sixty-four disciplinary
decrees were also published, in keeping with the legis-
lation of other councils. A similar number of decrees
were published in 1497 by a council presided over by
Archbishop Francesco Tarpugi (afterwards Cardinal).
The sponsors of the newly confirmed, it was decreed,
were not obhged to make presents to them or to their
parents. Before the relics of the saints two candles
were to be kept lighted at all times. Disciplinary
measures occupied the attention of the Council of
1509. The Council of 1596 was called for the purpo.se
of furthering the observance of the decrees of the
Council of Trent (1545-63), and for a similar purpose
the Council of 1609. The Councils of 1664 and 1725
formulated disciplinary decrees; the latter proclaimed
the duty of adhering to the Bull of Clement XI against
the " Reflexions morales " of Quesnel. The Council
of 1849 published, in ten chapters, a number of
decrees concerning faith and disciphne.
M.\.NSI, Coll. Cone. XIX, 929; XX, 533, and passim: Coll. Lacensis Cone, I, 467; IV, 315; Granjet, HUt. du diocese d' Avignon (Avignon, 1S62).
Thojias J. Shahan.
University of Avignon (1303-1792). devel- oped from the already existing schools of the city, was formally constituted in 1303, by a Bull of Boniface VHI. With Boniface, King Charles II of Naples should be considered as one of its first great protectors and benefactors. The faculty of law, both civil and ecclesiastical, existed for some time almost exclusively, and always remained the most important department of the university. Pope John XXIII erected (1413) a faculty of theologj', the students of which were for a long time only few in number. The faculty of arts never acquired great importance; that of medicine developed es- pecially only in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies. The Bishop, since 1475 Archbishop, of Avignon was chancellor of the university. The vice-legate, generally a bishop, represented the civil pow-er (in this case the pojje) and was chiefly a judicial officer, ranking higher than the Primicerius (Rector). The latter was elected by the Doctors of Law, to whom, in 1503, were added four theologians and, in 1784, two Doctors of Mechcine. The pope.
spiritual head and, after 1348, temporal ruler of
Avignon, exercised in this double capacity great
influence over the affairs of the university. John
XXIII granted it (1413) extensive privileges, such
a-s special university jurisdiction and exemption |
from taxes. Political, geographical, and educational
circumstances forced the university, during the later
period of its existence, to look to Paris rather than
to Rome for favour and protection. It disappeared
gradually during the French Revolution, and ceased
to exist in 1792.
Ra
The
Universities of Europe in thf Middle Ages
(Oxford. 1895), n, 170-179; Fournier. Les slatuls et
priiilcgis des Univ. fnmcaises (Paris. 1890-94), 11. 301-535;
Marchand, L'universite d'Avignon aux 17e et 18^ siecles
(Paris. 1900); Laval, Cartulaire de Vuniv. d'Avignon (Avig-
non. 1884).
N. A. Weber. Ayila (Abula), Diocese of, a suffragan of Val- ladolid in Spain. Its episcopal succession dates at least from the fourth centurj- and claims an Apostolic origin. Suppressed in the course of the ninth, it was re-estaljished early in the twelfth, centurv, after
the expulsion of the Moors, and was a suffragan of
M^rida until 1120; then of Compostella until 1857.
The Catholic population is 189,926. There are
360 priests, 339 parishes, and about 500 churches
and chapils. Avila is historically one of the most
important cities in the medieval and modern history
of Spain. In the fourth century the arch-heretic Pris-
cillian was Bishop of Avila. and in later times many
saints had Avila as their home, among them St. Teresa
and John of Avila, the "Apostle of Andalusia". It
was once one of the most flourishing cities of Spain,
but its population has dwindled to 7,000. Its Moor-
ish castle and ancient eleventh-century cathedral are
monumental relics of the past.
Battandier, .4nn. Pojil. Calh. (Paris, 1905): 216; Pic.\- TOSTE. Tradicionts de Avila (Madrid, _1S80); Gams, Kirchen- grsrhichte Spaniens, I, 150 sqq.; Florez. Espar'ia Sagrada, XIV, 1-36; MuNoz, Bibl. Hi»t. Esparia (1858) 42-4.
Thomas J. Sil^han.
