6AX7LLI
397
GAULLI
It was above all a method, an ideal of Christian life,
which appealed to all, even to women. It was con-
demned (380) at the Synod of Saragossa where the
Bishops of Bordeaux and Agen were present ; none
the less it spread rapidly in Central Gaul, Eauze in
particular being a stronghold. When in 385 the
usurper Maximus put Priscillian and his friends to
death, St. Martin was in doubt how to act, but repudi-
ated with horror communion with the bishops who
had condemned the unfortunates. Priscillianism,
indeed, was more or less bound uji mth the cause of
asceticism in general. Finally the bishops and monks
of Gaul were long divided over Pelagianism. Procu-
lus. Bishop of Marseilles, had obliged Leporius, a dis-
ciple of Pelagius, to leave Gaul, but it was not long
until Marseilles and Lerins, led by Cassian, Vincent,
and Faustus, became hotbeds of a teaching opposed
to St. Augustine's and known as Semipelagianism.
Prosper of Aquitaine wrote against it, and was
obliged to take refuge at Rome. It was not until the
beginning of the sixth century that the teaching of
Augustine triumphed, when a monk of Lerins, Csesa-
rius of Aries, an almost servile disciple of Augustine,
caused it to be adopted by the Council of Orange (529).
In the final struggle Rome interfered. We do not know much concerning the earlier relations between the bishops of Gaul and the pope. The position of Irenaeus in the Easter Controversy shows a consider- able degree of independence ; )'et Irenaeus proclaimed the primacy of the ,See of Rome. About the middle of the third century the pope was appealed to for the purpose of setthng difficulties in the Church of Gaul and to remove an erring bishop (Cyprian, Epist. Ixviii). At the Council of Aries (314) the bishops of Gaul were present with those of Brittany, Spain, Africa, even Italy; Pope Sylvester sent delegates to represent him. It w.as in a way a Council of the West. During all that century, however, the episcopate of Gaul had no head, and the bishops grouped themselves accord- ing to the ties of friendship or locality. Metropolitans did not exist as yet, and when advice was needed Milan was consulted. "The traditional authority", says Duchesne, "in all matters of discipline remained always the ancient Church of Rome; in practice, how- ever, the Council of Milan decided in case of conflict." The popes then took the situation in hand, and in 417 Pope Zosimus made Patrocles, Bishop of Aries, his vicar or delegate in Gaul, and provided that all dis- putes should be referred to him. Moreover, no Gallic ecclesiastic could have access to the pope without tes- timonial letters from the Bishop of Aries. This pri- macy of Aries waxed and waned under the succeed- ing popes. It enjoyed a final period of brilliancy, under Caesarius, but after his time it conferred on the occupant merely an honorary title. In conse- quence, however, of the extensive authority of Aries in the fifth and sixth centuries, canonical discipUne was more rapidly developed there, and the "Libri canonum" that were soon in vogue in Southern Gaul were modelled on those of the Church of Aries. Towards the end of this period Caesarius assisted at a series of councils, thus obtaining a certain recognition as legislator for the Merovingian Church.
The barbarians, however, were on the march. The great invasion of 407 made the Goths masters of all the country to the south of the Loire, with the excep- tion of Bourges and Clermont, which did not fall into their hands until 475; Aries succumbed in 4S0. Then the Visigoth kingdom was organized, Arian in religion, and at first hostile to Catbolicism. Gradually the necessities of life imposed a policy of moderation. The Council of .\gde, really a national council of Visigothic Gaul (506), and in which Ciesarius was dominant, is an evidence of the new temper on both sides. The Acts of this council follow very closelj' the principles laid down in the "Breviarium Alarici" — a summary of the Theodocian Code drawn up by Alaric II, the
Visigothic king, for his Gallo-Roman subjects — and
met with the approval of the Catholic bishops of
his kingdom. Between 410 and 413 the Burgun-
dians had settled near Mainz; in 475 they had come
farther south along the Rhone, and about this time
became Arians. The Franks, soon to be masters of
all Gaul, left the neighbourhood of Tournai, defeated
Syagrius in 486, and established their power as far
as the Loire. In 507 they destroyed the Visigoth
Kingdom, and in 534 that of the Burgundians; in
536 by the conquest of Aries they succeeded to the
remnants of the great state created by the genius of
King Theodoric; with them began a new era (see
Fr.^nks).
The transition from one regime to another was made possible by the bishops of Gaul. The bishops had frequently played a beneficent role as intermedi- aries with the Roman authorities. Before the bar- barian invasions they were the true champions of the people. Indeed it was long believed that they had been invested with special powers and the official title of deferisores civitatum (defenders of the States). While this title was never officially borne by them, the popu- lar error was only formal and superficial. Bishops like Sidonius ApoUinaris, Avdtus, Germanus of Au- xerre, Caesarius of Aries, were truly the defenders of their fatherland. While the old civic institutions were tottering to their fall, the}' upheld the social fabric. Through their eftorts the barbarians became amalgamated with the native population, introducing into it the germs of a new and vigorous life. Lastly the bishops were the guardians of the classical tradi- tions of Latin literature and Roman culture, and long before the appearance of monasticism had been the mainstay of learning. Throughout the sixth and seventh centuries manuscripts of the Bible and the Fathers were copied to meet the needs of public wor- ship, ecclesiastical teaching, and Catholic life. The only contemporary buildings that exhibit traces of classical or Bvzantine styles are religious edifices. For aU this, and for much more, the bishops of Gaul deserve the title of "Makers of France".
After the writings of Eusebius of Cbsahea, Sulpicius Se- "VERUS. Paulinus OF Nola, Salvianu8,_ Gregort of Tours, etc., our principal source of information is the epigraphic mate- rial published by Le Blant. Inscriptions chreiiennes de la Gaule anterieures au VIII' slide (Paris, 1856-65), with a supplement (1897); Idem, Les sarcophages Chretiens de la Gaule (Paris, 1896). SiRMOND and Lalande, Concilia anliqiia Gallia (4 vols., fol., 1629-66): also the catalogues or lists of bishops preserved in many dioceses and edited by Deusle in Histoire liileraire de la France, XXIX.
General works devoted to the history and study of Christian- ity have chapters on the Church in Gaul. Special reference works: Duchesne, Pastes episcopaux de Vancienne Gaule, I (1894; 2nd ed., 1907), II (1900); Houtin, La controverse de t'apostolicite des eglises de France auXIX' siecie (Paris, 1901); Analecta BoUandiana, XIX, 354; Morin, Saint Lazare et saint Maximin in Memoires de la societe des antiquaires de France, LIX (Paris, 1898); Aube in Revue historigue. VII (1S7S). 152- 64; Ha vet, Les origines de saint Denis in Bihliothkque de I'Ecole des Charles (Paris, 1S90), p. 25; Dufourcq. La christianisation des joules dans V Empire romain in Revue d'histoire el de littera- (urereh!fic"«6S, IV (Paris, 1899), 239; Ampere. Histoire litter- aire de la France avant le XII' siicle, I and II (Paris, 1839); Roger, L' enseignement d^s lettres classiques en Gaule d^Ausone 6 Alcuin (Paris, 1905); Imbart de la Tour, Les paroisses rurales du IV' au XI' siecle (Paris, 1900); Babut, PrisciUien el le priscillianisme (Paris, 1909); Dufourcq, Le mouvement Icgen- daire lerinien in Elude sur les "Gesta Martyrum" remains. II (Paris, 1907); Duchesne, Origines du culte chretien (Paris, i889), 32, 84; Idem, La premiere collection romaine des decre- tales in Atti dd secondo congresso d* archeolagia cristiana (Rome, 1902), 159; Arnold. C<Bsarius von Arelate und die gallische Kirche seiner Zeit (Leipzig, 1894); Malnohy, Cesaire, evlque d' Aries (Paris, 1894); Chenon, Le " Defensor Civitatis" in Nou- vdle revue historique du droit francais (1889), 551; Chatelain. Uncialis scriptura (Paris, 1902); Enlart. Manuel d' Archeologi» franfaise, I (Paris, 1902). For a more extensive literature see MoNOD, Bibliographic de I'histoire de France (Paris, 1888); MouNiEK. Les sources de Vhistoire de France, Pt. I: Epoque primitive, Merovingiens et Carolingiens (Paris, 1902).
Paul Lejat.
Gaulli, Giovanni Battista, called Baciccio, an Italian painter; b. at Genoa, 16.39; d. at Rome, 1709. He first studied in Genoa under Borzone, who instructed
