Its former cathedral, while little to be remarked to-day as a really grand church edifice, was by no means an unworthy fane. It dates from the fourteenth century, and in part is thoroughly representative of the Gothic of that era. It was rebuilt in the eighteenth century, and a fine _clocher_ added.
_St. Lizier or Couserans_
The present-day St. Lizier--a tiny Pyrenean city--was the former Gallo-Romain city of Couserans. It retained this name when it was first made a bishopric by St. Valere in the fifth century. The see was suppressed in 1790.
The eglise de St. Lizier, of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, consists of a choir and a nave, but no aisles. It shows some traces of fine Roman sculpture, and a mere suggestion of a cloister.
The former bishop"s palace dates only from the seventeenth century.
_Sarlat_
A Benedictine abbey was founded here in the eighth century, and from this grew up the bishopric which took form in 1317 under Raimond de Roquecarne, which in due course was finally abolished and the town stripped of its episcopal rank.
The former cathedral dates from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and in part from the fifteenth. Connected therewith is a sepulchral chapel, called the _tour des Maures_. It is of two _etages_, and dates from the twelfth century.
_St. Pons de Tomiers_
St. Pons is the seat of an ancient bishopric now suppressed. It is a charming village--it can hardly be named more ambitiously--situated at the source of the river Jaur, which rises in the Montagnes Noir in Lower Languedoc.
Its former cathedral is not of great interest as an architectural type, though it dates from the twelfth century.
The facade is of the eighteenth century, but one of its side chapels dates from the fourteenth.
_St. Maurice de Mirepoix_
Mirepoix is a charming little city of the slopes of the Pyrenees.
Its ancient cathedral of St. Maurice dates from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and has no very splendid features or appointments,--not even of the Renaissance order,--as might be expected from its magnitude. Its sole possession of note is the _clocher_, which rises to an approximate height of two hundred feet.
The bishopric was founded in 1318 by Raimond Athone, but was suppressed in 1790.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE END.]
_Appendices_
I
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Sketch map showing the usual geographical divisions of France. I., north; II., northwest; III., east; IV., southwest; V., southeast: also the present departments into which the government is divided, with their names; and the mediaeval provinces which were gradually absorbed into the kingdom of France._
_There is in general one bishopric to a department._
_The subject-matter of this book treats of all of southwestern and southeastern France; with, in addition, the departments of Saone-et-Loire, Jura, Rhone, Loire, Ain, and Allier._]
II
_A Historical Table of the Dioceses of the South of France up to the beginning of the nineteenth century._
_Province d"Aix_
_Name_ _Diocese founded_ _First bishop_ _Date of suppression_
Aix _Nice, Avignon, Ajaccio, and Digne were allied therewith in 1802, and Ma.r.s.eilles and Alger in 1822._
(Archbishopric) First century (?) St. Maxim (?)
Antibes Transferred to Gra.s.se
Apt First century (?) St. Auspice 1790
Gra.s.se (Jurisdiction over Antibes.)
Gap Fifth century St. Demetrius
Riez Fifth century St. Prosper 1790
Frejus Fourth century Acceptus
Sisteron Fifth century Chrysaphius
_Province d"Albi_
Albi Fourth century St. Clair Bishopric (Archbishopric) 1317 (?) Anthime
Castres 647 as a Benedictine Robert, the first 1790 Abbey. Abbot 1317 as a Bishopric
Mende Third century at St. Severein Civitas Gabalorum. and Genialis Reestablished here in the year 1000
Cahors Fourth century St. Genulphe
Rodez Fifth century St. Amand
Arisitum Sixth century detached Deothaire Rejoined from the diocese of to Rodez Rodez 670
Vabres Benedictine 1790 Abbey, 862.
Bishopric, 1317
_Province d"Arles_
Arles First century St. Trophime 1790 (Archbishopric)