The Diocese of Belley–Ars (Latin: Dioecesis Bellicensis–Arsensis; French: Diocèse de Belley–Ars) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in France. Erected in the 5th century, the diocese was renamed in 1988 from the former Diocese of Belley to the Diocese of Belley–Ars. Coextensive with the civil department of Ain, in the Region of Rhône-Alpes, the diocese is a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Lyon. The cathedra of the bishop is at Belley Cathedral.
Although suppressed at the time of the Napoleonic Concordat (1801), the Diocese of Belley was re-established in 1822 and took from the Archdiocese of Lyon the arrondissements of Belley, Bourg, Nantua and Trévoux, and from the Archdiocese of Chambéry the Arrondissement of Gex.
History
Local tradition maintains that Belley was evangelized in the 2nd century by the martyrs Marcellus and Valerian, companions of St. Pothinus.Alloing, p. 14. The first bishop of historic certainty is Vincentius, mentioned in 552. In the 16th century, a citizen of Belley, Christian Urst, produced a theory, adopted by 17th-century authors including Samuel Guichenon,Guichenon, p. 19. Haureau, Gallia christiana XV, p. 601. that the diocese of Belley had come into being when the city of Nyon on Lake Geneva was destroyed by the Burgundians, and the bishop's seat was removed to Belley. This theory, with no evidence to support it, has been abandoned.Alloing, p. 40: "Cette opinion est aujourd'hui abandonnée. Il parait certain que Nyon n'a jamais eu d'évêque. Il est donc impossible que le siège de Belley doive son origine à un évêque de Nyon."
In the Treaty of Verdun of 10 August 843, the territory which included the city and diocese of Belley were assigned, by agreement of Charles the Bald, Lothair, and Louis the German, to the kingdom of Lothair, which included Burgundy, Savoy, and northern Italy.Eric Joseph Goldberg, Struggle for Empire. Kingship and Conflict Under Louis the German, 817-876 (Ithaca: Cornell 2006), pp 113-116. In July 879, Boso of Provence repudiated his allegiance to the family of Charlemagne, and established his own kingdom, usually called the Kingdom of Provence. It included southern Lotharingia, Burgundy, the kingdom of Arles, and the kingdom of Provence. On 15 October 879, the bishops and nobility of these areas met at the Synod of Mantaille in Provence,Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Legum Sectio II. Capitularia regum Francorum , Volume 2 (Hannover: Hahn 1897), pp. 365-369. Archbishop Aurelianus of Lyon and Archbishop Theodericus of Besançon were among the prelates who subscribed. and elected Boso as their king.Constance Brittain Bouchard, Those of My Blood. Creating Noble Families in Medieval Francia (Philadelphia: U. Pennsylvania Press 2010), pp. 76-80. Belley thus ceased to be Frankish.Haureau, Gallia christiana XV, p. 601.
In the early 12th century, Count Amadeus III of Savoy obtained control over Belley and the Bugey. In 1535, Francis I of France invaded the territory of Savoy, and held it until the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559.Haureau, Gallia christiana XV, p. 601.
Pope Innocent II issued a bull for the new Bishop Guillaume of Bellay on 4 December 1142, taking the diocese under his protection, and guaranteeing the benefices which constituted the bishop's income. He also ordered that the cathedral Chapter be composed of Canons Regular, under the Rule of S. Augustine, rather than secular priests; and that the Canons Regular have the exclusive right to elect the bishop.Haureau, Gallia christiana XV, "Instrumenta", 307-308: "nullus ibi nisi Regularis Ordinis episcopus eligatur" Before 1142, the secular canons numbered 24. In a reorganization of 1578, there came to be 6 dignities and 19 canons. In 1678, the Chapter was composed of 7 dignities (the Prior, the Archdeacon, the Infirmarius, the Chamberlain, the Dean, the Treasurer, and the Sacristan) and 18 canons prebendary; in 1745, there were 3 dignities and 13 canons.Haureau, Gallia christiana XV, p. 603. Ritzler & Sefrin V, p. 116, note 1; VI, p. 118, note 1.
King Henry IV of France acquired the territory in which the diocese of Belley is located from Savoy in the Treaty of Lyon in 1601. The treaty was negotiated with the help of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, the nephew of Pope Clement VIII.Alain Hugon, “ Le duché de Savoie et la Pax Hispanica. Autour du traité de Lyon (1601), ” Cahiers d'Histoire 46 (2001), pp. 211–242. Nelson H. Minnich (ed.), The Renaissance Papacy, 1400–1600 (Leiden: Brill 2025), p. 208. The first bishop of Belley appointed by the French was Jean-Pierre Camus (1608–1629), the author of more than 150 volumes,Joseph Bergin, The Making of the French Episcopate, 1589–1661, (New Haven: Yale UP 1996), p. 37. Eubel III, p. 131. including L' esprit de saint François de Sales.L' esprit de saint François de Sales, Recueilli de divers ecrits de M. Jean-Pierre Camus, évêque de Belley., The Spirit of S. Francis de Sales (1871).
French Revolution Even before it directed its attention to the Church directly, the National Constituent Assembly attacked the institution of monasticism. On 13 February 1790. it issued a decree which stated that the government would no longer recognize solemn religious vows taken by either men or women. In consequence, Orders and Congregations which lived under a Rule were suppressed in France. Members of either sex were free to leave their monasteries or convents if they wished, and could claim an appropriate pension by applying to the local municipal authority.J. B. Duvergier, Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, règlemens avis du Conseil d'état, , Volume 1 (Paris: A. Guyot et Scribe, 1834), p. 118: "La loi constitutionnelle du royaume ne reconnaitra plus de voeux monastiques solennels des personnes de l'un ni de l'autre sexe: en conséquence, les ordres et congrégations réguliers dans lesquels on fait de pareils voeux sont et demeureront supprimés en France, sans qu'il puisse en être établi de semblables à l'avenir." Michael Burleigh, Earthly Powers: The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe, from the French Revolution to the Great War (New York: Harper Collins 2006), p. 54.
The National Constituent Assembly ordered the replacement of political subdivisions of the ancien régime with subdivisions called "departments", to be characterized by a single administrative city in the center of a compact area. The decree was passed on 22 December 1789, the boundaries fixed on 26 February 1790, with the institution to be effective on 4 March 1790.Pisani, pp. 10-11. A new department was created called "Ain," and Belley became the principal city in the department.Duvergier, p. 125. The National Constituent Assembly then, on 6 February 1790, instructed its ecclesiastical committee to prepare a plan for the reorganization of the clergy. At the end of May, its work was presented as a draft Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which, after vigorous debate, was approved on 12 July 1790. There was to be one diocese in each department,"Civil Constitution," Title I, "Article 1. Chaque département formera un seul diocèse, et chaque diocèse aura la même étendue et les mêmes limites que le département." requiring the suppression of approximately fifty dioceses.Ludovic Sciout, Histoire de la constitution civile du clergé (1790-1801): L'église et l'Assemblée constituante, , Vol. 1 (Paris: Firmin Didot 1872), p. 182: Art. 2 "...Tous les autres évêchés existant dans les quatre-vingt-trois départements du royaume, et qui ne sont pas nommément compris au présent article, sont et demeurent supprimés." The "Metropole de l'Est" was created, and the diocese of the department of "Ain" was included in it.Duvergier I, p. 284: "L'arrondissement de la métropole du sud-est comprendra les évêchés des départemens de Rhône-et-Loire, du Puy-de-Dôme, du Cantal, de la Haute-Loire, de l'Ardèche, de l'Isère, de l'Ain, de Saône-et-Loire." The seat of the bishop of Ain was fixed at Belley.Duvergier I, p. 283, col. 2.
In the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the National Constituent Assembly also abolished cathedral chapters, canonicates, prebends, chapters and dignities of collegiate churches, chapters of both secular and regular clergy of both sexes, and abbeys and priories whether existing under a Rule or in commendam.J. B. Duvergier, Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, règlemens avis du Conseil d'état, , Volume 1 (Paris: A. Guyot et Scribe, 1834), p. 244: "20. Tous titres et offices, autres que ceux mentionnés en la présente constitution, les dignités, canonicats, prébendes, demi-prébendes, chapelles, chapellenies, tant des églises cathédrales que des églises collégiales, et tous chapitres réguliers et séculiers de l'un et de l'autre sexe, les abbayes et prieurés en règle ou en commende, aussi de l'un et de l'autre sexe, et tous autres bénéfices et prestimonies généralement quelconques, de quelque nature et sous quelque dénomination que ce soit, sont, à compter du jour de la publication du présent décret, éteints et supprimés, sans qu'il puisse jamais en être établi de semblables."
Angered by the almost universal disdain of the French episcopate, as well as the opposition of the majority of the clergy, the National Assembly issued a decree on 17 November 1790, requiring the swearing of an oath of allegiance to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and to the national constitution, still in preparation. Penalties for refusing to swear the required oath were loss of income, deposition from office, arrest, trial, and deportation.Ludovic Sciout, Histoire de la constitution civile du clergé (1790-1801): L'église et l' assemblée constituante, , Vol. 1 (Paris: Firmin Didot 1872), pp. 398-402. Gabriel Cortois de Quincey, who had been the legitimate bishop of Belley since 1751, refused to take the oath, but before action could be taken against him, he died, on 14 January 1791.Le Duc, p. 114.
The electors of the department of Ain, not all of whom were Catholic, met at Bourg, and on 6 February elected as their constitutional bishop Jean Baptiste Royer, the parish priest of Chavannes-sur-Suran, some 20 km northeast of Bourg-en-Bresse. He was not present, since he had been elected to the Estates General of 1789, then in 1792 to the Convention, and continued on in Paris. He was consecrated, in a ceremony which was both schismatic and blasphemous, on 3 April 1791 in Paris at Nôtre-Dame, by Antoine-Adrien Lamourette, the constitutional bishop of Lyon. He visited Belley for his installation, but in September 1792 returned to Paris to continue his political work. He was imprisoned during the Terror. He became one of the leaders of the restored Constitutional Church, and was elected bishop of Paris in August 1795.Pisani, pp. 59-62. Belley was without a bishop until the diocese was suppressed by Pope Pius VII in 1801.
In 1799, the number of constitutional priests in the diocese was more or less 80, though the conduct of some 20 of them was equivocal or suspected of taking the oath to the Civil Constitution merely for the job.Pisani, p. 283.
Restoration of the French hierarchy