The Diocese of Mende (Latin: Dioecoesis Mimatensis; French: Diocèse de Mende) is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese covers the department of Lozère.
The diocese was already in existence in 314, since Genialis, a deacon of the Church of Gabalum (Gévaudan), was present at the Council of Arles in that year.de civitate Gabalum provincia Aquitania. C. Munier, Concilia Galliae A. 314 – A. 506 (Turnhout: Brepols 1963), p. 15 line 47; p. 16 line 39; p. 18 line 34; p. 21 line 34. Duchesne, p. 54. Louis Duchesne chooses to place the earliest known bishop, Privatus, before 314, though he points out that his date depends on a synchronicity with an invasion of Aquitaine by a band of German marauders under the leadership of King Chrocus; Chrocus' date is variously placed between the third and fifth century.Duchesne, p. 54, no. 1. The notion that a Saint Severianus was the first apostle of the Gevaudan, or that Privatus held the same honor, and that the whole country was converted to Christianity in one stroke, has long been exploded, by a demonstration that the legends are based on representations made to Pope Urban V in the 14th century to obtain indulgences.Gaydou, Études critiques, pp. 3–16.
The diocese of Mende was a suffragan of Bourges under the Ancien Régime. When it was re-established by the Concordat of 1801 it became a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Lyon and united with the department of Ardèche, which however it lost again in 1822 by the creation of the Diocese of Viviers, at which point Mende became suffragan to Albi. On December 16, 2002, Mende was made a suffragan to Montpellier.
The Bishop has his seat at the Cathedral Basilica of Notre Dame and St. Privat in Mende. Funds to begin the cathedral were supplied by Pope Urban V (1362–1370).The actual construction took place much later. Work began in 1364 and stopped in 1386; construction resumed in 1452, and the altar was consecrated on 2 August 1467. The works were completed under Bishop Clemente Grosso della Rovere (1483–1504). Pascal, pp. 114–120; 375-376. Before the French Revolution, the Cathedral Chapter consisted of a Praepositus (Provost), the Archdeacon and the Precentor (the dignities, dignités) and fifteen canons. There were approximately 200 parishes, and one abbey.Gallia christiana I, pp. 85–86.
In 2019, the diocese, which is mostly rural, had a total population of 76,300, of whom 72.1% were claimed as Roman Catholics. They are served by 59 priests, and there were 135 parishes.David M. Cheney, Catholic-Hierarchy: Diocese of Mende. Retrieved: 2019-07-17.
History According to late legends belonging to the Limousin cycle relating to St. Martial, he passed through the territory of the Gabali (Gévaudan) of which Mende is the capital, and appointed as its first bishop, St. Severian his disciple, about the beginning of the first century. The first bishop known to history is Saint Privatus, who according to Gregory of Tours, died in a grotto of Mount Mimmat, a victim of the ill treatment he suffered at the time of the invasion of the Alamanni under their King Chrocus. Gregory of Tours places this event about 260 (though Fredegarius puts the invasion of Chrocus at 407). Louis Duchesne, however, places the invasion of Chrocus and the death of St. Privatus at the beginning of the reign of Constantine, c. 312, perhaps before the Council of Arles. It is certain that there was an organized church in the country of the Gabali from about 314, since in that year it was represented at the Council of Arles.Carolus Munier, Concilia Galliae, A. 314 – A. 506 (Turnholt: Brepols 1963), p. 15 line 47: Genialis diaconus de civitate Gabalum provincia Aquitanica. Other bishops of the Gabali, who doubtless resided at Javoulx, near Mende, were: Hilarius, present at the Council of Auvergne (Clermont) in 535,Carolus De Clercq, Concilia Galliae, A. 511 – A. 695 (Turnholt: Brepols 1963), p. 111 line 7: Helarius...episcopus ecclesiae Gaualetanae. and founder of the monastery of Sainte-Enimie, and whose personality has been wrongly described in certain traditions concerning Saint Illier ; and St. Frézal of Canourgue (ninth century), assassinated, it is said, under Louis le Débonnaire.
Towards the year 1000 Mende became the seat of the bishopric. Under Bishop Aldebert de Tournel (1151–1186), Pope Alexander III passed some days at Mende in the last two weeks of July 1162.P. Jaffe and G. Wattenbach, Regesta pontificum Romanorum Tomus II (Leipzig 1888), p. 160. Bishop Aldebert wrote two works, on the passion and on the miracles of St. Privatus whose relics were discovered at Mende in 1170.Léopold Delisle has noted the historical interest of these two works for the early history of the Third Estate in the Gévaudan. Léopold Delisle, "Un manuscrit de la cathédrale de Mende, perdu et retrouvé," in Journal des Savants (Octobre 1908), pp. 505–512. Bishop Adalbert's most noteworthy achievement, however, was his negotiation of an act of fealty with King Louis VII of France, sometimes called the 'golden bull' or act of paréage of 1166.G. de Burdin, I, p. 7 note 1, points out that the original bull does not survive, and there is no proof that a golden bull was ever attached. King Louis noted that it was the first time that a bishop of Gévaudan had ever made his submission to a king of France. He also recognized the powers of the bishop, not only in the spiritual sphere, but also ad iudicandum in gladio (judging with the sword), and stated that the agreement in no way was to be taken to diminish the privileges already enjoyed by the bishops. The King surrendered to the bishop and his successors all the regalian rights with reference to his crown.G. de Burdin, I, p. 8.
In 1278, under Bishop Stephanus (III), the Dominicans established a convent in Maruéjols, in the diocese of Mende.Gallia christiana I, p. 93. Pascal, p. 205.
The city of Mende was not important enough to become the capital of the Gévaudan until the act of paréage of King Philip IV of 3 February 1307, which granted the bishops the title of Count and the high Seigneurie of Gévaudan. This act increased their temporal authority and brought the submission of all of the seigneurs of the region.A. Martin, p. 4. Gallia christiana I, p. 96.
Estates of Gévaudan The territory of Lodève had its own Estates from an early period, and it retained it even after it became part of the Estates of Languedoc in the fourteenth century. The Bishop of Mende was the President of the Estates of Gévaudan; the First Estate (clergy) were represented by a Canon of the Cathedral (representing the Chapter), the Dom d'Aubrac, the Prior of Saint-Enemie, the Prior of Langogne, the Abbot of Chambons, the Commander of Palhers, and the Commander of Saint-Jean. The Second Estate (nobility) were represented by the eight Barons who were Peers of Gévaudon (d'Apchier, de Peyre, de Cenaret, du Tournel, de Randon, de Florac, de Mercoeur, de Canilhac), twelve gentlemen (the Seigneurs d'Allene, de Montauroux, de Saint-Alban, de Montrodat, de Mirandol, de Séverac, de Barre, de Gabriac, de Portes, de Servières, d'Arpajon, and the Consuls of la Garde-Guérin); the Third Estate were represented by the three Consuls of Mende, the three Consuls of Marvejols (when the meeting took place at Marvejols), and a Consul (or deputy) from each of sixteen communities. The Estates met annually, alternately at Mende and at Marvejols. The Estates opened with a procession from the Episcopal Palace to the Cathedral for a Mass of the Holy Spirit, and closed with a Te Deum and episcopal blessing.G. de Burdin, I, pp. 37–43.
Some individual bishops Mende had later as bishops, Guillaume Durand (1285–1296), a Doctor of Laws (Bologna) and teacher of law at Modena, author of "Speculum juris", and of the "Rationale divinorum officiorum";Pascal, pp. 425–439, includes an analysis of the works. he was secretary of the Second Council of Lyon in 1274. His nephew, Durand le Jeune (1296–1328) who negotiated the "Paréage" with King Philip, definitively settled the respective rights of king and bishop in the Gévaudan; he left a work on the general councils and on the reform of abuses. Guillaume de Grimoard, born about 1310 at the castle of Grisac near Mende, the fief of his father Guillaume de Grimoard, Seigneur de Grisac, Bellegarde, and Montbel. He was sickly and deformed, but was restored at the prayer of his godfather, Elzéar de Sabran, who had come to baptise him. Magnan (p. 83) questions the miraculous story, pointing out that it does not appear in the extensive documentation for the canonization of Urban V. Elected pope in 1362 under the name of Urban V, he administered the Diocese of Mende himself from 1368 to 1370, since it had been left vacant by the transfer of his nephew to the See of Avignon.
Among the bishops of Mende were: Pietro Riario (1473–1474), nephew of Sixtus IV and a cardinal; Giuliano della Rovere (1478–1483) later pope under the name of Julius II; and his nephews, Cardinal Clement della Rovere (1483–1504) and Francesco della Rovere (1504–1524).
Urban II is said to have visited the Diocese of Mende in 1095, and to have had consecrated in his presence the church of the monastery of Saint Sauveur de Chirac or of Monastier, which had been founded in 1062 and was a dependency of the Abbey of Saint Victor in Marseille. There is no actual evidence for this story, which is retailed by local historians, and which is rejected by Jean-Baptiste-Étienne Pascal.Pascal, Gabalum christianum, p. 76.
Plague and Protestants In 1374 Mende was stricken by the plague, and of the 160 clerics attached to the cathedral in one capacity or another, eighty were killed. The epidemic returned in 1399 and again in 1435, and in 1460 the suffering lasted from June through mid-August. It returned in 1482, and in 1490 the Cathedral Chapter left the city of Mende for Marvejols, some seventeen miles to the west. On 21 April 1504 the Canons held a chapter meeting in an open field along the Lot River in order to avoid the plague. The plague returned in 1523 and 1532. In 1533 the Grand Archdeacon of Mende donated a considerable sum of money to build a small hospital for victims of the peste, outside the walls of the city, a project which was immediately carried out by the Consuls of the city. The Bishop of Mende cooperated by contributing a sum of money. In 1578, during the wars with the Huguenots, Mende suffered from another 'peste' which carried off 2,000 inhabitants.Martin, pp. 9–11.
Mende was captured for the first time by the Huguenots in 1562. The adventurer Mathieu Merle, a native of Uzès and leader of the Huguenots in Gévaudan from 1573 to 1581, led into the region bands of Protestants raised from among vagabonds in Périgord, Querci, and the Haut-Rouergue. They were masters of Mende for eighteen months in 1580 and 1581. They destroyed a great part of the cathedral that Urban V had caused to be rebuilt. In the village and Chateau de Serverette he and his band massacred twenty-four priests.L'Ouvreleul, p. 43.
The Diocese of Mende was one of the regions where the insurrection of the Huguenot Camisards, peasants and rural craftsmen of the Cévennes, broke out at the beginning of the eighteenth century and continued c. 1702 to 1710.
In 1720 and 1721 the last of the great epidemics hit the Gévaudan. At Mende 1061 died; at Marvejols 1800 persons died, out of a total population of 3500; in the parish of Canourgne 945 died.A. Martin, p. 12. In 1677 the city of Mende had around 5,000 inhabitants: Ritzler-Sefrin, V, p. 268 note 1. In 1767, the city of Mende claimed to have only around 2,000 inhabitants. Ritzler-Sefrin, VI, p. 289 note 1.