Aix, Archdiocese of (AIX, ARCIDIOCESI D') - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 378

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

AIX, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - A French metropolitan see city in Provence, A. is the oldest Latin colony in Gaul, founded around the year 120 B.C. by the consul Caius Sextius, near the thermal springs to which it owes its name (Aquae Sextiae). As for its evangelization, the historically verified series of its prelates begins in the 5th century.

Article illustration — AIX - Cathedral, portal of the western facade by Giovanni Guiramand of Toulon (1508-10).
(from J. Roussel, La sculpt. franc.)

Since A. became a civil metropolis from the time of the division of Narbonensis at the end of the 4th century, it also claimed a religious supremacy that was contested by the neighboring see of Arles. At the Council of Frankfurt in 794, the bishop of A. asserted his rights, which were confirmed by the Holy See.

The boundaries of the ecclesiastical province were adjusted several times: in 1790, by the Constituent Assembly; in 1822, with the creation of the metropolis of Avignon, and finally in 1866, with that of Algiers. Today, more extensive than it was before the Revolution, it includes the suffragan dioceses of Ajaccio, Digne, Fréjus, Gap, and Nice. The bull Paternae caritatis of Oct. 6, 1822, attributed to the see of A. the two districts of A. and Arles, with the titles of Arles and Embrun, which had already been suppressed by the Napoleonic Concordat. As a diocese, A. encompasses the territory of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône except for the district of Marseille, with a population of 239,500 Catholics out of 263,400 inhabitants, 201 priests, 3 archdeaconries, 23 deaneries, and 130 parishes. The diocese is under the patronage of St. Mitre (Mitrius, or Mitrius).

A. has given to the Church 11 cardinals among its archbishops and 7 among the canons of the metropolitan chapter. Worthy of mention among the archbishops are: Card. Guillaume Fillastre (1420-22); Gilbert Génébrard (1591-96); Card. Girolamo Grimaldi (1648-85); Raymond de Cucé de Boisgélin (1771-1801). Jean de Saint-Chamond (1551-66) adhered to the Calvinist Reformation and placed himself at the head of a Huguenot regiment after resigning from the episcopate.

Within the diocese, numerous religious institutes existed, which were subsequently destroyed by the French Revolution, among them the Carthusian monastery of Sainte-Marthe. The medieval foundations of the Hospitaler Order of St. John developed there, particularly at their inception.

BIBL.: Gallia christiana, I, Paris 1715, coll. 297-348; Eubel, I, p. 96; II, p. 102; III, p. 125; C. de Gaudemaris, Chartresses de Provence, Marseille 1899, pp. 85-88; J. H. Albanès-U. Chevalier, Gallia Christiana novissima, 1 (1899), pp. 1-171; J. Raybaud, Histoire des grandsprieurs et du prieuré de Saint-Gilles, 2 vols., Nîmes 1904-1906; L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, I, 2nd ed., Paris 1907, pp. 279-81; H. Fleury and A. Dumas, Sources de l'histoire de l'ancienne université d'A., Aix 1923; Martyr. Romanum, p. 519. Antonio Soirat

THE COUNCILS OF AIX. — Several synods or councils held at A. are recorded. The one in 1112 issued three decrees, the first of which reserved a fourth of the diocese's revenues to the city's archbishop. In another, held in 1409 with the participation of three provinces, members were elected to be sent to the Council of Pisa. The one in 1416 chose delegates for the Council of Constance.

In 1612 Hurault de l'Hôpital, archbishop of A., convened a council to censure a Treatise on Ecclesiastical and Civil Power, in which the author, Edmondo Richer, advocated the liberties of the Gallican Church. More important was the council or synod of 1672. Girolamo Grimaldi, cardinal archbishop, published its statutes which deal with the duties of pastors and the administration of the Sacraments, and recommend the observance of the Roman Ritual to parish priests. In the appendix is the list of reserved cases and penitential canons as well as the admonitions of s. Carlo Borromeo for confessors.

BIBL.: Mansi, XXI, col. 73; Collectio Conc. Lacensis, IV, Friburgo in Br. 1873, coll. 955 sgg.; Hefele-Leclercq, V, p. 540. Romualdo Souarn

THE UNIVERSITY OF AIX. — Among the ecclesiastical institutions of Aix, the University (Studium generale) stands out, founded by Alexander V with the bull In eminentis of Dec. 9, 1409, on the basis of ancient local theological schools. Confirmed by Louis II of Anjou, king of Sicily and

of Jerusalem and count of Provence (letter of Dec. 31, 1413), the University was greatly favored by his son René I of Anjou (ordinance of Nov. 7, 1460). The archbishop was its chancellor. From the very beginning it had the faculties of theology, canon and civil law, and from 1462 also that of medicine.

As an expression of the Provençal soul and culture, the University was reconfirmed in the 17th century by the king of France. Suppressed by the Revolution (1793), in 1808 Napoleon transformed it into an Academy of the Imperial University of France. Today it constitutes a single university with that of Marseille (Université d'Aix-Mar-

seille), whose faculties of law and letters are based in Aix, and those of science and medicine-pharmacy in Marseille.

A large part of its medieval documents were burned in 1536 during the invasion of Charles V. The ancient statutes, drawn up in the years 1420-40, were published for the first time by Bonifacio Blancas (Almae Aquarum Sextiarum Universitatis vetera et nova Statuta, Constitutiones et Consuetudines, Aix 1667) and again, together with the other surviving documents, by Marcello Fournier (Les Statuts et Privilèges des Universités Françaises depuis leur fondation jusqu'en 1789, III, Paris 1892, pp. 1-32).

BIBL.: A. Henricy, Notice sur l'ancienne Université d'A., Aix 1826; F. Belin, Histoire de l'ancienne Université de Provence, ou Histoire de la fameuse Université d'A. depuis sa fondation (1400-1409) jusqu'en 1793, 2 vols., Paris 1892 and 1906; G. Fleury and A. Dumas, Sources de l'histoire de l'ancienne Université d'A., Aix 1923; H. Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, II, new ed. edited by F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden, Oxford 1936, pp. 186-89. The work of F. Chavernac, Histoire de l'Université d'A., Aix 1889, is of scant scientific value.

Igino Cecchetti