Albi, Archdiocese of (ALBI, ARCIDIORESI DI) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 440

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

ALBI, ARCIDIOCESIS by. — Metropolis of south-western France, with its see at A., a city of 30,000 inhabitants situated on the left bank of the Tarn, a tributary of the Garonne, north-east of Toulouse, and at the same time capital of the department of the Tarn (5,780 sq. km and 297,800 inhabitants). A., which in the classical period was the centre of the Celtic tribe of the Albigenses, acquired importance above all in the Middle Ages, from the Carolingian period onward, when it became the seat of a county.

The episcopal see probably dates from the 3rd century. S. Claro is honoured as its first bishop, but the first name attested by history is that of Dio-

Dio-genianus, whom Paulinus of Nola praises as a contemporary (cf. Epistolae, in CSEL, XXIX, 1, p. 390). He is also mentioned by Gregory of Tours (Hist. Francorum, II, 13). The diocese of A. then formed part of Aquitania I; it remained united to it even when John XXII, in 1317, detached its southern portion to form the diocese of Castres.

A. gave its name to a sect of heretics against whom, in 1209, Pope Innocent III ordered a crusade that defeated them at Murat and Toulouse in 1213 (v. ALBIGESI). Innocent XI made A. a metropolitan see on 3 October 1678. The Concordat suppressed it in 1801. In 1817, a new concordat — whose execution was suspended until 1822 — restored it and extended its jurisdiction over the former dioceses of Castres and Lavaur, whose titles it has borne since 17 February 1922. The dioceses of Rodez, Mende, Cahors, and Perpignan are its suffragans. It has 283,000 Catholics, grouped in 507 parishes, with 490 diocesan priests and 118 religious priests. Its extent coincides exactly with that of the department of the Tarn.

The principal ecclesiastical monuments are the magnificent fortress-cathedral dedicated to S. Cecilia (13th–14th centuries), the church of S. Salvi (12th and 15th centuries), and the former archbishop’s palace (late 13th century), now a museum.

BIBL.: Gallia christiana, I, Paris 1715, cols. 1–46, 1325; Cl. de Vic and J. Vaissette, Histoire générale de la province de Languedoc, 13 vols., 2nd ed., Toulouse 1873–82, especially vol. IV — E. Mabile, Note sur l'Église d'A., cols. 383–91, and idem, Établissements religieux de la ville et du diocèse d'A., cols. 652–74; H. Crozes, Le diocèse d'A., ses évêques et archevêques, Albi 1878; L. Duchesne, Faites épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, II, 2nd ed., Paris 1910, pp. 41–43, 128–30; L. de Lacqer, États administratifs des anciens diocèses d'A., de Castres et de Lavaur, suivis d'une bibliographie des évêques de ces 3 diocèses, Paris 1921; J. Larn, La Cathédrale d'A., Paris [1944]. Antonio Soirat

THE «STUDIUM» OF A. — Its existence is established by the bull Super specula (1 February 1329), by which John XXII, erecting the Studium of Gaillac, removed it from the control of the academic authorities of A.: «Rectoris et magistrorum Universitatis Studii Albiensis» (M. Fournier, Les Statuts et Priv. des Universités françaises, II, Paris 1891, pp. 744–45).

Denifle (Die Universitäten des Mittelalters, Berlin 1885, p. 228) states that a Studium existed at A. as early as the 13th century; a certain Petrus de Petra taught there in 1285. Later, in a petition for dispensation from residence addressed to Clement VI by Stephanus De Soneto, it is said: «in quocumque Studio Generali, vel Albiae, licet generale non sit». That of A. was therefore a Studium particulare, or local Studium.

BIBL.: J. Baudel, Les Écoles d'A. de 1380 à 1623, Cahors 1879; H. Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, III, 2nd ed., edited by F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden, Oxford 1936, p. 335. Igino Cecchetti