Brittany

BRETAGNA. – Historical region of France, corresponding to the peninsula of the same name (250 km long and at most 170 km wide), which projects from the continental landmass between the English Channel and the Atlantic.

The territory (approx. 30,000 sq km) consists of a peneplain formed by the denudation of a very ancient relief (the Armorican Massif), in which two anticlinal belts can be discerned. Their axes correspond to the direction of the two northern and southern coasts, which enclose a syncline partly occupied by depressions (the basins of Châteaulin and Rennes). This tectonic pattern still governs the life of the region, setting a maritime zone, or Armor, against an inland one, or Argot. The former has a relatively prosperous economy and a dense population; the latter, modest agricultural activity and more scattered settlement. The interior is largely occupied by expanses of heather and rushes, bogs, and sparse woodland; the better cultivated areas produce poor cereals (rye and sorghum) and, in the meadows, support a respectable amount of cattle raising. The coast, on the other hand, combines intense maritime activity (fishing drives the Breton sailor as far as the Newfoundland banks) with forms of specialized agriculture (early vegetables and fruit), which, favored by the region’s temperate, humid climate, are encouraged by the proximity of consumer markets (England, Brest, Paris).

The peninsular character of B., its peripheral situation, and the social conditions arising from the local economy have favored the preservation of the original Celtic type, which in the interior has remained essentially resistant to French influence. This is demonstrated not only by the strength of tradition (customs, religious sentiment and practices), but also by the persistence of the language, Breton, still spoken by more than a million people and having nothing in common with the French dialects.

The population, which numbered 2,400,000 inhabitants in 1931, had fallen (1946) to 2,300,000 (a decrease of 3.1% over fifteen years), whereas in the past it had tended to offset the active migratory outflow through a high birth rate. Of the urban centers, only Rennes exceeds, and only slightly, 100,000 inhabitants. Brest (79,000 inhabitants) is the largest naval arsenal in western France.

B. is divided into four departments: Ille-et-Villaine (capital Rennes), Côte-du-Nord (S. Brieuc, with 37,000 inhabitants), Finistère (Quimper, 20,000 inhabitants), and Morbihan (Vannes, 28,000 inhabitants), among which the population is distributed, more than 98% of it Catholic.

EVANGELIZATION OF B. — Armorica, the extreme northwestern extension of Gaul, after the Roman conquest (57 B.C.) sheltered the last remnants of the Druidic religion among its dense forests. Christianity had great difficulty gaining a foothold there. Until Martin of Tours (d. in 397), we have no certain information concerning the existence in B. of a genuine Christian community. The martyrdom of the two young Christians Donatian and Rogatian at Nantes (cf. Martyr. Romanum, p. 264) attests, at most, the presence of a few Christians. Local traditions, not yet fully established, would assign a bishop, Claro, to Nantes as early as the middle of the 4th century. In any case, it was Martin of Tours (372–97), metropolitan of the whole Lugdunensis III, of which Armorica was the northern part, who initiated its regular evangelization. It cannot, however, be said whether he directly retained the governance of those Christian communities or appointed bishops of their own for them. The fact remains that, at the arrival of the Bretons, the three Gallo-Roman bishoprics of Nantes, Rennes, and Vannes already existed in Armorica. Paganism nevertheless continued to predominate among the very sparse population, especially after the devastations caused by the Alans and the Saxons between 406 and 416. Christianity triumphed definitively when, toward the middle of the 5th century, the Bretons began to stream into Armorica from nearby Greater B.; as they gradually increased in number, the peninsula soon changed its name and language. Some groups were led by their own bishop, and a Minsuetus, bishop of the Bretons, already appears at the Council of Tours in 461 alongside his Gallo-Roman colleagues; others were led by priests and monks; but their entire organization centered on the monasteries. There were in fact no dioceses with precise boundaries; rather, the bishops governed the faithful from their monasteries, as in Greater B. and Ireland. Irish influences did not fail to make themselves felt in those first centuries of organization, and the monastic element remained predominant. We regularly find Breton bishops at Alet, Tréguier, Quimper, Léon (St-Pol-de-Léon), St-Brieuc, Dol, and St-Malo, alongside their Gallo-Roman colleagues. The entire territory continued to depend on the metropolitan see of Tours, but a movement toward separation gradually became more powerful from the 8th century onward, owing to political conflicts with the Carolingian rulers. Indeed, there was a time when Dol attempted to arrogate metropolitan authority to itself. A substantial part of the legislation of the False Decretals was specifically directed toward regulating the religious relations of the region.