CERVIA, Diocese of. - In Romagna, a suffragan of Ravenna, founded around 500. The first known bishop of C. is St. Gerontius, who subscribed to the acts of the Synod celebrated in Rome by Pope Symmachus (501). But what the legend of St. Gerontius narrates about him does not merit credence. Another holder of C. of whom there is record is Severus, who in 591 appears as visitor of Rimini and in 595 of Ravenna. Also known is the bishop John, sent by Pope Nicholas I in 862 with Radoald to France to examine the matrimonial case of Emperor Lothair with Teutberga. Although in the spurious privilege of Gregory the Great (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1883) C. is numbered among the suffragans of Ravenna, it seems that from the earliest times it was immediately subject to the Holy See. In 948 Pope Agapetus II permitted it to be severed from the Roman patriarchate and subjected to Ravenna.
In the struggles between the Church and the empire C. followed the empire; then, associated or in conflict with Ravenna, it took part throughout the 13th century in the struggles of the Romagnol communes and was subject to the Ravennese. Giovanni Ursarola, who governed the diocese from 1232 onward, sought to shake off their tyranny and the yoke of the archbishop of Ravenna, appealing to Gregory IX, who took his side. For a decade under Venetian rule (1243-53), then under the Forlivesi (1270-90) and the Polentani, it finally passed to the Malatesta of Rimini (1348), who ceded it to Venice in 1463. In the 16th century its history merges with that of the Papal State. Gregory XV, elevating Bologna to an archiepiscopal see, annexed C. to it as a suffragan; but under Paul V it returned under the jurisdiction of Ravenna. Its very small territory comprises, besides C., Massa Fiscaglia, Fiscaglia, Migliaro, Migliarino, Santa Margherita, Alberlungo, Medelana and Rovereto. Since 1907 its title has been united with that of the archbishop of Ravenna, who is also bishop of C.
Bibliography7 works
Mario Scaduto