GALLIA

GALLIA. — Thus did the ancients call the country lying between the Mediterranean, the Alps, the Rhine, the Ocean, and the Pyrenees, which divided the Gallia Narbonensis, Aquitania, Lugdunensis, and Belgica.

I. EVANGELIZATION

The region, entirely pacified and organized by Augustus, had soon attained a notable degree of civilization and tranquility; commercial, political, and administrative relations with Italy and Rome were constant, the roads numerous and well-maintained, and the river routes widely used. Frequented by Greeks and Orientals from ancient times, the Provençal coast must have been, where as early as c. 600 B.C. the Phocaeans from Asia Minor had founded an active and prosperous colony at Massalia (Marseille) and dominated the excellent route of penetration into the interior offered by the Rhône. It is highly probable that some Christian voice may have reached the Massilian region at a very early date, a fact that would find corroboration in Puteoli, another place closely connected with the East, where St. Paul found in the year 60 a nucleus of Christians of some importance. However, the late traditions regarding the coming of Lazarus, the risen man of Bethany, and his sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene to Provence cannot be seriously entertained.

In 2 Tim. 4:10, St. Paul laments being almost alone, and among the names of disciples who are far away he mentions Crescens and the Xalix. Not all manuscripts, however, have Xalix; others have Xalix, and the earliest interpreters, Eusebius and Theodore, did not even raise the question of whether C. could be meant, but referred the passage to Galatia. In any case, no further information is available about this mission of Crescens.

There is also the question of whether St. Paul went to Spain. That he intended to do so is beyond doubt; he himself clearly states this in Rom. 15:24, and a passage in the Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians (V, 7) seems to support the affirmative thesis, in which it is said that the Apostle did not attain the crown of martyrdom until after he had reached the extreme West. If St. Paul did go to Spain, it is more than probable that he chose the sea route rather than attempting to cross the Alps, and in that case, given the ancient navigators' preference for coastal routes, there would have been a stop at Massilia, which the Saint would certainly not have failed to take advantage of. In any event, on December 5, 1941, the Pope asked why St. Paul spoke of Spain and not of Gaul and Africa. Might it not be because others had already gone there before him? One should recall what the Apostle says about his reluctance to work where others had already sown (Rom. 15:20).

In any case, we remain in the realm of possibilities, just as entirely hypothetical are the attributions to the 2nd century of some epigraphic texts or sarcophagi found in Gaul, deemed to be of that age solely on the basis of dubious paleographic or historical-artistic criteria. To have the first secure documentation of the presence of Christians in Gaul, we must go down to the year 177 A.D. A letter from that year, written by the Christians of Lugdunum (Lyons) to their brethren in Asia and Phrygia, recounts the glorious end of a group of Christians who were put to death with barbarous torments out of hatred for their faith. The tragic event at Lugdunum was almost certainly the first instance of anti-Christian persecution in Gaul, as Sulpicius Severus acknowledges: «sub Aurelio deinde, Antonini filio, persecutio... agitata, ac tunc primum inter Gallias martyria visa, serius trans Alpes Dei religione suscepta» (Chron., II, 32).

At the head of the church of Lugdunum, after the storm had passed, stood the presbyter Irenaeus. A native of Asia, where in his youth he had listened to St. Polycarp of Smyrna, he is one of the greatest figures in the Christianity of the 2nd century. It is not known when or why he came to Gaul, but there he carried out a fervent and luminous work both as bishop and as a writer and defender of the Christian Faith, enjoying great prestige. He was indeed able to intervene with wise advice of moderation in the dispute between the Church of Rome and the Churches of Asia over the date of the celebration of Easter, succeeding in persuading Pope Victor I not to break communion with the Asian Churches over an issue that, though not vital, was not without importance.

Only for Lugdunum do we have episcopal lists dating back to before the 3rd century (L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, Paris 1907-10), which does not mean that the existence of other episcopal sees should be ruled out, for many sees cannot produce complete and orderly lists of their bishops. In any case, it is certain that the further back one goes in time, the more episcopal sees will be found to be confined to the major cities.

Gregory of Tours says that in the year 250 «seven men were ordained as bishops and sent to preach in the Gauls» (Hist. Franc., I, 30), but scholars do not place much faith in this report. More reliable is the information in a letter of St. Cyprian from the years 251-255, in which the bishop of Lugdunum and others sought and obtained confirmation from Pope Stephen I of their colleague Marcian, bishop of Arles, whose conduct in the matter of the Novatian schism did not seem irreproachable. Christianity thus continued to spread, and other episcopal sees were established. Among the most singular Christian monuments is a Greek inscription found at Autun (Augustodunum) with complicated and unclear formulas that echo the mysterious language of the Gnostics. There is no agreement among the many scholars who have studied it regarding the date to be assigned, which ranges from the 2nd to the 6th century A.D. (cf. H. Leclercq, Autun, in DACL, I (1924), cols. 3188-3216).

There is a long silence regarding Christian affairs in Gaul until the time of Diocletian; to this period may be attributed some mostly sepulchral Christian inscriptions of unknown authors, and some martyrs are attributed to it, but in late narratives that are not to be trusted. The last persecution, that of Diocletian, should have extended to Gaul as well, but the Caesar appointed to oversee it, Constantius Chlorus, applied the provisions of the edict only rarely and partially. Moreover, the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, the succession shortly thereafter of Constantine, and the decrees of toleration by Galerius and Constantine and Licinius (the so-called Edict of Milan of 313) freed the churches of Gaul and of the entire Empire from any fear of persecution. And not long after, the Christian religion, which had previously been equated with others, became the favored one, and the public cult of the old Greco-Roman religion was proscribed. Yet not all difficulties were removed, for soon and tenaciously certain heresies spread, two of which particularly affected Gaul: Donatism and Arianism. The former, though it arose in Africa, found in Gaul a council convened by Constantine at Arles to judge and condemn II. Arianism for a time enjoyed the favor of the imperial court, e.g., of the emperors Constantius II and Valens and the empress Justina, mother and guardian of the young Valentinian II. Against Arianism, too, a great bishop of Gaul, Hilary of Poitiers, energetically fought, and for this he was punished by the emperor Constantius with exile in Phrygia.

In Gaul itself, centers of heresy arose: Prosper of Aquitaine begged St. Augustine to combat the errors of a group of heretics in Marseille, and the Saint sent him two treatises: On the Predestination of the Saints and On the Gift of Perseverance. Other ecclesiastics of Gaul flourished at this time for their learning and holiness: Sulpicius Severus, St. Paulinus of Nola, St. Hilary of Arles, St. Germanus of Auxerre, Avitus of Vienne, Sidonius Apollinaris, St. Martin of Tours, and St. Remigius of Reims.

The fate of baptizing the Frankish king Clovis (year 495), the first of the barbarian rulers converted to the Catholic faith without having passed through Arian heresy, befell him.

II. PALAEOCHRISTIAN SCULPTURE

As the Empire declined, the West had lost the cult of form, but the art of Christian funerary relief preserved the tradition of Greco-Roman sculpture from the Constantinian age until the era of the barbarian invasions. One can trace its slow decline from Arles and Narbonne, where workshops were in full activity in the mid-4th century, to Marseilles, where, at the end of the Theodosian era, a workshop arose near the abbey of St Victor, founded in 415, and to Aquitaine, where funerary relief disappeared shortly thereafter, to be replaced by barbarian decoration.

Arles was the city Constantine had chosen as capital of his empire. In 395 it became the seat of the praetorian prefecture of the Gauls; its funerary sculpture is essentially Roman; its workshops disappeared along with the ruin of the Empire at the time of the revolutions that marked the reign of Honorius (410-20), whereas in Marseilles, a city that remained on the margins of the Empire after the Roman conquest, the sarcophagus workshops arose later and followed the artistic evolution of the 5th century, linking them both to the art of Ravenna and to that of Visigothic Aquitaine.

Since the sarcophagi found in northern Gaul are products exported from the south, the chronology of funerary art in Gaul is confined to the southern provinces; it reveals a succession of workshops that extend from Constantine to the Frankish conquest. The two artistic centres are Arles and Narbonne; that of Arles ceased at the beginning of the 5th century, while Marseilles was in full vigour in the first half of that century; in Languedoc and Aquitaine, Visigothic domination, established at Toulouse by concession of Honorius (413), extended until the Frankish victory at Vouillé (507) over Gévaudan, Rouergue, Velay, and Languedoc; this domination saw and perhaps fostered the survival of the Narbonne workshop, now linked to the art of Toulouse and to the rise of workshops in the Garonne valley that maintained the traditions of Greco-Roman sculpture while transforming them profoundly until the early years of the 6th century.

The sarcophagus of Arles impressed its architectural forms with continuous friezes, small arches with columns or trees, strigils, and the Roman type that in turn represented a fusion of the Asiatic Greek sarcophagus of the Sidamara type and the relief of pagan tradition. As in previous centuries, one may consider that a certain number of sarcophagi of fine style, with very pronounced work, featuring drillwork in the small columns, heads, and limbs that stand out from the flat background, display the contrast of shadows and light through the exaggerated use of the drill, according to the technique of Anatolia, were imported from Asia Minor and especially from Italy; the sarcophagi are generally of Pentelic marble from Asia Minor, Proconnesian, or from Proconnesus, which gave greater transparency and a warm colour to the model: such are the sarcophagi of the Constantinian and Theodosian eras depicting the farewell of Christ to his disciples prostrate and weeping at his feet (a replica exists in Florence), those of Hydria Tertulla, wife of Concordius, bishop of Arles (d. 375-86), and in general the high-relief sarcophagi with continuous friezes.

Nevertheless, in the second half of the 6th century, one may affirm the existence of a school of Arles on account of the identical craftsmanship of the sarcophagi in Carrara marble with those of St-Béat, which were not exported to Italy and were therefore worked on site. The local sarcophagus type, conceived in imitation of Roman models with the same limitations of pagan funerary art in decoration, is generally divided by arched panels of strigils that simplify the composition: scenes of the Nativity, the Orans, Christ holding the cross surrounded by two censing angels in the central panel; but the school of Arles also initiated compositions of continuous friezes, in particular the Crossing of the Red Sea, of which seven or eight examples are known (Museum of Arles, St Trophimus, Nîmes, Candiac Castle in Bellegarde, Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, the tomb of Louis the Pious in the Museum of Metz). The reliefs are not very high, the folds broad and rectilinear, the use of the drill in hair, the joining of lips, nostrils, etc., is moderate; the eye is incised in the centre rather than in the inner corner, as was customary in Roman high-reliefs.

The sarcophagus of Geminius of Cologne, administrator of the Five Provinces, who died in Arles in the first decade of the 5th century and is preserved in St Trophimus, may be considered the last product of this workshop; it possesses all the characteristics of the school of Marseilles, which succeeded that of Arles.

The sarcophagi of Marseilles, with small arches supported by columns or trees, in the style of Arles, have a completely different style that links them with the sarcophagi of Ravenna and Aquitaine; the technique of the drill becomes ever rarer and, reduced to a series of holes to remove the piece without deepening at the beginning of the hair dome, finally disappears; the composition simplifies; scenes with multiple figures seeking proportional representation of great biblical events or miracles of the Lord are replaced by scenes of isolated Apostles in small arches without depth or in rectangular niches in the manner of Toulouse; the folds of the garments become flat and the postures of the figures dynamic and declamatory; the dynamism of movement compensates for the plastic value of the figures. Symbolism appears in the form of sheep or angels, stags drinking at the fountain—allegories almost unknown in the art of Arles and evocative of the art of relief and musicians of Ravenna.

4th century, VIII, Pamplona 1949.

Such are the characteristics that appear in the sarcophagi of Narbonne, Clermont in Auvergne, Rodez, Toulouse, Castelnau-de-Guers, Mast-Santonin, etc. They increasingly give a reduced place to the figures, isolated in small arches, sometimes adorned with semi-open drapery, in the manner of the porticoes of the museum of St. Vitalis in Ravenna. Subjects drawn from ancient themes, such as the Good Shepherd, Daniel among the lions, the Nativity, Adam and Eve, the Dioscuri, still sporadically appear in the central panel of the sarcophagi and on terracotta slabs from the decoration of churches in the West. But floral ornamentation tends more and more to invade the field and to replace human representation, which instead tends to disappear with the Frankish conquest. The expressive world of figures, according to a process more pictorial than sculptural, marks the end of Greco-Roman art; the disintegration of the Empire, beginning in 410, is reflected in the new decorative trends that reveal the predominance of the art of the peripheral provinces of the Empire, the art of Ravenna and that of the Visigoths over the classical art of Rome. Thus, starting from Arles and Narbonne, a chronological concatenation is established of a sculpture inherited from those workshops of Greco-Roman sculpture that preserved in Arles, capital of the Roman province and last bastion of Romanity, the legacy of the Empire until the reign of Honorius, and in Marseille and Narbonne in Visigothic Aquitaine the last reflection of "humanism."

BIBL.:
BURL, F. Benoit, *Le Musée des croyers à St-Victor de Marseille* (Mémoires de l’Institut historique de Provence, 1934); id., *Les cimetières suburbains d’Arles dans l’aquitaine chrétienne et au moyen d’Arles*, Rome 1935; id., *Le Musée lapidaire d’Arles*, Paris 1936; id., *Les cimetières des sarcophages chrétiens datés*, in *Bull. Soc. nat. Ant.*, 1936, 1938; id., *Fragments de sarcophages inédits*, in *Riv. di arch. crit. de l’A.*, 1940, pp. 248-70; id., *Marbre employés en Provence à l’époque gallo-romaine*, in *Bull. Soc. nat. Antig. de France*, 1934-1944; id., *Nouveau sarcophage des adorants*, in *Riv. di arch. crit. de l’A.*, 1950;
E. Le Blant, *Etude sur les sarcophages chrétiens d’Arles*, Paris 1878; id., *Les sarcophages chrétiens de la Gaule*, in *Mitteilungen der Archäologie*.

GALLIA — Front of a sarcophagus with altar inscriptions in the church of S. Trifumo — Christ between SS. Paul and Peter (5th century) — Arles.

siglo IV, VIII, Pamplona 1949.