IVREA, Diocese of. - City and diocese of Piedmont, in the province of Turin; pop. 168 thousand, of whom 16 thousand in the city; 143 parishes, divided into 25 rural vicariates; 317 priests; 102 religious, of whom 12 are not priests; 945 nuns belonging to 21 communities. Major and Minor Seminaries. Patroness Mary Most Holy Assumed; patron of the city St. Savinus martyr, bishop of Spoleto.
I. CIVIL HISTORY
Eporedia (a Celtic toponym of uncertain origin, interpreted by C. Nigra as "station of equestrian carts") was called the last colony Civium Romanorum, founded in the year 100 B.C. on the dioritic bluff that dominated the road to the Graian and Pennine Alps. The territory of Ivrea was assigned to the Pollia tribe and formed part of the Augustan region XI. Toward the end of the Lombard domination Ivrea was the seat of a duchy; under Charlemagne, who passed through it on 24 June 801, it became the seat of a county, then from 888 the capital of the March of Ivrea, which reached its apogee with Arduino (v.). The March of Ivrea, with the defeat of the king of Italy, was united with that of Turin in the person of Olderico Manfredi, but Arduino's sons preserved the county there. The government of Ivrea, episcopal and communal from 1094 to 1238, became a lordship under Frederick II, Charles of Anjou, William VII and John I of Montferrat. On 13 Nov. 1313 it passed to the Savoys, and in 1358 Amedeo VI built there, to demonstrate his authority, the historic castle, now converted into a prison. The Canavese (ager Canapicianus) was often the theater of fratricidal struggles: worth recalling are the struggles of the commune of Ivrea against that of Vercelli (13th century), the raids and sackings of the 14th century on the occasion of the disputes between the Savoys and the Montferrats, and the insurrection of the tuchini (1386) which then afflicted the 15th century. In the following centuries the Canavese followed the alternating fortunes of the Savoyard State and was the theater of the insurrections of the Brandalucioni and of the Christian mass (1799) and of the Zoccoli (1801). Napoleon occupied Ivrea on 22 May 1800.
II. RELIGIOUS HISTORY
The Christian origins of the Eporedian territory go back to the 4th century. As for the martyrs Bessus and Tegulus, numbered among the Theban martyrs, nothing can be known; it is not improbable that they were local saints. The diocese of I. was detached from the Vercelli diocese at the beginning of the 5th century, and the first known bishop is St. Eulogius, present at the Synod of Milan of 451 (Mansi, VI, 143). To the 5th century and the early 6th belong some Christian sepulchral slabs, six of which bear a consular date: the oldest, of 440, commemorates a Basil, a merchant of Syrian origin; another commemorates Bishop Innocent, who died at the age of 72, on 29 March 486. The sepulchral poem of the priest Silvius, preserved in the Palatine anthology, is probably of the 6th century; it is not possible to determine to which saints the "sanctorum pignora" mentioned there belonged. I. was part of the metropolis of Milan until 1515, the year in which Leo X elevated Turin to a metropolis. The Eporedian see, given the strategic and political importance of its territory, had a very rich and eventful history, and its bishops were numbered among the great feudal lords of the subalpine region. The emperors of the House of Saxony and of the House of Franconia were careful to elect there, from the middle of the 10th century to the beginning of the 12th, men who were their trusted creatures.
The episcopal catalogue is fragmentary up to the 10th century. Among the great bishops of I. only the following are remembered: Joseph (844-56), archchaplain of the Emperor; Warmund (v.), elected by Otto I in 969, antagonist of Arduin and restorer of art and culture in the subalpine lands (d. ca. 1015); Henry (1029-59), present at the Lateran Council of 1059; Ogerius (1074-95), poet, chancellor of Henry IV for Italy (Jan. 1088 - Feb. 1093), supporter of the antipope Clement III; Guido (1122-62), distinguished benefactor of the Eporedian Church; Peter (1206-1208), abbot of Lucedio, takes part in the Fourth Crusade with Boniface VIII, marquis of Montferrat (1202), is one of the twelve great electors of the Latin Emperor of Constantinople (1204), abbot of La Ferté (1205), much esteemed by Innocent III, who appoints him archbishop of Thessalonica (1208), then patriarch of Antioch (1209); Oberto (1209-50?), skilled restorer of the temporalities of the episcopal mensa, is the first to bear the title of count, claims the rights of the Eporedian commune against that of Vercelli and acts as peacemaker between the two communes; Frederick of Front (1264-89), soul of the resistance against the marquis of Montferrat, William VII, who intended to become lord of I., rector of the March of Ancona, archbishop of Ferrara (1289-1303). With Bishop Peter Condé (1373-99) I. passes under the obedience of Avignon. Throughout the 16th century the see of I. was occupied by bishops of the Ferrero family (v.). Giuseppe Ottavio Pochettini (1769-1803) had a troubled episcopate because of political events, but was a secret Jansenist, called in the sect by the epithet of "the Old Man" (cf. P. Savio, La devozione di mons. Adeodato Turchi alla S. Sede, Rome 1938, p. 434). Luigi Moreno (1838-78) was the most illustrious pastor of the last century for learning and zeal.
1. Illustrious persons
Among the numerous persons who were born in the diocese of I. are remembered: St. Gaudentius (v.), first bishop of Novara; Arduin (v.), St. William of Volpiano (v.), Bl. Angelo of Chivasso (v.), Bl. Bartolomea Carletti, Poor Clare, co-foundress of the monastery of S. Chiara in Chivasso (d. in 1412); Defendente Ferrari (v.); G. Bosio of Chivasso (1545-1627), historiographer of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, uncle of the archaeologist Antonio Bosio (v.); Ven. Rubino of Strambino (1578-1643), Jesuit missionary, martyr in Japan; C. Botta (v.); G. B. De Rossi (v.); G. Flechia of Piverone (1811-92), Sanskritist and glottologist; C. Nigra of Castelnuovo (1828-1907), diplomat and philologist; G. Giacosa (v.); P. A. Yon of Settimo Vittone (1886-1943), composer and organist of the cathedral of New York.
2. Episcopal school. Archives. Monuments. - The episcopal school of I. must already have been famous at the beginning of the 9th century, because it is expressly mentioned in the celebrated Capitulare Olonense of Lothair I (May 825) concerning the public schools in Italy (cf. MGH, Capitularia, ed. A. Boretius, I [1883], p. 237). The fragment of the mosaic floor (reproduced under the entry FILOSOFIA) depicting the triumph of philosophy seems to have been the floor of the schoolroom in the time of Bishop Warmund (969-1015 ca.). If the notices of this school and of its scriptorium are scarce, there is nevertheless a reflection of their activity in the rich collection of codices of the Cathedral, later enriched by a considerable number of incunabula; among the codices are remembered the Regula Pastoralis of St. Gregory the Great, in Merovingian script, of the 8th century, the illuminated Sacramentary, executed for and under the guidance of Bishop Warmund, and the group of liturgical books executed for the same bishop (cf. L. Magnani, Le miniature del Sacramentario di I. e di altri codici Warmondiani, Vatican City 1934, p. 11: the earlier authors who dealt with the codices of the Capitular Library of I. are indicated there) and an interesting musical codex of the end of the 14th century (cf. G. Borghezio, Un prezioso codice musicale ignorato della Biblioteca capitolare di I., in Bollet. stor. bibliografico subalpino, 24 [1922], pp. 190-98). The Archives are very rich: the capitular, arranged with an inventory, documents from 1007 and the series of capitular protocols: 84 vols., 1258-1729; the episcopal, not arranged, documents from 1000; the municipal, the judicial and the administrative arranged; of lesser importance are the libraries of the Seminary and the municipal one.
Among the monuments, first of all the Cathedral must be remembered, built at the end of the 10th century by Bishop Warmund, restored several times according to debatable criteria; of ancient work it has preserved the crypt, the external dome flanked by two bell towers. In the sacristy a precious carved ivory casket is preserved (9th-10th centuries) and two magnificent paintings by Defendente Ferrari (1521). The ancient S. Lorenzo in Castello of Settimo Vittone may go back to the 7th century. Suggestive are the Romanesque churches of S. Stefano di Candia and of S. Pietro in Pessano (11th-12th centuries) and various Romanesque bell towers, such as that of S. Stefano d'I. and of Fruttuaria (11th century). The parish church of Chivasso (a notable medieval center of religious and political life, seat of the government of Montferrat until 1435 and of one of the oldest Piedmontese printing houses [1486], directed by G. Svigo) has preserved the Gothic facade with terracotta friezes. Notable is the Baroque parish church of Strambino (1781- onwards). Historic are the castles of Montalto (14th century), of the Green Count at I. (1358) and of Masino (rebuilt in the 17th-18th centuries), where the ashes of Arduin are preserved.
3. The monasteries
In Ivrea the abbey of St. Stephen flourished for many centuries, founded by Bishop Henry in 1044; having declined because of the commendam (15th century), it was suppressed in 1800 and its goods sold at auction; of the abbey buildings only the bell tower remains. The same bishop founded the monastery of St. Michael for nuns, from 1940 the property of the Sisters of the Immaculate of Ivrea. Also noteworthy are the convents of the Franciscans, of the Dominicans (13th century) and of the Observant Friars Minor (1456). The most famous abbey of the Ivrea countryside is St. Benignus of Fruttuaria, a center of Cluniac reform, affiliated with the abbey of St-Bénigne of Dijon, founded by St. William of Volpiano (v.) in 1003, with the favor of Arduin, his relative. The abbey church, of which only the bell tower survives (the church was rebuilt in neoclassical style by Cardinal Vittorio Amedeo delle Lanze between 1770 and 1776), was consecrated in 1006 by 4 bishops delegated by John XVIII. The popes from John XVIII and the emperors from Henry II (31 Aug. 1006) took it under their protection and repeatedly confirmed its immense patrimony. The bishops Warmund (before 3 Jan. 1015) and Henry (12 March 1029) granted the abbey exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. Indeed Cencio Camerario lists the abbey « Sancti Benigni de Fructeriis » (cf. Liber Censuum, ed. G. Fabre-L. Duchesne, I, Paris 1889-1910, p. 245) among the abbeys S. Petri, nullius dioecescos. The abbey exercised a great religious, cultural and political influence not only in the subalpine regions, but also in Italy, and several monasteries followed its Rule; the commendam, begun in 1450 with the former antipope Felix V, brought it to ruin; in 1617, Cardinal Maurice of Savoy transformed it into a collegiate church, with secular canons; suppressed a first time on June 1, 1803, it was then definitively suppressed on Aug. 15, 1869. Arduino retired to the abbey of Fruttuaria (Sept. 10, 1014): he died there and was buried there (Dec. 14, 1015). The first abbot was Giovanni l'Uomo di Dio (v. GIOVANNI DI FRUTTUARIA). A part of the rich Archive is found in the State Archive of Turin. In 1879 the abbatial Palace was ceded to St. John Bosco and today a renowned Salesian school of arts and crafts flourishes there. - See pl. XXXV.
Bibliography31 works
A. Pietro Frutaz
