LANGRES, DIOCESE OF. – Diocese and chief town of an arrondissement (department of Haute-Marne, France).
The diocese covers an area of 6,221 sq km and has a population of 181,840, of whom 180,000 are Catholic. It is divided into 3 archpriestships and 29 deaneries; there are 444 parishes with 106 dependencies. 94 parishes formerly belonged to the diocese of Toul, 70 to that of Châlons, 13 to that of Troyes and 13 to that of Besançon. The diocese has 244 diocesan priests and 28 regulars; it has a major and minor seminary, 7 male religious communities and 49 female ones (1950).
L. is the ancient Antematumum, capital of the Lingones. In 301 AD Constantius Chlorus defeated the Alamanni there. It belonged to the province of Lugdunensis Prima; the city was burned by the Vandals and by Attila. The diocese was suppressed on 29 November 1801 and incorporated into Dijon; it was then re-established by Pius VII on 27 July 1817 and confirmed on 6 October 1822 by the bull *Paternae charitatis*.
The catalogue of the ancient bishops of L. is preserved in three copies: the first is that of St Étienne of Dijon; the second is given by ms. 6042 of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris; the third by ms. 4910 of the same library. The first two lists extend as far as the episcopate of Walter of Burgundy (1163–79); the first was then continued up to William of Joinville (1209–19). The earliest known bishop of L. is Desiderius, who appears in 346; Aprunculus is mentioned in a letter of Sidonius Apollinaris (IX, 10); he fled to Auvergne to escape the Burgundians (Gregory of Tours, *Hist. Franc.*, II, 23). Gregory, already count of Autun and great-great-grandfather of Gregory of Tours (*Vitae PP.*, VIII, 6), was bishop from 506 to 539–40; his epitaph was composed by Venantius Fortunatus (IV, 2); he was succeeded by Tetricus, mentioned by Gregory of Tours (*Hist. Franc.*, IV, 16; V, 15; VII, 5; c. 540–73). In 769 Bishop Erlofus was present at the Roman Council (*Liber pontificalis*, I, p. 473); his successor was his brother Arlofus, founder of the monastery of Ellwangen in Württemberg (Cottineau, I, cols. 1042–43). Argrimus (d. 909), whose epitaph is preserved in the museum of Chalon-sur-Saône (CIL, XIII, 2628). Hugh, son of Count Gelduin, was the first to write against Berengarius (*De corpore et sanguine Christi*: PL 142, 1325–1339). The power of the bishops of L. grew increasingly, even in civil matters, so that by the 9th century they already possessed the city of Dijon. As early as 967 the bishop of L. had replaced the lay count. Blessed Bruno of Roucy (980–1016) is said to have been the greatest bishop of feudal France. He was succeeded by Bishop Lambert (1016–30); during the episcopate of Archbishop Ardinus, Pope Leo IX came to L. in October 1050 and there consecrated Fromond, bishop of Troyes (Jaffé-Wattenbach, no. 539); on 24 February 1207 Pope Paschal II stopped there after dedicating the church of Bèze (ibid., no. 6125). In the 12th century the authority of the bishops, who had become dukes of L., was considerable; they certainly minted coins from the time of Bishop Hugh of Breteuil (1032–49) until that of Bishop William of Durfort (1306–18). The bishops of L. were among the six ecclesiastical peers of France at least from 1153 to 1214. Among them may be recalled Robert of Torote (1232–40) and Bertrand de Goth, uncle of Clement V (1306–1307). The cathedral chapter exercised temporal jurisdiction and power from the time of Louis the Pious (834) and Bishop Alberic. Later disputes arose between the bishop and the chapter, culminating in the Concordat of 1516, which removed from the canons the right to nominate the bishop (M. Le Grand, *Le Chapitre cathédral de L. de la fin du XIIe siècle au Concordat de 1516*, Paris 1931).
Notable bishops include Sébastien Zamet (1615–54); César Guillaume de Luzerne (1770), created cardinal and returned to L. from 1817 to 1821; P. L. Parisis (1835–51).
The cathedral, dedicated to St Mammes of Caesarea, has a façade rebuilt between 1761 and 1786; the interior dates from the end of the 12th century with alterations in the 13th–15th centuries; to the south is a cloister of the 13th century. Other notable churches are St Martin’s, a five-aisled building begun in the 13th century with restorations in the 16th–18th centuries; and St Didier’s, a Romanesque church.
Among those belonging to the diocese of L. are the Venerable Jérôme Urhan Hainpaux SJ, missionary in Canada together with the Venerable Jérôme Mance and J. Mariet; Fr P. Lemoine SJ (1602–71); and the philosopher Denis Diderot (1713–84).