LANGRES, Diocese of. - Diocese and district capital city (department of Haute-Marne, France).
The diocese extends over an area of 6,221 sq km with a population of 181,840 inhabitants, of whom 180,000 are Catholics. The diocese is divided into 3 archpriesthoods 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 a minor seminary, 7 male religious communities and 49 female ones (1950).
L. is the ancient Antematumum, capital of the Lingones. In 301 A.D. Constantius Chlorus defeated the Alemanni there. It was part of Lugdunensis Prima; the city was burned by the Vandals and by Attila. The diocese was suppressed on 29 Nov. 1801 and incorporated into Dijon; it was then re-established by Pius VII on 27 July 1817 and confirmed on 6 Oct. 1822 with the bull Paternae charitatis.
The catalogue of the ancient bishops of L. survives in three copies; the first is that of St. Etienne of Dijon; the second is given by ms. 6042 of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris; the third by ms. 4910 of the same Bibliothèque. The first two lists go as far as Bishop Gualtiere of Burgundy (1163-79); the first was then continued as far as William of Joinville (1209-19). The first known bishop of L. is Desiderius, who appears in 346; Aprunculus is mentioned in a letter of Sidonius Apollinaris (IX, 10); he took refuge in Auvergne to save himself from the Burgundians (Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc., II, 23). Gregory, formerly count of Autun, 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; ca. 540-73). In 769 Bishop Erloffo is present at the Council of Rome (Lib. pont., I, p. 473); his successor was his brother Ariolfo, founder of the monastery of Ellwangen in Württemberg (Cortineau, I, coll. 1042-43). Argimus (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 Berengar (De corpore et sanguine Christi; PL 142, 1325-1339). The power of the bishops of L. became ever more firmly established in civil matters as well, so much so that from the 9th century onward they possessed the city of Dijon. From as early as 967 the bishop of L. had replaced the lay count. Bl. Bruno of Roncy (980-1016) is called the greatest bishop of feudal France. He was succeeded by Bishop Lambert (1016-30); in the time of Bishop Arduino, Pope Leo IX went to L. in Oct. 1050 and there consecrated Fromond, bishop of Troyes (Jaffé-Wartenbach, n. 539); on 24 Feb. 1207 Pope Paschal II stayed there, after having dedicated the church of Beze (ibid., n. 6125). In the 12th century the authority of the bishops, who had become dukes of L., was great; they minted coin certainly from the time of Bishop Hugh of Breuil (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. Mention is also made of Robert of Torore (1232-40), Bertrand of Got, uncle of Clement V (1306-1307). The Cathedral Chapter had jurisdiction and temporal power from the time of Louis the Pious (834) and of Bishop Alberic. There were then disputes between the bishop and the Chapter which culminated in the Concordat of 1516, which took away from the canons the right of appointing the bishop (M. Le Grand, Le Chapitre cathédral de L. de la fin du XIIe siècle au Concordat de 1516, Paris 1931).
Mention is also made of Sébastien Zamet (1615-54); César Guillaume de Luzerne (1770), created cardinal and returned to L. from 1817 to 1821; P. L. Parisia (1835-51).
The Cathedral, dedicated to St. Mammes of Caesarea, has its façade rebuilt between 1761 and 1786; the interior is from the end of the 12th century with alterations of the 13th-15th centuries; to the south of the Cathedral is a 13th-century cloister. Other notable churches are St. Martin with 5 naves, begun in the 13th century, with restorations of the 16th-18th centuries; St-Didier, Romanesque.
Belonging to the diocese of L. are the Ven. G. Urbain Hanipaux S.J., missionary in Canada together with the Vens. G. Mance and J. Mariet; Fr. P. Lemoine S.J. (1602-71); the philosopher Diderot (1713-84).
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Enrico Josi