LANGRES, DIOCESE of. — Diocese and chief town of an arrondissement (department of Haute-Marne, France).
The diocese extends over an area of 6,221 sq. km., with a population of 181,840, of whom 180,000 are Catholics. The diocese is divided into 3 archpriestships and 29 deaneries; the parishes number 444, 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 religious priests; it has a major and a minor seminary, 7 male and 49 female religious communities (1950).
L. is the ancient Antematumum, capital of the Lingones. In 301 A.D. Constantius Chlorus defeated the Alamanni there. It formed 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 later re-established by Pius VII on 27 July 1817 and confirmed on 6 Oct. 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 Etienne of Dijon; the second is contained in ms. 6042 of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris; the third in ms. 4910 of the same Bibliothèque. The first two lists extend to Bishop Gualtiere of Burgundy (1163–79); the first was subsequently continued to Guillaume 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 escape the Burgundians (Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc., II, 23). Gregory, formerly 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; ca. 540–73). In 769 Bishop Erloffus was present at the Council of Rome (Lib. pont., I, p. 473); his successor was his brother Ariolfus, founder of the monastery of Ellwangen in Württemberg (Cortineau, I, cols. 1042–43). Argimus (d. in 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. continued to assert itself ever more strongly in civil affairs as well, so much so that from as early as the ninth century they possessed the city of Dijon. Since 967 the bishop of L. had taken the place of the lay count. Blessed Bruno of Roncy (980–1016) is called the greatest bishop of feudal France. He was succeeded by Bishop Lambert (1016–30); during the time of Bishop Arduino, Pope Leo IX came to L. in October 1050 and consecrated Fromond, bishop of Troyes, there (Jaffé-Wartenbach, no. 539); on 24 February 1207 Pope Paschal II stopped there after dedicating the church of Beze (ibid., no. 6125). In the twelfth century the authority of the bishops, who had become dukes of L., was very great; they certainly minted coin from the time of Bishop Hugh of Breuil (1032–49) until that of Bishop Guillaume of Durfort (1306–18). The bishops of L. were among the six ecclesiastical peers of France at least from 1153 to 1214. Also remembered are Robert of Torore (1232–40) and Bertrand de Got, uncle of Clement V (1306–1307). The Cathedral Chapter had jurisdiction and temporal power from the time of Louis the Pious (834) and Bishop Alberic. Disputes subsequently arose between the bishop and the Chapter, culminating in the Concordat of 1516, which deprived the canons of the right to appoint the bishop (M. Le Grand, Le Chapitre cathédral de L. de la fin du XIIe siècle au Concordat de 1516, Paris 1931).
Also remembered are Sebastiano Zamet (1615–54); Cesare Guillaume de Luzerne (1770), created a cardinal and returned to L. from 1817 to 1821; and P. L. Parisia (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 twelfth century, with alterations from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries; south of the Cathedral is a thirteenth-century cloister. Other notable churches are St Martin, with 5 naves, begun in the thirteenth century and restored in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries; and St-Didier, Romanesque.
The following belong to the diocese of L.: the venerable G. Urbano Hanipaux, S.J., missionary in Canada together with the venerables G. Mance and J. Mariet; Fr. P. Lemoine, S.J. (1602–71); and the philosopher Diderot (1713–84).