METZ, Diocese of. - Capital city of the department of the Moselle, at the confluence of the Seille with the Moselle, which branches out forming to the north the islands of St-Symphorien, Sauley and Chambière. It has an area of 6,227 sq km with a population of 705,000 inhabitants, of whom 660,000 are Catholics, distributed in 59 deaneries comprising 589 parishes and 128 vicariates served by 139 diocesan priests; it has 2 seminaries, 12 male religious communities and 25 female ones. The patron of the diocese is the protomartyr St. Stephen. The diocese is directly subject to the Holy See.
M. is the "Divodurum" of the Gauls and under the Romans was the capital of the Mediomatrices; after the death of Clovis it became the capital of Austrasia under the name Mettis (from Mediomatrices). The Treaty of Verdun of 843 assigned M. to Lothair, but little by little it constituted itself as a free city of the Empire, defending itself against the powerful dukes of Lorraine. M. was occupied in 1552 by King Henry II and was defended by Francis of Guise against the siege of Charles V.
The oldest catalogue of its bishops is transmitted in the Sacramentary of Drogo (MGH, Script., VIII, p. 303 ff.) composed ca. 778. It is in verse and comprises 33 bishops, from Clement to Angilram (768-91); a second list contained in the same codex goes up to the election of Rutpert. A third list with the obituary date and the duration of each episcopate is in a codex of the Library of Bremen (c. 36) and reaches as far as Bishop Wala (876-82); a fourth list, up to Adalbero (962-64), is in a codex formerly of the monastery of St. Symphorian, now in Paris in the Bibl. nationale (ms. lat. 5294). At the request of Bishop Angilram, Paul the Deacon composed the Libellus de numero vel ordine episcoporum qui sibi ab ipso praedicationis exordio in Mettensi civitate successerunt (MGH, Script., II, p. 261: PL 95, 709). L. Duchesne holds that the foundation of the Church of M. may go back to the end of the 3rd century, given that the fifth or seventh bishop Victor I or II occupied the see of M. in 346. M. was invaded in 451 by the hordes of Attila, perhaps in the time of Bishop Autor.
Bishop Esperius took part in the Council of Auvergne in 535; Villicus is mentioned by Fortunatus (Carm., VI, 8 and XIII, 13). Gregory the Great wrote to Agilulf (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1831) and had as his successor his nephew Arnoald. Arnulf was counsellor of King Dagobert and at the Council of Clichy in 627; he then retired to Castellum Habendum (Remiremont) where he died. Sigibald founded the monasteries of St-Avold (Cottineau, III, col. 2603) and of Neuviller (id., loc. cit., 2063) and died ca. 741. He was succeeded by Chrodegang (742-66; H. Reumont, Der heilige Chrodegang, Bischof von M., in Festschrift Georg von Hertling zum 70. Geburtstag am 31. August 1913, Munich in Bavaria 1913, pp. 202-15). He instituted at M. the liturgical stations in a manner analogous to what he had observed during his stay in Rome. The list of them has been found again at the end of an evangeliary of the Bibl. nationale of Paris (ms. lat. 268; Th. Klauser, Eine Stationsliste der Metzer Kirche aus dem VIII. Jahrhundert, in Ephemer. liturg., 44 [1930], p. 162 ff.). Moreover he introduced at M. the Roman liturgy, Gregorian chant and capitular organization; he, ca. 760, constituted the clergy of his cathedral into a group of canons (v. CANONS REGULAR OF ST. AUGUSTINE). After more than two years he was succeeded by Angilram (d. 791). Then Gondulf, Drogo (823-75), buried at M. in the church of St. John; Aventius (858-75); Wala (876-82) and Robert (883-917).
Bishop Bruno had his eyes put out by the inhabitants and the bishop retired to Einsiedeln (927). With Adalbert (928-62) the civil power of the bishops of M. grew; he was followed by Dietrich II (946-84), Adalbert II (984-1005) and III (1006); Dietrich III (1006-47), Adalbert IV (1047-1072); Hermann (1073-90) was deposed by the Emperor; after the Concordat of Worms governed Bishop Stephen of Bar (1120-63), then Bertrand (1179-1212) and Conrad I of Scharfenberg (1212-24) who welcomed the Mendicant Orders into the diocese; John of Aspremont (1224-38) was elected by the Cathedral Chapter; then James of Lorraine (1239-60). Mentioned also are Adhemar of Monteil (1327-61), Dietrich IV (1365-84), Rudolf of Coucy (1387-1415), Conrad II (1415-59) and George I (1459-84); then comes the series of bishops of the house of Lorraine: Henry II (1484-1505), Card. John IV (1518-43 and 1548-50), Card. Robert of Lenoncourt (1551-55); Card. Louis of Lorraine (1568-78), Card. A. of Givry (1608-12) and Henry of Bourbon (1612-52). Then M. passed to France by the Treaty of Westphalia and the "province des trois évêchés" was formed with M., Toul and Verdun.
Among the bishops are remembered G. of Aubusson (1668-97), E. C. of Cambont (1697-1732) and C. of Rouvray St-Simon who became prince-bishop of M. (1733-60), succeeded by Card. L. of Montmorency (1761-1802). In 1874 M., which with the Concordat of 1801 had become a suffragan of Besançon, became immediately subject to the Holy See; with 1871 M. passed back to Germany, but the Catholic institutions had to suffer grave damages because of the Kulturkampf. In 1919 M. returned to France. During the Middle Ages many synods were held in M. Among its recent bishops are numbered G. Jauffret (1806-23); F. J. Besson (1824-42); P. G. M. Dupont des Loges (1843-86); F. L. Fleck (1886-99), the Benedictine W. Benzler (1901-19).
The Cathedral, dedicated to St. Stephen, was begun around 1220, and was built in such a way as to contain, in its first three bays toward the facade, the 8th-century church of S. Maria Rotonda, to which a choir and an apse were added. The interior is 123 m. long, 31 m. wide and reaches almost 42 m. in height. The central nave is separated from the two side aisles by piers with columns supporting ogival vaults, partially decorated with paintings of the 14th-16th centuries. On the entrance wall there opens a great rose window with stained glass by Hermann of Münster in Westphalia (d. at M. in 1392). In the right side aisle the ancient choir chapel of S. Maria Rotonda is today the chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel with paintings of the beginning of the 14th century; moreover the ancient chapel of the bishops has been transformed into the chapel of the Sacred Heart. In the left side aisle there is preserved a large porphyry basin, coming from the baths, used for a long time as a baptistery. The transept is illuminated by a series of stained-glass windows executed by Valentin Bousch and by Theobald of Lixheim in the 16th century; in the southern part there are fragments of 13th-century stained glass. The choir is raised with an apse with 5 chapels and with stained glass also of the 16th century. In the ambulatory there open three chapels, containing the tombs of the bishops of M., Msgr. Dupont des Loges (1886), of Msgr. Fleck his successor (1899) and of Card. A. de Givry (d. in 1612). Two great towers flank the building; the taller one, to the south, is the tour de la Mutte, named after the bell. In the tower known as that of the Chapter there is a decoration of bas-reliefs executed ca. 1275 representing David and Goliath, David and Saul, the empress Helena and Constantine, the translation of the Holy Cross to Constantinople and the Holy Cross raising a dead man, the stories of St. Stephen and St. Margaret. In the Treasury there are preserved: the so-called mantle of Charlemagne, in 11th-century Byzantine fabric; a portable altar of the 12th century; ivory pastoral staffs of the 12th and 14th centuries; an enameled casket of the 17th century, etc. The church of St. Martin is from the beginning of the 13th century. The ancient abbey of St. Clement, razed to the ground in the siege of 1552, was rebuilt in 1668; the facade is of 1737; the abbey is now used as a college. St. Symphorian, first dedicated to the Holy Innocents, was dedicated to the Saint when Bishop Adalbero brought his relics there in 608 (PL 139, 1551; 140, 443). St. Vincent, a Benedictine abbey, was founded by Bishop Theodoric in 968; the church is between 1248 and 1316 (PL 135, 880; 143, 659; 151, 452; 155, 1651). The church of Ste-Ségolène, of the 11th century, has a fresco of the end of the 13th century, with the legend of the three living and the three dead on the model of the miniatures of the Arsenal (ms. 3142 f. 311°) and a crypt attributed to the 10th century. The church of Notre-Dame is the former one of the Jesuits, erected in 1665 with a facade of 1740. The remains of the church of St-Pierre-aux-Nonnains have also been found, of the ancient abbey of Benedictine nuns (11th-15th centuries) also provided with a cloister; recent explorations have brought to light remains of a much older building. The ancient convent of the "Petits Carmes," now used as a museum, contains archaeological, sculpture, painting, natural history and numismatic collections (with coins of the bishops of M. from the 10th to the 17th century); moreover the Migette collection with enamels and ivories from the 13th to the 16th century. The municipal Library is constituted in large part by the collections confiscated during the Revolution from religious institutions and by that of the baron de Sales. A part of the books is located in the ancient chapel of the "Petits-Carmes" erected in 1686 by the Italian architect G. Betto. Unfortunately many manuscripts, incunabula and books were destroyed by the Germans in 1944. The ancient church of the Jesuits (1665) is today dedicated to Notre-Dame. During the 9th century in M. there flourished a school of miniatures and of ivory reliefs, under the influence of Reims. One recalls especially the Sacramentary of Drogo, numerous evangeliaries and the cover of the said Sacramentary, with liturgical scenes, and an evangeliary today in the National Library of Paris (ms. lat. 9388). - See pl. LVIII.
Bibliography17 works
Enrico Josi