MONTPELLIER, DIOCESE OF. – A city and diocese, seat of the prefecture of the Hérault department, on the Lez River, ancient capital of Languedoc.
The diocese has the same extent as the Hérault department and a population of over 500,000 inhabitants, of whom 450,000 are Catholic; it is divided into 3 archdeaconries, comprising 5 deaneries, which in turn are divided into 283 parishes and 131 chaplaincies. There are 350 diocesan priests and 112 religious; a major and minor seminary, 19 male religious communities and 80 female.
It is the Mons Pesulanus of the Middle Ages, initially a simple village that, towards the end of the 10th century, was subject to the Counts of Toulouse. After Maguelonne was destroyed by Charles Martel, the inhabitants took refuge in Montpellier. It was excommunicated by Innocent II for rebelling against William VI. In 1141 it obtained a charter of liberties. Passing to King Peter of Aragon in 1204, it enjoyed great autonomy and began a period of considerable commercial development. Its merchants formed a “society” and a *communitas mercatorum* in France, governed by a *capitanus et consul*; through their trade, they penetrated into Spain, Morocco, and even reached Syria. A council was held in Montpellier in 1215, in the church of Santa Maria, presided over by Cardinal Peter of Benevento, legate of Innocent III, to suppress the Albigensian heresy (Hefele-Leclercq, V, II, pp. 1298–1302); another was held on 25 August 1224, presided over by Arnold, archbishop of Narbonne, by order of Honorius III, to begin negotiations with Count Raymond of Toulouse (ibid., p. 1441). The Hospitaller Order of the Holy Spirit, which spread in the 13th century throughout France, Italy, Germany, Poland, the Iberian Peninsula, Scandinavia, etc., had its origins in Montpellier: its definitive rule was promulgated in 1213 (P. Brune, *L'Ordre hospitalier du St-Esprit*, Paris 1892, pp. 200–201). In 1349 Montpellier passed under French rule; but decline then set in and continued until 27 March 1536, when Pope Paul III transferred the diocesan see from Maguelonne to Montpellier.
The church there had been founded by Urban V in 1364 on the site of an ancient chapel of the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Germain. The nave is from the 14th century; the choir, by Revoil, is from the 19th. The atrium has four 15th-century towers arranged in a square. The abbey church of Saint-Germain was converted in 1536 into the episcopal palace, and now houses the School of Medicine. The first bishop of Montpellier was Msgr. G. Pellicier (1536–68), who had previously been at the see of Maguelonne; the church of the monastery of Saints Germanus and Benedict, dependent on the monastery of Saint-Victor, was elevated to the dignity of a cathedral. Subsequent bishops included Msgr. P. Fenouillet (1608–52), F. Bosquet (1657–76), Fournier (1806–34), and Cardinal Rovérié de Cabrières (1911–21). The Huguenots destroyed churches and monuments in Montpellier; a semblance of a republic was founded there, which fell in 1622 after the siege by Louis XIII.
Traditional in Montpellier is the veneration of the Blessed Virgin, dating back to the 11th century, when pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela stopped at a church where merchants and moneychangers placed their tables, hence the name Notre-Dame-des-Tables (erected as a parish in 1216 by Bishop Guillaume d’Antignac). The representatives of the Commune, at the beginning of their term, went to swear that they would work to maintain the Catholic faith; during the height of the Albigensian crisis, the municipal coat of arms bore the image of the Madonna and Child with the inscription: *“Virgo mater Natum ora, ut juvet nos omni hora.”* Among the shrines are: Notre-Dame-de-l’Ermitage at Saint-Guillem-du-Désert (14th century), Notre-Dame de Grâce at Gignac, Notre-Dame de Grau near Agde, Notre-Dame-de-Mougeres at Mougeres; Notre-Dame-de-Montaigne at Ceyras, Notre-Dame-de-Roubignac, Notre-Dame-du-Suc at Brissac, Notre-Dame-de-Trédos, and Notre-Dame-des-Tables in Montpellier.
As early as the 11th century, a school of medicine flourished in Montpellier, to which a school of law was added in 1160; in 1220 the University was founded with statutes approved by Pope Honorius III, later reorganized by Nicholas IV in 1289. Today the University has all faculties. The Faculty of Medicine is housed in the former episcopal palace, once the abbey of Saint-Germain. The Museum of Montpellier preserves two Christian sarcophagi. One comes from Bagnoles (Wilpert, *Sarcophagi*, pp. 111, 134–35, pl. 99, 5); the other is a forgery (id., *Restauro di sculture cristiane antiche e antichità moderne*, in *Riv. di arch. crist.*, 4 [1927], p. 101, fig. 34). The Fabre Museum (1825), enriched by donations (Fabre, Valdeau, Bruyas), contains paintings from the French, Italian, Flemish, and Spanish schools. The *Académie des sciences et lettres de Montpellier* was established in 1706. After its reform in 1847 it began publishing its *Mémoires* until 1908; from 1909 it has issued a *Bulletin mensuel*, as does the *Société archéologique*, founded in 1833. Notable cultural centres also include the *Société d’histoire naturelle* (1866) and the *Société languedocienne* (1875), all with rich libraries. The Archive is in the Tour des Pins (12th–14th century). The city library preserves precious manuscripts, such as the *Liber evangeliorum* (ms. no. 3), containing the version of Saint Jerome, previously belonging to the monastery of Gellone and dating from before the 9th century. The Library of the School of Medicine holds, among others, an *Breviarium Alaricianum* from the 8th century (ms. no. 84); ms. no. 141, partly a palimpsest, from the 8th–9th century; ms. no. 153 from the 9th century; *Evangelia cum canonibus* from the 9th century, formerly from the abbey of Saint-Loup in Troyes; an antiphonary from the 10th–11th century; a Latin psalter from the 8th century (no. 409), formerly at Saint-Germain d’Auxerre. For the liturgical manuscripts of Montpellier, see H. Leclercq, s.V. in *DACL*, XI, II, cols. 2693–2700.
In 1877 Pius IX, by a brief, authorized the bishop of Montpellier to assume the titles of the four suppressed dioceses of Agde, Béziers (v.), Lodève, and Saint-Pons. But first and foremost, mention must be made of the original see of Maguelonne. The bishops of Maguelonne are known from 589, when Boethius attended the Councils of Toledo and Narbonne; Genesius attended those of Toledo in 597 and 633; Vincent also attended in 683; Augemirus is known from a diploma of 819; Louis the Pious; Stabilis, who lived in 827; Abbo attended the Councils of Troyes in 878 and of Port in 897 (L. Duchesne, *Fastes épiscopaux de l’ancienne Gaule*, I, 2nd ed., Paris 1907, pp. 318–19). The Muslims created a Saracen port at Maguelonne. Charles Martel recaptured and destroyed it (737). The episcopal see was transferred to Substantion on the other side of the lagoon; the church returned to Maguelonne under Bishop Arnaud I (1030–60); he rebuilt the cathedral, dedicated in 1054, and constructed a fortified enclosure. Bishop Walter (1104–29) built the three apses and the tower of the Holy Sepulchre, as attested by contemporary chronicles; Bishop Raymond completed the tower of Santa Maria and that called “de la Cuisine” (1129–58). The cathedral, however, had to be demolished and largely rebuilt by Bishop John of Montlaur (1158–90). Maguelonne was visited by Popes Urban II (1088–99), Gelasius II (1118–19), Callistus II (1119–24), and Alexander III (1159–81); as early as 1085 it had become a papal fief. The bishops of Maguelonne contemporary with Innocent III were William of Fleix and William of Antignac. The fortifications before 1173 included, besides the cathedral and its dependencies, the churches of Sant’Agostino and Sant Pancrazio. Among the 54 bishops, mention should be made of the Blessed Louis Aleman (1418–23), later bishop of Arles. At the time of the transfer to Montpellier, the bishop was Msgr. G. Pellicier (1527–68).
The portal of the Cathedral is surmounted by a block, already a Roman milestone, with decoration and an inscription by Bernardo di Treviers dated 1178; in the tympanum, which is later, Christ in Majesty with the symbols of the Evangelists; on the jambs the apostles Peter and Paul (12th century). The interior is a single nave. In the apse, which is semicircular inside and pentagonal outside, the see was transferred to M. The cathedral of Maguelonne was damaged by Richelieu and later turned into a warehouse; it was restored and returned to worship only in 1875 by F. Fabrège.
The first known bishop of Agde is Sofronio in 506 (L. Duchesne, *Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule*, I, 2nd ed., Paris 1907, pp. 317-18); in that year 34 bishops of Visigothic Gaul gathered in Agde. Suppressed by the French Revolution in 1790, its last bishop, Msgr. Ch. Fr. de Vermandois de Saint-Simon de Rouvroy de Sandicourt (1759-94), was guillotined in 1794. Lodève appears as a bishopric seat from 421 (L. Duchesne, op. cit., pp. 313-14). The bishop St. Fularano founded and dedicated the cathedral of St. Genesius in 975. Among its bishops are remembered Cardinal Guglielmo di Estouteville (1450-53), the two brothers G. (1489-1516) and D. Brionnet (1516-20). The abbey of St. Andrew flourished there, founded in the 5th century by the monk Siro Severo near the ancient cathedral of St. Andrew, and the abbey of St. Severus whose church was originally (9th century) dedicated to St. Martin and united in 1158 by Adrian IV to the chapter of St. Stephen.
The city of St-Pons-des-Thomières was founded in 936 by Count Raymond of Toulouse. The diocese was created by John XXII and suppressed at the end of the 18th century. The patron saint of the diocese was St. Pons (Pontius) of Cimiez.
Among the abbeys, besides the Benedictine abbey of Valmagne, founded in 1138 by the viscount of Béziers, Raymond of Frencavel (Cottineau, II, col. 3288), of special importance are: the abbey of St-Guillelme-le-Désert in the valley of Gellona, founded in 804 by St. William, Duke of Aquitaine (d. 812); the abbey church dedicated to the Redeemer and the Virgin Mary, built with Roman columns and marbles from Nîmes. William was buried simply; the bodies of his two sisters Albana and Bertrana were placed in the same sarcophagus. In 1138 William was canonized by Pope Innocent II, and then Bishop Hugh of Albi and Abbot Raymond of St. William and Abbot Raymond of Nantes deposited the relics of St. William in a rich 4th-century Christian sarcophagus carved on four sides, which was defaced in 1568 by the Huguenots and broken up during the French Revolution; the sarcophagus was reassembled by G. Wilpert in 1933 (*Sacrofagi*, III, pp. 26-32, fig. 243 and pl. 289). The abbey passed to the Congregation of St. Maur in 1635 and was suppressed at the end of the 18th century. Its library contained precious manuscripts, among which a *Sacramentary* assigned by H. M. Bannister to 772-95, i.e., the time of Adrian I (*Journal of Theological Studies*, 9 [1908], pp. 398-408; A. Wilmart, *Le copiste du Sacramentaire de Gellone*, in *Revue bénédictine*, 23 [1906], pp. 210-22; P. de Puniet, *Le Sacramentaire de Gellone*, in *Ephemerides Liturgicae*, 48-52 [1934-38] and separate volume, Rome 1938; E. Bonnet, *L'église abbatiale de St-Guillelme-Le-Désert*, Caen 1908). The abbey of the Holy Saviour of Aniane was erected in 785 by Witiza called Benedict, who was its first abbot. The abbey church was consecrated in 796 and passed to the Congregation of St. Maur in 1635 (E. Baumes, *Le cartulaire d'Aniane et de Gellone*, in *Revue historique du diocèse de M.*, 1912, pp. 60-80, 106-12; A. Wilmart, *Un lectionnaire d'Aniane*, in *Revue Mabillon*, 1923, pp. 40-53).