Moulins, Diocese of

MOULINS, Diocese of. - Diocese and seat of a prefecture of the department of the Allier, ancient capital of the Bourbonnais. It extends over 7,381 sq km with a population of 375,845 inhabitants, of whom about 350,000 are Catholics; it comprises 320 parishes, divided into 4 archpriestries and 48 deaneries; it has 275 diocesan priests and 104 regulars, a major and a minor seminary, 8 male religious communities and 22 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 279).

The first document relating to the city of M. is from 1147, although in several places remains of villas, fortified posts and Gallo-Roman necropolises have been found along the Roman road that led from Lyon to Cherbourg. A modest village in the 12th century, it took its name from the mills situated along the banks of the Allier and the Brechmbault pond (today the site of the Post Office and Theater buildings). Archambaud VI of Bourbon-Dampierre granted M. communal franchises; between 1269 and 1290 the Hospital of St. Julian was built. At that time M. had two chapels, dedicated to St. Peter, the first where the Cathedral now stands, the second, called St-Pierre-de-Bourgogne, erected in 1250. Duke Louis I of Bourbon began around 1340 the construction of the castle, finished only in 1379 by Louis II. In 1788 Pope Pius VI created the diocese of M., and its first bishop was to have been Msgr. De Gallois de la Tour, then residing in M. as vicar general of the bishop of Autun, but everything remained suspended because of the Revolution. The see re-established in 1817 had its first titular in 1822; it was formed by the dismemberment of the dioceses of Autun, Bourges and Clermont-Ferrand. The organizer of the diocese was Msgr. A. de la Grange de Pons (1823-49); among his successors are remembered Msgr. P. S. de Dreux-Brezé (1850-93); E. Dubourg (1893-1906).

CLEMENS PP.XII.

Motu Proprio da Duggs che con{uio a Duro di Scena la Duga di P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P. P.

(from G. Battelli, Escanata scriptoraria, III, Vatican City 1933, pl. 29)
MOTU PROPRIO - M. p. of Clement XII (25 July 1735). Note the autograph part of the Pope: « Placet motu proprio (Laurentio) » - Vatican Archives, A. A. Arm. I-XVIII, 557.

The diocese is a suffragan of Sens. The first stone of the Cathedral (Notre-Dame) was laid in 1468 by the Duchess Agnes of Bourbon to replace the chapel of St. Peter, which had become a collegiate church in 1386. The building consists of a choir in Gothic style surrounded by an ambulatory with a rectangular plan of the type of St-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Paris and St-Jean-de-Troyes. Around the middle of the 19th century a triple nave of 5 bays and a facade enclosed by two tall towers were added. The stained-glass windows of the choir are from the 16th century and depict stories of St. Catherine, the Crucifixion, the Madonna, the Tree of Jesse, episodes of a crusade, the martyrdom of St. Barnabas, the Annunciation and Assumption of the Virgin Mary, with portraits of the donors. Venerated there is a wooden statue of the Madonna with the Child known as the «Vierge noire», attributed to the 12th century (E. Mâle, L'art religieux de la fin du moyen âge en France, Paris 1931, p. 288). In the sacristy is preserved the triptych known as that of the «le maître de M.», a panel of 1498 depicting the Assumption; at the sides St. Anne and St. Peter present to the Virgin Duke Peter II, with his wife Anne de Beaujeu and their daughter Suzanne. Pope Pius XII on 27 Oct. 1949 raised the cathedral of M. to the rank and dignity of minor basilica (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 548-49). The church of St-Pierre-des-Menestreaux was erected between 1400 and 1450 where the Library now stands: the chapel of the convent of the Jacobins (1515-20) is today occupied by the church of the Sacred Heart (1844-70). The church of St. Peter (1470-97) occupies the place where in 1352 stood the church of the Carmelites, destroyed in 1411. The bell tower is from the 19th century. The old college of the Jesuits, erected in 1604 on a design by Father Martellange, is today transformed into the Palace of Justice. In the Monastery of the Visitation of M. the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus had its beginning; St. Jane Frances de Chantal died there in 1641. Today it is the seat of the Lycée Banville and in the Chapel is preserved the sumptuous tomb of the Duke of Montmorency (1648).

In the territory of the diocese there is at Souvigny (Sylviniacum) the abbey of St. Peter, erected by Abbot Berno in 916. His successors were St. Maiolus (d. 994) and St. Odilo (d. 1049). The church begun by Odilo was consecrated in 1064 by Peter Damian. It was restored from 1424 to 1444; then it passed into commendam. The church (m. 83 x 38) contains the mausoleums of the Dukes of Bourbon. An octagonal column is surmounted by a capital with crude scenes relating to the privilege of minting coin, obtained by the monks at the end of the 11th century. The abbey Library, rich in illuminated codices, passed in 1790 partly to that of the city of M., partly to the National Library of Paris. But the precious Bible of the abbey is preserved in the Mantis Museum of M., established in 1910 (L. Brehier, La Bible de Souvigny et la Bible de Clermont, in Bulletin de la Société d'émulation Bourbonnaise, 1910, pp. 240-55). The monastery of St-Lieu-Sept-Fonds (septem fontes) near Bourbon-Lancy was founded by the Cistercians in 1132, suppressed in 1789, restored by the Trappists in 1836; the abbey church was destroyed during the Revolution (Cottineau, II, coll. 1310-11). Among the venerated sanctuaries are remembered those of Notre-Dame of St-Germain des Fossés and of St-Georges at Bourbon l'Archambault.

Enrico Josi