Nevers, Diocese of

NEVERS, Diocese of. - Capital city of the department of the Nièvre at the confluence of the river of the same name with the Loire. The territory of the diocese coincides with that of the department and extends over 68,165 sq km, with a population of 248,559 inhabitants (1946), of whom 240,000 are Catholics. It has 4 archpriesthoods and 25 deaneries with 309 parishes, served by 235 diocesan priests and 7 regulars, two seminaries: major and minor; it has 2 male religious communities and 34 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 287). The diocese is a suffragan of Sens. Patrons of the diocese are Sts. Cyrus and Julitta.

It is the "Noviodonum" conquered by Julius Caesar (De bello Gallico, VII, 55, 1 and 5). In the 4th century A.D. it was part of the kingdom of Burgundy and was called "Neviranum"; it then became a county in the 9th century; Peter de Courtenay married Agnes of N. in 1181 and granted the city franchises and extended the county which, in 1272, through the marriage of Yolande of N. to Robert of Dampierre, became a fief, first of the house of Flanders and then of that of Burgundy. In 1338 it was successively the duchy of Cleves, of the Gonzagas and of the Mazarins until 1789. It was reunited with France in 1789. The city suffered greatly during the Hundred Years' War and the religious struggles. The catalogue of bishops is handed down by two liturgical books of N.; by a Sacramentary of the 11th century (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. lat. n. 17333, p. 149) commissioned by Bishop Hugh the Great (1013-63), which goes up to Gerard his predecessor, and by an evangeliary of the 9th century to which a list was later added that also includes Bishop Hugh (British Museum, ms. Harleianus 2790, fol. 19'). Robert of St-Marien (Codex of Auxerre 132, p. 91) has a catalogue up to Thibaud (1177-89) in which the first ten bishops are indicated as having the church of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius as their see, while the others are indicated at St. Cyriacus; the change of name of the Cathedral took place under Charlemagne. The first bishop listed is Tauricianus, present at the Council of Epaona of 517; then a series of bishops who took part in the various councils of France, namely Rusticus or Rusticius at Orléans in 538 and 541; as Aridius there in 549 and at Paris in 552; Eoladius at Lyon in 570, Agricola likewise at Lyon in 581 and at Mâcon in 581 and 585; Rauracus at Paris in 614, at Clichy in 627, at Chalon-sur-Saône in 650. Jerome obtained from Charlemagne the restitution of the goods of his church; Jonah was at the Council of Paris of 829; Erimannus was favored by Charles the Bald; Abbo was at Soissons in the Council of 866; Eumenus is remembered in a diploma of Charles the Fat of 886 and was at the Council of Mehun-sur-Loire of 891; Franco is remembered in documents of King Odo of the years 894, 897 and 903. In later times the cardinals P. Bertrand (1320-22); P. of Bourbon-Vendôme (1540-46); then E. de Cherry (1635); G. d'Augnes (1740); J. A. Tinzeau (1752); P. de Seguiran (1782) are remembered.

The diocese was suppressed on 15 July 1801 and annexed to the new diocese of Autun; it was re-established precisely in the Concordat of 11 June 1817, but in fact only in 1823.

The Cathedral, dedicated to Sts. Cyrus and Julitta, was heavily damaged by the bombardments of 1944. On the remains of the primitive building the transept and the apse were built in Romanesque style, the latter containing a fresco of the Maiestas Domini (12th century); a second apse is found toward the entrance; the nave is of the 13th century; the choir is of the first half of the 14th century, that is, when it was consecrated, in 1331; the bell tower is of the 16th century but without a façade.

Recent excavations (1947 and 1949-50) have brought to light the ancient Baptistery which dates back to the 6th century. It is an octagonal hall with eight alternating rectangular and semicircular apsidioles, on the model of the baptistery of St. John in Fonte in Milan, called octachorum (CIL, V, p. 617, n. 2). Eight columns, of which two survive, one of green marble, the other of white marble, supported the dome lined internally with mosaics on a gold background; there is the drainage channel for the water, but no trace of the supply one. The building, on the model of the baptisteries of Albenga and Fréjus, shows restorations between the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 9th (Bishop Jerome: 795-815) and reworkings after the fires of 993 and 1028 (R. Louis, Le baptistère de la cathédrale de N. du VIe au XIIe siècle, in Bulletin monumental, 108 [1950], pp. 153-80). In the Treasury an ivory plaque of the 5th century presents on the left the scene of the Child Jesus in the Manger with the ox and the ass and on the right the Epiphany with the three Magi (Bulletin monumental, 42 [1884], p. 711). In 1724 Lord Harley acquired the Sacramentary of the church of N. (today the Harley collection, mss. 2991-92 of the British Museum in London). The manuscript of the 10th century seems to be a copy of that of the monastery of St. Columba of Sens, with some modifications for the church of N. Another Sacramentary is the one now in the Bibliothèque nationale of Paris (ms. 17333), written for Bishop Hugh (1011 or 1013-65) with beautiful miniatures. An evangeliary donated by Bishop Hermann (840-60) to the cathedral of N. is also today at the British Museum (Harley collection ms. 2790). The abbey church of St. Stephen, erected between 1066-97, the year in which it was consecrated, is linked to the Romanesque school of Auvergne, with Burgundian influences; it has three naves with transept, choir and ambulatory and an upper gallery with twin windows (H. Du Ranquet, Influences auvergnates dans l'église St Etienne de N., in Revue d'Auvergne, 1909, pp. 102-22). Today it is a parish church. St. Martin, a monastery of the 8th century, was restored ca. 1130 in the time of Bishop Fromond (L. Sery, L'abbaye de St Martin de N., Nevers 1902). St. Saviour, a Benedictine monastery of the end of the 9th century, was united in 1709 with the Seminary. St. Victor, a Benedictine priory founded in 1053, then transformed into the monastery of St. Mary of Charity. Spanish and Flemish elements are found in the façade of the church of St. Mary (first half of the 17th century). The College of the Jesuits "à la Flèche" was built by the Jesuit E. Martellange. In the ancient park of the dukes of N. is found the chapel of the monastery of St-Gildard, an ancient priory, today the mother house of the Sisters of Charity of N.: there the body of St. Mary Bernard Soubirous (v.; 1860-79) is preserved, canonized in 1933. Near the Cathedral was the episcopal palace (18th century) now used as the Musée municipal Frédéric Blandin, containing the collection of the ceramics of N., a city into which this industry was imported in the 16th century. The Ducal Palace, erected in the 15th and 16th centuries, today serves as the Palace of Justice. In the Archaeological Museum notable decorated capitals are preserved, such as those of Garchizy with the story of St. Martin, of St. Saviour with monsters and with a musical ass, and of the destroyed St. Peter (E. Mâle, L'art religieux en France au XIIe siècle, Paris 1925, passim and fig. 244). There is also preserved the Bible of Souvigny.

In the church of St-Arigle a Merovingian sarcophagus was found containing the relics of the saint (d. 594) and bearing on the outside a decoration of seven crosses, similar to the one discovered at Namur (v.), and to one found in a group of tombs at St-Parize-le-Châtel in 1899, and to two of the same kind now in the Museum of N., coming one from the excavations in the church of St-Genest, the other from those of the ancient abbey of St-Martin. In 1858 the sarcophagus was extracted and seems to be lost (J. Massillon-Rouvet, Le sarcophage de St-Parize-le-Châtel [Nièvre], in Bull. archéol. du Comité, 1899, pp. 350-55). At 73 km. northeast of N. is situated Clamecy, formerly Panténor, which was created a diocese by Innocent IV in 1245, with jurisdiction limited to the hospital founded by William IV of N. and to the church of St. Martin and with the title of bishop of Bethlehem. The first bishop was Geoffrey (1245-51); the last Fr. Ch. Durant de Lironcourt (1777-1801). It was suppressed in 1801 and the title passed to the nullius abbey of St-Maurice in Switzerland.

Enrico Josi