REIMS, ARCHDIOCESE of - Archdiocese and capital city of the department of the Marne, on the right bank of the Vesle; it is surrounded by hills cultivated with vines.
The archdiocese corresponds partly to the department of the Marne and partly to that of the Ardennes, with an area of 5,423 sq km. It has a population of 429,477 inhabitants, of whom 322,107 are Catholics, distributed in 614 parishes served by 456 diocesan priests and 66 regulars; it has a major and a minor seminary; 13 male religious communities and 81 female (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 337). Its suffragan dioceses are Châlons, Soissons, Amiens, Beauvais. The patron of the archdiocese is St. Remigius. The church of St. Remigius was elevated to a minor basilica by Pius IX on 28 June 1870; the basilica of St. Clotilde by Pope Leo XIII on 10 March 1902 and aggregated to the Archbasilica of the Lateran; Pope Pius XII elevated to a minor basilica the basilica of Notre-Dame de l'Espérance à Mézières on 15 Aug. 1946.
Its ancient name was Durocortorum, as is read on a milestone; in the 3rd or 4th century it was called Remi or Remes. In the Roman age it was the metropolis of Gallia Belgica; in its Cathedral the kings of France were consecrated. The building suffered greatly from bombardments in the war of 1914-18, as did a large part of the civil and religious buildings and dwellings; it also suffered notable damage between 1939-1945. The Baptism of Clovis took place on 25 Dec. 496 in the Cathedral built by St. Nicasius. The King and later Charlemagne left the government of the city to the archbishops, but in the 12th century the Chapter also took part in it. Archbishop Guillaume Blanchemain of the counts of Champagne granted a communal charter in 1182. Following the marriage of Henry V with the daughter of Charles VI, the house of Burgundy occupied the city, driving out Archbishop Reginald of Chartres, who returned to it. No catalogue of the archbishops of R. earlier than the 11th century is known. The oldest, up to Archbishop Gervasius (1055-67), is a liturgical book of Arras, now in the Library of Boulogne (no. 92), where another manuscript also from Arras is preserved (no. 42), which goes up to Archbishop Rodolphe le Vert (1106-24), as does ms. 4280 of the National Library of Paris; while two manuscripts of the Library of Troyes (no. 620 and H 186, now at Montpellier) continue up to Henry of France (1162-75); the collection of Robert of Torigni goes up to Guillaume Blanchemain (1176-1202); the Paris. 8865 ends with Henry of Dreux (1227-40). The first two catalogues give the title of saints to the bishops Sixtus, Sinicius, Donatian, Viventius, Nicasius, Remigius, Nivard, Rieul and Regnobert. Hincmar (Opuscula: PL 126, 334) recalls the church dedicated to the two first holy bishops, Sixtus and Sinicius, celebrated on 1 Sept. Imbetasius took part in the Council of Arles in 314; Maternianus is commemorated on 30 Apr.; Nicasius was a victim of an invasion of the Vandals in 407 or of the Huns in 451. Flodoard knew the testament of Bishop Remigius, in which the predecessor Barnabas is also mentioned. Remigius, praised by Sidonius Apollinaris (Epist., IX, 7) and by Gregory of Tours (Gloria confessorum, 78), baptized King Clovis on 25 Dec. 496. He wrote letters to his fellow bishops (Ep., 1-4 in MGH, Epistolae, III, pp. 113-16). The Jeronymian Martyrology commemorates him on 1 Oct. Flavius was at the Council of Auvergne of 535; Mappinius wrote to St. Nicetius of Trier (548-555); Aegidius was deposed at Metz in 590 and exiled to Strasbourg (Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, V, 18). Somnatius was at the Council of Paris in 614 and at Clichy in 627; Lando was a contemporary of Sigebert III (634-56). Nivard or Nivo died in 673; Reolus, formerly count of Champagne, was archbishop between 674-89; Rigobert, at the beginning of the 8th century, was for some time exiled in Gascony; Abel obtained the pallium from Pope Zachary and is called archbishop in the capitulary of Pepin of 744. He was succeeded by the monk Tilpin (748-94), who was at the Council of Rome of 769 and received commissions from Pope Adrian I. His epitaph was composed by Hincmar. Wulfar succeeded him after 9 years; he signed the testament of Charlemagne, was head of the Council of R. of 813 and of that of Noyon in 814; he died shortly after the consecration of Louis the Pious performed at R. by Pope Stephen IV in Oct. 816. He was immediately succeeded by Ebbo, who after various vicissitudes became bishop of Hildesheim in 847; meanwhile from the Council of Thionville (835) R. was governed by Fulk (d. 843) and Notho, abbots of St. Remigius. Then there were: Hincmar (845-82), Fulk (883-900), Heriveus (900-22). Later Aclald (925-62), Adalbero (969-89), Gerbert (991-998), who later became Pope Sylvester II (999-1003), Gervasius (1055-67); then Renaud of Fellay (1083-96), Henry of France (1162-75), Cardinal Guillaume of Champagne (1176-1202), Aubry de Humbert (1206-18), Guillaume de Joinville (1219-86), John of Courtenay (1266-70), Humbert (1352-55), Simon of Gramaud (1409-13), Reginald of Chartres (1414-44), Guillaume Briçonnet (1499), A. Barberini (1657-71), C. M. le Tellier (1671-1710), A. de Talleyrand Périgord (1777-1801), C.-M.-J. Gousset (1840-66), J.-B. Landriot (1867-74), B.-M. Langenieux (1874-1905), L.-H. Luçon (1906-1930).
R. has on its altars thirteen of its archbishops: Sixtus, Sinicius, Amantius, Maternianus, Donatian, Viventius, Nicasius, Remus, Romanus, Nivard, Rieul, Rigobert and Abel; 18 archbishops received the purple, from Guillaume Blanchemain to Cardinal Suhard, who passed in 1940 to the see of Paris. Cardinal Charles of Lorraine obtained from Pope Paul III in 1547 the erection of the University.
The cathedral of Notre-Dame, begun in 1211, was finished about a century later, except for the towers completed in 1480. Its architects were Jean d'Orbais (1211-31), Jean La Loup (1231-47), Gaucher de R. (1247-55), Bernard de Soissons (1255-90), Robert de Coucy (1291-1311) and also Collard, Gilles, Jean de Dijon, Colard de Givry. On 24 July 1481 it was devastated by a fire. It was restored in the 17th-19th centuries; bombarded from 4 Sept. 1914 to July 1918. The stained-glass windows of the great rose window with the history of the B. Virgin, called of the Consecration (end of the 13th-14th centuries), have been restored using the ancient fragments. The central nave has ten bays; on the sixth pillar on the right is the capital "des Vendanges". The cathedra comes from the church of St. Nicasius, demolished by the Revolution. The western facade is a Gothic masterpiece of the 13th century and has recently been consolidated and re-established with great care. The lower level offers five bays, with three portals. The central one is consecrated to the Madonna, and presents scenes of her life: the right portal to the triumphant Redeemer, the left one to the Crucifixion. Above the middle portal in the great rose window is the combat between David and Goliath. Above it is a gallery called of the Glory with the Baptism of Clovis, around it the galleries of the kings, with royal figures. Of the 8 bells of the north tower six were destroyed; in the south tower the bell called Charlotte, donated by the Cardinal of Lorraine in 1570, weighs 11,500 kg. In the Treasury of the Cathedral are preserved a 13th-century chasuble with the tree of Jesse; ornaments for the consecrations of kings Louis XIII, XIV, XVI and Charles X; Byzantine crosses, processional crosses of the 12th century; objects extracted from the tombs of the bishops Adalbero (d. 988), Gervasius (d. 1067); some ivories, a 14th-century diptych with scenes of the B. Virgin; the chalice called of St-Remy in gold, enamels, filigrees and precious stones of the end of the 12th century; distinguished reliquaries, such as those of the Holy Thorn (1458) in crystal, of the Resurrection, of the 15th century, offered by Henry II, of St. Samson of the 12th century, of St. Ursula of the beginning of the 16th century, offered by Henry III.
The ancient episcopal palace was destroyed by the fire of 19 September 1914; the library and an ethnographic museum burned with it. A lapidary museum is being formed on the site, and fragments from the cathedrals and from the churches of St. Nicasius and St. Remigius are being gathered there. Near the archbishop's residence the Carnegie Library was built and inaugurated in 1928. In the exhibition room one admires precious manuscripts, such as a Gregorian Sacramentary of the 9th century, two Evangeliaries of the 9th century and one of the 10th century, from the school of Winchester, fragments of geometry by a Latin geometer of the 4th century (12th century); the letter of Ansel de Ribemont announcing to the archbishop of R. the capture of Nicaea and the siege of Antioch (1097); illuminated choir books from the abbeys of St. Nicasius, St. Remigius, etc.
The church of St. Remigius belonged to one of the most flourishing abbeys of France and originated from a small chapel dedicated to St. Christopher, where St. Remigius was buried in 533. Recent explorations have brought to light a church with two opposed apses, perhaps the one indicated by a historian of R. as completed in 852. The Romanesque church was raised by Abbot Theodoric in 1039 and consecrated on 2 October 1349 by Pope Leo IX. Of the building the nave and the transept remain. Abbot Peter of Celles, later bishop of Chartres, erected the choir with ambulatory and chapels between 1162 and 1181; the works were finished in 1190; in 1506 Abbot Robert of Lenoncourt, later archbishop of R., erected the facade in the south transept, mutilated by the bombardments. The building restored between 1838 and 1842 suffered enormously in 1914 and partly collapsed in 1920; but everything was restored; the west facade, less damaged, preserves its Romanesque character; of the two towers flanking it, the south one still goes back to the 11th century, the north one is from 1845. The interior is over 121 m. long with vaults rising to 24 m.; the central nave has 13 bays, the side ones are much lower; the choir is Gothic, the cathedra is modern; a plaque indicates the princes and dignitaries buried in the church from the age of Charlemagne onward. Behind the choir is the tomb of St. Remigius, erected in 1847 by Card. Gousset, but with statues belonging to the previous mausoleum; the relics are deposited in a gilded bronze sarcophagus decorated with enamels. In the treasury are collected Carolingian sculptures; a fragment of the tomb of Abbot Odo of the 12th century; remains of a mosaic of the 9th century; enamels of Limoges; a polychrome head of King Lothair of the 12th century found in 1919.
The church of St. James was begun at the end of the 12th century and finished in the early 12th century; it was then rebuilt in the 14th-16th centuries; from the 13th century the facade with three portals remains; it has three naves (13th-14th centuries); the choir is of the 16th century with two side chapels; the beautiful stained-glass windows of the 16th century were destroyed between 1914 and 1918, during which the building, now restored, also suffered greatly.
The church of St. Maurice is already mentioned in the testament of St. Remigius, but the present building, which was joined to the Jesuit College, is of the Renaissance period; the facade and the bell tower were redone in 1867; it suffered from a fire in 1943. Following demolitions, the remains of the church of St. Julian (11th century) have appeared. The church of St. Andrew was partly rebuilt between 1925 and 1929; the church of St. John is also modern. The basilica of St. Clotilde in the Flechambault suburb is likewise modern.
A Christian hypogeum was found in 1738 beneath the tower of the parish church of St. Martin: it was reached by a stairway and was decorated with paintings representing the sacrifice of Abraham and the paralytic. This hypogeum, situated on the sides of the ancient road called Caesarea in the interpolated testament of St. Remigius, is now destroyed (E. Le Blant, Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule, I, Paris 1856, pp. 448-50).
In the crypt of St. Nicasius was found the sarcophagus known through a drawing found among the papers of Peiresc and published by E. Le Blant (Sarcophages chrétiens de la Gaule, Paris 1886, p. 17), with the scenes of Moses receiving the law, the Lord delivering the law to St. Peter, and Job; a fragment of the sarcophagus is today in the British Museum (L. Demaison, Bas-relief du sarcophage de St-Nicaise, in Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de France, 1926, pp. 124-36).
The museum of old R. is housed in the ancient Le Vergeur palace, which preserves a Gothic hall of the 13th century. There are collected documents relating to the Cathedral, to the abbeys of St. Remigius, St. Nicasius and St. Denis, to the Jesuit College, and to ancient palaces of the city. The «Société des Amis du vieux R.» has its seat there. The Musée des Beaux-Arts occupies the site of the abbey of St. Denis, rebuilt under Louis XV, then the Grand Seminary and from 1908 a municipal building. There is preserved a precious collection of tapestries from the 15th century to the middle of the 17th century; a series of canvases painted in the 14th-16th centuries; the portraits of the two Cranachs; the French school from the 17th century to our own days.
At R. the following Synods were held: in 627-30; in 1813; in 991; in 1049; in 1119; in 1148; in 1408; in 1564; a provincial Council in 1857. - See plate XXXV.
