SENLIS

SENLIS. — An ancient diocese and a town serving as the seat of a subprefecture of the department of Oise in France, situated on the right bank of the Nonette River and surrounded by extensive forests. In the Roman period it formed part of the second province of Belgica; it was then first called Rotomagus, later Augustomagus, and subsequently Silvanectes, from which the present name derives.

The town formed part of the Kingdom of Clovis; in 987 Hugh Capet was elected king of France there, and until Henry IV his successors often resided there. In 1417 it was besieged by the Armagnacs, but was liberated by the Burgundians and the English, who remained there until their defeat by Joan of Arc at Montépilloy in 1429.

mentary (now in the Bibliothèque de Ste-Geneviève [BB. 20]), which dates from the 9th century, since it was composed under Bishop Adebertus (871–900); the episcopal list, however, was added in the margin of the canon of the Mass after the election of Bishop Bernuinus in 937; further hands added the successors up to Enrico in 1167 or 1168. The first bishop was St. Regulus, whose feast is celebrated on 24 April; of the seven who followed, only the names are known; the eighth, Libanius, attended the Council of 511 at Orléans, where Gonotiern went in 549; Mallulfus, around 584, is mentioned by Gregory of Tours (Historia Francorum, VI, 46); Aigomarus attended the Council of Clichy in 627; Ermenus that of Noyon in 814; Goffredus that of Paris in 829 and that of Thionville in 835; Offredus took part in the Council of Trosly in 909; among the more recent prelates are Cardinal F. Rochefoucauld (1615) and the last, Mgr. J. A. de la Roquelaure, who died Archbishop of Malines, to which he had been transferred after Pius VII, in the Concordat of 1801, had united the see with that of Beauvais; Pius IX granted the bishop of that diocese permission to add the titles of the suppressed dioceses of S. and Noyon.

The Cathedral, Notre-Dame, is a Gothic building of the 12th–13th centuries, with alterations dating from the 16th century. It was built on the site of an earlier building and two other small churches dating approximately from the 10th century; begun in 1153, it was dedicated in 1191; but the broad transept was laid out in the 13th century, when the chapter house and the adjoining Library were erected. The interior measures 72 m in length, and the vaults reach a height of 24 m. The choir is provided with an ambulatory from which five chapels radiate. The aisles and the presbytery have an upper gallery that also extends around the exterior. The façade is flanked on the south by the bell tower, 78 m high, with an octagonal stage; in the central portal (1185–90), the tympanum is decorated with the coronation of the Blessed Virgin and scenes of her dormitio and resurrection; on the sides are statues of prophets and representations of the months of the year; the lateral portals are in Flamboyant Gothic style. The former episcopal residence, with its chapel, dates partly from the 13th century. The Church of S. Peter,

(from A. Parrot, Archéologie mésopotamienne, Les étapes, Paris 1936, p. 118, fig. 118)
SENNACHERIB – S.’s palace in the plan of Nineveh.

now transformed into a market, had been erected in 1029, but of that period only the northern bell tower remains, whose façade was added in 1432; the other, to the south, was erected in 1615; the façade dates from 1516. The three-naved interior has pillars with Gothic capitals decorated with fantastic figures; the choir and transept date from the 13th century. To the right of the church is the Public Library. The former church of St. Frambourg, formerly collegiate, dates from the end of the 13th century and has a single nave; it is now reduced to a workshop. The former Romanesque church of St-Aignan, with some Gothic additions, has been transformed into a theatre; of the former church of the Cordeliers only the portal remains, as is the case with the former church of the Carmelites, which had been erected in 1303. The Vieux Château is built on the Roman building; it served as a royal residence from Clovis to Henri IV. Under Louis VI, the chapel was erected in which St. Louis founded the priory of S. Maurizio in 1264 and deposited relics of the martyrs of the Theban Legion; it was demolished during the Revolution. The Hospital of Charity had an attached chapel dating from 1706, transformed into the Musée de la Vénérie. The abbey of St-Victor, founded in 1062 by Queen Anne, wife of Henri I, was noteworthy; today the building is used as the residence of the St-Victor College, directed by the Eudist Fathers. The church dates from 1138 and was restored in the 17th century; the bell tower is from the end of the 12th century, while the large adjoining cloister dates from 1680. 3 km southeast of S. lies the abbey «de la Victoire», founded by Philippe Auguste after the Battle of Bouvines; Louis XI made it a daughter house of the abbey of St-Victor in Paris. It was suppressed in 1783. The church was rebuilt between 1472 and 1519.