Synthesis: V. ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS.
The diocese of S. is the cardinal MATTEO SCHINER (b. at Mühlebach, d. at Rome in 1522 and buried in the church of Santa Maria dell’Anima). Cardinal Schiner truly dominated his age even from an international standpoint. He introduced the Valais into the Swiss Confederation and earned the merit of securing the independence of his see, to which he had been elevated in 1499 and which Julius II immediately declared subject to the Holy See between 1510 and 1513.
Since 1919 the election of the bishop of S. has been made directly by the Holy See; the choice is made from among the diocesan clergy, as is the case for all Swiss dioceses by virtue of particular concordats. The Valais is bilingual, so that in the lower regions French is spoken and in the higher regions German: the newly elected bishop is alternately drawn from one or the other region.
Until the 18th century the diocese had no institutes for the formation of the clergy. From the 13th century the people of the Valais studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, at Fribourg in Brisgau, at Bologna, at Rome, at Vienna, and at Milan. In 1585, 1607, and 1624 petitions were sent to the Holy See requesting studentships for theology in Rome. Urban VIII established two scholarships at Vienna in 1627. St Charles Borromeo founded two colleges for the people of the Valais in Milan; other foundations were made subsequently. Since 1858 the students left Vienna for Innsbruck. Now the theology students attend Fribourg and Rome. The first episcopal seminary was founded in 1748. The school of theology was opened in 1874 at the cathedral. In 1927 a minor seminary with a gymnasium was created. In the town hall of S. there is preserved an inscription dated to the year 377 which constitutes the oldest example of an epigraph intended for a public monument with the monogram of Christ (E. Le Blant, *Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule*, I, Paris 1856, no. 369, pp. 496–97, pl. 231; CIL, XII, 138). — See pl. XLIII.