TOURS, Archdiocese of. - Archdiocese and capital city of the department of Indre-et-Loire in France. It has an area of over 6,116 sq km, with a population of 350,000 inhabitants, of whom 274,620 are Catholics, distributed in 295 parishes, served by 321 diocesan priests and 20 regulars; it has two seminaries, 6 male religious communities and 110 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 428). Its suffragans are the dioceses of Angers, Laval, Le Mans and Nantes. The patrons of the archdiocese are St. Martin and St. Gatian.
The city, which under the name Alttonès in the Gallic age was situated on the coast of St. Symphorian, was moved to the left bank of the Loire by the Romans, who called it "Caesarodunum, oppidum Turonicum" because it was the capital of the Turones; in 374 it became the capital of "Gallia Lugdunensis tertia." It was occupied by the Visigoths in 473 and by the Franks of Clovis in 507; in 545 St. Clotilde died there. In the Middle Ages the city of T. was separated from the bourg that had grown up around the basilica of St. Martin, called Châteauneuf-lez-Tours; the latter was governed by the bishops while the rest was governed by the Chapter; then there was the joint government of the counts, until Henry II, having become king of England, united the region to his kingdom, whence the struggles between France and England down to the Treaty of 1242 between Henry III and Louis IX, in which it was reunited to France. The region was damaged by the wars of religion, and then especially on 21 Dec. 1870, in June 1940 and in Aug. 1944.
The most celebrated bishop of T. was St. Martin (v.), who extended Christian propaganda from the city into the surrounding countryside, which had remained pagan. His disciple and successor was St. Brice (v.), who, dying in 444, was laid in the "basilica parvula" or "cellula" that he had prepared for St. Martin (Gregory of T., Hist. Franc., X, 31, II, 14). Bishop Perpetuus (461-91) replaced that basilica with a larger one, where he had scenes from the life of the saint painted and where he too was buried (his epitaph in Le Blant, Inscript. chrétien. de la Gaule, I, Paris 1856, p. 246 ff.; cf. L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, II, ibid. 1910, p. 302 ff.). Perpetuus, who began the cathedral of St. Peter (today dedicated to St. Gatian), was followed by a series of illustrious bishops, who are known through the writings of St. Gregory (v.), bishop of T. Thus Ommatius, who erected the basilica in honor of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius; Injuriosus, who finished the basilica of St. Mary and attended the Councils of Orléans of 533 and 538; Euphronius, who presided over the Council of T. in 567; he was succeeded by St. Gregory, who, having rebuilt the cathedral destroyed by a fire in 561, consecrated it in 590 and had scenes from the life of St. Martin painted there. To Pelagius, St. Gregory the Great recommended by letter the monk Augustine, apostle of England (MGH, Reg., VI, Ep. 50); Leopacarus received St. Columbanus in 608-609; Joseph, who attended the funeral of Alcuin in 804. In later times the following are remembered: Rudolph II (1108-1117), in whose time, in 1107, Pope Paschal II went to T.; Hildebert de Lavardin (1125-33); Stephen de Bourgueil (1323-25), who founded the College of T. in Paris; P. Frétaud (1335-57); J. Gélu (1415-27); E. de Bourdeilles (1468-84), created cardinal in 1483; R. de Lenoncourt, later archbishop of Reims; Cardinal de Final (1509-1514); A. Farnese (1553-54), later cardinal; de Maillé-de-Brezé (1554-97); V. Le Bouthiller (1641-70); Cardinal Boisgelin de Cicé (1802-1804); De Barral (1804-15); F. Morlot (1843-57), cardinal from 1853 and later archbishop of Paris; J.-H. Guibert (1857-71), later cardinal archbishop of Paris; G.-R. Meignan (1884-96), cardinal in 1893.
The archdiocese formerly had as many as 11 suffragans, namely: Angers, St-Brieuc, Le Mans, Quimper, Dol, St-Pol-de-Léon, St-Malo, Nantes, Rennes, Tréguier, Vannes.
In T. provincial synods were held in the years 461, 567, 813, 858, 1054, 1060, 1096, 1163 (Hefele-Leclercq, II, p. 899 ff.; III, pp. 184-93; 1143; IV, pp. 1108 ff., 1202; V, pp. 446 ff., 968-77).
The cathedral of St. Gatian as it presents itself today is a Gothic building from the choir to the façade, crowned by the two Renaissance towers. It is therefore quite different from the one founded by Bishop Perpetuus (461-91), ruined by the Normans. In 1054 Hildebrand (later Gregory VII) directed a council there; in 1096 it was visited by Urban II. The building was renovated at the beginning of the 12th century and especially under Archbishop Hildebert (1125-33). In 1163 Alexander III assembled a council there. A fire damaged it in 1167; partly restored by Archbishop Bartholomew de Vendôme, work was resumed ca. 1236 for a Gothic construction; in 1267 relics of St. Maurice and companions were translated there; ca. 1279 the basilica was completed under the direction of Stephen of Mortagne, "magister operis." In the 14th century Simon of Mans continued the construction toward the west; six altars were consecrated in 1417. In 1431 Pope Eugene IV granted indulgences to donors for the completion of the works. The western façade was erected between 1427-84; the sacristy in 1457; the works were directed by J. de Dammartin (1431-54), J. Papin (1454-1500) and J. Durand (1483-1500). In 1507 the dome of the northern bell tower was completed; the works ended in 1547; but in 1562 the Huguenots sacked it, breaking statues, altars, liturgical furnishings, the stained-glass windows, the tombs. The damage was repaired by Archbishop B. d'Echaud (1617-41). The bell tower in the transept was erected in 1736. The artistic jubé was demolished in 1707. The dechristianization in 1793 transformed the basilica into a temple of reason, erecting there an obelisk to the memory of Marat, Socrates, Jesus, Rabelais, Voltaire, etc. In 1794 it became a temple of the Supreme Being. The statues were again broken. It was returned to Catholic worship in 1801 and restored in 1802. Into the choir were brought from St. Martin the tombs of the sons of Charles VIII. The interior is 97 m long, 28 m wide, and the vaults rise to a height of 29 m. The fifteen stained-glass windows of the choir, though restored in the 16th and 19th centuries, are among the most artistic and ancient; they were executed between 1260-70, offered by Archbishop V. de Pilruil (1257-70), by J. de Guérande, formerly dean of T. and bishop of Nantes, by G. Freslon bishop of Mans (1258-69), by the canons of Loches (ca. 1260). Represented there are the legends of the apostle St. Thomas, of St. Stephen, of St. Denis, of St. Vincent, of St. Nicholas, of St. Peter, of St. Maurice, of St. Martin, of St. Martial, of St. James, of Sts. John the Evangelist and the Baptist, of St. Eustace, with scenes from Genesis and the tree of Jesse. To the right of the cathedral is the cloister called "de la Psallette" (15th-16th centuries), of which three sides remain; on one of them is the hall of the ancient capitular library; on another the Renaissance oratory with frescoes, of which the Massacre of the Innocents remains.
In 372 the people brought the remains of St. Martin from Candes to T., and on his tomb a modest oratory immediately arose. Bishop Perpetuus began the construction of a basilica that was solemnly dedicated in 472; Gregory of T. gives its dimensions: 100 feet long (ca. 30 m), 60 wide (ca. 20 m), 45 high (ca. 15 m). Clovis and his successors enriched the building with gifts and legacies, and on their expeditions carried the famous cloak and the relics of St. Martin. The basilica became the goal of ceaseless pilgrimages and the center of a bourg entirely separate from the city; between 900-18 it was enclosed with walls and was called first "Martinopolis" and then, after the 12th century, Châteauneuf. A fire destroyed the basilica of Perpetuus in 997, and in 1175 a new one was begun, finished in the 13th century. It was 114 m long by 69 at the transept, with vaults 26 m high. It was sacked by the Huguenots in 1562 and demolished in 1802.
The new basilica of St. Martin was built between 1887 and 1924 by the architect Laloux through the work of Léon Dupont (d. 1877); it is divided into three naves by 14 granite columns from the Vosges. It is surmounted by a dome on which stands the colossal statue of St. Martin by J. Hugues. Below the raised choir is the crypt situated on the tomb of St. Martin, rediscovered in 1860; there is the kneeling statue of Cardinal Meignan (d. 1898). Beneath the crypt are two underground chapels called that of St. Perpetuus and that of St. Gregory, belonging to the ancient basilica. The collegiate basilica of St. Martin was elevated to a minor basilica by Pope Pius XI with an apostolic letter of 5 June 1925 (AAS, 17 [1925], pp. 504-505). In the courtyard of the Sisters of Picpus there remains the eastern ambulatory of the cloister of St. Martin, rebuilt between 1508 and 1519.
At the end of the 5th century a monastic community had formed around the church of St. Martin, which during the 7th century was entrusted to the monks. In 796 its governance passed to Alcuin (v.), who died there in 804. Before him a school already flourished there, and he himself in an epitaph extolled the merits of a monk Paul and of certain teachers (PL. 105, 800 ff.). To enrich the Library and the school he had books brought from York, including a dialogue grammar; a group of poems was composed by him for the various places of the monastery, and first among them "de schola et scholasticis" (ibid., 744-47); young pupils were sent there by Arno, archbishop of Salzburg.
The scriptorium developed until the middle of the 9th century, especially under Alcuin's successors: Fredegisus (804-34), Adelard (834-45) and Vivian, count and lay abbot of T. (850-53) and of Marmoutier. Among the codices coming from this scriptorium, the following deserve mention: the Evangeliary of Lothair (Bibl. nat., Lat., 466); the Bible of Charles the Bald (483 ff. in gold letters and 8 illustrated pages, the last with the offering of the Bible made by the monks to Charles the Bald [ca. 850]; there also appears Aregarius, "custos" and "presbyter" of Marmoutier); the Virgil of Bern (no. 165) and the illustrated Boethius of Bamberg (H. J. IV, 12).
Marmoutier is the "monasterium maius" founded by St. Martin in 372; it was entrusted to the canons in 850, but was destroyed in 853 by the Normans; Odo, count of Blois, in 982 donated it to St. Maiolus, abbot of Cluny, who installed his monks there. The Huguenots ruined it in 1562; but shortly afterward it was restored. It came to have more than 124 priories dependent on it. Cardinal Richelieu, having become its commendatory abbot, entrusted it to the Congregation of St. Maur in 1637. Sold in 1791, it was destroyed in 1818. The site was purchased in 1847 by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, who built modern buildings there (Cottineau, II, col. 1762 ff.). Its church had been built between 1214 and 1312 on a design by the same architect as the Cathedral, Stephen of Mortagne; it measured 112 m. in length and was one of the most distinguished monuments of the region. A Chartularium maioris monasterii Turonensis is in Paris in the National Library (mss. lat. 5441-44); in the Bibl. of T. there are chapter registers (ms. 1386) and other documents (mss. 1381, 1387-88; 1397-99); other charters are dispersed in the Bibl. of Angers, Avignon, Blois, Carpentras, Chartres, Le Mans, Reims (cf. D. Rabory, Histoire de Marmoutier et ses prieurés, Paris 1910). From the scriptorium of Marmoutier comes the Sacramentary known as that of Autun, with miniatures reproducing Vivian (f. 173v), the major and minor orders, and medallions with the Nativity, the Baptism of Jesus Christ, the Last Supper and the portrait of Raganaldus (844-45).
St. Gregory of T. had the oratory of St. Stephen enlarged, placing in it relics of the protomartyr, until then in the oratory of the episcopal palace (De gloria martyrum, 24). The oratory later became a parish. The church of St-Julien belonged to an ancient abbey founded by Clovis; the name derives from St. Julian of Brioude, whose relics Gregory of T. donated to the monks. The abbey in the 10th and 11th centuries was sacked by the Normans and by the count of Anjou (1043). The church was rebuilt between 1243 and 1259 in pure ogival style with three naves and a transept; the polygonal apses are of the 16th century. Of the abbey there remains the chapter hall of the end of the 12th century. There Henry III assembled the Parliament on 22 March 1589. The church of Notre-Dame-la-Riche stands in an ancient Christian cemetery area; it was also called Notre-Dame-la-Pauvre; rebuilt several times and again in the 15th century, it was heavily damaged by the Huguenots in 1562 and remade shortly afterward and between 1860 and 1866. It contains relics of St. Francis of Paola and five stained-glass windows of the 15th-16th centuries. The ancient church called Petit St-Martin, of the 14th century, now has a modern facade. The ancient church of St-Denis of the "hostellerie de la Croix Blanche" is of the end of the 15th century.
The monastery of St. Venantius is also called abbatiola in diplomas of 977 and 987; it was close to the basilica of St. Martin; its abbots were Licinius in 507 (Gregory of T., Hist. Franc., X, 31, 9) and Gauterius in 552 (ibid.,
X, 31, 17), later bishops of T. The ancient convent of the Jacobins (1260) was destroyed during the war of 1939-45. The ancient convent of the Visitation (17th century and 1807) is today used as the Palace of the Prefecture. The chapel of the Minims (1627) today serves as the chapel of the Lycée. The ancient archiepiscopal Palace (11th-14th centuries), rebuilt in the 17th-18th centuries, has housed the Museum of Fine Arts since 1910. The current sculpture room corresponds to the ancient room (12th century) of the ecclesiastical tribunal, later transformed into a chapel. The most distinguished works of art come from the castles of Amboise, of Chantelaup and of Richelieu, from the abbeys of Marmoutier, of Beaumont, of Borgueil. The Christ in the Garden and the Resurrection by Mantegna come from S. Zeno of Verona (the central part, with the Calvary, is in the Louvre Museum). The artistic ancient hôtel de Philibert Babou de la Bourdaisière, from the time of Francis I, has housed since 1918 the "Musée archéologique de Touraine" with rich archaeological collections and architectural fragments coming from the abbeys of Beaumont, of Noyers, from the ancient St-Martin, from the priory of St. Cosmas, from the ancient churches of St. Clement, of Bueil, of Fleurey.
In June 1940 the Town Hall (1777-86), which since 1907 contained the Library rich in 2030 manuscripts, 451 incunabula and more than 165,000 vols., was destroyed by bombardments; it was constituted in 1791 by the merging of ancient ecclesiastical libraries, such as that of the Cathedral, of St. Martin and of Marmoutier. The building (1828) containing the School of Fine Arts and the Natural History Museum was also destroyed in 1940. Of the priory of St-Eloi there remains the chapel of the 12th century. The abbey of Beaumont-les-Tours, founded in 1902, was occupied by Benedictine nuns until 1790: today it is a barracks; the church of St-Jean-de-Beaumont, rebuilt in 1451, is used as a workshop. Two km. from T., in the castle of Plessis-les-Tours, St. Joan of France, daughter of Louis XI, was born on 23 April 1464, canonized on 28 May 1950. The priory of St. Cosmas, 3 km. from T., was founded in 1902 by some canons of St. Martin near an ancient chapel: its commendatory abbot from 1553 to 1585 was the poet P. de Ronsard. It was suppressed in 1741 and sold during the Revolution. In 1925 it was repurchased and restored by the "Sauvegarde de l'art français" to make of it a center for the study of Romanesque and Renaissance art. The remains of the ancient chapel, of the cloister, and of the refectory have been found; and of the church, the southern wall of the nave of the 15th century, part of the choir and of the Romanesque ambulatory. - See pl. XL.
