TULLE, Diocese of. - Diocese and capital city of the department of Corrèze, formerly of Lower Limousin in France.
It has an area of 5,887 sq km with a population of 254,000 inhabitants, of whom 245,000 are Catholics, distributed among 293 parishes, grouped into 3 archpriestures. It is served by 228 diocesan priests and 16 regulars; it has a major and a minor seminary, 6 male religious communities and 55 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, pp. 436).
The name seems to derive from an ancient local deity Tutela. The diocese was created by Pope John XXIII on 15 Aug. 1317. The English occupied it in 1346 and in 1369. A terrible fire devastated the city on 24 May 1524; it also suffered during the wars of religion. The diocese is a suffragan of Bourges and its patron is St. Martin of Tours. In the place there arose an abbey founded according to some by St. Martin, according to others by St. Calminus, an exile from Auvergne; the diocese arose by dismemberment from that of Limoges, and its first bishop was the abbot Arnald of St-Astier; but the Chapter was secularized only in 1517. Among his successors are remembered: Hugh Roger, called the cardinal of T. (1342-43); J. Fabri (1370-1371), later cardinal; J. Mascaron (1671-79), who died bishop of Agen in 1703; Ch. Duplessis d'Argentré (1723-1740); J. B. Berteaud (1842-78).
The Cathedral is the ancient abbey church of St. Martin from the 12th century. A portico with arches leads to the Limousin-style portal; the bell tower rises to 75 m and ends with a spire of the 14th century; on its northern face, in the tympanum of the windows, is a Madonna sassa between two angels, and in two niches are St. Martin and an abbot. The interior is divided into three naves by piers formed of clusters of 4 columns; the apse no longer exists. The venerated painted and gilded wooden statue of St. John the Baptist was carried in procession on the evening of 24 June because of the vow made in 1348 during the plague; it was called the "procession de la lunade," because in 1348 the evening of 24 June was the full moon. To the right of the Cathedral are the 13th-century cloister and the chapter hall, which preserves 14th-century frescoes with the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem and the Last Supper. In the cloister part of the archaeological Museum has been arranged; notable there are the statue of Notre-Dame-du-Bois-des-Moines and architectural fragments of the Cathedral. Annexed to the Cathedral is the artistic house "de Loyac" or "maison de l'abbé" of the 16th century. The monastery of the Visitation of the 17th century, with its octagonal chapel, has been transformed into a hospice. The ancient church of St. Peter, formerly of the Carmelites, has an octagonal form surrounded by chapels from the end of the 17th century.
Born in the territory of the diocese were St. Martin of Brive (5th century), a disciple of St. Martin of Tours; St. Sacerdos, b. at Argentat, later bishop of Limoges (6th century); St. Liberalis, b. at Brive and d. there in 940, who was bishop of Embrun; St. Stephen of Aubazine, who founded there at the end of the 11th century a Cistercian monastery (Cottineau, I, col. 185); St. Bertold of Mabefayde, general of the Carmelites (12th century); the missionary Dumolin Borie (1808-1838), martyr in Tonkin. In the diocese, and precisely at Maumont, was born Pierre Roger, later Clement VI (v.), and at Château-des-Monts was born Stephen Aubert, later Innocent VI (v.).
The principal sanctuaries venerated in the diocese are Notre-Dame-de-Belpeuch at Camps, Notre-Dame-de-Chastre at Bar, Notre-Dame-du-Pont-du-Salut (pilgrimage on 8 Sept.); Notre-Dame-du-Roc at Servières; Notre-Dame-de-la-Buissière-Lestards; Notre-Dame-de-la-Chabanne at Urssel with a wooden statue of the Madonna; Notre-Dame-de-Penacor at Neuvic, an ancient church (12th-15th centuries).
In honor of St. Anthony of Padua, who dwelt at Brive in 1226, founding a Franciscan convent there, a pilgrimage is made to the Grottoes of Brive; his statue, mutilated by the Huguenots, has been restored. St. Rodolph of Turenne (845-66), archbishop of Bourges, founded around the year 840 the Benedictine abbey of Beaulieu-sur-Mémoire dedicated to the holy apostles Peter and Paul and to St. Felicity, with a Romanesque church; it passed to the Cluniacs in 1096; to the Maurists in 1663 (Cottineau I, coll. 296-97). The Chartreuse of Notre-Dame of Glandier was established in 1219 by Archambaud de Comborn; it was suppressed in 1790, re-established after 1869; suppressed again in 1905 (Cottineau, I, col. 1290). The Benedictine abbey of St. Peter Uzerche was founded between 958 and 991 by bishop Hildegar; it was secularized in 1745. The abbey church of the 12th century has three naves, with five radiating chapels, a crypt and a Romanesque bell tower (Cottineau, II, col. 3248). The priory of Meymac, founded by Archibald III viscount of Comborn in 1080, became an abbey in the first part of the 12th century; it passed to the Cluniacs in 1662 and to the Maurists in 1670 (Cottineau, II, coll. 1839-40).
Notable is the church of the ancient Benedictine abbey of Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, founded by Rodolph of Turenne, archbishop of Bourges, around the year 885; it is a conspicuous example of the Romanesque school of Languedoc in the 12th century; its south portal, of the type of that of Moissac, also offers in the tympanum the Last Judgment; it has a square tower on the facade and an octagonal one on the transept. The interior has three naves with upper galleries and two terminal apses in the transept, at whose center rises a dome. The choir is surrounded by an ambulatory with three radial chapels; in the apse are bas-reliefs of the Assumption and Coronation of the B. Virgin. In the sacristy is a wooden image of the Madonna covered with silver (12th century); also reliquaries of the 13th century.
Bibliography10 works
1899; R. Fage, La vie à T. au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècle, ivi 1902; Eubel, I, p. 505; II, p. 284; III, p. 342; IV, p. 351; V, p. 396; Cottineau, II, pp. 3230-31; Guide de la France chrét. et missionn., 1948-49, Parigi 1948, pp. 402, 785-86, 1114.
Enrico Josi