The Diocese of Nevers (; ) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the department of Nièvre, in the Region of Bourgogne.
Suppressed by the Concordat of 1801 and united to the See of Autun, it was re-established in 1823 as suffragan of the Archdiocese of Sens and took over a part of the former Diocese of Autun and a part of the ancient Diocese of Auxerre.
History
The claim that Savinian and Potentian were the first to Christianize Nevers (Noviodunum) on instructions from the Apostle Peter 45 is not sustainable. The earliest signs of Christianity in the area date from the mid-3rd century.Fisquet, p. 1.
At the beginning of the 5th century, Nevers became part of the kingdom of Burgundy. In 763, King Pepin the Short held a placitum generale for the Franks at Nevers, at which the Bavarian Duke Tassilo was present.Fisquet, p. 2. "Chronicle of Saint Arnulf" ("Pippinus Rex habuit placitum generale Francorum in Niuernis. Inde ob infidelitatem Vvaifarij perfidi Ducis, quartum iter in Aquitaniam direxit. In eodem placito Tassilonem Ducem Baioariorum habuit.Qui postmodum de eadem expeditione, postpositis sacramentis & iusiurando, quod quondam Regi Pippino auunculo suo promiserat, sine licentia eius se subducens, ad vsque Baioariam fugit, & numquam ampliùs faciem Regis videre meruit.") In 952, Hugues le Blanc, Count of Paris, seized and burned the city of Nevers. In 960, King Lothair of France gave Burgundy, including the Nivernais, to Odo I, Duke of Burgundy, the son of Hugues. At some tme before 990, he gave Nevers and the Nivernais as a fief to Count Landri.Parmentier I, p. 9.
In 1194, Peter II of Courtenay, count of Nevers through his marriage to Countess Agnes, began to build the first set of walls around the city of Nevers. It was at the same time that the commune of Nevers was officially recognized.Parmentier I, pp. 12–16. The grant for the city of Auxerre, dated 1194, still survives.
Foundation of the diocese The diocese of Nevers was established at the end of the 5th century.Parmentier I, p. 7: "L'établissement du siége épiscopal de Nevers, sur la fin du Ve siècle, est l'ouvrage de Clovis, le premier de nos rois très-chrétiens." Three catalogues of bishops of Nevers are found, inserted into liturgical books, and dating from the 9th to 11th centuries.Duchesne, pp. 479–483.
The Gallia Christiana mentions Eladius as first Bishop of Nevers, who was restored to health by St. Severinus, Abbot of St. Maurice, in the reign of King Clovis I (481–509). The place of Euladius in the episcopal lists is, as Louis Duchesne indicated, uncertain; the first attested bishop is Tauricianus, who was present at the Council of Epaone in September 517.Duchesne, p. 483. Charles De Clercq, Concilia Galliae, A. 511 – A. 695 (Turnholt: Brepols 1963), pp. 20–37, at p. 37: "Tauricianus in Christi nomine episcopus ciuitatis Niuerninsium relegi et subscripsi."
Chapter and cathedral In 802, Bishop Jerome (800–816) who had rebuilt the cathedral, dedicated it in honour of the martyrs Cyricus and Julitta; until then it had been dedicated to Saints Gervasius and Protasius. He had obtained the arm of Saint Cyricus (Cyr) from Bishop Aaron of Auxerre.Fisquet, p. 3; p. 15. The cathedral was reconstructed by Bishop Hugues de Champ-Allemand (1013–1065).Crosnier, Monographie de la cathedrale, pp. 71–79. In the early 13th century, a reconstruction was undertaken by Bishop Guillaume de Saint-Lazare (1204–1221), but this building seems to have suffered extensive damage or complete destruction by the fire of 1308. Another new cathedral was constructed, and dedicated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierre de La Palu, O.P., on 31 March 1331; the Bishop of Nevers, Bertrand Gascon (1322–1332) was ill and had delegated his episcopal powers to the Patriarch.Crosnier, Hagiologie nivernaise, pp. 82–84.
The cathedral was served and administered by a corporate body called the Chapter, which consisted of five dignities (the dean, the archdeacon of Nevers, the treasurer, the cantor, and the archdeacon of Decize), two personnes (the sacristan and the scholasticus), and thirty-six canons. The dean was elected by the Chapter and confirmed by the bishop. The cantor and the archdeacon of Decize were appointed by the king. The canons were appointed by the bishop.Fisquet, p. 3.
At the beginning of the 10th century, the canons of the cathedral were so unlearned that Bishop Atto (c. 906–c. 914) had to summon a monk of Saint-Amand (diocese of Tournai) named Humbold to teach philosophy, theology and chant.Parmentier I, p. 305.
In 1565, Louis de Gonzague, Duke of Nevers began a campaign to introduce the Jesuits into Nevers, offering a substantial initial sum to support the municipality's college, as well as an annual subsidy. It was not until 1572, however, that a formal agreement was made, and the échevins turned over the buildings in which the college was to be housed. The project came to a halt when the Jesuits were expelled from France by decree of the Parliament of Paris on 29 December 1594. The expulsion was lifted in September 1603, but the municipal authorities debated whether to allow the Jesuits to return to Nevers, until Duke Louis obtained a brevet from Henri IV ordering their return; the municipal authorities drew up a new agreement on 11 January 1607.Parmentier I, pp. 310–315. The Jesuits were finally expelled from France in 1763.
A number of former bishops of Nevers were notable: Jacques Spifame (1548–58) who became a Calvinist in 1559, and was afterwards accused of forgery and beheaded at Geneva in 1566; the polemicist Sorbin de Ste-Foi (1578–1606), the Confessor of King Charles IX and a voluminous writer. Claude Fauchet (1744–1793), constitutional Bishop of Calvados during the Revolution, was a native of the diocese, born at Dornes (Nièvre); he was a Jansenist, an advisor of Mirabeau, and sometime secretary of the National Assembly. He was guillotined on 31 October 1793.Pisani, pp. 169–172.
Monasteries, abbeys, convents The Abbey of La Charité sur Loire,Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne, La Charité-sur-Loire (in French), retrieved: 2016-12-26. founded in 1056, and known as the "eldest daughter" of Cluny, was inaugurated on 9 March 1107 by Pope Paschal II;P. Jaffé, Regesta pontificum Romanorum I, editio altera (Leipzig 1885), p. 729. Bishop Hervé of Nevers was present. The celebrated Suger of Saint-Denis, then a simple cleric, has left an account of the ceremony.Augustin-Joseph Crosnier, Hagiologie nivernaise: ou, Vies des saints et autres pieux personnages qui ont édifié le diocese de Nevers par leurs vertus, , (Nevers: I.-M. Fay, 1860), pp. 56–64.
The Benedictine Abbey of Corbigny, founded under Charlemagne, was occupied by the Huguenots in 1563, as a base of operations.Abbé Marillier, Corbigny, , (Paris: Champion; Nevers: Thomas-Ferrandier, 1887), pp. 137–165.
Among the congregations for women which originated in the diocese must be mentioned: A house of Ursuline nuns, a teaching order, was founded in 1622 at Nevers by the Nevers aldermen with the assistance of the Duke of Gonzaga-Nevers.Crosnier (1881), pp. 137–147. The Hospitallers were founded in 1639 at La Charité-sur-Loire by Sister Médard-Varlet.Crosnier (1881), pp. 80–101. The congregation of Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction of Nevers, was founded in 1680, and had its mother-house at Nevers.Crosnier (1881), pp. 171–428. Bernadette Soubirous, the visionary of Lourdes, died in the Convent of the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction in Nevers, 16 April 1879.Jean Barbet, À Lourde: Bernadette Soubirous, sa naissance, sa vie, sa mort, d'après des documents inédits, , (Tarbes: Bigorre, 1929), pp. 269–278.
On 13 February 1790, the French government abolished all religious congregations and orders.Emmet Kennedy, A Cultural History of the French Revolution, (New Haven CT USA: Yale University Press, 1989), p. 148.
French Revolution Even before it directed its attention to the Church directly, the National Constituent Assembly attacked the institution of monasticism. On 13 February 1790. it issued a decree which stated that the government would no longer recognize solemn religious vows taken by either men or women. In consequence, Orders and Congregations which lived under a Rule were suppressed in France. Members of either sex were free to leave their monasteries or convents if they wished, and could claim an appropriate pension by applying to the local municipal authority.J. B. Duvergier, Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, règlemens avis du Conseil d'état, , Volume 1 (Paris: A. Guyot et Scribe, 1834), p. 118: "La loi constitutionnelle du royaume ne reconnaitra plus de voeux monastiques solennels des personnes de l'un ni de l'autre sexe: en conséquence, les ordres et congrégations réguliers dans lesquels on fait de pareils voeux sont et demeureront supprimés en France, sans qu'il puisse en être établi de semblables à l'avenir." Michael Burleigh, Earthly Powers: The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe, from the French Revolution to the Great War (New York: Harper Collins 2006), p. 54.
The National Constituent Assembly ordered the replacement of political subdivisions of the ancien régime with subdivisions called "departments", to be characterized by a single administrative city in the center of a compact area. The decree was passed on 22 December 1789, and the boundaries fixed on 26 February 1790, with the effective date of 4 March 1790.Pisani, pp. 10–11. A new department was created called "Nièvre," and Nevers became the principal city in the department.Duvergier, p. 108: "56. NIÈVRE.-L'assemblée de ce département se tiendra à Nevers. Il est divisé en neuf districts, dont les chefs-lieux sont: Nevers, Saint-Pierre-le-Moutier, Decize, Moulins-en-Gilbert, Château-Chinon, Corbigny, Clameci, Cosne, la Charité."
The National Constituent Assembly then, on 6 February 1790, instructed its ecclesiastical committee to prepare a plan for the reorganization of the clergy. At the end of May, its work was presented as a draft Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which, after vigorous debate, was approved on 12 July 1790. There was to be one diocese in each department,"Civil Constitution," Title I, "Article 1. Chaque département formera un seul diocèse, et chaque diocèse aura la même étendue et les mêmes limites que le département." requiring the suppression of approximately fifty dioceses.Ludovic Sciout, Histoire de la constitution civile du clergé (1790-1801): L'église et l'Assemblée constituante, , Vol. 1 (Paris: Firmin Didot 1872), p. 182: Art. 2 "...Tous les autres évêchés existant dans les quatre-vingt-trois départements du royaume, et qui ne sont pas nommément compris au présent article, sont et demeurent supprimés." The diocese of "Nièvre" was assigned to the "Metropole du Centre",Duvergier I, p. 243: "L'arrondissement de la métropole du centre comprendra les évêchés des départemens du Cher, de Loir-et-Cher, d'Indre-et-Loire, de la Vienne, de l'Indre, de la Creuse, de l'Allier, de la Nièvre." whose metropolitan was the constitutional bishop of Cher, seated at Bourges.Duvergier I, p. 242.
Reconstruction