AVIGNON

Capital of Vaucluse department, on the left bank of the Rhone River in southeast France. The Archdiocese of Avignon (Avenionensis ) was raised to the status of a metropolitan see in 1475.

Originally under nearby marseilles and in the first century a Roman colony, with its first known bishop (Nectarius) in 439, Avignon became a commune in the 12th century under the suzerainty of the Counts of toulouse and provence; in 1251 it went to France and the House of anjou. In 1309 Clement V (1305–14) installed the Holy See in Avignon, with his successors remaining there until 1376: John XXII (1316–34), Benedict XII (1334–42), Clement VI (1342–52), Innocent VI (1352–62), Urban V (1362–70) and Gregory XI (1370–78). Clement VII (1378–94) and Benedict XIII (1394–1411) resided there during the Western Schism.

Benedict XII's purchase of Avignon from the countess of Provence (1348) extended the states of the church to France, where the popes had held the adjoining county of Venaissin since the end of the Albigensian war. The first stay of the popes in Avignon, part of the Holy Roman Empire, was justified by the impossibility of their staying in their Italian states, which were in constant revolt. But the nearness of the kings of France to the popes, who were French, gave the impression that the kings ran the affairs of the Church, thus leading the Italians to call this period the Babylonian Captivity. The development of papal taxation and centralization dates from this stay in Avignon, when the popes required money to live, build their palace and maintain a court (see avignon papacy).

After the departure of the popes, Avignon was governed as papal territory by a cardinal legate until 1693 and thereafter by a congregation in Rome through a vicelegate. Both legate and vice-legate had the spiritual powers of a legate in the provinces of Vienne, Arles, Aix, Embrun and Narbonne. The Avignon papal states, having

been seized several times by French kings in dispute with the Holy See (1663, 1668, 1768–74), were occupied by Revolutionaries (1790) and annexed to France (1791). This annexation influenced the general policy of the popes toward the French Revolution. As the capital of Vaucluse, Avignon soon lost importance in Church history.

The Cathedral of Notre-Dames-des-Doms (12th century) was existent before the popes, built the walls and a Gothic palace (161,400 square feet in area) that is also a fortress. The Old Palace (1334–42) adjoins the New Palace (1342–52) and there are rooms for the supreme pontiff and his servants, spacious halls for business (tribunal, consistory, conclave, treasury), chapels, kitchens, etc. The Abbot of Saint-Ruf (1039–1793) became head of an Augustinian order, presiding over 20 men's and 20 women's communities (350 women c. 1750).

Avignon had many penitent confraternities: grays (1226), blacks (1448), whites (1527), blues (16th century), violets (1622), reds (1700), each with its chapel; some still survive. The university established by Boniface VIII (1303) flourished with seven colleges to 1791. The colleges of the Jesuits (1564) and of the Brothers of Christian Schools (1703) were noteworthy. Charitable establishments included hospitals, hospices, two orphanages and two houses of repentant girls (14th and 18th centuries).

Many councils (and diocesan synods) were held in Avignon: 1060, 1080, 1209 (excommunication of the count of Toulouse, who favored albigenses), 1260, 1279, 1282, 1326, 1327 (John XXII condemned anti-pope nicholas v), 1337, 1457 (canons of the Council of Basel confirmed), 1594 (canons of the Council of Trent applied) and 1725. Of 57 known synodal statutes, 14 date from the 70-year period of the Avignon papacy.

Sixtus IV made Avignon a metropolitan see (1475) so that his nephew (the future Julius II), recently created bishop, would not be under the archbishop of Arles; the suffragans (Carpentras, Cavaillon and Vaison) were all in papal territory. The concordat of 1801 made Avignon a vast bishopric (Vaucluse and Gard departments) under Aix. In 1822, when Names (Gard) was restored, Avignon became a metropolitan again with its present suffragans.

Bishop Geoffrey (1143–68) developed the domain of the Church; Zoen Tencarari (1240–61) fought heresy, installed mendicant orders and was several times papal legate; Cardinal Georges d'armagnac was bishop (1577–85). César de bus (1544–1607), a missionary in the Protestant areas of Cévennes, founded the Fathers of Christian Doctrine and, with Jean-Baptiste Romillon (1553–1622), introduced the Ursulines in France.

Several former cathedrals are in the diocese: Apt (11th–12th century), Carpentras in flamboyant Gothic (15th century), Cavaillon in Romanesque (enlarged 14th–18th century), Orange with a Provençal Roman-esque interior and Vaison with its cloister (6th, 11th–13th century). The Cistercian Abbey of Sénanque (1148) was restored in 1854.

Bibliography: j. girard, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al., (Paris 1912–) 5:1121–53. j. sautel et al., Vaucluse. Essai d'histoire locale (Avignon 1944). g. mollat, Les Papes d'Avignon (9th ed. rev.; Paris 1949), Eng. tr. j. love (New York 1963); Catholicisme (Paris 1947–) 1:1 129–30. y. renouard, La Papauté à Avignon (Paris 1954). Annuario Pontificio (1964) 45. b. guillemain, La Cour pontificale d'Avignon (1309–76): Étude d'une société (Paris 1962).

[e. jarry]