Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cambrai

History

Originally erected in the late 6th century as the Diocese of Cambrai, when the episcopal see after the death of the Frankish bishop Saint Vedast (Vaast) was relocated here from Arras. Though subordinate to the Archdiocese of Reims, Cambrai's jurisdiction was immense and included even Brussels and Antwerp.

In the early Middle Ages the Diocese of Cambrai was included in that part of Lotharingia which at first had been allocated to the West Frankish king Charles the Bald by the Treaty of Meerssen of 870 but, after various vicissitudes, came under the rule of the German king Henry the Fowler in 925. After the revolt by Duke Gilbert of Lorraine collapsed at the Battle of Andernach of 939, Louis IV of France renounced the Lotharingian lands, and in 941 Henry's son and successor King Otto I of Germany ratified all the privileges that had been accorded to the Bishops of Cambrai by the Frankish rulers.

In 1007, the Bishops gained an immediate secular territory when Emperor Henry II invested them with authority over the former County of Cambrésis; the Bishop of Cambrai thus became the overlord of the twelve "peers of Cambresis". The Prince-Bishopric of Cambrai became an Imperial State, located between the County of Hainaut and the border with Flanders and Vermandois in the Kingdom of France, while the citizens of Cambrai struggled to gain the autonomous status of an Imperial city. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the bishopric was temporarily a protectorate of the Burgundian dukes, which in 1482, as part of the inheritance of Mary the Rich, passed to her husband Maximilian I of Habsburg.

Cambrai from 1512 was part of the Imperial Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle and – like the Prince-Bishopric of Liège – was not incorporated into the Seventeen Provinces of the Burgundian Circle. Nevertheless, the creation in 1559 of the new metropolitan See of Mechlin and of eleven other dioceses in the Southern Netherlands was at the request of King Philip II of Spain, in order to facilitate the struggle against the Reformation. The change greatly restricted the limits of the Diocese of Cambrai, which, when thus dismembered, was made by way of compensation an archiepiscopal see with the dioceses of Saint Omer, Tournai and Namur as suffragans. The councils of Leptines, at which Saint Boniface played an important role, were held in what was then the part of the former Diocese of Cambrai in the Southern Netherlands.

Under King Louis XIV the Bishopric of Cambrai finally became French after the Siege of Cambrai of 1677, confirmed in the Treaties of Nijmegen of 1678 and 1679. From 1790 Cambrai was part of the new Nord department. By the Napoleonic Concordat of 1801, Cambrai was again reduced to a simple bishopric, suffragan to Paris, and included remnants of the former dioceses of Tournai, Ypres, and Saint Omer. In 1817 both the pope and the king were eager for the erection of a see at Lille, but Bishop Louis de Belmas (1757–1841), a former constitutional bishop, vigorously opposed it. Immediately upon his death, in 1841, Cambrai once more became an archbishopric, with the diocese of Arras as suffragan.

Bishops

For the first bishops of Arras and Cambrai, who resided at the former place, see Arras. On the death of Saint Vedulphus (545–580) the episcopal residence was transferred from Arras to Cambrai. Among his successors were:

Saint Gaugericus (580–619)

Saint Berthoaldus (about 625)

Saint Aubert (d. 667)

Saint Vindicianus (667–693), who brought King Theuderic III of the Franks to account for the murder of Saint Léger of Autun

Saint Hadulfus (d. 728)

Alberic and Hildoard, contemporaries of Charlemagne, who gave to the diocese a sacramentary and important canons

Halitgar (Halitgarius, Halitgaire) (817–831), an ecclesiastical writer and apostle of the Danes

Saint John of Cambrai (866–879)

Saint Rothadus (879–886)

Fulbert (934–956), defended Cambrai from the Magyars and became the first bishop with comital authority in the city

Wiboldus (965–966), author of the ludus secularis which "furnished amusement to clerkly persons"

Erluin (995–1012), first bishop who was also count of the Cambrésis, feuded with Count Baldwin IV of Flanders

Gerard of Florennes (1013–1051), formerly chaplain to Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, and helpful to the latter in his negotiations with Robert the Pious, King of France (Gerard also converted by persuasion the Gondulphian heretics, who denied the Eucharist)

Lietbertus (1057–1076), who defended Cambrai against Robert the Frisian

Gerard II (1076–1092), introduced the Gregorian reform to Cambrai; last bishop to also be bishop of Arras

Manasses of Soissons (1095-1103)

Odo (1105–1113), celebrated as a professor and director of the school of Tournai, also as a writer and founder of the monastery of St. Martin near Tournai

Burchard of Cambrai (1115–1131), who sent Norbert of Xanten and the Premonstratensians to Antwerp to combat the heresy of Tanquelin's disciples concerning the Blessed Eucharist

Guiard of Laon (1238–1248)

Ingeramus de Crequy (1274-1286)

Guillaume de Hainault (1286-1296),

Gui de Collemedio (1296–1306)

Robert II of Geneva (1368–1371)

Gerard III (1371–1378), previously bishop of Arras and Thérouanne

Jan IV T'serclaes (1378–1389) (appointed by Clement VII of the Avignon Obedience)

Pierre d'Ailly (1396–1411) (appointed by Benedict XIII of the Avignon Obedience)

John of Burgundy illegitimate son of Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy (1439–1479)

William de Croy, cardinal in 1517, apostolic administrator of Toledo in 1517 (1516–1519)

Archbishops

Louis de Berlaymont

Jean Sarazin (1596–1598)

Guillaume de Berghes

Jean Richardot (1609–1614), minister and diplomat of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella.

François Buisseret (1614–1615)

François van der Burch (1616–1646)

Gaspard Nemius (1649–1667)

François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon, theologian and writer, proponent of Quietism (1695–1715).

Jean d' Estrées (1716–1718)

Cardinal Joseph de la Tremoille (1718-1720).

Cardinal Guillaume Dubois (1720–1723), minister to Louis XV.

Charles de Saint-Albin (1723-1764) (illegitimate son of Philippe d' Orleans, Regent of France)

Leopold-Charles de Choiseul-Stainville (1764–1774) (His brother, Étienne-François, was Foreign Minister)

Henri-Marie-Bernardin de Ceilhes de Rosset de Fleury (1774-1781)

Ferdinand Maximilien Mériadec de Rohan (1781–1801).

Louis de Belmas (30 April 1802 – 21 July 1841)

Pierre Giraud (24 January 1842 – 17 April 1850)

René-François Régnier (30 September 1850 – 3 January 1881)

Alfred Duquesnay (1881–1884).

François-Edouard Hasley (27 March 1885 – 7 August 1888)

Odon Thibaudier (14 February 1889 – 9 January 1892)

Etienne-Marie-Alphonse Sonnois (19 January 1893 – 7 February 1913)

François-Marie-Joseph Delamaire (7 February 1913 – 21 July 1913)

Jean-Arthur Chollet (21 November 1913 – 2 December 1952)

Emile Maurice Guerry (2 December 1952 – 15 February 1966 Retired)

Henri-Martin-Félix Jenny (15 February 1966 – 25 March 1980 Retired)

Jacques Louis Léon Delaporte (25 March 1980 – 21 November 1999)

François Garnier (7 December 2000 – current).

Notable people

The list of notable people associated with the Diocese of Cambrai is very extensive, and their biographies, although short, take up no less than four volumes of the work by Canon Destombes. Exclusive of those saints whose history would be of interest only in connection with the Belgian territory formerly belonging to the diocese, mention may be made of:

Blessed Evermod, disciple of Saint Norbert and first Bishop of Ratzeburg in Germany (twelfth century);

Blessed Charles le Bon, Count of Flanders, son of King Canute IV of Denmark and assassinated at Bruges in 1127;

Blessed Beatrice of Lens, a recluse (thirteenth century).

The Jesuits Cortyl and du Béron, first apostles of the Pelew Islands, were martyred in 1701, and Chomé (1696–1767), who was prominent in the Missions of Paraguay and Argentina in the province of Misiones, also the Oratorian Gratry (1805–1872), philosopher and member of the French Academy, were natives of the Diocese of Cambrai. The English college of Douai, founded by William Allen in 1568, gave in subsequent centuries a certain number of apostles and martyrs to Catholic England. Since the promulgation of the law of 1875 on higher education, Lille has been the seat of important Catholic faculties.

Notable French and Flemish composers who served as maître de chapelle at Cambrai include Guillaume Dufay, Robert de Févin, Johannes Lupus and Jean de Bonmarché.

See also Johann Esch and Heinrich Voes.

Notable chronicle

A chronicle of the bishops of Cambrai was written in the 11th century. This Gesta episcoporum Cambracensium was for some time attributed to Balderic, archbishop of Noyon, but it now seems that the author was an anonymous canon of Cambrai. The work is of considerable importance for the history of the north of France during the 11th century, and was first published in 1615.

Abbeys

Under the old regime the Archdiocese of Cambrai contained forty-one abbeys, eighteen of which belonged to the Benedictines. Chief among them were:

the Abbey of St. Géry, founded near Cambrai about the year 600 in honour of St. Médard by St. Géry (580–619), deacon of the church of Treves, and who built a chapel on the bank of the Senne, on the site of the future city of Brussels;

the Abbey of Hautmont, founded in the seventh century by St. Vincent Madelgarus, the husband of St. Wandru, who was foundress of the chapter at Mons;

the Abbey of Soignies, founded by the same St. Vincent, and having for abbots his son Landri and, in the eleventh century, St. Richard;

the Abbey of Maubeuge, founded in 661 by St. Aldegonde the sister of St. Wandru and a descendant of Clovis and the kings of Thuringia, among whose successors as abbesses were her niece, St. Aldetrude (d. 696) and another niece, St. Amalberte (d. 705), herself the mother of two saints, one of whom, St. Gudule, was a nun at Nivelles and became patroness of Brussels, and the other, St. Raynalde, a martyr;

the Abbey of Lobbes which, in the seventh and eighth centuries, had as abbots St. Landelin, St. Ursmar, St. Ermin, and St. Theodulph, and in the tenth century, Heriger, the ecclesiastical writer;

the Abbey of Crespin, founded in the seventh century by St. Landelin, who was succeeded by St. Adelin;

the Abbey of Maroilles (seventh century), which St. Humbert I, who died in 682, was abbot; the abbey was sacked and destroyed, 1791-1794, and used as a quarry for stones. It no longer exists.

the Abbey of Elnon, founded in the seventh century by St. Amandus and endowed by Dagobert;

the Abbey of St. Ghislain, founded c. 650 by St. Ghislain, and having as abbots St. Gerard (tenth century) and St. Poppo (eleventh century);

the Abbey of Marchiennes, founded by St. Rictrudes (end of the seventh century);

the Abbey of Liessies (eighth century) which, in the sixteenth century, had for abbot Ven. Louis de Blois, author of numerous spiritual writings;

the Abbey of St. Sauve de Valenciennes (ninth century), founded in honour of the itinerant bishop St. Sauve (Salvius), martyred in Hainaut at the end of the eighth century;

the Abbey of Cysoing, founded about 854 by St. Eberhard, Count of Flanders, Duke of Frioul and son-in-law of Louis the Debonair.

Pilgrimages

The principal places of pilgrimage are:

Notre-Dame de la Treille at Lille, a church dedicated in 1066 by Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, visited by St. Thomas of Canterbury, St. Bernard, and Pope Innocent III, and where, on 14 June 1254, fifty-three cripples were suddenly cured;

Notre-Dame de Grâce at Cambrai, containing a picture ascribed to St. Luke;

Notre-Dame des Dunes at Dunkerque, where the special object of interest is a statue which, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, was discovered near the castle of Dunkerque;

the feast associated with this, 8 September 1793, coincided with the raising of the siege of this city by the Duke of York;

Notre-Dame des Miracles at Bourbourg, made famous by a miracle wrought in 1383, an account of which was given by the chronicler Froissart, who was an eyewitness. A Benedictine abbey formerly extant here was converted by Marie Antoinette into a house of noble canonesses. Until a comparatively recent date, the great religious solemnities in the diocese often gave rise to ducasses, sumptuous processions in which giants, huge fishes, devils, and representations of heaven and hell figured prominently. Before the law of 1901 was enforced there were in the diocese Augustinians, English Benedictines, Jesuits, Marists, Dominicans, Franciscans, Lazarists, Redemptorists, Camillians, Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul, and Trappists; the last-named still remain. Numerous local congregations of women are engaged in the schools and among the sick, as, for instance: the Augustinian Nuns (founded in the sixth century, mother-house at Cambrai);

the Bernardines of Our Lady of Flines (founded in the thirteenth century);

the Daughters of the Infant Jesus (founded in 1824, mother-house at Lille);

the Bernardines of Esquernes (founded in 1827);

the Sisters of Providence, or of St. Therese (mother-house at Avesnes);

the Sisters of Our Lady of Treille (mother-house at Lille), and the Religious of the Holy Union of the Sacred Hearts (mother-house at Douai).