Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulle

History

According to legends which arose in later years around the St. Martial cycle, that saint, who had been sent by St. Peter to preach, is said to have restored to life at Tulle the son of the Roman governor, Nerva, and to have covered the neighbouring country with churches. The building of churches, however, was not possible until the fourth century.

Some legends name St. Martin of Tours as founder of the Abbey of Tulle, others St. Calmin, Count of Auvergne (seventh century). Robbed of its possessions by a powerful family, the Counts of Querci, the abbey recovered them in 930 through the efforts of a member of the same family, Viscount Adhemar. St. Odo, Abbot of Cluny, reformed the abbey in 928–929, along the lines of Cluny, where the abbot was elected by the monks, not provided by some powerful local family.

Pope John XXII by a Bull dated 13 August 1317, separated the Abbey of Tulle from the jurisdiction of the diocese of Limoges and raised it to episcopal rank; but the Chapter of the new cathedral continued to observe the Rule of St. Benedict, and was not transformed into a college of secular Canons until 1514. The Chapter dignitaries included: a Dean, a Provost, a Treasurer and a Cantor. The new Chapter of Secular Canons was authorized to have sixteen canons, and to create twelve choral vicars (which they were unable to do, because of financial constraints); by the eighteenth century there were only twelve canons. Abbot Arnaud of Tulle was named the first bishop of Tulle. Pope John also raised Tulle from the rank of a town to that of a city, and gave the Bishops of Tulle the title of Vicomte.

Among the bishops of Tulle were Hugues Roger, known as Cardinal de Tulle (1342–43), who was Bishop for only ten weeks, was never consecrated, and lived with his brother Clement VI in Avignon; Jean Fabri (1370–71), who became cardinal in 1371; Jules Mascaron, the preacher (1671–79), who was afterwards Bishop of Agen; Léonard Berteaud, preacher and theologian (1842–78). By far the most important scholar to come from Tulle was Etienne Baluze, Aumonier to Louis XIV and Director of the Collège de France (1709–1710), author of Vitae Paparum Avenionensium (1693) and Historia Tutelensis (1716).

Pierre Roger, who became pope under the name of Clement VI, was a native of Maumont (now part of the commune of Rosiers-d'Égletons) in the diocese. In 1352 the papal Conclave chose Etienne Aubert, who became pope under the name Innocent VI, and who was a native of the hamlet of Les Monts (now part of the commune of Beyssac) in the Diocese of Tulle. In 1362 Hugues Roger, called the Cardinal of Tulle, brother of Clement VI, refused the papacy; in 1370 Pierre Roger de Beaufort, his nephew, became pope under the name of Gregory XI.

At Tulle and in Bas (Lower) Limousin, every year, on the vigil of St. John the Baptist, a feast is kept which is known as le tour de la lunade (the change of the moon); it is a curious example of the manner in which the Church was able to sanctify and Christianize many pagan customs. Legend places the institution of this feast in 1346 or 1348, about the time of the Black Death. It would seem to have been the result of a vow made in honour of St. John the Baptist. Maximin Deloche, a native of Tulle, has argued however that the worship of the sun existed in Gaul down to the seventh century, according to the testimony of St. Eligius, and that the feast of St. John's Nativity, 24 June, was substituted for the pagan festival of the summer solstice, so that the tour de la lunade was an old pagan custom, sanctified by the Church, which changed it to an act of homage to St. John the Baptist.

The diocese of Tulle was abolished during the French Revolution by the Legislative Assembly, under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790). Its territory was subsumed into the new diocese, called the 'Corrèze', which was part of the Metropolitanate called the 'Metropole de Sud-Ouest (which included ten new 'departements'). The electors of 'Corrèze' met at Tulle beginning on 20 February 1791, and after two days of deliberations elected Jean-Jacques Brivel, a 65 year old former Jesuit and the uncle of the Procurator-Syndic of Corrèzes. He was consecrated in Paris at the Oratory on 13 March 1791 by Constitutional Bishops Saurine (Landes), Lindet and Laurent. The consecration was valid, but it was illicit and schismatic; no bulls of consecration had been issued by Pope Pius VI. In Corrèzes only forty priests who had taken the Oath to the Constitution had to serve 320 parishes.

In 1791 the Cathedral of Tulle was occupied by troops of the Revolution, who set up a manufactory for weapons in one transept. In 1796 the cupola and crossing of the transept fell, and the Choir and Transept were torn down. The ancient sculpture had been destroyed during the Terror.

On 27 November 1793 the enthusiasts of the Terror to the number of 2000 swept through Tulle, destroying everything connected with religion they could find, and the Constitutional Bishop fled. Bishop Brivel was absent for sixteen months, and when he returned he remained inactive. He died at Tulle on 18 January 1802, after having retracted his oath and confessed his errors.

Saints and pilgrimages

St. Rodolphe of Turenne, Archbishop of Bourges (died in 866) founded, about 855, the Abbey of Beaulieu in the Diocese of Tulle. The Charterhouse of Glandier dates from 1219; the Benedictine Abbey of Uzerche was founded between 958 and 991; Meymac Priory, which became an abbey in 1146, was founded by Archambaud III, Viscount of Conborn.

St. Anthony of Padua lived for several days at Brive, towards the end of October, 1226; and the pilgrimage to the Grotto of Brive is the only existing one in France in his honour. Other saints connected with the diocese are: St. Fereola, martyr (date uncertain); St. Martin of Brive, disciple of St. Martin of Tours, and martyr (fifth century); St. Duminus, hermit (early sixth century); at Argentat, St. Sacerdos, who was Bishop of Limoges when he retired into solitude (sixth century); St. Vincentianus (St. Viance), hermit (seventh century); St. Liberalis, Bishop of Embrun, died in 940 at Brive, his native place; St. Reynier, provost of Beaulieu, died at the beginning of the tenth century; St. Stephen of Obazine, b. about 1085, founder of the monastery for men at Obazine, and of that for women at Coyroux; St. Berthold of Malefayde, first general of the Carmelites, and whose brother Aymeric was Latin Patriarch of Antioch (twelfth century). The missionary Dumoulin Borie (1808–38), who was martyred in Tonquin, was born in the diocese.

The chief pilgrimages of the diocese are: Notre-Dame-de-Belpeuch, at Camps, dating from the ninth or tenth century; Notre-Dame-de-Chastre at Bar, dating from the seventeenth century; Notre-Dame-du-Pont-du-Salut, which goes back to the seventeenth century; Notre-Dame-du-Roc at Servières, dating from 1691; Notre-Dame-d'Eygurande, dating from 1720; Notre-Dame-de-La-Buissière-Lestard, which was a place of pilgrimage before the seventeenth century; Notre-Dame-de-La-Chabanne at Ussel, dates from 1140; Notre-Dame-de-Pennacorn at Neuvic, dating from the end of the fifteenth century.

since 1800