Religious life in Provence divides almost evenly across the first three periods, with 7 dates in Antiquity, 9 in the Middle Ages and 7 in the early modern period, but it vanishes entirely from the contemporary era. From the earliest Christian communities attested at Lyon and Vienne as early as 177, through the Council of Arles in 314, where five Provençal bishops sat, to the Parlement of Aix refusing to register the Unigenitus constitution in 1730 and the suppression of the Society of Jesus after 1762, the Church shaped public life for centuries.
This map follows that continuous presence at Marseille, Aix, Arles and Digne, carried by figures such as Belsunce or Caesarius, up to its disappearance from the dated record as the twentieth century approaches.
What the corpus attaches to this theme
Places most present : Marseille, Aix, Arles, Provence, Toulon, Digne, Brignoles, Nice
Figures most present : Gaspard de Pontevès, comte de Carcès, Belsunce, Paul de Richieu, P. Lavalette, Césaire, Comte de Sommerive, Hubert de Vins, Guise
Antiquity
177
Martyrs of Lyon and Vienne: first Gaulish Christian communities attested with certainty
Mid-3rd century (254 according to Wikipedia and Busquet)
Attested presence of a bishop, or of an organised Church, at Arles
1 August 314
Council of Arles: five Provençal bishops sit there, those of Arles, Orange, Vaison, Marseille and Apt
353
Second general council convened at Arles, at the height of the Arian quarrel
410
Founding of the Lérins islands by Honoratus; sack of Rome by the Visigoths of Alaric
416
John Cassian founds religious communities of men and women at Marseille
529
Council of Vaison: creation of parish schools for rural clergy
Read the period: Antiquity
Middle Ages
794
Council of Frankfurt restoring their powers to the archbishops of Aix and Embrun
813
The Council of Tours calls on priests to preach in the vernacular Romance tongue, a sign that liturgical Latin is no longer understood by the people
838
Saracen raid on Marseille, sack of the city and destruction of Saint-Victor
869
The Normans abduct Archbishop Rotland, who had come to lead the defence of the coast at Notre-Dame de la Mer
11 May 878
Boson and Ermengarde receive Pope John VIII at Arles
972
Capture of Maïeul, abbot of Cluny, by the Saracens of the Freinet
1229
Treaty of Meaux-Paris, passage of the marquisate to the papacy
21 February then 24 March 1239
Raimond Bérenger receives the homage of the archbishops of Aix and Arles, then Gregory IX excommunicates Frederick II
1274
Cession of the marquisate to the pope, formation of the Comtat Venaissin
Late 13th century
The Life of Saint Douceline, a religious work in prose, ranks among the rare literary writings in the local idiom of the period
1316
Installation of the popes at Avignon
1 June 1381
Charles of Duras receives from the pope the investiture of the kingdom of Naples, which he seizes on 16 July
Read the period: Middle Ages
Early modern period
April 1545
Massacre of the Vaudois of the Lubéron, including that of Mérindol, on the order of the first president Maynier d'Oppède
1561 to 1598
Wars of Religion in Provence, several periods of fighting
1 November 1720
The bishop of Belsunce, having left his episcopal palace, celebrates mass in the open air, barefoot, at the far end of the Cours
1705
Bull Vineam domini, origin of the religious quarrels that occupy Provence until the middle of the century
1713
Constitution Unigenitus, sought from Clement XI by Louis XIV under pressure from Father Letellier and the Jesuits, condemning 101 propositions
1730
The Parlement d'Aix refuses to register the royal declaration on the constitution Unigenitus
from 1762
The affair of Father La Vallette's bankruptcy leads to the suppression of the Society of Jesus
1774
Publication of the Judeo-Comtadin play La Reine Esther by two rabbis
Read the period: Early modern period
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