Roman Catholic Diocese of Châlons
The Diocese of Châlons (Latin: "Dioecesis Catalaunensis"; French: "Diocèse de Châlons") is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Châlons-sur-Marne, France. The diocese comprises the department of Marne, excluding the arrondissement of Reims. The Diocese of Châlons is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Reims. History. Local legends maintain that the evangelization of Châlons by St. Memmius, sent thither by St. Peter and assisted by his sister Poma, also by St. Donatian and St. Domitian, took place in the first century. These  legends are not creditable, and in the revised list of the diocesan saints in the Breviary (prayer book) these legends have been suppressed. Louis Duchesne, a prominent scholar of early Christianity in Gaul, assigns the founding of the See of Châlons to the fourth century. The bishops of Châlons played a part in French history as Peers of France. At the coronation of the Capetian kings, the Bishop of Châlons always carried the royal ring. Cathedral, seminary, college. The older cathedral at Châlons had been dedicated to Saint Vincent, up to the time of Charles the Bald. It had become  the cathedral under Bishop Felix I, ca. 625, when the older cathedral was abandoned. In 931, and again in 963, the town of Châlons suffered serious fires. In 931 the fire was deliberately set by King Raoul (Rudolph) in reprisal for the support given by Bishop Bovo to Count Héribert of Vermandois against the King. In 963 it was Count Héribert of Vermandois who put the city to the flames because Bishop Gebuin had supported the deposition of Héribert's son from the archbishopric of Reims. In both cases the cathedral suffered serious damage. In 1138 the cathedral was struck  by lightning and mostly destroyed. The new Cathedral of S. Étienne was consecrated in 1147 by the exiled Pope Eugene III, assisted by eighteen cardinals, with Bernard of Clairvaux in attendance. In 1253, when he was visiting Rome, Bishop Pierre de Hans was able to obtain what was claimed to be a fragment of the head of S. Étienne (Stephen the Protomartyr) from the Abbot of the monastery at S. Paolo fuori le mura. The first seminary in Châlons was founded by Bishop Jérome de Burges (or Jérôme Bourgeois) on 14 October 1572, in part of the abandoned Hôpital Saint  Lazare, which was thereafter called the Collège S. Lazare. From 1617, the seminarists shared quarters with the Jesuits, and when the Jesuits moved to larger quarters, the seminary followed them. It was only in 1646 that Bishop de Vialar provided them with separate, and inadequate, quarters. Bishop de Clermont-Tonnerre had the church of S. Nicholas demolished and the seminary extended on its foundations. The Collège de Châlons (Collège S. Lazare) was endowed by Bishop Cosme Clausse on 30 May 1615, and he and the City entered into a contract with the Jesuits to staff the college on 23 February  1617. The Jesuits directed the school until they were expelled from France in 1762, at which point the collège was turned over to laymen and secular clergy until the end of the monarchy in 1791. In 1784 some 245 pupils were being educated there. Benefices. The diocese was well supplied with positions which carried income with them. The cathedral had eight dignities: the Dean, the Cantor, the Grand Archdeacon (of Châlons), the Archdeacon of Joinville, the Archdeacon of Astenai, and the Archdeacon of Vertus, the Treasurer, and the Succentor. In addition there were thirty Canons. In 1699 the number of  Canons was thirty-nine, while in 1764 the number was thirty-one. There had once been a Provost as well, but the office was abolished by Bishop Roger in 1065, with royal consent. The bishop appointed the four Archdeacons and the Treasurer, while the Dean, the Cantor, and the Succentor were elected by the Chapter of the Cathedral. The Chapter also assigned the prebends, to which the Archdeacons and Treasurer were not entitled. There were also two Collegiate Churches in the city of Châlons, Saint-Trinité (with ten prebendaries, appointed by the Cathedral Chapter) and Nôtre Dame en Vaux (with  twelve prebendaries, appointed by the Cathedral Chapter). Among its abbeys, the diocese counted: St. Memmius (Augustinians), founded in the fifth century by Alpinus; Toussaints (Augustinians), founded in the eleventh century; Châtrices (Augustinians); Montier-en-Der (Benedictines), founded in the seventh century by St. Bereharius, a monk from Luxeuil; Saint Urbain, founded in 865; Saint-Pierre au Mont (Benedictines), founded during the same period; Moiremont (Benedictines); Huiron (Benedictines); Saint-Sauveur-de Vertus (Benedictines); Nôtre-Dame de Vertus (Augustinians); Trois-Fontaines (Cistercians); Haute-Fontaine (Cistercians); Cheminon (Cistercians); and Moutier-en-Argonne (Cistercians). The king was the patron and made the appointments at  Toussaints, Saint-Pierre, Saint-Memmius, and Châtrices. Nôtre-Dame de l'Epine, near Châlons, was a place of pilgrimage as early as the beginning of the fifteenth century, thanks to the mysterious discovery of a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary. Revolution. In 1790 the National Constituent Assembly decided to bring the French church under the control of the State. Civil government of the provinces was to be reorganized into new units called 'départements', originally intended to be 83 or 84 in number. The dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church were to be reduced in number, to coincide as much as  possible with the new departments. Since there were more than 130 bishoprics at the time of the Revolution, more than fifty dioceses needed to be suppressed and their territories consolidated. Clergy would need to take an oath of allegiance to the State and its Constitution, specified by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and they would become salaried officials of the State. Both bishops and priests would be elected by special 'electors' in each department. This meant schism, since bishops would no longer need to be approved (preconised) by the Papacy; the transfer of bishops, likewise, which had formerly been  the exclusive prerogative of the pope in canon law, would be the privilege of the State; the election of bishops no longer lay with the Cathedral Chapters (which were all abolished), or other responsible clergy, or the Pope, but with electors who did not even have to be Catholics or Christians. The diocese of Châlons-sur-Marne was one of the dioceses which was suppressed, and its territory was transferred to a new diocese centered at Reims, and called the 'Diocese of the Marne'. The bishop of Marne would be the Metropolitan of a 'Metropole du Nord-Est', which would  include: Marne, Aisne, Ardennes, Meurthe, Moselle, and Nord. The dioceses of Soissons and Troyes were also suppressed and incorporated into the 'Diocèse du Marne'. The Bishops of Reims, Châlons, Soissons and Troyes protested, addressing letters to their clergy and to the 'electors' and warning them to take no account of the activities of the government as regards the Church. In Châlons a large number of the clergy were in favor of reforms. One in four of the curates, and one in five of the vicars, refused to take the oath to the Civil Constitution (or retracted it after they had  taken it). This meant that they were discharged from their functions and left without incomes; they became targets of the more radical of the revolutionaries. In Marne, the 539 electors were invited to assemble by the Constituent Assembly, and 395 of them assembled at Reims in March 1791. They elected Fr. Gangand, the curé of Mareuil-sur-Ay, but he refused. Then, on March 15, they elected Nicolas Diot as Bishop and Metropolitan of Marne, and he thus acquired control over the suppressed diocese of Châlons-sur-Marne. He was consecrated in Paris on 1 May 1791 by Constitutional Bishop  Jean-Baptiste Gobel. The consecration was valid, having been performed in the proper form by three Roman Catholic bishops, but illicit and schismatic, since the election and consecration had taken place without the sanction of Pope Pius VII. Diot acquiesced in new attitudes; he actually presided at the marriage of one of his priests. He survived the Terror (which had abolished Religion and replaced it with Reason), and as late as 1800 he carried out an episcopal consecration (Cambrai) In 1801 he presided at a diocesan synod, and in June 1802 at a Metropolitan synod. He died on 31 December  1802. Church of the Concordat. In the meantime First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte was preparing to end the religious confusion in France by entering into a Concordat with the Vatican. He had plans for the future, and he required a united France in order to carry them out successfully. In separate actions both he and Pius VII called on all bishops in France to submit their resignations. On November 29, 1801, by the bull "Qui Christi Domini", Pope Pius VII suppressed all of the Roman Catholic dioceses in France, and reinstituted them under papal authority. This act did away with whatever  doubt or ambiguity might still exist as to a 'Constitutional Church' and 'Constitutional dioceses' in France. United in 1802 with the Diocese of Meaux and in 1821 with the Archdiocese of Reims, the Diocese of Châlons was re-established in 1822, and is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Reims. The Concordat of 1801 was unilaterally abrogated by the Law of Separation of Church and State, enacted on 9 December 1905. From that date, the Republic no longer nominated French bishops. The law also declared that all religious buildings were property of the state and local governments, and enacted the prohibition  of affixing religious signs on public buildings. Nuns were removed from hospital staffs. Schools were secularized, and religious instruction was forbidden to children between the ages of six and thirteen. The law did not apply to the provinces of Alsace or Lorraine, which were at the time part of the German Empire.