Louis Belmas
Encyclopedia
Louis Belmas was a French churchman and bishop.
and his wife, both of whom died within six weeks of each other when Louis was aged only 4½. They left behind Louis, seven other children and a very limited fortune. Louis was adopted by his godfather, who took him into his household and took charge of his education. Louis was first sent to the schools in his small birthplace and soon began studying Latin at the collège in Carcassonne
. There, from his 'sixième' year to his 'rhétorique' year at the collège de l'Esquille at Toulouse
, he enjoyed brilliant success, nearly always coming first in the public exams.
At the end of 1772 he received the tonsure from Armand Bazin de Bezons, bishop of Carcassonne, who two years later gave Belmas a bursary to attend the Toulouse seminary, run by Oratorian priests, where Belmas studied philosophy and theology with distinction and from which he graduated bachelor
. He then returned to Carcassonne and was ordained priest on 22 December 1781. He was then made vicar of Saint-Michel de Carcassonne, a role he successfully filled until 1782, when he became a prebendary at the collegial church of Saint-Vincent de Montréal and was summoned by bishop M. Chastenet de Puységur
to head the seminary at Carcassonne
. In 1786, de Puységur made him promoter general of the diocese and (on Belmas's request) granted him the cure
of Carlipa
. By the general wish of the people of Carlipa, Belmas was then summoned to the cure of Castelnaudary
, capital of Lauraguais. In this new post, he won the commitment and confidence of those with whom he disagreed and protected démissionnaires from over-exultancy, becoming known in Castelnaudary as le Bon curé. His reputation of bounty spread with that of his major talents in administration and charity, to the point where (aged 43) he was judged worthy of a see.
of the Aude
, rendered unable to carry out his duty by infirmities and old age, stated his desire to have a coadjutor. In obedience to the regime then in force, public votes were carried out for such a post, won every time by Belmas. Besancel died on 6 February 1801 and Belmas (who had supported the civil constitution of the clergy
) replaced him on 26 October 1800. He was consecrated at Carcassonne
during the sitting of a provincial council of 11 bishops. Belmas then assisted at the national council in Paris in 1801, taking the title of bishop of Narbonne (a city that, under the demarcation laid out by the National Constituent Assembly
, had become the seat of the bishop of Aude). At the end of the national council Belmas pronounced a discourse on the subject of conferences which had been indicated with the non-swearing clergy.
, Fouché made Belmas one of the 12 constitutional bishops who were re-appointed to new seats. It was known that many of these prelates (including Belmas) were refusing to sign a retraction that the legate would demand of them - they declared only that they renounced the civil constitution of the clergy, condemned by the Holy See. When France's break from Rome was finally ended by the combined efforts of pope Pius VII
and first consul Napoleon
, Belmas was appointed to the seat of Cambrai (now only a diocese under the metropolitan of Paris rather than an archdiocese of its own) on 11 April 1802. He was sworn in on 18 April that year and enthroned the following 6 June.
Prior to Belmas's arrival, Cambrai was not what it once was, with a glut of clergy and fine religious buildings but no bishop and a cathedral
in ruins. His first priority was to organise and rebuild the diocese from scratch. Such work was vast and near-impossible, with no unity or discipline among its clergy, not a single priestly establishment and no monetary resources, but (far from being discouraged) Belmas's zeal and energy was only redoubled by such obstacles. Appealing to the charity of the faithful and with no government subsidy, he brought all his projects to fruition. For a new cathedral he at first chose the former abbey church of Saint-Aubert
(formerly known as the église Saint-Géry
), preserved but in secular use, then shortly afterwards the church of Saint-Sépulcre, setting up his own base in Saint-Sépulcre's former abbey buildings. He devoted all his energy and concerns to reorganising the liturgy and to gathering, leading and supporting the scattered clergy. Soon he also started building a vast house for a new diocesan seminary and later, by new additions and dispositions, in its turn made the former Jesuit college the main seminary (using the new house as a church secondary school instead).
When the pope arrived in Paris for Napoleon's coronation on 2 December 1802 Belmas gave a new guarantee of his feelings by signing a letter presented by the pope with a full account of the Holy See's judgements on France's ecclesiastical affairs. The tomb containing the body of Fénelon was rediscovered in 1804 and Cambrai's magistrates resolved to transfer the remains into the chapel of the hospice
de Sainte-Agnès. However, the planned ceremony for the translation was more like a pagan festival than a catholic ceremony and Belmas declared that neither he nor his clergy could accept the places in the procession that they had been assigned, which he felt unworthy of his archepiscopal dignity. He appealed to Napoleon himself, who got to know the full facts on the problem and then adjourned the ceremony indefinitely. This led to resentment and even attacks against Belmas, while the new tomb was repeatedly delayed and only completed during the Second Restoration
in 1815 (being inaugurated on 7 January 1826, with a remarkable sermon by Belmas).
Following Napoleon's deportation of the pope to Savona
, a church council was convoked in Paris in 1811 to remedy some of the problems Catholicism was having in France - Belmas attended it but seems not to have taken an active part. He remained bishop during the First Restoration
and Hundred Days
. He called Napoleon his 'benefactor', having been made a baron de l'Empire by him. After his Second Restoration, Louis XVIII entered Cambrai on 26 June 1815 but (with the memory of Belmas's participation in the Champ-de-Mai ceremony on 1 June 1815 still fresh in his mind) refused to visit the bishop's palace, basing himself at a private citizen's house instead. Louis, however, later welcomed Belmas with kindness. Belmas then went to Paris, where he successfully sued for the release of some of his diocesan clergy, who had been gravely compromised during the Hundred Days and otherwise faced horrible royalist revenge - Belmas was particularly esteemed even by the Duke of Wellington
, to whose support Belmas perhaps owed some of his successes around this time. Belmas refused repeated pressure to resign his see.
of August 1817, Cambrai was once again promoted to an archdiocese at Louis XVIII's request. These letters followed the 1817 concordat
, which had resolved on such a promotion, but the papal court did not wish to reward Belmas at all in this gift of a higher title. It was proposed that he resign, but he would only consent to that if they give him the title of archbishop in partibus, which the pope was unwilling to do, and so Cambrai's promotion to an archdiocese was adjourned by a papal bull of October 1822.
On a tour of France's northern provinces, Charles X
arrived in Cambrai on 4 September 1827 and requested lodgings at the bishop's palace. Belmas agreed to house him and neglected nothing in showing his guest respect and devotion. He later joined the 1830 revolution without hesitation and so when Louis Philippe of France found himself in Cambrai in 1852 he made Belmas a commander of the Légion d'honneur
, even suggesting his promotion to archbishop of Avignon (though Belmas declined it). Until his last day Belmas worked hard and with presence of mind for his diocese, still having his correspondence read to him and dictating his replies until shortly before his death. He was also getting ready for the next ordinations at the time of his death and sent out a letter so that his death would not delay them. After a long illness, made harder by his old age, he died on 21 July 1841 after holding the see for nearly 40 years. The see was promoted to an archdiocese after Belmas's death by a bull of pope Gregory XVI
on 1 October 1841 in favour of Pierre Giraud.
Dr Lenglet carried out the autopsy on Belmas, finding the heart in a quite abnormal state (though Belmas had never complained of chest pains) and enormous tumefactions and ugly disorders in the guts. Casimir-Alexis-Joseph Wicart (then curé
-doyen
of Sainte-Catherine in Lille
, later bishop of Fréjus) led Belmas's funeral in Cambrai, with the whole town in mourning. All the cathedral bells and all the bells at the église Saint-Géry sounded grand peals at 6am, midday and 6pm, a cannon was fired on the hour and at the bishop's palace there was a huge crush of people who had come to see the bishop one last time and to pray for him.
Early life
Louis was born to a publicly-esteemed businessman in LanguedocLanguedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...
and his wife, both of whom died within six weeks of each other when Louis was aged only 4½. They left behind Louis, seven other children and a very limited fortune. Louis was adopted by his godfather, who took him into his household and took charge of his education. Louis was first sent to the schools in his small birthplace and soon began studying Latin at the collège in Carcassonne
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...
. There, from his 'sixième' year to his 'rhétorique' year at the collège de l'Esquille at Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, he enjoyed brilliant success, nearly always coming first in the public exams.
At the end of 1772 he received the tonsure from Armand Bazin de Bezons, bishop of Carcassonne, who two years later gave Belmas a bursary to attend the Toulouse seminary, run by Oratorian priests, where Belmas studied philosophy and theology with distinction and from which he graduated bachelor
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
. He then returned to Carcassonne and was ordained priest on 22 December 1781. He was then made vicar of Saint-Michel de Carcassonne, a role he successfully filled until 1782, when he became a prebendary at the collegial church of Saint-Vincent de Montréal and was summoned by bishop M. Chastenet de Puységur
Jean Auguste de Chastenet de Puységur
Jean Auguste de Chastenet de Puységur was a French bishop.He was named bishop of Saint-Omer on 29 June 1775, then bishop of Carcassonne in 1778...
to head the seminary at Carcassonne
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...
. In 1786, de Puységur made him promoter general of the diocese and (on Belmas's request) granted him the cure
Cure
A cure is a completely effective treatment for a disease.The Cure is an English rock band.Cure, or similar, may also refer to:-Film and television:* The Cure , a short film starring Charlie Chaplin...
of Carlipa
Carlipa
Carlipa is a commune in the Aude department in southern France.-Population:...
. By the general wish of the people of Carlipa, Belmas was then summoned to the cure of Castelnaudary
Castelnaudary
Castelnaudary is a commune in the Aude department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in south France. It is in the former province of the Lauragais and famous for cassoulet of which it claims to be the world capital, and of which it is a major producer....
, capital of Lauraguais. In this new post, he won the commitment and confidence of those with whom he disagreed and protected démissionnaires from over-exultancy, becoming known in Castelnaudary as le Bon curé. His reputation of bounty spread with that of his major talents in administration and charity, to the point where (aged 43) he was judged worthy of a see.
Aude
M. Guillaume Besancel, constitutional bishopConstitutional bishop
During the French Revolution, a constitutional bishop was a Roman Catholic bishop elected from among the clergy who had sworn to uphold the Civil Constitution of the Clergy between 1791 and 1801. Constitutional bishops were often priests with less or more moderate Gallican and partisan ideas, of a...
of the Aude
Aude
Aude is a department in south-central France named after the river Aude. The local council also calls the department "Cathar Country".Aude is also a frequent feminine French given name in Francophone countries, deriving initially from Aude or Oda, a wife of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and mother...
, rendered unable to carry out his duty by infirmities and old age, stated his desire to have a coadjutor. In obedience to the regime then in force, public votes were carried out for such a post, won every time by Belmas. Besancel died on 6 February 1801 and Belmas (who had supported the civil constitution of the clergy
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that subordinated the Roman Catholic Church in France to the French government....
) replaced him on 26 October 1800. He was consecrated at Carcassonne
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...
during the sitting of a provincial council of 11 bishops. Belmas then assisted at the national council in Paris in 1801, taking the title of bishop of Narbonne (a city that, under the demarcation laid out by the National Constituent Assembly
National Constituent Assembly
The National Constituent Assembly was formed from the National Assembly on 9 July 1789, during the first stages of the French Revolution. It dissolved on 30 September 1791 and was succeeded by the Legislative Assembly.-Background:...
, had become the seat of the bishop of Aude). At the end of the national council Belmas pronounced a discourse on the subject of conferences which had been indicated with the non-swearing clergy.
1801–1815
After the Concordat of 1801Concordat of 1801
The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII, signed on 15 July 1801. It solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France and brought back most of its civil status....
, Fouché made Belmas one of the 12 constitutional bishops who were re-appointed to new seats. It was known that many of these prelates (including Belmas) were refusing to sign a retraction that the legate would demand of them - they declared only that they renounced the civil constitution of the clergy, condemned by the Holy See. When France's break from Rome was finally ended by the combined efforts of pope Pius VII
Pope Pius VII
Pope Pius VII , born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti, was a monk, theologian and bishop, who reigned as Pope from 14 March 1800 to 20 August 1823.-Early life:...
and first consul Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
, Belmas was appointed to the seat of Cambrai (now only a diocese under the metropolitan of Paris rather than an archdiocese of its own) on 11 April 1802. He was sworn in on 18 April that year and enthroned the following 6 June.
Prior to Belmas's arrival, Cambrai was not what it once was, with a glut of clergy and fine religious buildings but no bishop and a cathedral
Old Cambrai Cathedral
Old Cambrai Cathedral was the Gothic cathedral of the diocese of Cambrai in France, sited on what is now Place Fénelon in Cambrai but now entirely lost...
in ruins. His first priority was to organise and rebuild the diocese from scratch. Such work was vast and near-impossible, with no unity or discipline among its clergy, not a single priestly establishment and no monetary resources, but (far from being discouraged) Belmas's zeal and energy was only redoubled by such obstacles. Appealing to the charity of the faithful and with no government subsidy, he brought all his projects to fruition. For a new cathedral he at first chose the former abbey church of Saint-Aubert
Saint-Aubert
Saint-Aubert is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.-Heraldry:-References:*...
(formerly known as the église Saint-Géry
Gaugericus
Saint Gaugericus, in French Saint Géry was a bishop of Cambrai. He was born to Roman parents, Gaudentius and Austadiola, at Eposium...
), preserved but in secular use, then shortly afterwards the church of Saint-Sépulcre, setting up his own base in Saint-Sépulcre's former abbey buildings. He devoted all his energy and concerns to reorganising the liturgy and to gathering, leading and supporting the scattered clergy. Soon he also started building a vast house for a new diocesan seminary and later, by new additions and dispositions, in its turn made the former Jesuit college the main seminary (using the new house as a church secondary school instead).
When the pope arrived in Paris for Napoleon's coronation on 2 December 1802 Belmas gave a new guarantee of his feelings by signing a letter presented by the pope with a full account of the Holy See's judgements on France's ecclesiastical affairs. The tomb containing the body of Fénelon was rediscovered in 1804 and Cambrai's magistrates resolved to transfer the remains into the chapel of the hospice
Hospice
Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...
de Sainte-Agnès. However, the planned ceremony for the translation was more like a pagan festival than a catholic ceremony and Belmas declared that neither he nor his clergy could accept the places in the procession that they had been assigned, which he felt unworthy of his archepiscopal dignity. He appealed to Napoleon himself, who got to know the full facts on the problem and then adjourned the ceremony indefinitely. This led to resentment and even attacks against Belmas, while the new tomb was repeatedly delayed and only completed during the Second Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
in 1815 (being inaugurated on 7 January 1826, with a remarkable sermon by Belmas).
Following Napoleon's deportation of the pope to Savona
Savona
Savona is a seaport and comune in the northern Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea....
, a church council was convoked in Paris in 1811 to remedy some of the problems Catholicism was having in France - Belmas attended it but seems not to have taken an active part. He remained bishop during the First Restoration
First Restoration
The First Restoration, or Première Restauration in French, refers to Louis XVIII of France's accession to the throne after Napoleon's exile to Elba. It lasted from 6 April 1814 to 20 March 1815, on which day Napoleon arrived back in Paris....
and Hundred Days
Hundred Days
The Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
. He called Napoleon his 'benefactor', having been made a baron de l'Empire by him. After his Second Restoration, Louis XVIII entered Cambrai on 26 June 1815 but (with the memory of Belmas's participation in the Champ-de-Mai ceremony on 1 June 1815 still fresh in his mind) refused to visit the bishop's palace, basing himself at a private citizen's house instead. Louis, however, later welcomed Belmas with kindness. Belmas then went to Paris, where he successfully sued for the release of some of his diocesan clergy, who had been gravely compromised during the Hundred Days and otherwise faced horrible royalist revenge - Belmas was particularly esteemed even by the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
, to whose support Belmas perhaps owed some of his successes around this time. Belmas refused repeated pressure to resign his see.
1815–1841
In apostolic letters dated 6 of the kalendsKalends
The Calends , correspond to the first days of each month of the Roman calendar. The Romans assigned these calends to the first day of the month, signifying the start of the new moon cycle...
of August 1817, Cambrai was once again promoted to an archdiocese at Louis XVIII's request. These letters followed the 1817 concordat
Concordat of 11 June 1817
The Concordat of 11 June 1817 was a concordat between the kingdom of France and the Holy See, signed on 11 June 1817. Not having been validated, it never came into force in France and so the country remained under the regime outlined in the Concordat of 1801 until the 1905 law on the Separation of...
, which had resolved on such a promotion, but the papal court did not wish to reward Belmas at all in this gift of a higher title. It was proposed that he resign, but he would only consent to that if they give him the title of archbishop in partibus, which the pope was unwilling to do, and so Cambrai's promotion to an archdiocese was adjourned by a papal bull of October 1822.
On a tour of France's northern provinces, Charles X
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
arrived in Cambrai on 4 September 1827 and requested lodgings at the bishop's palace. Belmas agreed to house him and neglected nothing in showing his guest respect and devotion. He later joined the 1830 revolution without hesitation and so when Louis Philippe of France found himself in Cambrai in 1852 he made Belmas a commander of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
, even suggesting his promotion to archbishop of Avignon (though Belmas declined it). Until his last day Belmas worked hard and with presence of mind for his diocese, still having his correspondence read to him and dictating his replies until shortly before his death. He was also getting ready for the next ordinations at the time of his death and sent out a letter so that his death would not delay them. After a long illness, made harder by his old age, he died on 21 July 1841 after holding the see for nearly 40 years. The see was promoted to an archdiocese after Belmas's death by a bull of pope Gregory XVI
Pope Gregory XVI
Pope Gregory XVI , born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari, named Mauro as a member of the religious order of the Camaldolese, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1831 to 1846...
on 1 October 1841 in favour of Pierre Giraud.
Dr Lenglet carried out the autopsy on Belmas, finding the heart in a quite abnormal state (though Belmas had never complained of chest pains) and enormous tumefactions and ugly disorders in the guts. Casimir-Alexis-Joseph Wicart (then curé
Cure
A cure is a completely effective treatment for a disease.The Cure is an English rock band.Cure, or similar, may also refer to:-Film and television:* The Cure , a short film starring Charlie Chaplin...
-doyen
Dean (religion)
A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...
of Sainte-Catherine in Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
, later bishop of Fréjus) led Belmas's funeral in Cambrai, with the whole town in mourning. All the cathedral bells and all the bells at the église Saint-Géry sounded grand peals at 6am, midday and 6pm, a cannon was fired on the hour and at the bishop's palace there was a huge crush of people who had come to see the bishop one last time and to pray for him.