The Roman Catholic diocese of Pamiers, is a diocese

Diocese

A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...

 of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

, in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The diocese comprises the department of Ariège

Ariège

Ariège is a department in southwestern France named after the Ariège River.- History :Ariège is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the counties of Foix and Couserans....

, and is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Toulouse

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toulouse

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toulouse, is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The diocese comprises the Department of Haute-Garonne...

. The episcopal see is the Pamiers Cathedral, in the city of Pamiers

Pamiers

Pamiers is a commune in the Ariège department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Although Pamiers is the largest city in Ariège, the capital is the smaller town of Foix...

, and the current bishop is Philippe Mousset. Appointed as bishop-elect on January 8, 2009; he had been a priest of the La Rochelle diocese.

Jurisdiction

The territory forming it was united to the archbishopric of Toulouse on the occasion of the Concordat of 1801

Concordat 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....

; the Concordat of 1817

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...

 re-established at Pamiers a diocese which existed only in September, 1823, uniting the ancient diocese of Pamiers and diocese of Couserans, the larger portion of the former diocese of Mirepoix and diocese of Rieux, and a deanery of the former diocese of Alet.

A decree of the Holy See 11 March 1910, re-established the titles of the former Sees of Couserans and Mirepoix.

History

The traditions of the diocese mention as its first apostle of Christianity St. Antoninus

Antoninus of Pamiers

Saint Antoninus of Pamiers was an early Christian missionary and martyr, called the "Apostle of the Rouergue". His life is dated to the first, second, fourth, and fifth century by various sources, since he often confused with various other venerated Antonini. Today he is revered as the patron...

, born at Fredelacum near Pamiers, an apostle of the Rouergue

Rouergue

Rouergue is a former province of France, bounded on the north by Auvergne, on the south and southwest by Languedoc, on the east by Gévaudan and on the west by Quercy...

, martyred in his native country (date uncertain). The Abbey of St. Antonin was founded near Fredelacum about 960; in 1034 it passed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Girone and was annexed in 1060 to the Congregation of Cluny

Cluny

Cluny or Clungy is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France. It is 20 km northwest of Mâcon.The town grew up around the Benedictine Cluny Abbey, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in 910...

.

A castle built on the site of the abbey by Roger II, Count of Foix (1070–1125), was called Appamia; hence the name of Pamiers

Pamiers

Pamiers is a commune in the Ariège department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Although Pamiers is the largest city in Ariège, the capital is the smaller town of Foix...

 which passed to the neighbouring small town. Pope Boniface VIII

Pope Boniface VIII

Pope Boniface VIII , born Benedetto Gaetani, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303. Today, Boniface VIII is probably best remembered for his feuds with Dante, who placed him in the Eighth circle of Hell in his Divina Commedia, among the Simonists.- Biography :Gaetani was born in 1235 in...

 created a see at Pamiers by the Bull Romanus Pontifex 23 July 1295, and made it a suffragan of the archdiocese of Narbonne. He named Bernard Saisset

Bernard Saisset

Bernard Saisset was an Occitan bishop of Pamiers, in the County of Foix in the south of France, whose outspoken disrespect for Philip IV of France incurred charges of high treason in the overheated atmosphere of tension between the King and his ministry and Pope Boniface VIII, leading up to the...

 Abbot of St. Antonin, and by a decree 18 April 1296, settled the boundaries of the new diocese dismembered from that of Toulouse. The opposition of Hughes Mascaron, Bishop of Toulouse, and the conflict between Saisset and Roger Bernard III, Count of Foix, prevented Saisset from taking immediate possession of his diocese; Abbé Vidal has proven that it is not true, as had long been thought, that St. Louis of Anjou, who became Bishop of Toulouse at the death of Mascaron, had been appointed provisional administrator of the Diocese of Pamiers. Saisset took possession of his see on 19 April 1297; having sided with Boniface VIII (1301), he was imprisoned by order of Philip the Fair

Philip IV of France

Philip the Fair was, as Philip IV, King of France from 1285 until his death. He was the husband of Joan I of Navarre, by virtue of which he was, as Philip I, King of Navarre and Count of Champagne from 1284 to 1305.-Youth:A member of the House of Capet, Philip was born at the Palace of...

.

After careful investigation, Pope Clement V

Pope Clement V

Pope Clement V, born Raymond Bertrand de Got was Pope from 1305 to his death...

, 3 August 1308, complied with certain demands of Toulouse concerning the decree of Boniface VIII, and the Diocese of Pamiers remained, but with poorer resources than those assigned it by Boniface VIII. However, when Pope John XXII

Pope John XXII

Pope John XXII , born Jacques Duèze , was pope from 1316 to 1334. He was the second Pope of the Avignon Papacy , elected by a conclave in Lyon assembled by Philip V of France...

 raised Toulouse to an archbishopric, 22 Feb., 1318, he also extended the Diocese of Pamiers which he made suffragan of Toulouse. Saisset's successor was Jacques Fournier (1317–26), subsequently pope under the name of Benedict XII. Vidal discovered in the Vatican Library

Vatican Library

The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...

 the record of the procedure of the Inquisition

Inquisition

The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...

 tribunal created at Pamiers, by Jacques Fournier in 1318, for the extirpation of the remnants of Albigensianism in the Foix region; this document is most important for the history of the Inquisition, representing as it does, and perhaps in this instance only, that particular tribunal in which the monastic inquisitor and the diocesan bishop had almost equal power, as decreed in 1312 by the Council of Vienna. In this new regime the traditional procedure of the Inquisition was made milder by temporizing with the accused who persisted in error, by granting defendants a fair amount of liberty, and by improving the prison regime.

Among the noteworthy bishops of Pamiers were Cardinal Arnaud de Villemur

Arnaud de Villemur

Arnaud de Villemur O.Can.S.A. was a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was bishop of Pamiers, France.He was made cardinal on 17 December 1350 by Pope Clement VI....

 (1348–50); Cardinal Amanieu d'Albret (1502–06); John of Barbançon (1550–55), who became a Calvinist; Robert of Pellevé (1557–79), during whose episcopate the religious wars gave rise to cruel strife: Protestants destroyed every church in Pamiers, among them the magnificent church of Notre-Dame du Camp, and three times they demolished the episcopal palace of the Mas Saint-Antonin. Henry of Sponde (1626–42) (Spondanus), who summarized and continued the Ecclesiastical Annals of his friend Baronius; the Jansenist François Etienne de Caulet (1644–1680).

Bishops

• Bernard Saisset
  Bernard Saisset
  Bernard Saisset was an Occitan bishop of Pamiers, in the County of Foix in the south of France, whose outspoken disrespect for Philip IV of France incurred charges of high treason in the overheated atmosphere of tension between the King and his ministry and Pope Boniface VIII, leading up to the...
  
   1295–1314
• Pilfort de Rabastens 1315–1317
• Jacques Fournier 1317–1326
• Dominique Grenier 1326–1347
• Arnaud de Villemur 1348–1350
• Guillaume de Montespan 1351–1370
• Raymond d'Accone 1371–1379
• Bertrand d’Ornésan 1380–1424
• Jean de Forto 1424–1431
• Gérard de La Bricoigne 1431–1435
• Jean Mellini 1435–1459
• Barthélemy d'Artiguelouve 1459–1467
• Paschal Dufour 1468–1487
• Pierre de Castelbajac 1488–1497
• Gérard Jean 1498–1501
• Amanieu d'Albret
  Albret
  The lordship of Albret , situated in the Landes, gave its name to one of the most powerful feudal families of France in the Middle Ages...
  
   1502–1506
• Mathieu d’Artiguelouve 1506–1514
• Amanieu d'Albret
  Albret
  The lordship of Albret , situated in the Landes, gave its name to one of the most powerful feudal families of France in the Middle Ages...
  
   1514–1520 (2. Mal)
• Bertrand de Lordat 1524–1547
• Jean de Luxembourg
  Jean de Luxembourg
  Jean de Luxembourg was a Burgundian noble.He was the illegitimate son of Waleran III of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny, Constable of France, and Agnès de Brie....
  
   1547–1548
• Jean de Barbançon 1548–1557
• Robert de Pellevé 1557–1579
• Bertrand du Perron 1579–1605
• Joseph d'Esparbès de Lussan 1608–1625
• Henri de Sponde 1626–1629
• Jean de Sponde 1639–1643
• Henri de Sponde 1643 (second time)
• François Bosquet
• Jacques de Montrouge
• François de Caulet 1644–1680
• François d’Anglure de Bourlemont 1680–1685
• François de Camps
  François de Camps
  François de Camps , who was made abbé of Signy after his nomination to the Bishopric of Pamiers had been vetoed in Rome, was an antiquarian of Amiens whose dissertations on medals were published in the Paris Mercuries of 1719–1723.-Notes:...
  
   1685–1693
• Jean-Baptiste de Verthamon 1693–1735
• François-Barthélemy de Salignac-Fénelon 1736–1741
• Henri-Gaston de Lévis 1741–1787
• Joseph-Mathieu d'Agoult 1787–1790
• Bernard Font 1791–1793
• François de La Tour-Landorthe 1823–1835
• Gervais-Marie-Joseph Ortric 1835–1845
• Guy-Louis-Jean-Marie Alouvry 1846–1856
• Jean-François-Augustin Galtier 1856–1858
• Jean-Antoine-Auguste Bélaval 1858–1881
• Pierre-Eugène Rougerie 1881–1907
• Martin-Jérôme Izart 1907–1916 (also archbishop of Bourges)
• Pierre Marceillac 1916–1947
• Félix Guiller 1947–1961
• Maurice-Mathieu Louis Rigaud 1961–1968 (also archbishop of Auch)
• Henri-Lugagne Delpon 1968–1970
• Léon-Raymond Soulier 1971–1987
• Albert-Marie Joseph Cyrille de Monléon, O.P 1988–1999 (went on to the post of Bishop of Meaux)
• Marcel-Germain Perrier 2000–2009, resigned
• Philippe Mousset 2009–present