387. ENGLISH POSSESSIONS IN FRANCE-The whole western portion of the kingdom from the British Channel to the Pyre nees, including Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, Touraine and Maine, Poitou, Aquitaine with Auvergne and Gascogne belonged to the English kings of the house of Plantagenet either as immediate tenures or as mesne-feofs--arrière-fiefs. Anjou, Touraine and Maine they held as their paternal inheritance; Normandy and the feudal supremacy over Brittany they obtained as heirs of the Norman English kings, and Poitou, Aquitaine and Gascogne by the marriage of Henry II. with Eleanor,territories, the most fertile and flourishing in France, which in extent, population and wealth, far surpassed their possessions in the British Island beyond the Channel. 388. The immediate possessions of the FRENCH CROWN were thus again reduced to the duchy of Isle-de-France, with its component counties of Clermont, Dreux, Meulant, Valois, Paris, Corbeil, Orléans and Vexin, and the viscounties of Gatinois, Sées, Estampes and Melun. The Bishops of Laon, Beauvais and Noyon held likewise their districts directly of the king, but the cities themselves formed already free communes (307), supporting, however, the royal cause. To the crown lands belonged, besides, Bourges, which King Philip I. had bought in 1095, and the districts of Vassy and Attigny in Champagne. In the north of France the Counts of Flanders, as great feudatories of the crown, but almost independent, extended their dominion over all the territories between the Scheldt and the German Sea; they possessed likewise temporarily the counties of Amiens and Vermandois, and held the important commercial republic of Ghent and the cities on the Scheldt under the suzerainty of the Romanó-German Empire. On the east of the French crown lands we find the powerful families of the Counts of Vermandois (Champagne) and Troyes subdivided among the Seven Peers of Champagne and the Archbishop of Rheims. Southwest, on the Loire, lay the counties of Chartres, Blois and Sancerre, and the viscounty of Chateau-Dun. The duchy of BURGUNDY belonged to the younger branch of the Capetians; this first dynasty of the Burgundian dukes became extinct in 1361, when John the Bold, the youngest son of King John the Good of France, after the battle at Poitiers, began the second and more celebrated line of the Ducs de Bourgogne. The frontier lands at the northern base of the Pyrenees, Septimania (158), Toulouse, Carcassonne and Raséz had by marriage passed to the Counts of Barcelona and the crown of Aragon on the union of those states in 1137 (318), and we have therefore given those districts the crimson color of the kingdom of Aragon. 389. The kingdom of Arelate, east of the Rhone, belonged during the twelfth century still to Germany (244), though French manners, language and interests were already predominant. It consisted of the following provinces: I. The Palatinate of BURGUNDY between the Saone and Jura, which had passed to the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa by his marriage with Beatrix of Burgundy (395). II. The duchy of LESSER BURGUNDY (comprehending Western and Southern Switzerland), from Mount Jura on the west to Mount Saint Gotthard on the east, stood under the vicariate of the Souabian Counts of Zahringen. III. The counties of ALBON (afterwards the Dauphiny) and of LYONS. IV. The counties of TARARANTAISE and MAURIENNE in the Pennine Alps, which belonged to the powerful and warlike counts of the house of Savoy. V. Several smaller districts on the Rhone, such as the counties of Génève, the Seigneuries of Villars, La Tour and others. 390. THE ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISION OF FRANCE AFTER THE CRUSADES against the REFORMERS IN AQUITAINE.—Until the year 1322 the French Church was divided into the following ten archbishoprics: I. PROVINCIA REMENSIS, with the archiepiscopal see at RHEIMS, and eleven suffragan bishoprics; 1 Laudunum (Lâon); 2, Suessio (Soissons); 3, Belvacum (Beauvais); 4, Ambianum (Amiens); 5, Tornacum (Tournay; 6, Cameracum (Cambray); 7, Noviomagus (Noyon); 8, Arrebate (Arras); 9, Taruenna (Thérouanne); 10, Silvanecta (Senlis); and 11, Catalaunum (Châlons sur Marne). Ancient monasteries, celebrated for the learning and piety of the monks, were Corbeja (Corvey), between Arras and Pe ronne, from which went forth Ansgarius, the apostle of Denmark, the Abbey of Sancti Richerii, near Abbeville (232), Vallis Clara, near Lâon, and many others. II. PROVINCIA ROTOMAGENSIS, embracing all Normandy, with the metropolitan see at ROUEN, and the six suffragan churches: 1, Ebroica (Evreux); 2, Lexovicum (Lisieux); 3, Bajoca (Bayeux); 4, Constantia (Coutances); 5, Abrinca (Avranches); and 6, Sagium (Séez), on the borders of Maine. Among the numerous monasteries were renowned for the austerity of their descipline and the beauty of their architecture: Bellosana and Vallis Beatæ Mariæ, near Rouen; La Trappe, in a wild and secluded valley, among the dreary mountains of Evreux, where the austerity of the Trappist Monks almost surpassed the bounds of nature, but gathered penitents from the remotest regions; Bella Stello, of a softer name and, no doubt, a more reasonable discipline; Fontanetum and Blancalanda, on the charming hills of the Cotintin, in western Normandy. III. PROVINCIA TURONENSIS, embracing Touraine, Maine, Anjou, and Brittany, with the ancient and venerable see of TOURS, on the Loire, already so well known from Old Gregory of Tours, the earliest French historian in the sixth century, and eleven bishoprics: Cenomannis (Le-Mans); 2, Andegavi (Angers); 3, Namneta (Nantes); 4, Venetia (Vannes); 5, Coriosopita (Quimper); 6, Sancti Pauli Leonensis (Saint Paul de Leon), on the northern sea-coast; 7, Trecora (Treguier); 8, Maclovium (Saint-Malo); 9, Dolus (Dol); 10, Redones (Rennes); and 11, Sancti Brioci (Saint Brieue). Among the large number of pious institutions, we shall only record Sanct. Gildasius in nemore, and Saint Jacques de Montfort, in the hills near Rennes; Gaudium Sancta Maria (La Joye), on the coast of Vannes, and Beata Maria de Meillerio, north of Nantes, were celebrated nunneries in Brittany. 391. IV. PROVINCIA BURDEGALENSIS, embracing Poitou, Saintonge, Angoumois, Périgord, and Bordelais. The archiepiscopal see was in BORDEAUX, and five suffragan bishops were ranged under it: 1, Pictavium (Poitiers); 2, Sanctonum (Saintes); 3, Incolisma (Angoulême); 4, Petrocorium (Périgueux), and 5, Aginnum (Agen); Aurea Vallis, Gratia Dei, Stella, and Misericordia Dei, were monasteries near Poitiers. V. PROVINCIA AUXITANA, in Gascogne with the see of AUCH, on the Adour, and ten suffragan churches: 1. Vasatæ (Bazas); 2, Aturum (Atre); 3, Lactora (Lectoure); 4, Tarba (Tarbes); 5, Convenæ Sancti Bertrandi (Saint Bertrand); 6, Consoranum Sancti Licerii (Saint Lizier), both, in the valley of the Pyrenees; 7, Lascara (Lescar); 8, Olero (Oléron); 9, Bayona (Bayonne); and 10, Aquae (Dax). VI. PROVINCIA BITURICENSIS, embracing Berry, Bourbon, Limosin, and Auvergne, with the archiepiscopal see in BITURICA (Bourges), and seven suffragans: 1, Limovica (Limoges); •2, Cadurcum (Cahors); 3, Albiga (Alby); 4, Rutena (Rhodéz); 5, Memate (Mende); 6, Vellava, Anicium (Puy); and 7, Clarus Mons (Clermont). Monasteries in the Limosin were Palatium Beata Maria, and Vallis Lata in Auvergne ; Mons Petrosus, Vallis Lucida, and Monasterium Sancti Petri de Casis. VII. PROVINCIA SENONENSIS, with the ancient see of SENONES (Sens) and the central bishoprics of, 1, Parisii (Paris); 2, Melda (Meaux); 3, Treca (Troyes); 4, Carnutum (Chartres); 5, Aurelianum (Orléans); and 6, Autissiodunum (Auxerre). 392. VIII. PROVINCIA LUGDUNENSIS, embracing the duchy of Burgundy, and the Lyonnais, with the archiepiscopal chair of Lyons, on the Rhone and Saône, and the subor dinate five bishoprics: 1, Lingones (Langres); 2, Augustodunum (Autun); 3, Cabillonum (Châlons sur Saône); Matisco (Maçon); and 5, Belica (Belley), on the Upper Rhone, in the gorges of Mount Jura. Among the celebrated convents were, Claravallis (Clairvaux), in Burgundy, of the order of the Cistercians, where Saint Bernard was the first abbot, in 1115, and whence he sallied forth to rouse the world for the second great crusade. There, too, he gave the rule to the Knights Templars, whom he considered as combining the most exalted virtues of the knight and the monk. The disgraced Abailard built his abbey of the Paraclete near Troyes, in 1121. He gave it later to Heloise, and was buried in the chapel at her side.177 The convent was destroyed, like so many others, during the French Revolution; but the beautiful Gothic sepulchre of the faithful lovers stands now as one of the most touching monuments in the burial grounds of Père la Chaise, near Paris. IX. PROVINCIA VIENNENSIS, with the archiepiscopal see of VIENNE, on the Rhone, and the suffragans of, 1, Geneva, on the lake Leman; 2, Sancti Johanni in Mauriana (Saint Jean de Maurienne); 3, Gratianopolis (Grénoble); 4, Valentia (Valence); 5, Vivarium (Viviers); and 6, Dia (Die). 177 In this beautiful, but solitary retreat, Heloise, with her compapanions, fleeing the world in the bloom of youth, sought an asylum in her unhappy love. Ah! think at least thy flock deserves thy care, By thee to mountains, wilds, and deserts led; You raised these hallow'd walls; the desert smiled, And paradise was open'd in the wild. Abailard died in 1142, at St. Marcel, near Chalons sur Saône; but Heloise demanded his ashes, and obtained them for her chapel in the Paraclete. Amid that scene, if some relenting eye |