ROUEN
209
ROTTEN
of Aumale were annexed to the Diocese of Beauvais.
The Archbishop of Rouen bears the title of Primate
of Normandy. Rouen, chief city of the Secunda
Provincia Lugdunensis under Const ant ine, and later
of Neustria, has been since 912 the capital of Nor-
mandy and residence of the dukes.
The episcopal catalogues of the ninth and tenth centuries and the "Liber Eburneus" of the cathedral of Rouen, which extends to 1068, indicate St. Mellon as first Bi.shop of Rouen; the "Liber Niger" of St. Ouen which comes down to 1079 and the episcopal lists dating from the twelfth century mention the episcopate of a certain Nicasius (Nicaise) as ante- dating that of St. Mellon. The legend of this Nicaise, based on Hilduin, makes him and his two companions, Quirinus and Scubiculus, disciples of St. Denis who
Interior of The C.\thedr.\l, Rocen
came from Rome to Normandy but suffered martjT- dom at their arrival on the banks of the river Epte. It was under tlu> episcopate of William (Bonne Ame) the Good (1079-1110) that the name of Nicaise was placed at the head of the episcopal lists of Rouen. A number of saints were the successors of St. Mellon; according to the chronology of the Abbe Sauvage they were: St. Avitianus (about 314); St. Severus; St. Victricius, born about 330, a soldier in the beginning of his career and as such a confcs.sor of the Faith under Julian the Apostate; made Bishop of Rouen about 380 and died, according to his biographer. Abbe Vacan- dard, before 409; famous for his friendship with St. Paulinus of Nola and St. Martin, also for going in 396 to England where he worked zealously for the con- version of the English people; his treatise "De Laude Sanctorum" is a strong plea in favour of the devotion to relics; Innocent I commissioned him in 404 to make known in Gaul the "Liber Regularum", which con- tains urgent instructions for ecclesiastical celibacy, for the respect due to the hierarchy, and Roman supremacy; St. Innocent; St. Evodius (about 430) ; St. Goldardus (490-525), brother of St. Medardus, one of the assistants at the baptism and coronation of Clovis; St. Flavins; St. Pretcxtatus (550-586), exiled in 577 by order of King Chilperic, was reinstated in the diocese in 584, and stabbed before the altar in 586 by order of Fredegonde; St. Romanus (631-641) former XIII.— 14
chancellor of Clotairell; legend relates how he de-
livered the environs of Rouen from a monster called
Gargouille, having had him captured by a liberated
prisoner; in commemoration of St. Romain in the
Middle Ages the Archbishops of Rouen were granted
the right to set a prisoner free on the day that the reli-
quary of the saint was carried in procession; St.
Ouen (Audqennus) (641-684), previous to his appoint-
ment as bishop, was chancellor of Dagobert, and
wrote a life of St. Eloy (Eligius); his episcopate was
distinguished by the foundation of the monasteries
of Fontenelle, Jumieges, and Fecamp, by the unceas-
ing efforts he made to exterminate all traces of pagan-
ism in his dioce-ses, and by the arbitration effected
through his influence between Austrasia and Neustria;
his fame as a miracle-worker was great in the Middle
Ages; St. Ansbert (684-92 or 93) chancellor of Clotaire
III, and afterwards confined for political reasons by
P('l)iii of Heristal in the Abbey of Hautmont; recently
there was found in the library of Carlsruhe a curious
little i)oem of the seventh century written by him on
St. Ouen; this poem came originally from the Abbey
of Reichenau; St. Hugh (722-30) was a monk of
Jumieges before being made bishop; he subsequently
combined the Sees of Rouen, Paris and Bayeux, also
the abbeys of Jumieges and Fontenelle; St. Remi
(755-772), brother of King Pepin, was also arch-
bishop of Rouen.
Guntbaldus who had played a certain part in the restoration of Louis the Pious, having become Bishop of Rouen, was commissioned in 846 by Sergius II to settle a dispute between Ebbo and Hincmar, and died in S49. The name of a certain St. Leo who suffered martyrdom at Baj'onne sometimes appears incorrectly on the lists of archbishops of Rouen at the end of the ninth century and should be struck off. Among the more famous archbishops of Rouen were: .Vrch- bishop Franco (911-19), who baptized the North- man chief Rollo; St. Maurille (1055-67), who reformed his clergy and fought the heresy of Berengarius; Jolui of Hayeux (1069-79), who.se book on ecclesiastical services regulated religious devotions in Normandv; William 1 (Bonne Ame) (1071-1119), first a Bene- dictine and allowed St. Anselm to leave the Abbey of Bee to occupy the See of Canterbury; Hugh of Amiens (1130-74), author of numerous theological works; under his episcopate Rouen was honoured in May, 1131, by a visit from Innocent II, the only pope who ever entered Normandy; Gautier de Coutances called the Magnificent (1184-1207) the favourite companion of Richard the Lion Hearted; Eudes II Rigaud (1247- 1274), one of the most eminent statesmen of the day; he accompanied St. Louis on his Tunis crusade and left a diary of his pastoral visitations which has the most important bearing on the ecclesiastical history of the province; Gilles Aycelin (1311-18), Chancellor of France; Pierre Roger (1330-39) became Pope Clement \T; Peter de la Foret (1352-56) was at first Bishop of Paris and became a cardinal in 1356, as Chancellor of France he was one of the most faithful adherents of the dauphin, afterwards Charles V.
During the Hundred Years War the English oc- cupied Rouen from 1417-1449; the Duke of Bedford at his own request was formally made a member of the Chapter of Rouen in 1430. The English rule, so severe for the people, increased the privileges of the clergy but dealt rigorously with such ecclesiastics as were thought rebellious; especially with Archbishop Louis de Harcourt who was deprived in 1421 of his pos.sessions for refusing to pay homage to Henry V. The following .should be added to the list of arch- bishops: John of la Rochetaillee (1423-29), cardinal in 1426; Louis of Luxembourg (1436-42), cardinal in 1439, was the sworn agent in France of Henry VI, King of England; WiUiam of Estouteville (1453-83), cardinal in 1437 and commissioned by Nicholas V in 1453 to mediate between France and England, and to
