Originally erected in the late 6th century as the Diocese of Cambrai, when the episcopal see after the death of the
Frankish bishop Saint
Vedast (Vaast) was relocated here from
Arras. Though subordinate to the
Archdiocese of Reims, Cambrai's jurisdiction was immense and included even
Brussels and
Antwerp.
In 1007, the Bishops gained an
immediate secular territory when
Emperor Henry II invested them with authority over the former County of Cambrésis; the Bishop of Cambrai thus became the overlord of the twelve "peers of Cambresis". The
Prince-Bishopric of Cambrai became an
Imperial State, located between the
County of Hainaut and the border with
Flanders and
Vermandois in the
Kingdom of France, while the citizens of Cambrai struggled to gain the autonomous status of an
Imperial city. In 1093/94, the see of Arras was revived by the counts of Flanders which became an independent diocese in the kingdom of France.
Pope Urban II approved as Cambrai had been unwilling to accept the Cluniac reforms and Arras offered the chance to create a new center of ecclesiastic reform.[1]
Cambrai from 1512 was part of the Imperial
Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle and – like the
Prince-Bishopric of Liège – was not incorporated into the
Seventeen Provinces of the
Burgundian Circle. Nevertheless, the creation in 1559 of the new
metropolitan See of Mechelen and of eleven other dioceses in the
Southern Netherlands was at the request of King
Philip II of Spain, in order to facilitate the struggle against the
Reformation. The change greatly restricted the limits of the Diocese of Cambrai, which, when thus dismembered, was made by way of compensation an archiepiscopal see with the dioceses of
Saint Omer,
Tournai and
Namur as suffragans. The councils of Leptines, at which
Saint Boniface played an important role, were held in what was then the part of the former Diocese of Cambrai in the Southern Netherlands.
Early Modern History
Under
King Louis XIV the Bishopric of Cambrai finally became
French after the
Siege of Cambrai of 1677, confirmed in the
Treaties of Nijmegen of 1678 and 1679. From 1790 Cambrai was part of the new
Nord department. By the Napoleonic
Concordat of 1801, Cambrai was again reduced to a simple bishopric, suffragan to Paris, and included remnants of the former dioceses of Tournai,
Ypres, and Saint Omer. In 1817 both the pope and the
king were eager for the erection of a see at
Lille, but Bishop
Louis de Belmas (1757–1841), a former
constitutional bishop, vigorously opposed it. Immediately upon his death, in 1841, Cambrai once more became an archbishopric, with the
diocese of Arras as suffragan.
The list of notable people associated with the Diocese of Cambrai is very extensive, and their biographies, although short, take up no less than four volumes of the work by Canon Destombes. Exclusive of those saints whose history would be of interest only in connection with the Belgian territory formerly belonging to the diocese, mention may be made of:
The Jesuits
Cortyl and
du Béron, first apostles of the
Pelew Islands, were martyred in 1701, and
Chomé (1696–1767), who was prominent in the Missions of
Paraguay and
Argentina in the province of Misiones, also the
OratorianGratry (1805–1872), philosopher and member of the
French Academy, were natives of the Diocese of Cambrai. The English college of Douai, founded by
William Allen in 1568, gave in subsequent centuries a certain number of apostles and martyrs to Catholic England. Since the promulgation of the law of 1875 on higher education, Lille has been the seat of important Catholic faculties.
A chronicle of the bishops of Cambrai was written in the 11th century. This Gesta episcoporum Cambracensium[2] was for some time attributed to Balderic, archbishop of Noyon, but it now seems that the author was an anonymous canon of Cambrai.[3] The work is of considerable importance for the history of the north of France during the 11th century, and was first published in 1615.[4]
Places
Abbeys
Under the old regime the Archdiocese of Cambrai contained forty-one abbeys, eighteen of which belonged to the
Benedictines. Chief among them were:
the Abbey of St. Géry, founded near Cambrai about the year 600 in honour of
St. Médard by St. Géry (580–619), deacon of the church of Treves, and who built a chapel on the bank of the Senne, on the site of the future city of Brussels;
the
Abbey of Maroilles (seventh century), which
St. Humbert I, who died in 682, was abbot; the abbey was sacked and destroyed, 1791–1794, and used as a quarry for stones. It no longer exists.
the Abbey of
Liessies (eighth century) which, in the sixteenth century, had for abbot
Louis de Blois, author of numerous spiritual writings;
the Abbey of
St. Sauve de
Valenciennes (ninth century), founded in honour of the itinerant bishop Sauve (Salvius), martyred in
Hainaut at the end of the eighth century;
Notre-Dame de Grâce at Cambrai, containing a picture ascribed to
St. Luke;
Notre-Dame des Dunes at
Dunkerque, where the special object of interest is a statue which, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, was discovered near the castle of Dunkerque;
the feast associated with this, 8 September 1793, coincided with the raising of the siege of this city by the
Duke of York;
Notre-Dame des Miracles at
Bourbourg, made famous by a miracle wrought in 1383, an account of which was given by the chronicler Froissart, who was an eyewitness. A Benedictine abbey formerly extant here was converted by
Marie Antoinette into a house of noble canonesses. Until a comparatively recent date, the great religious solemnities in the diocese often gave rise to ducasses, sumptuous processions in which giants, huge fishes, devils, and representations of heaven and hell figured prominently. Before the law of 1901 was enforced there were in the diocese
Augustinians, English
Benedictines,
Jesuits,
Marists,
Dominicans,
Franciscans,
Lazarists,
Redemptorists,
Camillians,
Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul, and
Trappists; the last-named still remain. Numerous local congregations of women are engaged in the schools and among the sick, as, for instance: the Augustinian Nuns (founded in the sixth century, mother-house at Cambrai);
the Bernardines of Our Lady of
Flines (founded in the thirteenth century);
the Daughters of the Infant Jesus (founded in 1824, mother-house at Lille);
Aubry, Martine, ed. (1996).
Fénelon, évêque et pasteur en son temps, 1695–1715. Actes du colloque, Cambrai, 15–16 septembre 1995 (in French). Villeneuve d'Ascq: Centre d'histoire de la région du Nord et de l'Europe du Nord-Ouest, Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille 3.
ISBN978-2-905637-29-1.