The
Gallia Christiana, a type of work of which there have been several editions, is a documentary catalogue or list, with brief historical notices, of all the Catholic dioceses and abbeys of France from the earliest times, also of their occupants.
First efforts
In 1621
Jean Chenu, an
avocat at the
Parlement of Paris, published
Archiepiscoporum et episcoporum Galliæ chronologica historia. Nearly a third of the bishops are missing, and the episcopal succession as given by Chenu was very incomplete. In 1626, Claude Robert, a priest of
Langres, published with the approbation of
Baronius, a
Gallia Christiana. He entered a large number of churches outside of
Gaul, and gave a short history of the
metropolitan sees, cathedrals, and abbeys.
The Samarthani
Two brothers de Sainte-Marthe, Scévole (1571–1650) and Louis (1571–1656), appointed royal historiographers of France in 1620, had assisted Chenu and Robert. At the
assembly of the French Clergy in 1626, a number of prelates commissioned these brothers to compile a more definitive work. They died before the completion of their work, and it was issued in 1656 by the sons of
Scévole de Sainte-Marthe,
Pierre de Sainte-Marthe (1618–90), himself historiographer of France,
Abel de Sainte-Marthe (1620–71), theologian, and later general of the
Oratory, and
Nicolas-Charles de Sainte-Marthe (1623–62), prior of
Claunay. On 13 September 1656, the Sainte-Marthe brothers were presented to the assembly of the French Clergy, who...
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