The Diocese of Laon was evangelized at an uncertain date by St. Beatus ; the see was founded in 487 by St. Remy , who cut it off from the Archbishopric Of Reims and made his nephew St. Genebaldus bishop.
After a vain attempt made by the unexecuted Concordat Of 1817 to re-establish the See of Laon, the Bishop Of Soissons was authorized by Pope Leo XII (13 June, 1828) to join the title of Laon to that of his own see; by Pope Leo XIII (11 June, 1901) it was further authorized to use the title of St-Quentin , which was formerly the residence of the Bishop Of Noyon .
Among the bishops of Laon were:
- St. Chagnoaldus (c. 620-3), brother of St. Faro , Bishop Of Meaux , and of St. Fara
- Hincmar The Younger (857-76)
- Adalbero Ascelin (977-1030) driven from his see (981) by the Carlovingian Louis V who accused him of undue intimacy with Emma, widow of Lothaire, and who was afterwards very loyal to the interests of Hugh Capet , to whom he handed over the Carlovingian Charles Of Lorraine , and Arnoul, Archbishop Of Reims . He was the author of a satirical poem addressed to King Robert
- Gaudri (1106-12), who held out against the Commune Movement , and who was slain in a brawl at Laon
- Barthélemy De Vir , or de Viry (1113-51), who attracted St. Norbert to the diocese
- Gautier De Mortagne (1155-74), author of six small theological treatises
- Robert Le Cocq (1352-8), who in October, 1356, and March, 1357, after the imprisonment of John II Of France by the English held an important position in the States General, took the side of Stephen Marcel , conspired with him and Charles The Bad , King of Navarre, against the dauphin, the future Charles V Of France and then fled to Aragon, where he became Bishop Of Calahorra
- Pierre De Montaigut (1371-86), cardinal in 1383
- the historian Jean Juvenel Des Ursins (1444-9), afterwards Archbishop Of Reims
- Louis De Bourbon Vendôme (1510-52), cardinal in 1517
- César D'Estées (1653-1681), cardinal in 1672, was elected to the French Academy , and in Rome was involved in the difficulties between Louis XIV and Innocent XI, Alexander VIII and Innocent XII
- Jean De Rochechouart De Foudoas (1741-77), cardinal in 1761.
Louis Séguier , nominated by Henry IV Of France , Bishop of Laon in 1598, refused the nomination to make room for his young nephew Peter De Bérulle , afterwards cardinal and founder of the Oratorians ; de Bérulle refused the see.
|
