153-643: Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie ( French pronunciation: [sɛ̃ ʒil kʁwa d(ə) vi] ) is a commune in the Vendée department , region of Pays de la Loire , western France. It is situated on the Côte de Lumière . The community originated in 1967 from the unification of two communities on either side of the estuary of the river the Vie , Saint-Gilles-sur-Vie and Croix-de-Vie . Known for its important fishing harbor (specializing in sardines ), since 1982 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
306-619: A priest , the sacrificial bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ . The Virgin Mary is venerated as the Perpetual Virgin , Mother of God , and Queen of Heaven ; she is honoured in dogmas and devotions . Catholic social teaching emphasizes voluntary support for the sick, the poor, and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy . The Catholic Church operates tens of thousands of Catholic schools, universities and colleges , hospitals , and orphanages around
459-577: A " prisoner in the Vatican ". This stand-off, which was spoken of as the Roman Question , was resolved by the 1929 Lateran Treaties , whereby the Holy See acknowledged Italian sovereignty over the former Papal States in return for payment and Italy's recognition of papal sovereignty over Vatican City as a new sovereign and independent state. Catholic missionaries generally supported, and sought to facilitate,
612-421: A "realm of 100,000 steeples". Parishes lacked the municipal structures of post-Revolution communes. Usually, one contained only a building committee ( conseil de fabrique ), made up of villagers, which managed the buildings of the parish church, the churchyard, and the other numerous church estates and properties, and sometimes also provided help for the poor, or even administered parish hospitals or schools. Since
765-445: A category currently being phased out), made up of 33,327 communes (91.1 percent of all the communes of metropolitan France), and 52.86 million inhabitants, i.e., 86.7 percent of the population of metropolitan France. These impressive results however may hide a murkier reality. In rural areas, many communes have entered a community of communes only to benefit from government funds. Often the local syndicate has been turned officially into
918-530: A commune for their administration. This is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions: Furthermore, two regions without permanent habitation have no communes: In metropolitan France , the average area of a commune in 2004 was 14.88 square kilometres (5.75 sq mi). The median area of metropolitan France's communes at
1071-537: A community of communes, the new community of communes in fact managing only the services previously managed by the syndicate, contrary to the spirit of the law which has established the new intercommunal structures to carry out a much broader range of activities than that undertaken by the old syndicates. Some say that, should government money transfers be stopped, many of these communities of communes would revert to their former status of syndicate, or simply completely disappear in places where there were no syndicates prior to
1224-574: A density of communes as France, and even there an extensive merger movement has started in the last 10 years. To better grasp the staggering number of communes in France, two comparisons can be made: First, of the original 15 member states of the European Union there are approximately 75,000 communes; France alone, which comprises 16 percent of the population of the EU-15, had nearly half of its communes. Second,
1377-445: A grandmaster, it is devoted to the promotion of the seaside resort and the celebration of products from the sea, especially the sardine, which has become a speciality of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. Notable "sympathizers" include sailor Michel Desjoyeaux , actress Isabel Otero , and the former Prime Minister of France François Fillon . Communes of France The commune ( French pronunciation: [kɔmyn] )
1530-489: A mansion located what is now in General de Gaulle street. Although Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie was three hours from Nantes and ten hours from Paris, the development of railways from the 1880s increasingly allowed holidaymakers to reach the seaside town. A trade union initiative was created in 1922. On 23 January 1967, Saint-Gilles-sur-Vie and Croix-de-Vie merged to create the new municipality of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. The fusion
1683-756: A massive merger of communes, including by such distinguished voices as the president of the Cour des Comptes (the central auditing administrative body in France). In 1971 the Marcellin law offered support and money from the government to entice the communes to merge freely with each other, but the law had only a limited effect (only about 1,300 communes agreed to merge with others). Many rural communes with few residents struggle to maintain and manage basic services such as running water, garbage collection, or properly paved communal roads. Mergers, however, are not easy to achieve. One problem
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#17328591148251836-582: A much larger territory covering 449,964 km (173,732 sq mi) and yet is divided into only 290 municipalities ( kommuner ). Alsace has more than double the total number of municipalities of the Netherlands which, in spite of having a population nine times larger and a land area four times larger than Alsace, is divided into just 390 municipalities ( gemeenten ). Most of the communes in Alsace, along with those in other regions of France, have rejected
1989-699: Is 35 km (14 sq mi); and in Germany , the majority of Länder have communes ( Gemeinden ) with a median area above 15 km (5.8 sq mi). Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany were the only places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of France's overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards. They usually group into
2142-589: Is a level of administrative division in the French Republic . French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany, comuni in Italy, or municipios in Spain. The UK equivalent are civil parishes . Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage
2295-510: Is also classified as a seaside resort . In the ninth century, the monks of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard settled in what was then called Sidunum , a priory and a fortified church. In the Middle Ages , the city, organized around the main street (now the Rue Torterue) became an important port, capable of accommodating ships with a capacity of one hundred tons. Croix-de-Vie appeared on the right bank of
2448-469: Is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization . The church consists of 24 sui iuris churches , including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches , which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and eparchies around the world . The pope , who is the bishop of Rome, is the chief pastor of
2601-523: Is generally regarded as an institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting. The massive Islamic invasions of the mid-7th century began a long struggle between Christianity and Islam throughout the Mediterranean Basin. The Byzantine Empire soon lost the lands of the eastern patriarchates of Jerusalem , Alexandria and Antioch and was reduced to that of Constantinople,
2754-402: Is part of the diocese of Luçon , which is part of the ecclesiastical province of Rennes . It is the seat of a deanery of four parishes: Sainte Anne de Riez (around the town of Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez), Saint Jean du Gué Gorand (Coëx), Saint Nicolas de l'Océan (Bretignolles-sur-Mer), and Notre Dame de la Vie (Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie). The latter, Notre Dame de la Vie, has four bell towers —in
2907-402: Is that mergers reduce the number of available elected positions, and thus are not popular with local politicians. Moreover, citizens from one village may be unwilling to have their local services run by an executive located in another village, whom they may consider unaware of or inattentive to their local needs. In December 2010 the law n° 2010-1563 regarding reform of territorial collectivities
3060-676: Is the bishop of Rome , known as the pope ( Latin : papa , lit. 'father'), whose jurisdiction is called the Holy See ( Sancta Sedes in Latin). In parallel to the diocesan structure are a variety of religious institutes that function autonomously, often subject only to the authority of the pope, though sometimes subject to the local bishop. Most religious institutes only have male or female members but some have both. Additionally, lay members aid many liturgical functions during worship services. The Catholic Church has been described as
3213-474: Is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church founded by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission , that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles , and that the pope is the successor to Saint Peter , upon whom primacy was conferred by Jesus Christ. It maintains that it practises the original Christian faith taught by the apostles, preserving the faith infallibly through scripture and sacred tradition as authentically interpreted through
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#17328591148253366-509: Is the only administrative unit below the commune in the French Republic but exists only in these three communes. These municipal arrondissements are not to be confused with the arrondissements that are subdivisions of French départements : French communes are considered legal entities , whereas municipal arrondissements, by contrast, have no official capacity and no budget of their own. The rights and obligations of communes are governed by
3519-702: Is the smallest and oldest administrative division in France . " Commune " in English has a historical association with socialist and collectivist political movements and philosophies. This association arises in part from the rising of the Paris Commune (1871) which could have more felicitously been called, in English, "the rising of the City of Paris". There is nothing intrinsically different between "town" in English and commune in French. The French word commune appeared in
3672-482: Is the universal [katholike] Church." In the Catechetical Lectures ( c. 350 ) of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem , the name "Catholic Church" was used to distinguish it from other groups that also called themselves "the church". The "Catholic" notion was further stressed in the edict De fide Catolica issued 380 by Theodosius I , the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of
3825-639: The Pax Romana made travelling safe. The empire encouraged the spread of a common culture with Greek roots, which allowed ideas to be more easily expressed and understood. Unlike most religions in the Roman Empire, however, Christianity required its adherents to renounce all other gods, a practice adopted from Judaism (see Idolatry ). The Christians' refusal to join pagan celebrations meant they were unable to participate in much of public life, which caused non-Christians—including government authorities—to fear that
3978-783: The Byzantine–Seljuk Wars , which caused Urban to launch the First Crusade aimed at aiding the Byzantine Empire and returning the Holy Land to Christian control. In the 11th century , strained relations between the primarily Greek church and the Latin Church separated them in the East–West Schism, partially due to conflicts over papal authority. The Fourth Crusade and the sacking of Constantinople by renegade crusaders proved
4131-548: The Code général des collectivités territoriales (CGCT) which replaced the Code des communes (except for personnel matters) with the passage of the law of 21 February 1996 for legislation and decree number 2000-318 of 7 April 2000 for regulations. From 1794 to 1977 — except for a few months in 1848 and 1870-1871 — Paris had no mayor and was thus directly controlled by the departmental prefect. This meant that Paris had less autonomy than certain towns or villages. Even after Paris regained
4284-689: The Code of Canon Law (1983). "Catholic Church" is also used in the documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the First Vatican Council (1869–1870), the Council of Trent (1545–1563), and numerous other official documents. The New Testament , in particular the Gospels , records Jesus' activities and teaching, his appointment of the Twelve Apostles and his Great Commission of
4437-552: The Council of Nicaea declared heretical . The resulting religious discord between Germanic rulers and Catholic subjects was avoided when, in 497, Clovis I , the Frankish ruler, converted to orthodox Catholicism, allying himself with the papacy and the monasteries. The Visigoths in Spain followed his lead in 589, and the Lombards in Italy in the course of the 7th century. Western Christianity , particularly through its monasteries ,
4590-710: The Edict of Thessalonica made Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire , a position that within the diminishing territory of the Byzantine Empire would persist until the empire itself ended in the fall of Constantinople in 1453, while elsewhere the church was independent of the empire, as became particularly clear with the East–West Schism . During the period of the Seven Ecumenical Councils , five primary sees emerged, an arrangement formalized in
4743-725: The English Reformation and the eventual development of Anglicanism . The Reformation contributed to clashes between the Protestant Schmalkaldic League and the Catholic Emperor Charles V and his allies. The first nine-year war ended in 1555 with the Peace of Augsburg but continued tensions produced a far graver conflict—the Thirty Years' War —which broke out in 1618. In France, a series of conflicts termed
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4896-586: The French Wars of Religion was fought from 1562 to 1598 between the Huguenots (French Calvinists ) and the forces of the French Catholic League , which were backed and funded by a series of popes. This ended under Pope Clement VIII , who hesitantly accepted King Henry IV's 1598 Edict of Nantes granting civil and religious toleration to French Protestants. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) became
5049-583: The Immaculate Conception as a dogma in the Catholic Church . In 1870, the First Vatican Council affirmed the doctrine of papal infallibility when exercised in specifically defined pronouncements, striking a blow to the rival position of conciliarism . Controversy over this and other issues resulted in a breakaway movement called the Old Catholic Church , The Italian unification of
5202-633: The Italian Peninsula , imprisoning Pope Pius VI , who died in captivity. Napoleon later re-established the Catholic Church in France through the Concordat of 1801 . The end of the Napoleonic Wars brought Catholic revival and the return of the Papal States . In 1854, Pope Pius IX , with the support of the overwhelming majority of Catholic bishops, whom he had consulted from 1851 to 1853, proclaimed
5355-549: The National Assembly ( Assemblée Nationale ) passed a law creating the commune, designed to be the lowest level of administrative division in France, thus endorsing these independently created communes, but also creating communes of its own. In this area as in many others, the work of the National Assembly was, properly speaking, revolutionary: not content with transforming all the chartered cities and towns into communes,
5508-477: The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 1539 by Francis I , the priest in charge of the parish was also required to record baptisms, marriages, and burials. Except for these tasks, villages were left to handle other issues as they pleased. Typically, villagers would gather to decide over a special issue regarding the community, such as agricultural land usage, but there existed no permanent municipal body. In many places,
5661-569: The Oriental Orthodox Churches before the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451; all separated primarily over differences in Christology . The Eastern Catholic Churches, who have a combined membership of approximately 18 million, represent a body of Eastern Christians who returned or remained in communion with the pope during or following these schisms for a variety of historical circumstances. In
5814-492: The Polish People's Republic , became the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. His 26 1/2-year pontificate was one of the longest in history, and was credited with hastening the fall of communism in Europe. John Paul II sought to evangelize an increasingly secular world . He travelled more than any other pope, visiting 129 countries, and used television and radio as means of spreading the church's teachings. He also emphasized
5967-773: The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, when those who ceased to be in communion became known as Protestants. While the Roman Church has been used to describe the pope's Diocese of Rome since the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages (6th–10th century), Roman Catholic Church has been applied to the whole church in the English language since the Protestant Reformation in
6120-644: The Roman Empire , when establishing the state church of the Roman Empire . Since the East–West Schism of 1054, the Eastern Orthodox Church has taken the adjective Orthodox as its distinctive epithet; its official name continues to be the Orthodox Catholic Church. The Latin Church was described as Catholic , with that description also denominating those in communion with the Holy See after
6273-642: The Tridentine Mass as found in the Roman Missal of 1962, which he titled the "Extraordinary Form". Citing the frailties of advanced age, Benedict resigned in 2013, becoming the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years. Pope Francis, the current pope of the Catholic Church, became in 2013 the first pope from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere , and the first Pope from outside Europe since
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6426-613: The United States , with a territory fourteen times larger than that of the French Republic, and nearly five times its population, had 35,937 incorporated municipalities and townships at the 2002 Census of Governments, fewer than that of the French Republic. The number of barangays in the Philippines, villages of Indonesia, and muban in Thailand also have a higher number than the French communes. There have long been calls in France for
6579-470: The University of Oxford , University of Paris , and University of Bologna . Higher education before then had been the domain of Christian cathedral schools or monastic schools, led by monks and nuns . Evidence of such schools dates back to the 6th century CE. These new universities expanded the curriculum to include academic programs for clerics, lawyers, civil servants, and physicians. The university
6732-560: The Vendée department is oceanic. The coast experiences significant rainfall in winter and a few storms. Under the influence of the Atlantic Ocean, the climate is cool in summer. However, the Vendée is one of the sunniest departments of France in terms of the energy received, with 1268 kWh per m per year. The town has two Catholic churches (one on either side of the river), the churches of Saint-Gilles et Sainte-Croix. Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
6885-453: The côte de Lumière about 70 kilometres from Nantes , 320 from Bordeaux , 450 from Paris and 600 from Lyon , Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie covers an area of 10.3 square kilometres. It is bordered by the communes of Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez to the north, Le Fenouiller to the north east, Givrand to the southeast, and Bretignolles-sur-Mer to the south. Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie station has rail connections to Sainte-Pazanne and Nantes. It
7038-444: The dignity of work and natural rights of labourers to have fair wages and safe conditions in Laborem exercens . He emphasized several church teachings, including moral exhortations against abortion, euthanasia , and against widespread use of the death penalty, in Evangelium Vitae . Pope Benedict XVI , elected in 2005, was known for upholding traditional Christian values against secularization , and for increasing use of
7191-445: The magisterium of the church. The Roman Rite and others of the Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic liturgies , and institutes such as mendicant orders , enclosed monastic orders and third orders reflect a variety of theological and spiritual emphases in the church. Of its seven sacraments , the Eucharist is the principal one, celebrated liturgically in the Mass . The church teaches that through consecration by
7344-444: The mairies . These abrupt changes profoundly alienated devout Catholics, and France soon was plunged into the throes of civil war , with the fervently religious regions of western France at its center. It would take Napoleon I to re-establish peace in France, stabilize the new administrative system, and make it generally accepted by the population. Napoleon also abolished the election of the municipal councils, which now were chosen by
7497-589: The prefect , the local representative of the central government. Today, French communes are still very much the same in their general principles as those that were established at the beginning of the Revolution. The biggest changes occurred in 1831, when the French Parliament re-established the principle of the election of municipal councils, and in 1837 when French communes were given legal "personality", being now considered legal entities with legal capacity. The Jacobin revolutionaries were afraid of independent local powers, which they saw as conservative and opposed to
7650-499: The 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia , for a large gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin communis , 'things held in common'. As of January 2021, there were 35,083 communes in France , of which 34,836 were in metropolitan France , 129 in the overseas departments , and 83 in the overseas collectivities and New Caledonia . This is a considerably higher total than that of any other European country , because French communes still largely reflect
7803-422: The 14th century. To escape instability in Rome, Clement V in 1309 became the first of seven popes to reside in the fortified city of Avignon in southern France during a period known as the Avignon Papacy . The Avignon Papacy ended in 1376 when the pope returned to Rome, but was followed in 1378 by the 38-year-long Western schism , with claimants to the papacy in Rome, Avignon and (after 1409) Pisa. The matter
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#17328591148257956-412: The 16th century, the Reformation led to the formation of separate, Protestant groups. From the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticized for its teachings on sexuality , its doctrine against ordaining women , and its handling of sexual abuse cases involving clergy. Catholic (from Greek : καθολικός , romanized : katholikos , lit. 'universal')
8109-414: The 1860s incorporated the Papal States, including Rome itself from 1870, into the Kingdom of Italy , thus ending the papacy's temporal power . In response, Pope Pius IX excommunicated King Victor Emmanuel II , refused payment for the land, and rejected the Italian Law of Guarantees , which granted him special privileges. To avoid placing himself in visible subjection to the Italian authorities, he remained
8262-522: The 1960s, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council , which ushered in radical change to church ritual and practice, and in the later 20th century, the long reign of Pope John Paul II contributed to the fall of communism in Europe, and a new public and international role for the papacy. From the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticized for its doctrines on sexuality , its inability to ordain women , and its handling of sexual abuse cases . Pope Pius X (1903–1914) renewed
8415-407: The 1999 census was even smaller, at 10.73 square kilometres (4.14 sq mi). The median area gives a better sense of the size of a typical mainland France commune than the average area since the average includes some very large communes. In Italy , the median area of communes ( comuni ) is 22 km (8.5 sq mi); in Belgium it is 40 km (15 sq mi); in Spain it
8568-399: The 20th century, the majority have resided in the Global South , partially due to secularization in Europe and North America. The Catholic Church shared communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church until the East–West Schism in 1054, disputing particularly the authority of the pope . Before the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, the Church of the East also shared in this communion, as did
8721-408: The 21st century. Pope Gregory VII further initiated the Gregorian Reforms regarding the independence of the clergy from secular authority. This led to the Investiture Controversy between the church and the Holy Roman Emperors , over which had the authority to appoint bishops and popes. In 1095, Byzantine emperor Alexius I appealed to Pope Urban II for help against renewed Muslim invasions in
8874-401: The 36,683 communes have fewer than 500 inhabitants and, with 4,638,000 inhabitants, these smaller communes constitute just 7.7 percent of the total population. In other words, just 8 percent of the French population live in 57 percent of its communes, whilst 92 percent are concentrated in the remaining 43 percent. Alsace , with an area of 8,280 km (3,200 sq mi), and now part of
9027-416: The Americas, Asia and Oceania by explorers, conquistadors, and missionaries, as well as by the transformation of societies through the socio-political mechanisms of colonial rule. Pope Alexander VI had awarded colonial rights over most of the newly discovered lands to Spain and Portugal and the ensuing patronato system allowed state authorities, not the Vatican, to control all clerical appointments in
9180-402: The Byzantine Empire lost to the Lombards the city of Ravenna from which it governed the small fragments of Italy, including Rome, that acknowledged its sovereignty. The fall of Ravenna meant that confirmation by a no longer existent exarch was not asked for during the election in 752 of Pope Stephen II and that the papacy was forced to look elsewhere for a civil power to protect it. In 754, at
9333-405: The Catholic and Orthodox churches. Several eastern churches reunited, forming the majority of the Eastern Catholic Churches . The Age of Discovery beginning in the 15th century saw the expansion of Western Europe's political and cultural influence worldwide. Because of the prominent role the strongly Catholic nations of Spain and Portugal played in Western colonialism, Catholicism was spread to
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#17328591148259486-422: The Christians were angering the gods and thereby threatening the peace and prosperity of the Empire. The resulting persecutions were a defining feature of Christian self-understanding until Christianity was legalized in the 4th century. In 313, Emperor Constantine I 's Edict of Milan legalized Christianity, and in 330 Constantine moved the imperial capital to Constantinople , modern Istanbul, Turkey . In 380
9639-457: The Edict of Nantes by King Louis XIV of France , which ended a century-long policy of religious toleration of Protestant Huguenots. As the papacy resisted pushes for Gallicanism , the French Revolution of 1789 shifted power to the state, caused the destruction of churches, the establishment of a Cult of Reason , and the martyrdom of nuns during the Reign of Terror . In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte 's General Louis-Alexandre Berthier invaded
9792-401: The European imperial powers' conquest of Africa during the late nineteenth century. According to the historian of religion Adrian Hastings , Catholic missionaries were generally unwilling to defend African rights or encourage Africans to see themselves as equals to Europeans, in contrast to Protestant missionaries, who were more willing to oppose colonial injustices. During the 20th century,
9945-447: The Holy See, or the Apostolic See (meaning the see of the apostle Peter). Directly serving the pope is the Roman Curia, the central governing body that administers the day-to-day business of the Catholic Church. The pope is also sovereign of Vatican City, a small city-state entirely enclaved within the city of Rome, which is an entity distinct from the Holy See. It is as head of the Holy See, not as head of Vatican City State, that
10098-503: The National Assembly also decided to turn all the village parishes into full-status communes. The Revolutionaries were inspired by Cartesian ideas as well as by the philosophy of the Enlightenment . They wanted to do away with all the peculiarities of the past and establish a perfect society, in which all and everything should be equal and set up according to reason, rather than by tradition or conservatism. Thus, they set out to establish administrative divisions that would be uniform across
10251-402: The Pope's insistence on public neutrality and diplomatic language has become a source of much criticism and debate. Nevertheless, in every country under German occupation, priests played a major part in rescuing Jews. Israeli historian Pinchas Lapide estimated that Catholic rescue of Jews amounted to somewhere between 700,000 and 860,000 people. The Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church
10404-410: The Reformation, which gave birth to the great majority of Protestant denominations and also crypto-Protestantism within the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, Henry VIII petitioned Pope Clement VII for a declaration of nullity concerning his marriage to Catherine of Aragon . When this was denied, he had the Acts of Supremacy passed to make himself Supreme Head of the Church of England , spurring
10557-435: The Région Grand Est, used to be the smallest of the regions of metropolitan France , and still has no fewer than 904 communes. This high number is typical of metropolitan France but is atypical when compared with other European countries. It shows the distinctive nature of the French commune as a geo-political or administrative entity. With its 904 communes, Alsace has three times as many municipalities as Sweden , which has
10710-499: The Second World War, also because they had powerful supporters from the Vatican. The judgment of Pius XII is made more difficult by the sources, because the church archives for his tenure as nuncio, cardinal secretary of state and pope are in part closed or not yet processed. The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) introduced the most significant changes to Catholic practices since the Council of Trent, four centuries before. Initiated by Pope John XXIII, this ecumenical council modernized
10863-419: The Vie, when the Duke of Montausier granted Saint-Gilles plots of land on the "small island" so they could build their homes. In 1610, Marie Beaucaire built the large pier and the wharf and then a chapel from 1611 to 1613. This building was used for worship until the construction of Sainte-Croix Church in 1896 which is used today. In 1622, King Louis XIII of France spent dinner one night in Croix de Vie, in
11016-579: The War, and established aid networks to help victims, but he secretly assisted the anti-Hitler resistance and shared intelligence with the Allies. His first encyclical Summi Pontificatus (1939) expressed dismay at the 1939 Invasion of Poland and reiterated Catholic teaching against racism. He expressed concern against race killings on Vatican Radio , and intervened diplomatically to attempt to block Nazi deportations of Jews in various countries from 1942 to 1944. But
11169-564: The apostles, instructing them to continue his work. The book Acts of Apostles , tells of the founding of the Christian church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire. The Catholic Church teaches that its public ministry began on Pentecost , occurring fifty days following the date Christ is believed to have resurrected . At Pentecost, the apostles are believed to have received the Holy Spirit, preparing them for their mission in leading
11322-515: The areas under his control definitively established a form of caesaropapism , in which "he had the right and duty of regulating by his laws the minutest details of worship and discipline, and also of dictating the theological opinions to be held in the Church", re-established imperial power over Rome and other parts of the West, initiating the period termed the Byzantine Papacy (537–752), during which
11475-452: The benefit of poorer suburbs. Moreover, intercommunal structures in many urban areas are still new, and fragile: Tensions exist between communes; the city at the center of the urban area often is suspected of wishing to dominate the suburban communes; communes from opposing political sides also may be suspicious of each other. Two famous examples of this are Toulouse and Paris. In Toulouse, on top of there being six intercommunal structures,
11628-609: The bishops of Rome, or popes, required approval from the emperor in Constantinople or from his representative in Ravenna for consecration, and most were selected by the emperor from his Greek-speaking subjects, resulting in a "melting pot" of Western and Eastern Christian traditions in art as well as liturgy. Most of the Germanic tribes who in the following centuries invaded the Roman Empire had adopted Christianity in its Arian form, which
11781-523: The central government's calls for mergers and rationalization. By way of contrast, in the German states bordering Alsace, the geo-political and administrative areas have been subject to various re-organizations from the 1960s onward. In the state of Baden-Württemberg , the number of Gemeinden or communities was reduced from 3,378 in 1968 to 1,108 in September 2007. In comparison, the number of communes in Alsace
11934-410: The chartered cities) suddenly became legal entities for the first time in their history. This is still the case today. During the revolution, approximately 41,000 communes were created, on territory corresponding to the limits of modern-day France (the 41,000 figure includes the communes of the departments of Savoie , Haute-Savoie and Alpes-Maritimes which were annexed in 1795, but does not include
12087-496: The church's approach to ecumenism , and a call to improved relations with non-Christian religions, especially Judaism, in its document Nostra aetate . The council, however, generated significant controversy in implementing its reforms: proponents of the " Spirit of Vatican II " such as Swiss theologian Hans Küng said that Vatican II had "not gone far enough" to change church policies. Traditionalist Catholics , such as Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre , however, strongly criticized
12240-460: The church's global reach continued to grow, despite the rise of anti-Catholic authoritarian regimes and the collapse of European Empires, accompanied by a general decline in religious observance in the West. Under Popes Benedict XV , and Pius XII , the Holy See sought to maintain public neutrality through the World Wars, acting as peace broker and delivering aid to the victims of the conflicts. In
12393-577: The church. The Catholic Church teaches that the college of bishops , led by the bishop of Rome are the successors to the Apostles. In the account of the Confession of Peter found in the Gospel of Matthew , Christ designates Peter as the "rock" upon which Christ's church will be built. The Catholic Church considers the bishop of Rome, the pope, to be the successor to Saint Peter . Some scholars state Peter
12546-422: The church. There are three levels of clergy: the episcopate, composed of bishops who hold jurisdiction over a geographic area called a diocese or eparchy ; the presbyterate, composed of priests ordained by bishops and who work in local dioceses or religious orders; and the diaconate, composed of deacons who assist bishops and priests in a variety of ministerial roles. Ultimately leading the entire Catholic Church
12699-603: The church. The Diocese of Rome , known as the Holy See , is the central governing authority of the church. The administrative body of the Holy See, the Roman Curia , has its principal offices in Vatican City , which is a small, independent city-state and enclave within the city of Rome , of which the pope is head of state . The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed . The Catholic Church teaches that it
12852-641: The churches of Saint-Gilles and Sainte-Croix, as well as those of Fenouiller and Givrand. In the middle of the sixteenth century, a protestant church was founded in Saint-Gilles-sur-Vie; it was destroyed in November 1665, as one of seventeen protestant churches in the Bas-Poitou, the region that corresponds to today's Vendée. The Brotherhood of the Sardine ( Confrérie de la Sardine ) was founded in 1991. Headed by
13005-527: The city of Toulouse chartered by the counts of Toulouse). These cities were made up of several parishes (up to c. 50 parishes in the case of Paris), and they were usually enclosed by a defensive wall . They had been emancipated from the power of feudal lords in the 12th and 13th centuries, had municipal bodies which administered the city, and bore some resemblance with the communes that the French Revolution would establish except for two key points: In
13158-842: The conflict. Catholic clergy played a leading role in the government of the fascist Slovak State , which collaborated with the Nazis, copied their anti-Semitic policies, and helped them carry out the Holocaust in Slovakia. Jozef Tiso , the President of the Slovak State and a Catholic priest, supported his government's deportation of Slovakian Jews to extermination camps. The Vatican protested against these Jewish deportations in Slovakia and in other Nazi puppet regimes including Vichy France , Croatia, Bulgaria , Italy and Hungary. Around 1943, Adolf Hitler planned
13311-511: The council, arguing that its liturgical reforms led "to the destruction of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments", among other issues. The teaching on the morality of contraception also came under scrutiny; after a series of disagreements, Humanae vitae upheld the church's prohibition of all forms of contraception. In 1978, Pope John Paul II , formerly Archbishop of Kraków in
13464-544: The country: the whole of France would be divided into départements , themselves divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons, themselves divided into communes, no exceptions. All of these communes would have equal status, they would all have a mayor at their head and a municipal council elected by the inhabitants of the commune. This was a real revolution for the thousands of villages that never had experienced organized municipal life before. A communal house had to be built in each of these villages, which would house
13617-460: The departments of modern-day Belgium and Germany west of the Rhine , which were part of France between 1795 and 1815). This was fewer than the 60,000 parishes that existed before the revolution (in cities and towns, parishes were merged into one single commune; in the countryside, some very small parishes were merged with bigger ones), but 41,000 was still a considerable number, without any comparison in
13770-435: The development of the role of the papacy in the subsequent church". These roles, Brown says, "contributed enormously to seeing the bishop of Rome, the bishop of the city where Peter died and where Paul witnessed the truth of Christ, as the successor of Peter in care for the church universal". Conditions in the Roman Empire facilitated the spread of new ideas. The empire's network of roads and waterways facilitated travel, and
13923-412: The difference residing in the lack of administrative powers. Except for the municipal arrondissements of its largest cities, the communes are the lowest level of administrative division in France and are governed by elected officials including a mayor ( maire ) and a municipal council ( conseil municipal ). They have extensive autonomous powers to implement national policy. A commune
14076-585: The division of France into villages or parishes at the time of the French Revolution . (1) Within the current limits of metropolitan France, which existed between 1860 and 1871 and from 1919 to today. (2) Within the current extent of overseas France, which has remained unchanged since the independence of the New Hebrides in 1980. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes; even uninhabited mountains or rain forests are dependent on
14229-539: The driving force behind the Counter-Reformation in response to the Protestant movement. Doctrinally, it reaffirmed central Catholic teachings such as transubstantiation and the requirement for love and hope as well as faith to attain salvation. In subsequent centuries, Catholicism spread widely across the world, in part through missionaries and imperialism , although its hold on European populations declined due to
14382-699: The eighth-century Gregory III . Francis has made efforts to further close Catholicism's estrangement with the Eastern churches. His installation was attended by Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the first time since the Great Schism of 1054 that the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has attended a papal installation, while he also met Patriarch Kirill of Moscow , head of
14535-715: The empire's capital. As a result of Islamic domination of the Mediterranean , the Frankish state, centred away from that sea, was able to evolve as the dominant power that shaped the Western Europe of the Middle Ages. The battles of Toulouse and Poitiers halted the Islamic advance in the West and the failed siege of Constantinople halted it in the East. Two or three decades later, in 751,
14688-478: The end of the afternoon, following the storming of the Bastille , the provost of the merchants of Paris, Jacques de Flesselles was shot by the crowd on the steps of Paris City Hall. Although in the Middle Ages the provosts of the merchants symbolized the independence of Paris and even had openly rebelled against King Charles V , their office had been suppressed by the king, then reinstated but with strict control from
14841-480: The fact that there are pronounced differences in size between French communes. As mentioned in the introduction, a commune can be a city of 2 million inhabitants such as Paris, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or just a hamlet of 10 inhabitants. What the median population tells us is that the vast majority of the French communes only have a few hundred inhabitants, but there are also a small number of communes with much higher populations. In metropolitan France 57 percent of
14994-455: The final breach. In this age great gothic cathedrals in France were an expression of popular pride in the Christian faith. In the early 13th century mendicant orders were founded by Francis of Assisi and Dominic de Guzmán . The studia conventualia and studia generalia of the mendicant orders played a large role in the transformation of church-sponsored cathedral schools and palace schools, such as that of Charlemagne at Aachen , into
15147-558: The form of a law on 22 March 1890, which provided for the establishment of single-purpose intercommunal associations. French lawmakers having long been aware of the inadequacy of the communal structure inherited from the French Revolution for dealing with a number of practical matters, the so-called Chevènement law of 12 July 1999 is the most recent and most thoroughgoing measure aimed at strengthening and simplifying this principle. In recent years it has become increasingly common for communes to band together in intercommunal consortia for
15300-515: The growth of religious scepticism during and after the Enlightenment. From the 17th century onward, the Enlightenment questioned the power and influence of the Catholic Church over Western society. In the 18th century, writers such as Voltaire and the Encyclopédistes wrote biting critiques of both religion and the Catholic Church. One target of their criticism was the 1685 revocation of
15453-517: The independence of papal office by abolishing the veto of Catholic powers in papal elections, and his successors Benedict XV (1914–1922) and Pius XI (1922–1939) concluded the modern independence of the Vatican State within Italy. Benedict XV was elected at the outbreak of the First World War . He attempted to mediate between the powers and established a Vatican relief office, to assist victims of
15606-538: The kidnapping of the Pope and his internment in Germany. He gave SS General Wolff a corresponding order to prepare for the action. While Pope Pius XII has been credited with helping to save hundreds of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust , the church has also been accused of having encouraged centuries of antisemitism by its teachings and not doing enough to stop Nazi atrocities. Many Nazi criminals escaped overseas after
15759-548: The king, and so they had ended up being viewed by the people as yet another representative of the king, no longer the embodiment of a free municipality. Following that event, a "commune" of Paris was immediately set up to replace the old medieval chartered city of Paris, and a municipal guard was established to protect Paris against any attempt made by King Louis XVI to quell the ongoing revolution. Several other cities of France quickly followed suit, and communes arose everywhere, each with their municipal guard. On 14 December 1789,
15912-437: The kingdom. A parish was essentially a church, the houses around it (known as the village), and the cultivated land around the village. France was the most populous country in Europe at this time, with a population of approximately 25 million inhabitants in the late 18th century ( England in contrast had only 6 million inhabitants), which accounts for the large number of parishes. French kings often prided themselves on ruling over
16065-577: The largest Eastern Orthodox church, in 2016; this was reported as the first such high-level meeting between the two churches since the Great Schism of 1054. In 2017 during a visit in Egypt , Pope Francis reestablished mutual recognition of baptism with the Coptic Orthodox Church . The Catholic Church follows an episcopal polity , led by bishops who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders who are given formal jurisdictions of governance within
16218-537: The late 16th century. Further, some will refer to the Latin Church as Roman Catholic in distinction from the Eastern Catholic churches. "Roman Catholic" has occasionally appeared also in documents produced both by the Holy See, and notably used by certain national episcopal conferences and local dioceses. The name Catholic Church for the whole church is used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1990) and
16371-653: The law. In urban areas, the new intercommunal structures are much more a reality, being created by local decision-makers out of genuine belief in the worth of working together. However, in many places, local feuds have arisen, and it was not possible to set up an intercommunal structure for the whole of the urban area: some communes refusing to take part in it, or even creating their own structure. In some urban areas like Marseille there exist four distinct intercommunal structures! In many areas, rich communes have joined with other rich communes and have refused to let in poorer communes, for fear that their citizens would be overtaxed to
16524-552: The least money per inhabitant, whereas urban communities are given the most money per inhabitant, thus pushing communes to form more integrated communities where they have fewer powers, which they might otherwise have been loath to do if it were not for government money. The Chevènement law has been extremely successful in the sense that a majority of French communes now have joined the new intercommunal structures. On 1 January 2007, there were 2,573 such communities in metropolitan France (including five syndicats d'agglomération nouvelle ,
16677-414: The local feudal lord ( seigneur ) still had a major influence in the village's affairs, collecting taxes from tenant-villagers and ordering them to work the corvée , controlling which fields were to be used and when, and how much of the harvest should be given to him. Additionally, some cities had obtained charters during the Middle Ages, either from the king himself or from local counts or dukes (such as
16830-564: The lowest communes' median population of all the European countries (communes in Switzerland or Rhineland-Palatinate may cover a smaller area, as mentioned above, but they are more populated). This small median population of French communes can be compared with Italy, where the median population of communes in 2001 was 2,343 inhabitants, Belgium (11,265 inhabitants), or even Spain (564 inhabitants). The median population given here should not hide
16983-480: The main community of Toulouse and its suburbs is only a community of agglomeration, although Toulouse is large enough to create an Urban Community according to the law. This is because the suburban communes refused an urban community for fear of losing too much power, and opted for a community of agglomeration, despite the fact that a community of agglomeration receives less government funds than an urban community. As for Paris, no intercommunal structure has emerged there,
17136-461: The maximum allowable pay of the mayor and deputy mayors, and municipal campaign finance limits (among other features) all depend on the population echelon into which a particular commune falls. Since the PLM Law of 1982, three French communes also have a special status in that they are further divided into municipal arrondissements : these are Paris, Marseille , and Lyon . The municipal arrondissement
17289-486: The mayors. Civil marriages were established and started to be performed in the mairie with a ceremony not unlike the traditional one, with the mayor replacing the priest, and the name of the law replacing the name of God (" Au nom de la loi, je vous déclare unis par les liens du mariage. " – "In the name of the law, I declare you united by the bonds of marriage."). Priests were forced to surrender their centuries-old baptism, marriage, and burial books, which were deposited in
17442-425: The meetings of the municipal council as well as the administration of the commune. Some in the National Assembly were opposed to such a fragmentation of France into thousands of communes, but eventually Mirabeau and his ideas of one commune for each parish prevailed. On 20 September 1792, the recording of births, marriages, and deaths also was withdrawn as a responsibility of the priests of the parishes and handed to
17595-577: The mid-6th century by Emperor Justinian I as the pentarchy of Rome, Constantinople , Antioch , Jerusalem and Alexandria . In 451 the Council of Chalcedon , in a canon of disputed validity, elevated the see of Constantinople to a position "second in eminence and power to the bishop of Rome". From c. 350 – c. 500 , the bishops, or popes, of Rome, steadily increased in authority through their consistent intervening in support of orthodox leaders in theological disputes, which encouraged appeals to them. Emperor Justinian , who in
17748-709: The new colonies. In 1521 the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan made the first Catholic converts in the Philippines . Elsewhere, Portuguese missionaries under the Spanish Jesuit Francis Xavier evangelized in India, China, and Japan. The French colonization of the Americas beginning in the 16th century established a Catholic francophone population and forbade non-Catholics to settle in Quebec . In 1415, Jan Hus
17901-521: The north, cities tended to be administered by échevins (from an old Germanic word meaning judge), while in the south, cities tended to be administered by consuls (in a clear reference to Roman antiquity), but Bordeaux was administered by jurats (etymologically meaning "sworn men") and Toulouse by capitouls ("men of the chapter"). Usually, there was no mayor in the modern sense; all the échevins or consuls were on equal footing, and rendered decisions collegially. However, for certain purposes, there
18054-518: The number of communes in the process – the Gemeinden of West Germany were decreased from 24,400 to 8,400 in the space of a few years – France only carried out mergers at the margin, and those were mostly carried out during the 19th century. From 41,000 communes at the time of the French Revolution, the number decreased to 37,963 in 1921, to 36,569 in 2008 (in metropolitan France). Thus, in Europe, only Switzerland has as high
18207-404: The number of municipalities compared to the large and populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (396 Gemeinden in September 2007). Despite differences in population, each of the communes of the French Republic possesses a mayor ( maire ) and a municipal council ( conseil municipal ), which jointly manage the commune from the municipal hall ( mairie ), with exactly the same powers no matter
18360-458: The numerous visual artists sponsored by the church. Historian Paul Legutko of Stanford University said the Catholic Church is "at the center of the development of the values, ideas, science, laws, and institutions which constitute what we call Western civilization ". In Western Christendom , the first universities in Europe were established by monks. Beginning in the 11th century, several older cathedral schools became universities, such as
18513-406: The oldest multinational organization in the world. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church is headed by the pope, currently Pope Francis , who was elected on 13 March 2013 by a papal conclave . The office of the pope is known as the papacy . The Catholic Church holds that Christ instituted the papacy upon giving the keys of Heaven to Saint Peter . His ecclesiastical jurisdiction is called
18666-625: The only partially successful statute enacted in 1966 and enabling urban communes to form urban communities or the more marked failure of the Marcellin law of 1971, the Chevènement law met with a large measure of success, so that a majority of French communes are now involved in intercommunal structures. There are two types of these structures: In exchange for the creation of a community, the government allocates money to them based on their population, thus providing an incentive for communes to team up and form communities. Communities of communes are given
18819-403: The place of the former communes, which are represented by a delegated mayor and a delegated council. Between 2012 and 2021, about 820 communes nouvelles have been established, replacing about 2,550 old communes. The expression "intercommunality" ( intercommunalité ) denotes several forms of cooperation between communes. Such cooperation first made its appearance at the end of the 19th century in
18972-607: The pope receives ambassadors of states and sends them his own diplomatic representatives. The Holy See also confers orders, decorations and medals , such as the orders of chivalry originating from the Middle Ages . While the famous Saint Peter's Basilica is located in Vatican City, above the traditional site of Saint Peter's tomb , the papal cathedral for the Diocese of Rome is the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran , located within
19125-541: The populations and land of the geographic area covered. The communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. Communes vary widely in size and area, from large sprawling cities with millions of inhabitants like Paris , to small hamlets with only a handful of inhabitants. Communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes ( "lieu dit" or "bourg" ),
19278-412: The practices of the Catholic Church, allowing the Mass to be said in the vernacular (local language) and encouraging "fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations". It intended to engage the church more closely with the present world ( aggiornamento ), which was described by its advocates as an "opening of the windows". In addition to changes in the liturgy, it led to changes to
19431-683: The preservation and transmission of ancient culture. During this period, monastic Ireland became a centre of learning and early Irish missionaries such as Columbanus and Columba spread Christianity and established monasteries across continental Europe. The Catholic Church was the dominant influence on Western civilization from Late Antiquity to the dawn of the modern age. It was the primary sponsor of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque styles in art, architecture and music. Renaissance figures such as Raphael , Michelangelo , Leonardo da Vinci , Botticelli , Fra Angelico , Tintoretto , Titian , Bernini and Caravaggio are examples of
19584-457: The prominent universities of Europe. Scholastic theologians and philosophers such as the Dominican priest Thomas Aquinas studied and taught at these studia. Aquinas' Summa Theologica was an intellectual milestone in its synthesis of the legacy of ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle with the content of Christian revelation. A growing sense of church-state conflicts marked
19737-495: The provision of such services as refuse collection and water supply. Suburban communes often team up with the city at the core of their urban area to form a community charged with managing public transport or even administering the collection of local taxes. The Chevènement law tidied up all these practices, abolishing some structures and creating new ones. In addition, it offered central government finance aimed at encouraging further communes to join in intercommunal structures. Unlike
19890-489: The revolution, and so they favored a powerful central state. Therefore, when they created the communes, they deprived them of any legal "personality" (as they did with the départements ), with only the central state having legal "personality." By 1837 that situation was judged impractical, as mayors and municipal councils could not be parties in courts. The consequence of the change, however, was that tens of thousands of villages which had never had legal "personality" (contrary to
20043-465: The right to elect its own mayor in 1977, the central government retained control of the Paris police. In all other French communes, the municipal police are under the mayor's supervision. French communes were created at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789–1790. Before the revolution, France's lowest level of administrative division was the parish ( paroisse ), and there were up to 60,000 of them in
20196-406: The same as those designed at the time of the French Revolution more than 200 years ago, with the same limits. Countless rural communes that had hundreds of inhabitants at the time of the French Revolution now have only a hundred inhabitants or fewer. On the other hand, cities and towns have grown so much that their urbanized area is now extending far beyond the limits of their commune which were set at
20349-403: The same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances among them. In Réunion, demographic expansion and sprawling urbanization have resulted in the administrative splitting of some communes . The median population of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again this is a very small number, and here France stands absolutely apart in Europe, with
20502-580: The schism was reconciled, unresolved issues would lead to further division. In the 11th century, the efforts of Hildebrand of Sovana led to the creation of the College of Cardinals to elect new popes, starting with Pope Alexander II in the papal election of 1061 . When Alexander II died, Hildebrand was elected to succeed him, as Pope Gregory VII . The basic election system of the College of Cardinals which Gregory VII helped establish has continued to function into
20655-414: The size of the commune. This uniformity of status is a legacy of the French Revolution, which wanted to do away with the local idiosyncrasies and tremendous differences in status that existed in the kingdom of France. French law makes allowances for the vast differences in commune size in a number of areas of administrative law. The size of the municipal council, the method of electing the municipal council,
20808-532: The suburbs of Paris fearing the concept of a "Greater Paris", and so disunity still is the rule in the metropolitan area, with the suburbs of Paris creating many different intercommunal structures all without the city. Catholic Church God Schools Relations with: The Catholic Church , also known as the Roman Catholic Church , is the largest Christian church , with 1.28 to 1.39 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2024. It
20961-521: The term "bishop of Rome" to the most prominent members of the clergy in the earlier period and also to Peter himself. On this basis protestant scholars Oscar Cullmann , Henry Chadwick , and Bart D. Ehrman question whether there was a formal link between Peter and the modern papacy. Raymond E. Brown also says that it is anachronistic to speak of Peter in terms of local bishop of Rome, but that Christians of that period would have looked on Peter as having "roles that would contribute in an essential way to
21114-609: The time of the revolution. The most extreme example of this is Paris, where the urbanized area sprawls over 396 communes. Paris in fact was one of the very few communes of France whose limits were extended to take into account the expansion of the urbanized area. The new, larger, commune of Paris was set up under the oversight of Emperor Napoléon III in 1859, but after 1859 the limits of Paris rigidified. Unlike most other European countries, which stringently merged their communes to better reflect modern-day densities of population (such as Germany and Italy around 1970), dramatically decreasing
21267-629: The urgent request of Pope Stephen, the Frankish king Pepin the Short conquered the Lombards. He then gifted the lands of the former exarchate to the pope, thus initiating the Papal States . Rome and the Byzantine East would delve into further conflict during the Photian schism of the 860s, when Photius criticized the Latin west of adding of the filioque clause after being excommunicated by Nicholas I . Though
21420-597: The war and reunite families. The interwar Pope Pius XI modernized the papacy, appointing 40 indigenous bishops and concluding fifteen concordats, including the Lateran Treaty with Italy which founded the Vatican City State . His successor Pope Pius XII led the Catholic Church through the Second World War and early Cold War . Like his predecessors, Pius XII sought to publicly maintain Vatican neutrality in
21573-571: The world at the time, except in the empire of China (but there, only county level and above had any permanent administration). Since then, tremendous changes have affected France, as they have the rest of Europe: the Industrial Revolution , two world wars , and the rural exodus have all depopulated the countryside and increased the size of cities. French administrative divisions, however, have remained extremely rigid and unchanged. Today about 90 percent of communes and departments are exactly
21726-428: The world, and is the largest non-government provider of education and health care in the world. Among its other social services are numerous charitable and humanitarian organizations. The Catholic Church has profoundly influenced Western philosophy , culture , art , literature , music , law , and science . Catholics live all over the world through missions , immigration , diaspora , and conversions . Since
21879-481: Was a major factor in preserving classical civilization , with its art (see Illuminated manuscript ) and literacy. Through his Rule , Benedict of Nursia ( c. 480 –543), one of the founders of Western monasticism , exerted an enormous influence on European culture through the appropriation of the monastic spiritual heritage of the early Catholic Church and, with the spread of the Benedictine tradition, through
22032-428: Was adopted, which created the legal framework for the communes nouvelles (lit. "new communes"). A commune nouvelle can be created by merger of a number of communes at the request of the municipal councils of all the communes or at the initiative of the state representative in the department (the prefect ). The municipal council of the new commune can decide to create communes déléguées (lit. "delegated communes") in
22185-519: Was at its most intense in Poland , and Catholic resistance to Nazism took various forms. Some 2,579 Catholic clergy were sent to the Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp , including 400 Germans. Thousands of priests, nuns and brothers were imprisoned, taken to a concentration camp, tortured and murdered, including Saints Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein . Catholics fought on both sides in
22338-634: Was burned at the stake for heresy, but his reform efforts encouraged Martin Luther , an Augustinian friar in modern-day Germany, who sent his Ninety-five Theses to several bishops in 1517. His theses protested key points of Catholic doctrine as well as the sale of indulgences , and along with the Leipzig Debate this led to his excommunication in 1521. In Switzerland , Huldrych Zwingli , John Calvin and other Protestant Reformers further criticized Catholic teachings. These challenges developed into
22491-458: Was first used to describe the church in the early 2nd century. The first known use of the phrase "the catholic church" ( Greek : καθολικὴ ἐκκλησία , romanized : katholikḕ ekklēsía ) occurred in the letter written about 110 AD from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans , which read: "Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, there
22644-457: Was largely resolved in 1415–17 at the Council of Constance , with the claimants in Rome and Pisa agreeing to resign and the third claimant excommunicated by the cardinals, who held a new election naming Martin V pope. In 1438, the Council of Florence convened, which featured a strong dialogue focussed on understanding the theological differences between the East and West, with the hope of reuniting
22797-1013: Was one échevin or consul ranking above the others, a sort of mayor, although not with the same authority and executive powers as a modern mayor. This "mayor" was called provost of the merchants ( prévôt des marchands ) in Paris and Lyon; maire in Marseille, Bordeaux, Rouen , Orléans , Bayonne and many other cities and towns; mayeur in Lille ; premier capitoul in Toulouse; viguier in Montpellier ; premier consul in many towns of southern France; prêteur royal in Strasbourg ; maître échevin in Metz ; maire royal in Nancy ; or prévôt in Valenciennes . On 14 July 1789, at
22950-545: Was only reduced from 946 in 1971 (just before the Marcellin law aimed at encouraging French communes to merge with each other was passed, see Current debate section below) to 904 in January 2007. Consequently, the Alsace region—despite having a land area only one-fifth the size and a total population only one-sixth of that of its neighbor Baden-Württemberg—has almost as many municipalities. The small Alsace region has more than double
23103-543: Was the chef-lieu of the former canton of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, which had an area of 29,192 hectares and contained 14 communes: L'Aiguillon-sur-Vie , Brem-sur-Mer , Bretignolles-sur-Mer , La Chaize-Giraud , Coëx , Commequiers , Le Fenouiller , Givrand , Landevieille , Notre-Dame-de-Riez , Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez , Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Saint-Maixent-sur-Vie and Saint-Révérend . The meteorological measurements began in 1877 in Saint-Gilles. The climate of
23256-416: Was the first bishop of Rome. Others say that the institution of the papacy is not dependent on the idea that Peter was bishop of Rome or even on his ever having been in Rome. Many scholars hold that a church structure of plural presbyters/bishops persisted in Rome until the mid-2nd century, when the structure of a single bishop and plural presbyters was adopted, and that later writers retrospectively applied
23409-407: Was the idea of Marcel Ragon and Charles Grasset. Ragon became the first mayor of the new municipality while the latter, who had served as deputy mayor of Croix-de-Vie from March 1965 until December 1966, went on to serve under Ragon as deputy mayor of the new municipality until 1995. In 1982, Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie was classified as a resort. Situated on the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean, along
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