Diocese of Alais

The former French Catholic diocese of Alais (now written Alès) was created in 1694, as part of the diocese of Nîmes. It was suppressed after the French Revolution, with its territory being divided between the diocese of Avignon and the diocese of Mende. Its seat was Alès Cathedral.

About 570, Sigebert, King of Austrasia, created a see at Arisitum (Alais) taking fifteen parishes from the Diocese of Nîmes. In the eighth century, when Septimania was annexed to the Frankish Empire, the Diocese of Alais was suppressed and its territory returned to the Diocese of Nîmes.

After the Edict of Nantes, Alais was one of the places de sûreté given to the Huguenots. Louis XIII took back the town in 1629, and the Convention of Alais, signed 29 June of that year, suppressed the political privileges of the Protestants.

At the request of Louis XIV, a see was again created at Alais by Pope Innocent XII, in 1694. The future Cardinal de Bausset, Bossuet's biographer, was Bishop of Alais from 1784 to 1790.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Nîmes". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton. 

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