In France of the Ancien Régime, the title of Count of Lyon was purely honorific. There had been a count of Lugdunensis, a military governor, in the early 5th-century Roman

Notitia dignitatum The ''Notitia Dignitatum'' (Latin for "The List of Offices") is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of ...

, and among the

Merovingians The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...

an Armentarius was count of Lugdunensis during the tenure of Nicetius, Bishop of Lyons (552–73). In a document of 818, a Bermond is noted as count of Lugdunensis, a non-hereditary appointment made by

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

. But the title as inheritable was attached to the

Count of Forez Forez is a former province of France, corresponding approximately to the central part of the modern Loire ''département'' and a part of the Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme ''départements''. The final "z" in Forez () is not pronounced in the Loire ...

in a document of ''ca'' 1097, confirming the founding of a hospital at Montbrison, and it fell from use with Count Guy IV in the early 13th century. The title "Count of Lyon" was not subsequently attached to a

seigneurie In English law, seignory or seigniory, spelled ''signiory'' in Early Modern English (; french: seigneur, lit=lord; la, senior, lit=elder), is the lordship (authority) remaining to a grantor after the grant of an estate in fee simple. ''Nulle terre ...

nor was it hereditary but was carried by the

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

and each of the

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

s of the cathedral of Lyon. The

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

of Lyon was among the most eminent of France and claimed to have been founded by "John, king of Burgundy" icwho filled it with lords of the noblest houses. The canons in public proclamations, "most noble counts of Lyon", had to prove that they were ''nobles de quatre races'', on both the paternal and maternal side, in other words that all their great-grandparents had been noble, the notorious ''

seize quartiers Seize quartiers is a French phrase which literally means a person's "sixteen quarters", the coats of arms of their sixteen great-great-grandparents quarters of nobility, which are typically accompanied by a five generation genealogy ahnentafel o ...

'' or "sixteen quarterings" of a

coat-of-arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its w ...

. The canons enjoyed some extraordinary privileges: they officiated at

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

with the

mitre The mitre (Commonwealth English) (; Greek: μίτρα, "headband" or "turban") or miter (American English; see spelling differences), is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in ...

of a bishop on their heads, whether priest or deacon or sub-deacon. A transcription made in 1672, of an old document records that "none, with the exception of the counts, may put his coat-of-arms on the altar during celebration of masses for the dead". Their extraordinary pretension drew a censure from the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

, 18 April 1555, condemning the refusal of the canon-counts to

genuflect Genuflection or genuflexion is the act of bending a knee to the ground, as distinguished from kneeling which more strictly involves both knees. From early times, it has been a gesture of deep respect for a superior. Today, the gesture is common ...

at the elevation of the Host; the dispute, in which the Dean and the canon-counts were opposed, had to be taken to the Cardinal of Lorraine and the Cardinal de Tournon for adjudication, where they were reminded that even the

kings of France France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the first ...

bent the knee at this occasion; however, the canons obtained an order in council on 23 August 1555 maintaining them in this privilege, which they renounced voluntarily in the reign of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

for fear of the king's displeasure. François-Joachim de Pierre, Cardinal de Bernis, who owed his preferment to

Mme de Pompadour Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (, ; 29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and rema ...

, was taxed by her, when they eventually broke: "I raised you out of the mud". The Cardinal, who had arrived in Paris very young, with only 1500 ''

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...

'' in income, but agreeable in face and manners, and a count of Lyon, replied justly: "un comte de Lyon ne peut pas être tiré de la boue"— "a ''count of Lyon'' cannot be raised from the mud".

Jean-François de la Harpe Jean-François de La Harpe (20 November 173911 February 1803) was a French playwright, writer and literary critic. Life La Harpe was born in Paris of poor parents. His father, who signed himself Delharpe, was a descendant of a noble family orig ...

, "''Lycée''", i.e. ''Cours de littérature ancienne et moderne'', viii:204-07, noted in ''The Gentleman's Magazine''.

Notes

{{reflist, 2

Lyons Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...

Medieval Lyon 18th century in Lyon