Maurice de Sully (died 11 September 1196) was Bishop of Paris from 1160 until his retirement in 1196. He was responsible for the construction of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.

Biography

He was born to poor parents at Sully-sur-Loire (Soliacum), near

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

towards 1140 and studied for the ecclesiastical state. He soon became known as an able professor of

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and an eloquent preacher. It has been frequently asserted, but without sufficient proof, that he was 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 ca ...

of Bourges. In 1159, he was mentioned as the Archdeacon of Paris, and on 12 October 1160, largely through the influence of Louis VII, he was elected to succeed

Peter Lombard Peter Lombard (also Peter the Lombard, Pierre Lombard or Petrus Lombardus; 1096, Novara – 21/22 July 1160, Paris), was a scholastic theologian, Bishop of Paris, and author of '' Four Books of Sentences'' which became the standard textbook of ...

in the episcopal see of that city. The present Cathedral of Notre-Dame stands as a monument to his episcopal administration. Its construction was begun and almost entirely completed under him. In 1163, Pope Alexander III laid the cornerstone of the magnificent edifice, and in 1185 the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Heraclius, officiated in the completed sanctuary. He also converted the synagogue that stood on the site of the now

Église de la Madeleine , other name = , native_name = , native_name_lang = French , image = Madeleine Paris.jpg , landscape = , imagesize = , caption = , imagelink ...

when it was seized by

Philip II of France Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (french: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French m ...

from the Jews of Paris in 1182, and duly consecrated it as a church dedicated to Mary Magdalene. Maurice de Sully also rebuilt the episcopal palace in which the nobility and clergy met in 1179 at the coronation of Philip Augustus as joint ruler with his father Louis VII. He enjoyed in a high degree the confidence of both rulers, accompanied Louis to his meeting with Frederick Barbarossa at Saint-Jean-de-Losne in 1162, and was one of the guardians of the royal treasury during the

Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...

(1190). In the controversy between Saint

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then ...

and

Henry II of England Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin king ...

, he energetically defended the former and, in three letters still extant, pleaded his cause with Alexander III. He forbade the celebration of the

feast of the Immaculate Conception The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, also called Immaculate Conception Day, celebrates the sinless lifespan and Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 8 December, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary, celebr ...

in his diocese, but is said to have strongly supported by appeals to Holy Writ ( Job, xix, 25-27) the doctrine of the

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...

of bodies, against some sceptical noblemen. Although he retained the administration of his diocese, he retired, late in life, to the Abbey of Saint Victor, Paris, where he died. Maurice de Sully is the author of a treatise on the Canon of the Mass, preserved in manuscript at Bourges. Numerous sermons, some in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, others in vernacular, are also attributed to him. Those written in the Latin tongue were not directly destined for the people, but rather for the use and study of the clergy. The French sermons do not seem to be in their present form the original work of Maurice de Sully; they are more commonly considered as reproductions made by ecclesiastics from his Latin collection. No critical edition of these sermons has yet been published; his three letters to Alexander III are printed in P. L., CC, 1419–22, as are also some of his official documents (CCV, 897-914).

References

;Attribution

Bibliography

* Pascal Tonazzi, ''Florilège de Notre-Dame de Paris (anthologie)'', Editions

Arléa Arléa is a French publishing house created in 1986. Arléa publishes thirty new titles each year, including pocket ones. His catalog contains more than a thousand titles: the great classics of Antiquity (whether Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Sanskrit or ...

, Paris, 2007, * Jean Longère
Maurice de Sully (c. 1120–1196)
''Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages'',

External links

* https://www.arlima.net/mp/maurice_de_sully.html
Notre-Dame
''France Monthly'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Sully, Maurice De 1196 deaths Bishops of Paris Clergy from Orléans 12th-century French Roman Catholic bishops Year of birth unknown Notre-Dame de Paris 12th-century French writers