Duchy of Dol-Combourg

The Duchy of Dol-Combourg was a duchy-archbishopric. It was a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire. Strictly Roman Catholic, it possessed the Ancient Diocese of Dol.
History
The Life of St. Samson, which cannot be of earlier date than the seventh century, mentions the foundation of the monastery of Dol by St. Samson. He was doubtless already a bishop when he came from Great Britain to Armorica, and it is he perhaps who attended the Council of Paris between 561 and 567. But in the biography there is nothing to prove that he founded the See of Dol or that he was its first bishop.
In the twelfth century, to support its claim against the Metropolitan of Tours, the Church of Dol produced the names of a long list of archbishops: St. Samson, St. Magloire, St. Budoc, St. Génevée, St. Restoald, St. Armel, St. Jumael, St. Turian. Louis Duchesne discounted and doubted this list. He was of the opinion that the abbey of Dol may have had at its head from time to time abbots with episcopal jurisdiction, but that Dol was not the seat of a diocese.
Under Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, the Vicariate of Dol and the monastery of St. Méen were still included in the Diocese of Aleth; so that the first Bishop of Dol was Festianus (Festgen) mentioned for the first time between 851 and 857, and installed by King Nomenoë. Among the bishops of Dol are:
*Baudri (1107-30), author of a poem on the conquest of England by William the Conqueror
*Alain de Coëtivy (1456-74), as legate of Callistus III, brought Charles VII to assist the Greeks against the Turks who were besieging Constantinople
*Urban René de Hercé (1767-95), emigrated to England during the Revolution, but accompanied to Brittany the royalist troops who attempted to land at Quiberon. He was arrested with his brother, and shot at Vannes, 3 July 1795.
There was a struggle from the ninth to the eleventh century to free the Church of Brittany from the Metropolitan of Tours. From a comparison made by Duchesne between the Life of St. Conwoïon, the Indiculus de episcoporum Britonum depositione, and an almost completely restored letter of Pope Leo IV, it would appear that shortly before 850, Nominoe wished to be anointed king, but found opposition among the prelates of Brittany; he sought to get rid of these prelates by charging them with simony. Their only fault was perhaps that they demanded eulogia from their priests when the latter came to synods. After listening to a deputation of Breton bishops and to St. Conwoïon, founder of the Abbey of St-Sauveur at Redon, who had been sent to Rome by Nominoe, Leo IV declared that the charge of simony must be adjudicated by a competent tribunal of twelve bishops, and must be attested by seventy-two witnesses, thereby disputing Nominoe's claimed right to depose bishops. But in any event, Nominoe proceeded to depose the four bishops of Vannes, Aleth, Quimper, and St. Pol de Léon, and made seven dioceses out of their four. One of the new dioceses had its seat in the abbey of Dol and became straightway an archdiocese. The remaining two were in the monasteries of St. Brieuc and Pabu-Tutual (Tréguier).
At the end of 850 or beginning of 851 the bishops of the four provinces of Tours, Sens, Reims, and Rouen, wrote a letter of reprimand to Nominoe and threatened him with excommunication. He paid no heed to them but died 7 March, 851. Salomon, Nominoe'ss second successor, requested Pope Benedict IV in vain to regularize the situation of the Breton hierarchy. In the name of the Council of Savonnières (859) the seven metropolitans of the three kingdoms of Charles the Bald, of Lothair II, and of Charles of Provence, wrote to the Bishop of Rennes and to the bishops occupying the new Sees of Dol, St. Brieuc, and Tréguier, reproaching them with lack of obedience to the Metropolitan of Tours. This letter was not sent to the Bishops of Vannes, Quimper, Aleth, and St. Pol de Léon who wrongly occupied the sees of the legitimate bishops illegally deposed by Nominoe. The letter achieved nothing.
In 862 Salomon dealt directly with Pope Nicholas I, and at first tried to mislead the pope by means of false allegations and forgeries; then he restored Felix of Quimper and Liberalis of Léon to their Sees, but kept Susannus of Vannes and Salocon of Aleth in exile. Nicholas I died in 867. Pope Adrian II (867-72) and Pope John VIII (872-82) continued to uphold the rights of the Metropolitan of Tours. Then came the deaths of Salomon and of Susannus, and a conciliatory mood developed.
There was no formal act on the part of the Holy See recognizing Dol as a new metropolitan church. Dol never had control over Rennes or Nantes, and mainly exercised ascendancy over the new Sees of St. Brieuc and Tréguier. Finally in May, 1199, Pope Innocent III restored the old order of things, and subordinated anew all Sees in Brittany to the Metropolitan of Tours. In doing so Innocent III did not interfere with the diocesan boundaries set up by Nominoe, and they remained in force until the French Revolution. The Bishop of Dol retained the insignia of an archbishop until 1789, but did not have an archbishop's privileges.
Bishops
To 1000
* 548?: Samson of Dol
*c. 567?: Magloire
*c. 568?: Budoc
* Geneve
*End of the 6th century.: Leucher or Leucherus
*7th century.: Tiernmael or Tigerinomal
*c. 640: Restoald
*c. 650: Wral
*c. 700: Turiau, Thuriau or Thurian
*Geneve
*Restoald
*Armael
*c. 770: Jumel, Jumael or Junemenus
*c. 842: Haelrit
*c. 848: Salacon or Salocon
*c. 859: Fastarius or Festinianus
*c. 878: Mayn I.
*Lowenan
*c. 930: Agano
*c. 950-952: Jutohen, Juthoven or Wichoen
*c. 990: Mayn II
1000 to 1300
*c. 1030-1032: Jungoneus
* 1040 to c. 1076: Juhel
*c. 1076: Gilduin
* 1076 to 17. November 1081: Ivon
* 1082 to c. 1092: Johannes I.
*c. 1093 to c. 1100: Roland I.
*c. 1106: Johannes II.
*c. 1107: Ulgrin or Vulgrin
* 24. November 1107 to 6. January 1130: Baldric of Dol
* 1130 to c. 1146: Geoffroi I. Le Roux
*c. 1147 to c. 1154: Olivier
*c. 1154-1160: Hugues Le Roux
* 1162-1163: Roger du Homet
* 1163 to c. 1177: Jean III.
* 1177 to c. 1185: Roland II.
*c. 1186-1188: Henri I.
* 1189-1190: Jean IV. de Vaulnoise
* 1190-1199: Jean V. de La Mouche
*c. 1200 to 13 November 1231: Jean VI. de Lizaunet
* 1231 to c. 1242: Clément de Coetquen
*c. 1242 to 16. November 1265: Etienne I.
* 1266 to 13. May 1279: Jean VII. Mahé
1300 to 1500
* 1280 to 30. March 1301: Thibaud I. de Pouencé
* 1301-1312: Thibaud II. de Moréac
* 1312 to 25. January 1324: Jean VIII. du Bosc
* 1324 to 15. March 1328: Guillaume I. Meschin
* 1328 to 8. May 1340: Jean IX. d'Avaugour
* 1340 to c. 1350: Henri II. Dubois
*c. 1350 to c. 1357: Simon Le Mayre
*c. 1358 to 16. March 1366: Nicolas
* 1366 or 1367-1373: Jean X. des Pas
* 1373 or 1374 to c. 1377: Geoffroi II. de Coëtmoisan
*c. 1378-1381: Pierre
* 1381-1382: Guy de Roye
* 1382-1386: Everard de Trémignon
* 27 August 1386 to 2 February 1390: Guillaume II. de Brie
* 1390 to 20. May 1405: Richard de Lesmenez
* 1405 to 6. December 1429: Etienne II. Cœuvret
* 8. January 1431 to 1437: Jean XI. de Bruc
* 11. December 1437 to 24. August 1444: Alain I. L'Epervier
* 1444 to 16. April 1456: Raoul de La Moussaye
* 17 June 1456 to 22. July 1474: Cardinal Alain II. de Coëtivy
* 1474 to 14. January1478: Christophe de Penmarch
* 1478 to 29. March 1482: Michel Guibé
* 29. March 1482 to 5. April 1504: Thomas I. James
From 1500
* 12 June 1504 to 10 December 1521: Mathurin de Plédran
* 1522-1524: Thomas II. Le Roy
* 30 June 1524 to 2 July 1556: François I. de Laval
* 25 September 1556 to 12 September 1557: Jean XII. de Matthefélon
* 1558-1591: Charles d'Espinay
* 1606-1629: Edmond Revol
* 1630-1644: Hector Douvrier
* 1645-1648: Antoine-Denis Cohon
* 1653-1660: Robert Cupif
* 1660-1692: Matthieu Thoreau
* 1692-1702: Jean-François de Chamillart
* 1702-1715: François Elie de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson
* 1715-1748: Jean-Louis du Bouchet de Sourches
* 1749-1767: Jean-François-Louis Dondel
* 1767-1790: Urbain-René de Hercé

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