dispute over jurisdiction ended with a pariage between the king and viscount. Both
consulates were placed under the king’s hand and merged in 1338.
Despite early problems with the Inquisition, Narbonne does not appear to have been
heavily tainted by Cathar heresy. As at Béziers, the inquisitors recorded few pursuits for
Catharism but later serious problems with Spiritual Franciscans and béguines. The
economic and political importance of Narbonne declined rapidly in the 14th century, as
its prosperity, built on commerce, eroded under pressure of competition from Montpellier
and elsewhere, compounded by a shifting and silting of the mouth of the Aude River. The
archiepiscopal province of Narbonne was reduced in 1317, and the dynasty of the
viscounts ended in 1424.
Alan Friedlander
The present city contains many medieval buildings, among them the basilica of Saint-
Paul-Serge (12th-13th c.), the church of the Franciscans, Notre-Dame-de-Consolation
(14th-15th c.), and the Archbishop’s Palace (13th-14th c.). Saint-Paul-Serge, built on the
site of a 4th-century cemetery established by Constantine, houses interesting early Chris-
tian sarcophagi.
The cathedral of Saint-Just is the most prominent medieval edifice in Narbonne.
Although the current cathedral dates to the 13th century, its history goes back much
farther. After the Peace of Constantine in 313, a modest church was erected and
subsequently destroyed by fire in 441. In that year, Bishop Rusticius laid the first stone of
a new edifice. Completed in 445, the cathedral was dedicated to St. Genes, martyr of
Arles. In 782, the church was reconsecrated to the Spanish martyrs Justus and Pastor, two
young brothers scourged and beheaded under Emperor Diocletian in the 4th century. The
edifice fell into ruin, and reconstruction, under the direction of Archbishop Téodard,
commenced in 890. Excavations undertaken in the 1940s revealed the construction to be
relatively modest in proportions: 181 feet long and 66 feet wide, consisting of an
unvaulted nave extended by a transept and a chevet. Its lopsided belfry still exists.
In 1272, the first stone of the present buidling, sent from Rome by Pope Clement IV,
was laid. Built by Jean Deschamps (1286) in the Gothic style of the Île-de-France, the
cathedral of Saint-Just features a vast choir with ambulatory and polygonal chapels. By
1354, however, the building reached the city’s ramparts and could expand no farther, so
no nave or transept was ever built. Stained glass in the triforium bays and in the chapels
dates to the 13th and 14th centuries.
A cloister joins the fortified Archbishop’s Palace to the cathedral. The palace façade
includes three towers dating from the 13th and 14th centuries.
E.Kay Harris
[See also: CATHARS; LANGUEDOC; PARIAGE]
Caille, Jacqueline. “Les seigneurs de Narbonne dans le conflit Toulouse-Barcelone au XIIe siècle.”
Annales du Midi 97 (1985):227–44.
Emery, Richard W. Heresy and Inquisition in Narbonne. New York: Columbia University Press,
1941.
Michaud, Jacques, and André Cabanis. Histoire de Narbonne. Toulouse: Privat, 1981.
Régné, Jean. Amaury II, vicomte de Narbonne (1260?–1328): sa jeunesse et ses expéditions, son
gouvernement, son administration. Narbonne: Caillard, 1910.
——. Étude sur la condition des Juifs de Narbonne du Ve au XIVe siècle. 1912; Marseille: Lafitte,
1981.
Sigal, Abbé. “Les origines de la cathédrale de Narbonne.” Bulletin de la Commission
Archéologique de Narbonne (1921).
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