History of Lyon, France

Lyon is a city in the south of France. The area has been inhabited since prehistoric times and was one of the most important cities of the Roman Empire, Lugdunum. After the Battle of Lugdunum (197) the city never fully recovered, and Lyon was built out of its ashes becoming a part of the Kingdom of the Burgundians.

If the place seems inhabited since prehistoric times, the first city, Lugdunum, dates from 43 BC. AD Under the Roman Empire, Lyon became a powerful city, capital of Roman Gaul. The fall of the Roman Empire relegates it to a secondary role in the European space because of its distance from the centers of power. Then the division of the Carolingian Empire places it in the position of a border town. Until the 14 th century, political power is entirely in the hands of the Archbishop, which jealously protects the autonomy of his city. It was not until 1312-1320 to see the consular institution counterbalance its power, at the very moment when the city definitively integrates the kingdom of France.

During the Renaissance, Lyon developed considerably and became a major European commercial city. This second golden age is mown down by the Wars of Religion. During the absolute monarchy, Lyon remains an average French city, whose main wealth is the work of silk. The Revolution devastated the city, which in 1793 opposed the Convention. Taken militarily, it was severely repressed and came out of the revolutionary turmoil very weakened.

Napoleon helps in its recovery by supporting silks, which comes at the same time as the development of the Jacquard loom. It was the starting point of an economic and industrial boom that lasted until the First World War. During the 19th century century, Lyon is a city canut and knows in 1831 and 1834 of violent workers’ revolts. The Belle Époque marked the end of the domination of Lyon silk and the rise of many other industries (automobiles, chemicals, electricity). The municipality, for its part, regains its powers with the Third Republic and engages in a long century of radicalism, which ends with Édouard Herriot in 1957. The Second World War sees Lyon, one of the main cities of the free zone, be the center of the largest Resistance networks. Jean Moulin, in particular, unifies them within the United Resistance Movements.

At the end of the war, Lyon recovered quickly and experienced vigorous urban development, with the construction of a large number of residential districts. With powerful industries and a booming tertiary sector, the city holds its rank as a great French and European metropolis.

A quote from historian Fernand Braudel presents the richness and comple11ty of Lyon’s history:
“The fate of Lyon is no simpler than that of the river. Any city, undoubtedly, is a complicated being, Lyon more than another, which strikes the historian by its richness, its sudden transformations, its originalities, even its oddities. It is not the same from one century to the next century and, more constrained than going of its own accord, it passes endlessly from one originality to another. It is, in itself, a difficult problem for the historian of France, perhaps the key problem, surely the key indicator. ”

Prehistory and time preceding the Roman conquest
The presence of a population from prehistoric times is attested. Many objects dating, for the oldest, from the Mesolithic, were found on the site of Vaise. The numerous traces of habitats and discovered ceramics dating from the early Iron Age (VI century BC. There) prove the e11stence of trade routes between the Mediterranean coast and northern Europe through by the site, without being able to speak of an urbanized place.

The traces of human occupations of the Second Iron Age do not show sedentarization before Roman times, but they attest that the site of Fourvière is used by the surrounding peoples as a sacred site. Archaeological clues tend to demonstrate the e11stence of large Gallic gatherings and the e11stence of an emporium. This serves as a place of exchange between the Romans and the Segusian and Aedui peoples.

Antiquity
Created by the will of Rome, Lugdunum becomes, thanks to its strategic position, the capital of the Gauls. An important political, religious and commercial center, the city developed considerably, becoming a cosmopolitan city. Its Christianization took place at the II century.

Foundation Lugdunum
Lugdunum would have been founded within the framework of a policy of creation of colonies initiated by Julius Caesar, with Vienna, Nyon or Augst, aiming to ensure the stability of newly conquered peoples and to reward veteran legionaries by providing them with land and rights. In the case of Lugdunum, it would be to watch the Allobroges.

Site before the foundation
The site of Lyon presents many traces of Gallic occupation before the foundation; especially in the Saint-Vincent district, at Vaise or Fourvière. The toponym of Lugdunum designates more particularly the colony of Fourvière, the slopes of Cro9-Rousse being Condate and the plains close to the river the canabae. Before the foundation, the confluence between the Rhône and the Saônehas a very different physiognomy from the current one. The Saône flows at the foot of the hill; It is only during the first centuries of our era that a second arm of the river is formed, and that by progressive filling, a space is released at the place of the current Old Lyon.

It is possible that Romans from Vienna settled earlier, and provided an initial population core for the colony, but this question is debated by historians.

Foundation of the colony
Former officer of Julius Caesar, proconsul of Hairy Gaul, Lucius Munatius Plancus proceeds to the foundation in 43 BC. AD, the exact day being discussed by historians. No certainty e11sts on the origin of the settlers and their social position. Specialists suggest that they come partly from the colony of Vienna, and partly from the legions of Munatius Plancus.

The colony is not solidly fortified, barely has land levees and wooden palisades. Small in size, it does not have a forum. Named by its founder ” Colonia Copia Fel9 Munatia Lugdunum ”, it lost under Emperor Claude the reference to Munatius Plancus to become ” Colonia Copia Claudia Augusta Lugdunensium ”. The inhabitants are Roman citizens, those of free birth are placed in the Galeria tribe, the freedmen in the Palatina tribe.

Origin of name Lugdunum
There is debate on the exact meaning of the toponym “Lugdunum”. The term Dunum designates in Celtic a height, a hill or a citadel. But Lug’s is less obvious. Some suggest the possibility of a reference to the Celtic god Lug. However, archaeologists have not found traces of worship on the spot, but in Condate or Vaise. It would then be possible to bring lug closer to the root lux, meaning light. Finally, others put forward an extract from the work De Fluviis by pseudo-Plutarch which gives the place the name of Lougoudounon, with Lougos meaningraven.

Lyon, capital of the Gauls
Located on a strategic point, the colony quickly became the capital of the Gauls by the will of Augustus. Three factors contribute to this choice. First, the ambition of Augustus, in the 20s BC. AD, to conquer Germania. Lugdunum is ideally located and a network of roads is quickly traced from the city. It thus finds itself at the center of communications in Gaul, and constitutes the starting point for operations towards the northern territories. Second, during the first decades of its foundation, the administrative organization of Gaul was not yet established and the governors generalensure its monitoring and management from this city. Finally, and even if this does not take place strictly speaking on the territory of the colony, the annual meeting of Gallic notables at the confluence from 12 BC. AD strengthens its political position.

Urban development
Thanks to its location and influence, the city grows and enriches itself quickly. Of aqueducts are built, with delicate dates to estimate, perhaps 20 BC. AD and 10 BC. AD. Many monuments are quickly built. The first is the theater, the oldest in Gaul, inaugurated between 16 BC. AD and 14 BC. AD under Emperor Augustus, with a capacity of 10,700 places. In 19 apr. AD is inaugurated the amphitheater of the Three Gauls, enlarged around 130-136. At the same time, the altar of the Federal Sanctuary of the Three Gauls was renovated.

At the top of the Fourvière hill, on the site of the current basilica, which is the heart of the city at its peak, monumental remains have been interpreted by A. Audin as the forum, a Capitoline temple, the curia and the basilica, identifications questioned since.

During the II century, a circus is built, whose location is uncertain, known largely through a mosaic representative. Antonin, around 160, proceeds to the addition to the theater of an odeon with 3,000 seats.

Beyond the prestigious monuments, it is all the urban cores of the agglomeration that is developing. Communities of traders prosper: nautes, wine merchants, utriculars, stucco workers, potters, etc. Each community is hierarchically organized, with a council and dignitaries who structure the profession and represent it to the authorities. Some also have their own cemetery.

The global population was estimated by Amable Audin at 35,000 inhabitants, by Pelletier at 40,000 and by Bruno Benoit between 50,000 and 60,000. A larger cities of Gaul, Lyon is a cosmopolitan city, with many people wearing Greek names, probably more than a quarter of the population.

Operation and integration in the empire
From its foundation, the Lyon colony enjoys the status of full Roman colony (optimo iure), its citizens have all the political and civic advantages of the Romans, but pay several direct taxes. At III century, it then has the right italics, providing its residents direct taxes. It administers itself, but no text on municipal laws remains. On the other hand, the numerous Latin inscriptions (more than three thousand) provide information on its inhabitants and their functions.

Lyon institutions have two groups: magistrates and the senate. Magistrates are organized in three levels: the auditor’s office, the municipal administration and duovirat. The normal operation is that a notable occupies each function one after the other, even if we have an example of a citizen who became a duumvir directly after having been a quaestor. The quaestors are responsible for raising municipal funds, under the supervision of the duumvirs. The city councilors are responsible for maintaining the roads, the thermal baths, markets, public buildings, supplies. The duumvirs seem to have judicial functions. We thus see them questioning Christians in 177. They are also responsible for electoral operations or the convening of the council of decurions.

As the capital of the Three Gauls, Lugdunum has several important political and spiritual attributes. The legate of the Roman Gaul resides there and it manages the three provinces that constitute it: the Belgian Gaul, the Gallia Aquitania and Lyon Gaul. From the outset, the city had a monetary workshop. This was promoted to the rank of imperial monetary workshop in 15 BC. AD by Augustus for the financing of his military campaigns, a unique privilege throughout the Empire. After many hazards, the workshop was devalued as a simple au11liary in 294, when that ofTruces takes office; it remained in activity, with a few moments of high production, until 413. Lyon also concentrates several imperial administrations directing the three Gauls: customs, the office of iron mines, estates, the post office. It is the only Roman city with Carthage to have an urban cohort.

The priesthood of the federal worship is the highest administrative office to which the Gauls Roman citizens can aspire in Gaul. It is held in Lyon, in a temple of which there are no archaeological traces. Elected by their cities, the priests officiate all year round, the culmination being a ceremony in August, during which delegates from all over Gaul come to worship the emperor. Delegates’ meetings do not only have a sacramental function. People are appointed from among them to form the Council of Three Gauls. Endowed with substantial financial means, its role is not well known, but was to serve as a relay between the Gallic elite and the emperors.

Lugdunum, imperial city
Due to its strategic location and its political influence, Lugdunum, throughout Antiquity, participated in certain major events affecting the empire and received the visit of many emperors.

Augustus came there three times between 39 and 8 BC. AD, to lead the repression of rebellions in Germania and Hispania. He ordered Agrippa to build the Roman roads in Gaul and gave the city significant importance by installing the imperial monetary workshop there in 15 BC. AD to finance its campaigns. In 12 BC J. – C., the sanctuary of the confluence is inaugurated. Caligula went there once, in AD 39–40. AD with his cousin Ptolemy of Mauretania. Magnificent shows are organized in their honor. Claudewas born in Lyon, in 10 BC. AD, and returned there regularly, especially during his conquest of Brittany between 43 and 47 apr. In addition to several archaeological traces of his passage, one preserves of this emperor his speech supporting the entry of the Gauls to the Senate, transcribed on the Claudian table. His name enters, perhaps from this time, in the title of the city.

Under Nero, in 64, the Lyonnais supported the Romans who were victims of the fire in Rome by sending the sum of four million sesterces. The following year, they were themselves victims of a disaster and Nero sent them the same amount to rebuild the city. This fire, known only from a text by Seneca and Tacitus, has never been corroborated by archaeological traces.

In 68, the legate of Gaul Lyonnaise Vindex rose up against the power of Nero, with part of Gaul. During this conflict, the Viennese besieged Lyon, but must leave the field of combat after the defeat of Vindex. However, Galba, the new and brief emperor, punishes the Lyonnais for their support of Nero. But, in the episode of disorder of the Year of the Four Emperors, the Lyonnais find the favors of the new master Vitellius, who chastises the Viennese. Then, he went to Lyon to hold an imperial meeting there, during which major festivals were organized.

In 160, an inscription bears the mention of what would be the first bullfighting celebrated in the empire, a religious manifestation of oriental cults in honor of Cybele. We have a trace of it thanks to the taurobolic altar found in 1704. In 177, Lyon was the scene of the first persecution of Christians in Gaul, and even of the first mention of the e11stence of Christians in the country.

After the death of Emperor Commodus, the civil war saw several contenders for the head of the Roman Empire clash. In Brittany, Clodius Albinus seizes power. When Septimius Severus, after having defeated Pescennius Niger, declares Clodius Albinus an enemy of the empire, he comes to Gaul, settles in Lyon and also takes possession of Hispania. In 197, Septime Sévère confronts him, defeats him in Tournus and during the battle of Lugdunum, then leaves his soldiers to plunder the city which had supported him.

Septimius Severus, however, knew Lugdunum well, having been a legate there,Caracalla and Geta were born there. It was also during this episode that the imperial monetary workshop was closed. In 212 Caracalla, born in Lyon in 186, proclaimed his constitutio antoniniana, which grants Lyonnais peregrines citizenship, but not the ability to participate in local political life, the prerogative of native Lyonnais. The crisis of the third century, however, does not seem to have affected the city itself, which was not invaded. In particular, there are no traces of the action of the Lyonnais during the Empire of the Gauls.

At the end of III century during the reorganization of the Tetrarchy, Lugdunum loses its rank of capital of the Gauls in favor of Trier, closer to the border of the Rhine. The city is no more than the administrative seat of the small province of Lyonnaise I, which only includes Lyon, Langres and Autun. This crisis affects the city deeply. The hill of Fourvière is abandoned, the inhabitants regrouping on the right bank of the Saône. Commercial exchanges follow other paths and the city is no longer tied to major events. There is, moreover, no more trace of activity of the Council of Three Gauls. A revolt of the Lyonnais against Aurélien in 274 has unknown causes, but does not prevent the emperor from restoring the imperial monetary workshop. In 353, the usurper Magnence committed suicide in Lyon after his defeat in Croatia against Constance II and a two-year flight. In 383, the young Emperor Gratien was assassinated in Lyon on the orders of Ma11me. In 392, Eugene, rhetorician, is proclaimed emperor against Theodosius I.

Religion and Christianization of Lugdunum
Like all Roman cities, Lyon, in the early days of its e11stence, knew the official cults of the city and of the emperor. Unlike others, the imperial cult seems to have here a much greater importance than other forms of worship. Across the II century, there is mention of seventy sévirs augustaux which form even a “Fratres Augustales” and five flamens, which are all high local characters. The Sevirs enjoy a prestigious social position in Lyon, at the same rank as the knights, just after the decurions The imperial cult is attested very early, fromTiberius, with the so-called “Clos du Verbe incarnné” temple, a rare collection of this known type.

The first implantations of Christianity in Gaul are known to us from a letter attributed to Bishop Irenaeus, one of the first Fathers of the Church, transcribed by Eusebius of Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical History. She used to date the arrival of the religion of Christ in the city in the middle of the II century.

Lyon is a good place to finish this by its central location in the currents of European trade, and the high proportion of foreign traveling and settling in the city, including Jews. However, these foreigners bring with them their worship, such as those of Mithras, Isis or Cybele. The first Christians are therefore of oriental origin, in particular from Phrygia, like part of the population of the city. Worship is present in all social classes. For the first time, to the III century, Lyon seems to be the only city to have a Gallic bishop.

The best-known episode of this period is detailed in the letter from Irenaeus to Eusebius of Caesarea; it is about the martyrdom of many Christians in 177. Many characters appear, including the first bishop of Lyon, Pothin. If the text does not give us any elements to explain the persecution, historians have proposed several hypotheses: traditional hostility of the Romans towards Christians, competition between religions or the extremist attitude of certain Christians influenced by Montanism.. Christians flee persecution by taking refuge in particular on Île Barbe.

It was during the IV century that the city closes its pagan temples and reorganize his social life around its bishop and the church calendar. Lyon became one of the intellectual centers of Christendom, shown at V century by Sidonius. The Abbey Island Beard is founded in the V century.

High Middle Ages
During the first centuries of the Middle Ages, Lyon came under Burgundian rule, then Frankish, while remaining, in fact, very autonomous. From this time on, the real master of the city became the archbishop. This period is not well known, the available sources being incomplete.

A city folded back on the Saône
With the collapse of the Roman Empire, the inhabitants of Lugdunum gradually left the upper town to settle on both banks of the Saône. The texts and archaeological excavations do not provide a general view of the urbanization of this period, only the religious buildings are somewhat known. They include a cathedral group with two churches (Saint-Jean and Sainte-Cro9) and a baptistery (Saint-Étienne), cemeteric basilicas (Saint-Just and Saint-Irénée) and convents of monks with different forms of monastic life.

In a domination to another
In 437, Germanic Burgundian tribes were installed as federated in Sapaudia by the Roman general Aetius after the latter’s victory against their king Gondicaire and the destruction of their kingdom located near the Rhine. These Burgundians extend their domination during the disintegration of the Western Empire and, in the years 470–474, make Lyon one of the capitals of their kingdom with Geneva and Vienna. Few in number, they were quickly assimilated by the Gallo-Roman nobility of Lyon, through numerous marriages.Arians, they build a cathedral dedicated to their worship, but maintain good relations with other Christians. A certain number are also converted to Nicene Christianity. They keep for themselves their own law, the gombette law.

In 534, the sons of Clovis easily integrated this kingdom under Frankish domination, the Burgundians being too few and divided to resist. The following Frankish kings dispute the kingdom of Burgundy. Lyon is most frequently found in the possession of the King of Neustria. Lyon does not seem to have suffered heavy damage from these seizures of power, but the city loses all direct political power. The capital of the duchy is in Chalon-sur-Saône. The Rhone city however retains a great religious prestige.

The later period, during Frankish domination, is very poorly understood. The few texts of the VI and VII centuries that have survived are essentially religious. Moreover, the central period of the VIII century has left us no information on the bishops, which we have the names.

Lyon Company in the High Middle Ages
In these troubled times, ecclesiastical institutions made up for the disappearance of the imperial administration. Many bishops come from the Gallo-Roman nobility, which has long kept an ancient culture. The most prominent are Rusticus, bishop of Lyon from 494 to 501, his brother Saint Viventiolus, Sacerdos, son of Rusticus and bishop from 549 to 552, who designates his nephew Saint Nizier to succeed him. The latter is buried in the church which takes his name. The influence of the Bishop of Lyon is very strong in the region, and he retains a positive aura in Christendom. He was called ” patriarch ” during the Council of Mâconof 585. He has authority over the dioceses of Autun, Mâcon, Chalon-sur-Saône and Langres. Other examples of this influence can be seen with the sending of an embassy to Spain headed by Arigius (602-614?), Or the consecration of a bishop of Canterbury in Lyon by Goduinus (688-701?).

Little is known about the intellectual life of this period. The few Lyonnais who have transmitted a remarkable work to us are Sidoine Apollinaire, Eucher or Viventiole. The first is the author of letters and panegyrics which tell us about the evolution of the Gallo-Roman world in the V century under the domination of Germanic peoples. Eucher wrote numerous works on the Christian faith, and letters. Finally, from Viventiole we have received a Life of the Fathers of Jura, which describes the beginnings of monasticism in the region. Note, however, that these texts date all of the V century orVI century, very few texts come from the following period.

Carolingian times to one thousand
The city is a center of the Carolingian renaissance, under the impetus of its archbishop Leidrade (friend of Alcuin), the deacon Florus, then of Agobard. After the Treaty of Verdun and the succession of Charlemagne, the city was officially divided between two of his grandsons. The right bank of the Saône belongs to Charles le Chauve, the peninsula to Lothaire. However, in practice, this division does not survive the influence of the Archbishop, who effectively unites the two shores under his lordship, under the sovereignty of Emperor Lothair. After the short Carolingian period, a veil of shade, caused by the scarcity of available sources, again obscures the history of Lyon.

Face of Lyon
During this period, Lyon hardly changed topographically compared to previous centuries. The main urban center is still the right bank of the Saône, between Saint-Laurent de Choulans to the south and Saint-Paul to the north. There are also islands of inhabitants around Saint-Just and Saint-Irénée, on the hill of Fourvière, as well as on the peninsula. Without documentation, it is impossible to quantify the population at that time.

Carolingian Renaissance in Lyon
If the city limits don’t move, it changes. Thus, Leidrade creates two schools to raise the intellectual and moral level of the clerics of the city. The first, the school of singers, or schola cantorum, is intended to teach song according to the rite of the Palace, the liturgy used at the court of Charlemagne in A9-la-Chapelle, itself largely inspired by that of Rome. The second, the schola lectorum, is intended to initiate the reading and understanding of sacred texts. The goal is to ensure a liturgy of a good level. These two schools are a success and establish the intellectual bases of the city for the following centuries. At the same time, Leidrade reorganizes a scriptorium which produces works which, coming for many from the collection of Florus, have partly come down to us; of scriptural texts, books of church fathers, especially St. Augustine, which it seems that the work be represented in Lyon at that time, works by Saint Jerome, of Gregory Nazianzen, of Bede, a Visigothic law.

Agobard and Leidrade also try to improve the observance of the rules followed by the religious of the region; they introduce the canonical reform put in place by Charlemagne. Five chapters of canons are thus reported in Lyon in the Book of confraternities of the abbey of Reichenau: the cathedral chapters of Saint-Etienne, which later takes the name of Saint-Jean, Saint-Paul, Saint-Just, Saint- Nizier and Saint-Georges.

The creation of chapters of canons must have changed the balance of the population. The constructions that necessarily followed this reform – refectories, cloisters and dormitories – certainly had a significant influence on the ground. If the excavations did not reveal any topographical expansion at the time, these novelties explain that the future expansion of the city took place on the left bank of the Saône; this extension takes place after the X century.

Lyon and powerful
If the face of Lyon remains immobile, the institutional frameworks move: the religious power firmly imposes its authority on the city. During this period, the archbishops in fact rule the city located too far from the centers of power for the various kings who have it in their possession can really control it. Some even allow themselves to be part of the great conflicts of their time.

Thus, Archbishop Agobard takes part in the upheavals of the Carolingian world. Deeming the coe11stence of different legislations harmful, he asked Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, to place the Lyonnais under the same legal rules as the Franks, and thus to repeal the Gombette law, which he considered barbaric. It thus aims, in particular, the judicial duel. By fidelity to what he considers the Carolingian principles, he supports the revolt of the sons of the emperor, which is worth to him to be deposited when Louis the Pious, in 834, returns to the capacity and convenes the council of Thionville from 835.

The episcopal see is then managed by the liturgist Amalaire. But the clergy of Lyon, remained faithful to their archbishop and, united behind the deacon Florus, leads life hard to the newcomer. In 838, following the reconciliation of Lothaire and his father Louis the Pious, Agobard regained his post and had the liturgical innovations of his replacement condemned at the synod of Quierzy, the same year. On the death of Emperor Lothaire in 955, sovereignty passed to his last son, Charles the King of Provence (and Cisjuran Burgundy).

During the 9 century, Lyon’s religious elite is closer to that of sovereign of the city. So Rémi I is archchaplain of King Charles of Provence. Aurélien figures in the first row of those who conferred royalty on Duke Boson during the assembly of Mantaille in 879. Perhaps it is he who consecrates him in Lyon. The city therefore remains closely linked to the nobility of Burgundy, as evidenced by the fact that Burchard I and Burchard II both belonged to this royal family. The second was thus archchancellor of his half-brotherRudolf III.

In 863, on the death of Charles de Provence, the administration of the city was entrusted to Girart de Roussillon, count of Vienne, the former mentor of Charles, who tried to take his autonomy as Duke of Lyon under the sovereignty of the brother of Charles, Lothaire II; on the death of Lothaire II in 869, sovereignty passed to their uncle Charles le Chauve, king of France, who drove Girart from the city in 870. Sovereignty therefore became French under Charles the Bald († 877) and his son Louis le Chauve († 877). Stutterer († 879).

But Boson, count and duke of Lyon-Vienne, brother-in-law of Charles le Chauve and nephew of Lothaire II, incorporated it in 879 into the Kingdom of Provence which he recreated for his benefit in October 879 in Mantaille; however, Boson fails from 880/882 and French sovereignty is quickly put back in place (Carloman, Charles le Gros); however the son of Boson, Louis the Blind, found in 890 in Valence the paternal kingdom, with Lyon, until his death in 928; the king of France Raoul (nephew of Boson and first cousin of Louis the Blind) then seems to recover the Lyonnais and the Viennese, whom Louis IV of Overseas abandons in 942 to his son-in-lawConrad the Pacific of Burgundy: Lyon was then part of the kingdom of Deux-Bourgognes (or Arles) until April 1312, when it was joined to the kingdom of France.

The mistakes of a very chaotic Lyon sovereignty clearly show the ambiguous position of Lyon, between France and Burgundy. The counts or dukes of Lyon themselves (for example Bernard Plantevelue then his son Guillaume le Pieux, son-in-law of Boson; Hugues le Noir, duke of Burgundy, brother of king Raoul and nephew of Boson) never ceased to intervene in these two kingdoms. At the same time, a sign of feudalism, the former Duchy of Lyon was divided intocounty of Vienne, county of Lyonnais, then county of Forez and seigniory of Beaujolais. This is the time when Lyon Church greatly increases its assets through its archbishops, Burchard I and Burchard II, relatives of Burgundy kings.

In 1032, the kingdom of Arles was bequeathed by its last king Rudolf III of Burgundy to Conrad II the Salicus emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Subsequently, the city is administered by its bishops, noting the time of the Emperor, King of Germany, Italy and Burgundy, through the archichancellerie Burgundy. These political events are taking place in a climate of insecurity linked to numerous invasions. The 9 and X centuries are again a time of looting raids: the Normans back the Rhone and stopped in 860 in Valencia byGirart de Roussillon. In 911, the Hungarians ravaged Burgundy, the Saracens settled in the Massif des Maures until 975, and multiplied the expeditions by the roads of the Alps. Ultimately, this period saw the archbishops remain largely independent of a distant or weakened royal power. Even if documentary sources do not make it possible to clearly establish the modalities of this domination, it seems without dispute. This changed in the next century, with the advent of powerful dynasties of local.

11 and 12 centuries
Lyon, in the heart of the Middle Ages, is a largely independent city dominated by local ecclesiastical forces. Developing slowly, it is marked by intellectual and institutional immobility.

Urban evolution
During these two centuries, Lyon did not grow much, but was remodeled and changed. Little carried by movements for the enrichment of crafts and commerce, the city is satisfied with the land holdings of its religious masters to develop. These are active and start many constructions.

New buildings
For its defense and within the framework of its urban growth, Lyon acquired several facilities during this period. The Castlerock Scize, whose construction started in early 11 century probably during the episcopate of Burchard II of Lyons, to monitor the arrival north of the city and the Saône. Renaud II Drill end 12 century, renovated and moved there permanently.

After him, the Lyon prelates made it a regular home. After the assaults of the counts of Forez in 1162, Guichard de Pontigny established a rampart around the canonical district of Saint-Jean. With solid walls and two towers, it is pierced with several doors, the most important of which, the Porte-froc, is located in line with the current rue Saint Jean. This religious ensemble was then called the “Grand Cloître”. Early in the 11 century, the construction of a stone bridge over the Saône has begun. It was completed under Archbishop Humbert in 1070 and allowed the development of the peninsula. It links the Change district to that of Saint-Nizier. Rather narrow (about 7 meters), it supported from the start on the first arches houses with floors and housing shops on the ground floor.

At the end of the 12 century, a fence with a moat was built north of the peninsula, opening the door Saint-Marcel. Many religious constructions also appear in the Rhone capital at this time. The Sainte-Marie and Saint-Thomas chapels were built in Fourvière, while Notre-Dame de la Platière, a new collegiate church, was founded on the right bank of the Saône. But in the field of ecclesiastical architecture, the major part of the open sites are renovations or transformations.

Renovations Lyon religious heritage
Many buildings threaten to ruin, are no longer suitable or are the object of a desire for embellishment. The abbey church of the island Barbe was renovated around 1070, the Ainay at the end of 11, St. Peter’s early 12 and St. Paul during the 12 century. The church Saint-Just, now too small, is replaced in the 12 and 13 centuries by a new, the third since the IV century, becoming the largest of the city afterSaint-Jean cathedral. The biggest project is the reconstruction of the latter, started in the 1170s by Archbishop Guichard de Pontigny. Huge work, it continued during the following centuries.

Urban advance
The only districts in which it is possible to distinguish an extension of the building are those of Cro9-Rousse and Saint-Paul. In these places, the population that settles is large enough to impose the creation of two new parishes.

Political life
The political history of the city of Lyon over these two centuries remains, for the majority of events, local, and little affected by international upheavals. The rulers of the city are only remotely involved in the struggles between kings, between the emperor and the pope or in the first crusades. Moreover, this story remains relatively linear, with over the entire period a conflict between the masters of the city firmly established, the Church of Lyon, and suitors seeking to reduce it, mainly the counts of Forez.

Lords of Lyon: the Church
During the 11 and 12 centuries, the archbishops direct undivided city. Most often independent of the great powers, they are elected on a regular basis by the cathedral chapter in the majority of cases; those for which there was pressure has not alienated the city in the hands of a foreign power.

Police and judicial powers are entirely in the hands of the Archbishop. He firmly defends his privileges as a lord (justice, customs, tolls, the right to coin money) against those who try to challenge them, in the first place the Counts of Forez. He, and the various Lyon chapters, own all of the city’s soil, which is under direct control. In addition, they hold vast grounds in the surroundings of Lyon which, well managed, drain solid incomes towards the city and the ecclesiastical institutions. Thus, the archbishop owns land in the Monts d’Or and between the Brévenne and Gier valleys. The canons of Ainay are well endowed in the lower valley ofAzergues, and to the immediate south-east of Lyon. The nuns of Saint-Pierre hold land in Bas-Dauphiné. Finally, the Île Barbe chapter is developing its strongholds in the south of the Dombes, the Forez and the Drôme.

The prestige of the episcopal throne is also reinforced by a new distinction: Gébuin receives from Gregory VII the title (or his confirmation) of Primate of the Gauls. This distinction gives its holder a preeminence over the territories of the four Roman provinces delimiting Gaul at the time: Lyon, Rouen, Tours and Sens. It is only accepted in Tours, the archbishop of Sens, supported by the King of France, refusing this primacy, going so far as to claim it for himself. However, this distinction remains very theoretical, it does not grant legal or institutional powers. Thus, for a century, no Lyon archbishop decided to include it in its title.

The Archbishop is not the only political force in Lyon, however. He found facing him the canons of the greatest chapters of the city, and especially of the first of them: that of Saint-Jean. These canons have an important land fortune, significant seigniorial rights and do not want to be reduced by an overly enterprising bishop. From the 12th century, the cathedral chapter, composed mainly of nobles, constitutes a powerful body which counts more and more in local politics. Thus, even if the canons must all swear fidelity to the archbishop, the latter must also, before taking office, swear before the chapter to observe all the commitments of his predecessors, the statutes of the Church of Lyon., to accept the exemptions and immunities of Chapter.

Fight against the counts of Drill
Throughout the 11th, the Forez dynasty bites and eats away at the lands and rights of the archbishopric in its area of influence. The counts take advantage of moments of weakening of the institution or of the prelates, such as the old age of Burchard II in the 1020s. The high point of this policy is the unsuccessful attempt by Géraud II in the years 1035–1040 to install his son on the archiepiscopal throne. In 1076, an agreement was signed during the plea of Tassin between Archbishop Humbert and Count Artaud II. It provides for the sharing between the two powers of certain rights (in particular of tolls) and the minting of money is recognized as the exclusive prerogative of the episcopal power.

After this agreement, and for a long time, the struggle between the two parties calmed down, in part because of the internal problems of each of them. But opposition to exacerbate again in the middle of the 12 century. The Golden Bull granted by Frédéric Barberousse to Archbishop Héraclius de Montboissier in 1157 effectively breaks the Tassin agreement, restoring to the latter all rights over the city of Lyon. The two forces stand up against each other and a battle takes place the following year in Yzeron, which sees the army of the archbishop beaten by that of Guy II. Negotiations open to resolve the conflict and are unsuccessful. Exasperated, in 1162, the count of Forez took Lyon, pushing Héraclius to flight. The latter took refuge with the emperor, who ordered his feal Gérard Count de Mâcon to help him take back his city, which was done in 1163. At the same time, the Count of Forez turned to the King of France to obtain favorable arbitration, to the point of paying him homage in 1167.

An agreement was made under the control of Pope Alexander III, represented by Archbishop Peter II of Tarentaise, in 1167, which provided for the management of the city jointly by the two parties. Inapplicable, it was replaced very quickly by another, in 1173, known under the name of ” Permutatio ”. This provided for the count to abandon all his claims on Lyon, while the archbishop left him power over many lands he owned in the Forez or in neighboring areas.

Low economic development of the city
During the 11 and 12 centuries, the city knows no change in its economy. Most of the market trade is limited to local products, bought and sold by Lyonnais. Large-scale commerce does not yet pass through the city, in particular because of the absence of a bridge over the Rhône, or of fairs. Ultimately, even the beginning of the 13 century, Lyon’s economy is seigniorial type draining to the city the productions of the surrounding countryside, especially destination major religious powers.

Religious life: conservatism
At the dawn of the new millennium, the Church of Lyon has sacrificed to the wanderings of its time; most of the canons no longer live in community and are far removed from the ideals of the coming Gregorian reform. Several popes urge the members of the different chapters to reform themselves in the spirit of the rules of the holy founders, including Pope Gregory VII who sent them an official letter onApril 20, 1079. These various remonstrances had little effect in the city of Lyon, which did not follow the reform movement like that of Languedoc. On the contrary, the main chapters reinforce their organization and their uses, continuing their enrichment. Two other establishments, more recent and less influential, resume, them, common life and ideal of poverty. Symptomatically, they are the result of the will of the two reforming prelates that Lyon experienced during this period. The first, Notre-Dame de la Platière, is imposed by Gébuin, on the Peninsula. He remains very modest. The chapter of Saint-Irénée, reformed by Hugues de Die, does not weigh much weight in the religious life of Lyon either..

This Lyon stagnation in the religious field is also felt in the stagnation of intellectual centers in the city. The libraries of churches or cathedrals are thin, only one bishop bequeaths manuscripts to the cathedral during the two centuries. No university is founded over this period. The clerics of Lyon, moreover, do not produce any known literary work, and only the poems of the prioress of the Charterhouse of Poleteins en Dombes, Marguerite d’Oingt, are known.

This conservatism is perhaps one of the causes of the appearance of the Vaudois movement in the city, and it must in any case be interpreted in this context. Despite the few documents on the proper Lyon history of Vaudès and those who followed it, it is significant that an impetus to return to apostolic poverty was born in Lyon at this time. Around 1170–1173, Vaudès got rid of his fortune by endowing his wife and daughters, and gave the rest to the poor. Then he begins to preach in the streets, begging for his bread.

Little by little disciples join him and members of the clergy complain about him. Originally, the “poor of Lyon” were protected by theGuichard de Pontivy, a prelate favorable to the Gregorian reform. Concerned about orthodoxy, Vaudès and his family went to the Lateran Council in 1179, where they obtained the approval by Alexander III of their way of life. On returning, they resume their sermons, attracting the enmity of many canons, and particularly those of the cathedral chapter. On the death of Guichard, the latter elected in his place a man more distant from the reforming ideals, Jean Belles-mains, who immediately expelled Vaudès and his family in 1183. After this founding episode, there was never any question of the “poor”. de Lyon ”, as they call themselves, in the city.

The Long 13 th century in Lyon
During this period, which roughly goes from 1200 to 1320, Lyon will evolve rapidly, on the religious and institutional levels, under the combined pressure of internal and external forces. The city thus emerges from a certain intellectual immobility and, while falling under the domination of the King of France, acquires a municipal regime equivalent to that of the surrounding cities. The date of 1320 is clearly a shift in the history of the city. For the historian Jacques Rossiaud, “The treaty of 1320 historically shares the Lyon Middle Ages”.

Topographic and demographic change [ modify | modify the code ]
In the 13 century, the population of the city grows finally frankly. This can be seen from several indirect indications, the written sources not allowing the phenomenon to be quantified. In the first place, the extension of urban buildings largely exceeds the necessities of a simple natural increase of the inhabitants of the city. In addition, the number of hospitals increased markedly, passing from five to twelve during the century. Another indication is the installation of a large number of convents of new orders which accompanied the advance of urbanization, especially for the mendicant orders. Finally, and even if its construction is subject to many uncertainties, the bridge over the Rhône is undoubtedly a development factor.

This demographic growth does not take place in the oldest parts of the city, on the right bank of the Saône, but mainly on the peninsula, which has a large subdivision and several developments. Thus, the soil of this one, which belongs for the most part to the abbey of Ainay, benefits from the well understood interest of the canons of the latter. Much farmland is built up, providing them with much higher incomes. The left bank of the Rhône, for its part, has not yet benefited from any urban development, apart from a few isolated points. The biggest construction site in the city is the construction of the Saint-Jean cathedral. Begun in the 12th century, work continues, with the construction of spans, glass roofs and two rosettes of the transept.

The other major urban affair 13 century Lyon is the construction of a bridge over the Rhone. Started at the end of 12 century, the first wooden bridge is damaged by the passage of folded in 1190. It is repaired, still in wood. The construction of a second bridge, stone, is decided at the end of 13 century. The site is financed by donations, bequests and offerings made to the chapel built at the end of the bridge on the left bank.

Shy economic boom
The Lyon economy 13 century, as in the past, dominated by local exchanges. The tariffs of the tolls, the examination of which between 1277 and 1315 shows the continuity in the extreme weakness of the products of distant export, as the agreement of 1193 between the archbishop and the bourgeoisie proves, for which his last are fighting to reduce taxes on everyday consumer products; most of the products sold or purchased in Lyon are intended for consumption in the city and the immediate surroundings.

This economy is highly dependent on waterways, used as much as possible. It generates significant installations along the river, real specialized ports are born and an intense struggle is born between the various Lyon religious for the control of taxes related to this activity (the right of wreck). The action of men of the Church on economic development can also be seen in the modification of agricultural systems. In the first place, the vineyard made clear progress during this century on the banks of the Rhône and the Saône, between Anse and Givors, reaching 30% of the cultivated land in certain places, such as Saint-Genis-Laval.. Then, the left bank of the Rhône specializes in breeding, in particular the country of Velin.

In town, the main trades, which are organized throughout this century are the same as in the big cities of the time: those related to food, textiles and leather. Large-scale commerce made occasional attempts to establish itself in Lyon. He was helped by the construction of the bridge over the Rhône, and by religious activities such as the stay of the Pope or the organization of councils which attracted money and very specialized trades. But these opportunities are not seized by the Lyon merchants, who return to their local activities once the events have passed. The movements of long-term traders, who mostly pass further east, are only marginally modified. The great Lyon merchants of, who made his fortune far from his hometown and the De Fuers family, who enriched themselves in the fur trade and lent money to Henry III of England.

Power Lyon to 13 century
The institutions of the city remain immobile during this period, unlike what is done in a large part of medieval towns. It takes decades of struggle between ecclesiastical and bourgeois forces for a charter to give the latter real political power. It is at the cost of the independence of the city, which passes under the bosom of the King of France.

Sustainability of ecclesiastical power
The zone of political influence of the lords of Lyon, that is to say the archbishop and the canons-counts of Saint-Jean, who govern jointly, is restricted. They have few strongholds far from the county of Lyonnais itself. But conversely, they are all-powerful within it, except in the vicinity of Tarare, where the abbey of Savigny largely reigns. This power is as much a political power as an economic one. The lords of Lyon own most of the castles, the seat of high justice, and hold a large number of local noble families in vassal ties. This seigniorial domination implies a drainage towards Lyon of large quantities of income: land royalties, taxes on markets and fairs, on ovens, mills, presses.

This century is a period of prosperity for the ecclesiastical lords of Lyon. They take advantage of the visits of several popes (Innocent IV stays there, Clement V is crowned there, John 20II is elected there) and of the councils (1245 and 1274), to obtain favors. They use their fortune and the difficulties of the nobles to round off their possessions. They methodically improve the administration of their property, from a fiscal, military and judicial point of view. For this, they perfect the system of obedience. An11ous to keep their men in hand, they regularly roam their jurisdictions, staying in their castles to do justice and check the accounts.

But this power begins to be contested from within the city by the bourgeois who are trying to find a place in the administration of their city. To preserve their domination, the canons gradually closed access to the main institutions, the chapters of Saint-Jean and Saint-Just. Cooptation becomes the rule, between families soon to be all noble, and a numerus clausus is established. According to Michel Rubellin, “the nephews sit next to the uncles while waiting to take their place”. This closure is as much directed against the urban patriciat, as against the canons imposed from the outside either by popes passing through, or by archbishops coming from outside the Lyon microcosm. The citizens of Lyon then turned to the Church of Saint-Nizier, which in 1306 obtained a chapter from Archbishop Louis de Villars, but this church did not have the prestige and power of the old foundations.

Emergence of bourgeois power
The Lyon secular elite gathers during the 13 century to acquire autonomy and rights against the traditional strengths of the city. Composed only of bourgeois, it is dominated by a dozen families, present until the end of the Middle Ages. These bourgeois are merchants, mainly clothiers and shovellers, and lawyers. They trade in money at different scales, mostly lending to clergymen and religious institutions. They reside in solid houses, but which they cannot own, the land belonging entirely to the traditional chapters. They are mainly concentrated in two districts: Saint-Paul and Saint-Nizier. Thethe latter’s church is the main rallying point for the bourgeoisie during their fight against the Lyon Church, as is the Saint-Jaquême chapel opposite. The history of obtaining their consulate stretches throughout the century, and can be separated into several stages.

A first jolt necessary to shake the canonical and episcopal supervision at the end of 12 century. An agreement between the bourgeoisie and the archbishop was signed in 1193. Intended to limit the arbitrariness in the duties and taxes collected by the ecclesiastical lords, it had no notable success, abuses quickly triggering protests.

A second episode therefore occurs. In 1206, Archbishop Renaud II of Forez granted a charter to the Lyonnais incorporating the provisions of 1193, proof of their poor application. But two years later, the inhabitants and the bourgeoisie revolted, protesting against new abuses. They arm themselves, organize themselves into a sworn association, elect representatives, set up a barricade on the Saône bridge and appeal to Pope Innocent III. Renaud reacts brutally, but fails to establish calm. He must appeal to the Duke of Burgundy Eudes III, which manages to subdue the bourgeois. He arbitrates by requiring Renaud to respect the charters previously granted. However, the archbishop won the game, the Lyonnais still being deprived of political franchises, while the surrounding towns gradually.

Lyon power is also coveted by the noble families of the cathedral chapter. Taking advantage of the weakness of the episcopal throne in the 1230s and 1240s, they tried to escape its jurisdiction, and obtain the sharing of temporal justice, then entirely held by the seneschal of the Church. They fail, finding in their path citizens who are unwilling to see the justice on which they depend pass into the hands of the canons.

The crisis between the three parties broke out between 1267 and 1274. The waiver of the See by Philip I Savoy opens an empty four years, that attempts to use the section to gain temporal powers. Following the arrest by their men of a bourgeois in 1269, the Lyonnais reacted violently. They arm themselves, storm the cloister of Saint-Jean, that of Saint-Just where the canons of the cathedral chapter have taken refuge, plunder the surroundings. This violence is as much the result of the common people as of the bourgeoisie, united within societies of fraternal solidarity.

A truce was concluded in June 1269, but the situation was still explosive. The Pope and the King (by the) intervene to restore calm and find compromises, which are slow in coming. The king of France Philippe III obtained at the request of the bourgeois the guard of the city, pending the election of an archbishop. When the latter, Pierre de Tarentaise, arrives, he receives great advantages from both the king and the pope, to the detriment of the cathedral chapter. On the other hand, he must recognize himself as a vassal of the King of France. This is the first serious crack in the independence of Lyon.

During the following decades, the canons tried again to obtain powers over secular justice and agreements were reached with the archbishop. This greatly displeases the bourgeoisie, who organize themselves to protest. They again ask for outside help, sometimes addressing the Count of Savoy Amédée V, sometimes the King of France. The first took the city into its care in the 1280s, blocking certain episcopal decisions. From the 1290s, it was the king who took over. He appoints an emissary on the spot, the guardian.

Finally, in the early years of the 14 century, King Philip the Fair arrives, after many adventures, to take final walk in the town. He thus made a solemn entry on March 13, 1311. In 1312, the attachment of Lyon to the kingdom of France was recognized at the Council of Vienna by the acceptance of Archbishop Pierre de Savoie of the Treaty of Vienna, without the emperor protesting.; all the Lyonnais must then swear loyalty to the King of France. By two agreements in 1320, the archbishop certainly fully recovered the justice of first instance, but he granted the bourgeoischarter known as the “Sabaudine”, which established a consulate.

The beginning of the 14 century is the time when Lyon switches definitively in the kingdom of France, losing its special place at the margin of the great powers of medieval Europe. At the same time, with the seizure of power by the bourgeoisie, the city loses its institutional specificity of having an all-powerful ecclesiastic at its head.

Religion in Lyon 13 century: Transformation and ephemeral glory
Traditional religious forces that Lyon are the archbishop and the canons of the main churches see their spiritual influence being reduced during the long 13 century the city. The archbishops, little in agreement with their cathedral chapter, cannot rely on him for their parish ministry. Moreover, most of the prelates of this period had a short reign, preventing any spiritual continuity. Philippe I of Savoy, who remains with the longest business, is a lord especially attached to defend the material and political interests of his lineage.

The canons are above all lords who manage their obedience. The oath of entry to the cathedral chapter does not mention any spiritual obligation, but the conservation of the goods of the community. Their only concrete action consists in traditional assistance to the poor and in the liturgical service of the cathedral. Jealous of their academic prerogatives, they opposed the opening of any other educational structure for a long time, in particular the creation of law courses for the bourgeoisie, concerned with useful training.

The spiritual awakening of Lyon is therefore not the result of these two groups, but of the mendicant orders which settled in Lyon during this period. They are well received by the archbishops and often benefit from their testamentary liberality. The first are the Dominicans, who come from 1218 to settle on the slopes of Fourvière, before settling on the peninsula, in 1235, between the two bridges, where they build Notre-Dame de Confort. The Cordeliers established themselves in the commercial center of Lyon, near the banks of the Rhône in 1220. These first two groups were very successful. They receive many gifts and bequests. At the turn of the century, the Carmelitessettled beyond Terreaux. They were followed in 1304 by the Poor Clares and in 1319 by the Augustins. Even if their actions are not well known, it is possible to suppose that they strongly influence the development of the Lyon confraternel movement.

Lyon also experienced several moments of glory at this time, with the hosting of two general councils and the arrival of several popes. These moments, however, do not allow the city to take a particular religious development.

The first council of Lyon was convened in 1245 by Pope Innocent IV. Its main purpose is the deposition of Emperor Frederick II in the context of the struggle between the Emperor of the Holy Empire and the papacy. On this occasion and to get away from his enemy, the Pope and all the Curia remain in Lyon for s9 years until 1251. The Second Council of Lyons was convened in 1274 by Pope Gregory X. The main subjects debated are the defense of the holy land, the reunification of the churches of the West and the East, and the improvement of the papal election. In 1305, Pope Clement Vis crowned in Lyon. The choice of the city is dictated by the King of France Philippe le Bel, who intends to assert his power on the spot and takes the opportunity to come and make an entry. In 1316, it was again a royal decision which imposed the site of Lyon for the election and coronation of John 20II.

Each time, it is always an external will or a political opportunity that dictates the events, and never the will of the inhabitants of Lyon. The latter derive little particular benefit from these fleeting moments of glory, which did not trigger any economic or political boom.

End of the Lyon Middle Ages (1312-1450)
Lyon binds its fate to France by its submission to King Philippe le Bel, in 1312 by the Treaty of Vienna. However, it remained for a long time on the fringes of the great conflicts of that time, not suffering the Hundred Years War. The city does not know more economic development over a period which is for it, that the continuity of a long Middle Ages.

Topographic description
Early in the 14 century, the Fourvière tray is rural, covered only by vineyards and looted ruins. It is surrounded by a wall going from Pierre-Scize to Saint-Georges, which is reinforced by order of the King of France Jean le Bon, in 1360. To the south of the plateau is the cloister of Saint-Just; in the center, that of Saint-Thomas-de-Fourvière.

The city on the right bank of the Saône is dense and clustered near the river. The slopes of the hill and its feet are mostly covered with vineyards and orchards. The houses are built very close to the water, so there is no room for a towpath. This district is, to the south, dominated by the cloister of the Saint-Jean cathedral. Its size cuts the city in half, partially isolating the southern and northern neighborhoods. In this place, opposite the bridge, is the heart of the city: the districts of Change and Saint-Paul. The first is a shopping area and money changers, which sees pass all travelers going from Burgundy, France or Flandersto Provence or Italy. On the side of Saint-Paul are concentrated the artisans of mouth, and thus go there all the farmers and breeders of the Monts d’Or and the plateaus of northwest Lyon. Beyond, the city stops at the Porte de Bourgneuf, at the loop of the river. Then is the district of Pierre-Scize, dominated by the castle of the Archbishop.

On the peninsula, urbanization is heterogeneous, with areas of fields, orchards, vines, interspersed with subdivision poles. The enclosure protects from Ainay in the south to the foot of the slopes of the Saint-Sébastien coast, the current Cro9-Rousse. The population density is impossible to estimate, the burrows of the archdiocese having disappeared. In many places, religious or civil buildings were rebuilt, the rise of the mendicant orders in Lyon having a lot to do with it. But the great work of the time is above all the complete reconstruction of the Saint-Nizier church, carried by its chapter and its factory.to which belong the most influential bourgeois of the city.

Thus, the north bell tower, completed in 1460, becomes the belfryfrom the city. But the topography of the peninsula is also characterized by the establishment of numerous residences serving as pied-à-terre for powers near or far. Even if these buildings do not have the character of palaces or castles, they serve as urbanization points within what was a huge fortified village. The center of this village is located around the Saint-Nizier church, where the primitive urban core developed. Similar to the Saint-Paul district, it brings together food trades, a market hall and noble trades (clothiers, etc.).

North of this area, the slope of San Sebastian is empty of inhabitants, only crossed by vines and ruins. At the top, defense ditches are established. At its feet, five doors symbolically mark the limits of the city, the defensive wall being built back. This old wall will disappear with the urban push in14 century. It is on this side, or against the bank of the Rhône, always outside the ramparts, that the dangerous and unhealthy professions are concentrated, and which often need the river: tileries, tanneries, forges, etc. Similarly, the other side of the walls or near doors are grouped hospitals, designed to accommodate stray, homeless and destitute travelers.

The banks of the Rhône are completely clear, with landing stages and moored mills following one another along the water, in the shade of the surrounding wall. The bridge over the Rhone, first built in wood 12 century, is split in the following century stone without that we know on what date the first bridge is demolished. The construction of the second structure is very long. In the 1310s, only the first pillar was started, the finances of the religious, the brothers of the bridge, who have been in charge since 1185, unable to follow in the face of difficulties. The work is then entrusted to the Cistercians of Hautecombe, then to those of the Abbey of Chassagne en Dombes. It takes a century to finish it, and again, not entirely of stone, thus, on the edge of the Renaissance, strong economic growth.

Lyon Company

Demography and difficulties of the time
The year 1320 is also an important demographic milestone for the city of Lyon. Indeed, it was on this date that the first document was drawn up to provide an order of magnitude of the population. On June 21 and 22 of this year, a list of citizens swearing to respect the franchises is drawn up, providing 3,000 names. From this figure, it is possible to estimate the Lyon population at around 15,000 to 18,000 inhabitants. This places Lyon at the rank of secondary metropolis, such as Arles or Avignon.

On this date, Lyon began to experience a slow decline, caused by fruit growing difficulties, episodes of plague (from 1347) and wars (even if Lyon was never at the center of conflicts). The population is estimated nadir around the 1430s then the increase in the population is high during the 15 century at a rate which varies according to the authors, to result in about 35 000 inhabitants in 1520. The first wave of plague, the “black death”, struck Lyon in May 1348. It decimated the population of the city and the estimates of contemporaries – “Out of three people barely remained one” – hardly seem exaggerated. Between a third and a half of the population disappears during this summer. A first recurrence in 1361 is devastating and fever episodes are repeated periodically, more or less violently to 15 century.

Lyon was never looted, nor even besieged at that time. The town’s militias hardly ever had to deal with the looters who were circulating in those troubled times. The Lyonnais on the other hand have to suffer the ravages in the surroundings, devastating the fields and properties of many notables. The two most troubled periods are between 1358 and 1368, as well as between 1417 and 1444.

An even local economy
From the 14th evidence of the importance of the land holdings of the Lyonnais bourgeoisie appeared. At the time of the census of 1388, nearly half of these have property outside the city. These assets do not decrease in number during the crisis period of the early 15 century, but only see their value wither. In the 14 century, Lyon do not make land transactions away from the walls. The vast majority of them set their sights on the parishes glued to the west of the Saône and the Rhône between Anse and Givors. The tendency of these bourgeois is to invest in viticulture, the townspeople obviously wishing to drink thewine from their own vineyard, and also avoid taxes on this drink when entering the city.

During this period, Lyon did not shine with particularly developed craftsmanship. There is no notable export industry, Lyonnais productions being only intended for the nearby region. The professions of money-changers or innkeepers (often very closely linked) are the only ones to benefit from Lyon’s strategic position. For a short time, the presence of the popes in Avignon somewhat improved commerce in the Rhône valley, but their departure put the city back in its place as a second-rate metropolis in the European space.

Trade, therefore, is not very developed. Few foreign merchants come to settle in Lyon and the local markets do not see the visit of many long-distance convoys. The fairs, granted by the Dauphin on February 9, 1420, did not experience much activity for decades. Between 1425 and 1436, they even disappear, and it is not their annual number increasing from two to three in 1445, which changes things. It is the modifications of the routes of the European trade routes which give them a great luster and cause the tilting of the city of Lyon in the Renaissance, around the years 1450. A fourth fair appears in 1463.

Daily and social life
Despite the appearance of fairs and the end of the construction of the bridge over the Rhône, which created a flow – admittedly meager – of merchants, the rhythm of life of the Lyonnais rests above all on the agricultural world. The day before Saint-Jean Baptiste, the day of contract renewals, payment of deadlines is the most important date in local economic life, not yet competed with seasonal fairs which have not taken off. The Saturday market is the main activity during week.

The poorest strata of society live on a small plot of land. The slightly better-off populations own land cultivated by a sharecropper and carefully watch over what is the basis of most of their wealth. These two social groups being largely in the majority, a bad season and the whole city is weakening. Thus, the years 1347–1362 are a very hard period for Lyon.

The study of tax documents makes it possible to highlight a very strong disparity between social categories. In 1377, 13% of taxpayers paid 68% of the tax; in 1446, 16% of taxpayers paid 57% of the tax. The start of the city’s prosperity has thus slightly erased inequalities. The Lyon elite is wealthy and powerful. It has money, a solid urban heritage and seigneuries. The most notable families are the Villeneuve who own a seigneury in Yvours, the Chaponay, the Nièvre, the Chevrier, the Fuer in Pollionnay., the Vareys in Avanges and Varennes. This group discusses on an equal footing with the nobility, although there are not many unions between the two. They build tall buildings, do carry arms, their home and lead a social life made largesse to allies and gifts to the needy.

Under this small elite are the merchants, still few in number at that time. Mobile, of variable and changing fortunes, they try to accumulate capital to advance in the social hierarchy to the elite. Then come, in the Lyon social structure, the traders (hotels, saunerie, ironworks …) and lawyers (lawyer, notary, sergeant…), who merge with the qualified craftsmen (gilders, embroiderers, goldsmiths…). Finally, the mass of Lyonnais are ” affaneurs », People who live from one-off jobs, gleaned here and there. Some of them manage to mobilize a small capital to own a boat, a piece of land or to keep a common oven. But whatever the times, these social groups are never frozen, each enriched in one or two generations, others falling into the discomfort.

A city with multiple jurisdictions
Lyon concentrates a large number of jurisdictions, archiepiscopal, capitular, seigneurial, royal. This drains significant financial flows, sufficient to support more than a hundred different people (graduates, prosecutors, clerics, sergeants…). The number of notaries is plethoric for a city of this size (70 in 1377 and 87 in 1446). Some jurisdictions include everything related to direct debits. The ecclesiastical lordships collect the dimes, the cens, and manage their affairs in an efficient manner, with specialized personnel: ordinary judge, judge of appeals, sergeants, coponniers.

The archbishop heads the officiality, which has powers in very broad areas: guardianship, curatorship, matrimonial and testamentary affairs. Four other courtyards – sword, cloister, common court, court of excess – with blurred outlines, add to the ecclesiastical influence. Added to this are the king’s officers and jurisdictions, which are gradually establishing themselves in the Lyon landscape with the court of springs, gradually taking an important place. At the same time, the royal influence is felt with the progressive extension of the administration, composed of a multitude of bodies controlling the comings and goings, trade and royal taxes.

For a long time, archbishops and chapters of important churches tried to defend their influence in the face of the rise of royal justice, sometimes in a violent manner. The most combative are the prelates from princely families, such as Gui de Bourgogne or Charles d’Alençon, who have knowledge at the court of the Valois. But the few successes do not stop the evolution towards the royal dominion over all the important court cases.

Political life
With the granting in 1320 by Archbishop Pierre of Savoy of franchises to the bourgeoisie, grouped together under the charter known as the Sabaudine, civilians entered fully into the political life of the city. This charter institutionalizes a consulate which manages the affairs of the city.

This consulate is made up of twelve consuls, s9 “of the kingdom” and s9 “of the empire”, resulting from the major arts and renewed each year. However, the mode of election confirms the constitution of an oligarchic group which will often be out of step with changing social realities. The consuls meet two to three times a week in normal times, at the Saint-Jacquême chapel or at one of them. If many elected officials are regularly absent, two permanent members are present: the receiver-secretary and the receiver. The tasks of the consuls are many and varied. They appoint the commissioners to keep specific areas (health, fortifications, accounting) and the members of the municipal service, who act on their behalf with the districts or trades (guards, carpenters, mandators, trumpets, etc.). They ship a host of small items, road works, alms, etc. They ensure the auction of farms, the holding of tax, its return. Tax matters take most of their time.

Taxes (aid, twentieth of wine, added money, etc.) are granted annually by the archbishop, and especially the King of France, and gradually become permanent. They allow the city to consolidate its finances, and, in times of past conflicts, to carry out multiple civilian expenses. Because the bulk of the expense consists in resolving military issues, whether paying captains, paying ransoms to ward off bands of looters or renovating fortifications. Consuls must act regularly in this area. As in other cities, it is during times of crisis that the consulate forges a common history and unites. From the 1360s, the region began to suffer the repercussions of the Franco-English wars. Bands of marauding soldiers (the ” tard-comers ” in particular) circulate and plunder the Lyonnais. They triumphed in 1362 in Brignais over an army raised in all haste. The passages of military convoys were less fierce than in other places, but they were regular until the 1390s. The second period of persistent insecurity was between 1417 and 1445.

The last major business of the consulate is to provide for the food needs of the city. Throughout the end of the Middle Ages, the city did not have to suffer from significant famine, less because of the quality of the management of the consuls in this area than because the weakness of the city population made the supply basin close. (Lyonnais proper, Bresse and Dombes) sufficient.

Political orientations and major events
With the war between the King of France and Burgundy, the city was asked by both parties to take a stand. Until 1417, it remained as much as possible in the strictest neutrality; then, the consuls resolutely take the side of the King of France. This loyalty is not fully shared by the population; however, no pro-Burgundian uprising took place. In the years 1410 and 1420, a particular surveillance is carried out towards the recently arrived inhabitants of Bresse or Mâconnais. But there is nothing to support the rumors that circulate periodically that some are preparing an uprising. This position in favor of the King of France can be explained by three elements. In the first place, the king is the one who imposed the charter of the city on the local ecclesiastical forces. Then, the Lyon merchants no longer frequent the Champagne fairs, which are in full decline, but rather go to Geneva. Finally, during this period, the supply of grain to the population can do without Burgundy lands.

This calm of the city vis-à-vis the political orientations of the consulate should not obscure a permanent tension between the different layers of the population and the consular elites. From 1330, those excluded from consular affairs were agitated. On two occasions, in 1376–1390 and in 1418–1436, periods of latent opposition forced the consuls to spare the citizens. If the popular forces did not find enough powerful support to revolt, on two occasions they created strong emotions among the consuls.

Insurrectional Carnival of 1393
For a very long time, the archbishop has been opposed to the royal forces over the exercise of justice on the lands of Lyon. In January 1393, a decree of the Parliament of Paris ruled in favor of Philippe de Thurey in requiring the royal officers to operate outside the city of Rhone. The latter had previously settled in the “house of Roanne”, in the heart of the city, and conflicts with the Archbishop’s agents were regular. The archbishop and his people, the day after the arrival of the execution order, go to the scene and ransack the building, accompanied by a large crowd who shout at the royal officers. Many, among the people, think that the power of the archbishop in the face of the kingis reestablished, as part of a fight around the king between the princes holding a provincial nation and the advisers supporters of a powerful royalty.

The hubbub of the modest population stems from hostility not against the king, very well received by the population in 1389, but against the royal officers, considered to be oppressors and profiteers, in collusion with the consulate. The Archbishop, as part of his struggle to regain power against both the bourgeoisie and the king, certainly played with popular anger. If this carnival frightened the powerful secularists of the city, it did not lead to looting and major disturbances. He simply showed the consuls that the people were still following the archbishop when the tax pressure was too high.

The decision of parliament was overturned the following year, and the officers returned in force to town.

“Rebeyne” of 1436
The term designates a turbulent, but not violent, episode in Lyon of the fiscal revolts that took place during the wars between King Charles VII of France and Burgundy. Peace finally established in 1435 by the Treaty of Arras, the people hope the removal of the tax burden, especially the salt tax. When the States of Poitiers, in February 1436, maintained war taxes, the people decided to send a delegation to the king to ask for relief, as had already been seen. For this, the masters of the trades ask in assembly for a deadline to pay and to send an elected delegation to negotiate with the king. The royal lieutenant accepts the delay, but the consulate, unwilling to appear to refuse the royal will, shies away and imposes that the negotiation be entrusted to a royal commissioner. This one returns in May with a refusal of the king.

Immediately, the people growl and a general assembly meets to protest the tax. The consulate, opposite, explains that he cannot escape the royal will and that he must pay well. The tension, probably strong, does not lead to any confrontation between the rich and the poor. A compromise is found between the consuls and the masters of the trades, to make everyone pay relatively fairly. The movement therefore ends with a late submission of the Lyon population.

Jacques Rossiaud insists on the fact that if historians have made this “rebeyne”a real revolt against the consular bourgeoisie and the king, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the sources which describe it are written by these same consuls, who lived the events in fear of an uprising. But there was no plunder, no death, and the masters of the trades or the elected leaders of the humble never lost control of the movement. This therefore ends with submission to the king, who comes at the end of the year with his army. He made it live on the back of the city as in a conquered country for several weeks, had the leaders of the protest arrested, tried and condemned. Most are banned and some executed. This revolt, as well as the repression it produces, is the last stage in Lyon of a troubled time during which all regions of France suffered from the Hundred Years War. It is a milestone for the city which, some time later, enters theRenaissance.

Religion in Lyon
Lyon, at the end of the Middle Ages, no longer had the prestige of previous centuries, allowing it to attract popes and councils. The pro11mity of the papal residence in Avignon certainly gives it an important movement of clerics and thinkers who cross the city, but without the city shining spiritually. Its appearance in Christian affairs at the time was limited to the election of John 20II and to the conferences which prepared the abdication of the antipope Fel9 V, the Duke of Savoy Amédée VIII.

The archbishops of Lyon, since the pivotal year of 1320, have lost much of their judicial and political power. Despite their efforts to recover and preserve what is left to them, their influence is slowly eroded. Thus, despite the agreements made in 1320 which placed the court of the royal seneschal in Mâcon, they quickly settled in Île Barbe, then definitively in the city, near the cloister of Saint-Jean.

Most of the archbishops of this period effectively govern their dioceses; many have solid experience, high culture or a high spiritual value. They develop the workings of their administration; being frequently called far from their region, they must be able to be absent without this prejudicing the spiritual functioning of the diocese. The strong men are then the vicar general and the official. The first is in charge of everything relating to concrete and spiritual administration. The second directs the archiepiscopal justice, progressively weakened by the loss of powers, but still fundamental for all that concerns, among others, wills.

The study of these allows to perceive a certain evolution in the way of considering the beyond and the need to save one’s soul. While at the 14 century, Lyon bourgeois devote a significant portion of their donations to religious works or for the poor, in the 15 century, this share is reduced in favor of the masses for their own redemption. Likewise, charitable donations are intended less directly to help the needy than to operate institutions. This transformation goes with the more general movement of attitudes in Western Europe, where instead of “poor” changes, and where religion takes on a more intimate, more personal dimension. It thus prepares the arrival of the Renaissance in Lyon and elsewhere.

Renaissance and religious conflicts (1450 – 1600)
For the ancient capital of the Gauls, it is a period of prosperity, urban, economic and intellectual development; it is the time of fairs, printers, the beginnings of the silk industry and a high place for the installation of the Protestant reform. Lyon left this second golden age to enter the modern world from the middle of the 16 century when religious tensions lead to the open conflict.

The city and its inhabitants
The Lyon of the Renaissance is a city which is filling up, but whose general morphology changes little. It does not spread out, it becomes denser.

At the end of the 15 century, the two most populated parts are the right bank of the Saône, on the peninsula, one urban and middle-class corresponding to the Haberdasher Street (via mercatoria in the Middle Ages) of period, which ran from the bridge over the Saône to that over the Rhône, in a long transverse. Few inhabitants settle on the Fourvière plateau and the slopes of the hill are only divided along the streets that go up to the plateau, such as Gourguillon or Chemin-neuf, created at this time. Outside the a11s of the rue Mercière, the peninsula is sanctuarized by convents which have large surfaces, intended for agricultural production. In its center, the Saint-Nizier church is completed at the end of the 16 century. South of the current Place Bellecour, and especially from the Ainay district, are mainly meadows, orchards, then swamps and islands. The slopes of the current Cro9-Rousse, sparsely populated, became denser during this period, as did the left bank of the Rhône. The stone bridge over the Rhône, 270 meters long, was completed at the start of the 16 century.

However, the urban fabric underwent some transformations during the Renaissance. At the foot of the slopes of Fourvière, the town enclosed by the canons’ cloisters was forcibly opened by the baron des Adrets, who knocked down their walls in 1562. On the peninsula, several cemeteries of convents or churches were transformed into place (Jacobins, Célestins). The area that will later be Place Bellecour is a military ground that will be developed several times. Finally, at the foot of the slopes of Cro9-Rousse, the ancient ditch of the soil has been filled in, to allow urban expansion at the bottom of the hill. The Place Bellecour is then converted. At the same time, the rampart of Cro9-Rousseis built on the heights of the city (current Boulevard de la Cro9-Rousse).

From this period remain many Gothic-style buildings m9ed with elements of the Renaissance style, in Vieux Lyon, witnesses to the wealth of a city which reached European scale.

From the demographic trough of the years 1430-1440, the population of Lyon grew steadily. The city contains 25,000 inhabitants in the middle of the century. Growth is then strong, reaching around 35,000 around 1520 and between 60,000 and 75,000 in the middle of the century. This increase is mainly due to immigration from Savoy, Dauphiné and Burgundy. The consulate regularly encounters difficulties in properly managing the ever greater food needs imposed by the increase in the population. Quickly, the usual production basins were no longer sufficient, requiring ever greater imports from Burgundy. This is one of the causes of the ” Grande Rebeyne ” in 1529.

Economy
The years 1450 to 1490 are a period of economic boom, which continues, despite religious upheavals, with a “golden century”. The city’s economy is developing thanks to the conjunction of several factors, all linked to fairs endowed with privileges granted by royal authority. They lead to the arrival of Italian bankers, especially Florentines and merchants from all over Europe, attracted by the circulation of precious goods, mainly silk.

Religious conflicts have a major impact on the Lyon economy. The large banking families, some of the printers, silk weavers and many large merchants fled Lyon never to return. The city becomes, on the edge of the 17 century, a city of medium importance.

Land holdings Lyonnais

While the lands around Lyon are traditionally the property of the ecclesiastical lords of the city, the Lyonnais bourgeoisie enriched themselves and became solid landowners during the Renaissance. They invest mainly in the west of Lyon, along the river axes, between Vaise and Millery, but also in the mountains of Tarare, Jarez, on the slopes of Pilat. A good part of these purchases concern vineyards, but the richest bourgeois place their money above all in breeding. During crises, they support the recovery of village communities in the region by lending money, buying products, placing orders and making investments: mill, irrigation, house and barn.

Silk in Lyon
This industry, which constitutes a major element in the history of the Rhône economy, made its appearance in Lyon during the Renaissance.

Louis 11 tries to develop the weaving of silk in Lyon in order to avoid the massive e11t of gold and silver towards Italy, which is then the principal place of manufacture of this fabric. He brought workers from the peninsula to Lyon, but local merchants refused to invest in this industry so as not to offend their main trading partners. After negotiations Louis 11 gave up and brought the workers to Tours, at the expense of the citizens of Lyon. A few workshops, held by Lyonnais, however remain.

The real start occurs with Étienne Turquet, who obtains the privilege of manufacturing gold, silver and silk fabrics in 1536 from François I, the kingdom of France then being in conflict with Genoa, then a large producer. silk fabrics, within the framework of the wars of Italy. Workshops then set up throughout the city, initially carried by Turquet and a few bankers, then by an ever-growing number of investors. The success is immediate and immense; in 1548, during the parade for the entry of Henry II, 459 masters of trades parade; between 800 and 1,000 people live from the silk industry in Lyon.

However, this success should not hide the fact that throughout this period, Lyon only knew how to manufacture plain fabrics, of lower quality than what was imported from the Italian cities. The latter remain the sole masters of the manufacture of the shaped. It was not until the 1600s that Lyon succeeded, with the technical developments brought by Claude Dangon, very probably imported from Italy. The last thirty years of the century are very difficult for the Lyon silk, which is experiencing a severe crisis first.

Printing in Lyon
Driven by fairs, the printing industry developed rapidly in Lyon, until it dominated the French market with Paris. In a dozen workshops in 1480, the city passed a hundred in the middle of the 16 century. These printers fuel an international trade, destined for France, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and Italy. These craftsmen work with scholars, scientists, and publish a wide variety of books, medicine books, novels, humanist works, law books, not to mention a religious production (such as the golden legendprinted in French as early as 1476) which, in this city, does not crush all the other. François Rabelais thus publishes several works in Lyon, including the first collection of Gargantua stories.

One of the most famous printers is Sébastien Gryphe, who came from Swabia. Very sharp in its achievements, it produces more than a thousand editions. He published the classics of Antiquity but also the books of the humanists of his time such as Guillaume Budé, Jules César Scaliger or André Alciat. Étienne Dolet trained in publishing in his studio, before setting up his.

The world of the library remains flourished in the second half of the 16 century than is often believed, religious conflicts do not prevent the production and sale of a wide variety of books. With the Catholic victory at the end of the century, printers converted to the Reformation, like the Tournes, emigrated to Geneva.

Bank in Lyon
Thanks to the expansion of fairs, Lyon saw many great banking families settle permanently in the city to be at the heart of the new European exchange center, in particular the Medici from 1466. The passage of the kings of France during the wars in Italy confirms this fact, they are too much in need of quickly mobilized money for their military campaigns. From the middle of the 16 century to the middle of the 17 century, they come up in the Lyon seek loans, they consolidate through various means. This domination of European finance collapsed in the 1560s. Indeed, the capture of the city by the Protestants, then the religious conflicts, occurring at the same time as the loss of credit of the French royalty, which was very heavily indebted to many of the city’s bankers, many of the major banking families left. There were thus 75 Italian banks in 1568, 21 in 1597. Lyon’s finance has not recovered from these problems, and is once again becoming a second-rate financial center.

Political and social life

A glorious and calm Renaissance
The Lyon renaissance knows fewer fears linked to wars than in previous decades. There are some alerts, but the region is not suffering from European wars. The Duke of Milan Francesco Sforza only passed there in 1465; the 1520s saw a few enemy armies circulating in the distance, but none ravaged the country.

The kings of the late 15 century support the city, which provides them with regular financial support. They constantly grant and confirm the holding of their fairs. Charles VIII granted in 1495 to the bourgeois the privilege of the nobility for the members of the consulate. Lyon, in the early 16 century, became the second capital of the kingdom; the kings of France often reside there, occupied by the affairs of Italy. The court of Charles VIII settled there when the king went to the peninsula. Louis 12 stayed there several times. François I lives there regularly with his court, from 1525 to 1540.

This royal presence fuels the rise of a milieu of humanist scholars and poets later called the Académie de Fourvière, such as Symphorien Champier, Maurice Scève, Louise Labé or the anonymous author of Tales in love with Madame Jeanne Flore. This is the moment when what is called the Lyonnaise School of Poetry. At the same time, antiquities enthusiasts gather archaeological and epigraphic collections, among which we can quote Pierre Sala, Claude Bellièvre. Lyon is also experiencing intense musical activity, whether in the editorial or composition field, with many patrons supporting musicians from all over Europe, including Dominique Phinot and Francesco Layolle. This intellectual ferment takes place in a European humanist context in which Lyon is fully integrated, particularly as an important publishing center. One of the most characteristic representatives of Lyon humanism is Barthélemy Aneau, who teaches in the Trinity College, invention of the time intended to provide a renovated education to adolescents of the urban elite of the city..

Religious wars in Lyon
After a moderate expansion of the Protestant reform during the first 16 century, the wars of religion tear the city in the years 1560 – 1570. After the defeats of the Protestant forces, the city becomes a stronghold of the Holy League, until mid 1590s.

The first wicks of the reform arrived in the 1520s, worn by printers from Germany and Geneva. In reaction, François de Rohan organized a provincial council in 1528, which took various measures to counter the deviations. The first solid stone of the establishment of the reform in Lyon is, in 1546, the foundation of the first reformed temple in Lyon. From this date, cycles of Protestant proselytism followed moments of Catholic repression, the latter failing to prevent the spread of new ideas; all the more so as the archbishops Jean de Lorraine (1537-1539) and Hippolyte d’Este(1539-1551) are most often absent from their diocese. All strata of Lyon society are ultimately affected.

In the 1550s, the new archbishop, François de Tournon (1551-1562) opts for firmer action, but the consulate, eager to avoid disturbances bad for fairs and commerce, slows down any too violent action. The situation gradually became tense, while members of the highest circles were converted: two notables Protestants were accepted into the consulate in December 1561.

In 1562, on the night of April 29 to 30, the Reformed stormed the town hall, scared the canons and the archbishop away. They take the fortress of Pierre-Scize on May 7. A determined minority, it held the city by force, supported by Baron des Adrets. This situation lasts until June 15, 1563, when a compromise returns the keys of the city to the official forces. This is negotiated by Marshal Vieilleville; it allows the reopening of churches, and the maintenance of three temples, built in Cordeliers, Confort and Charta.

During the decade 1562 – 1572, the two parties usually clash through the press and preaching, with some bouts of violence. But the Reformed were finally broken on August 31, 1572. Massacres of several hundred people in an exalted atmosphere of reconquest of Catholicism took place following Saint-Barthélemy, they were called Lyonnaise Vespers.

During the 1570s and 1580s, Lyon manifested a Catholicism of combat, often refusing royal lukewarmness vis-à-vis the Reformed religion. This opposition to the king is above all religious, and only becomes political with the arrival of Henri IV, a Protestant. The Lyon Ligueur movement was therefore important until the 1590s. When Henri IV converted to Catholicism in July 1593, the city gradually fell into the other camp. His authorities, with the support of Archbishop Pierre d’Épinac, arrested in September 1593 the governor of Lyonnais, the Duke of Nemours, who tried to stir up the people.

Henri IV, in retaliation against the Ligueuse city, promulgates the edict of Chauny in 1595 which firmly submits the Lyon municipality to the king. With the end of the century, the troubles that shook the city of Lyon for more than fifty years ended. For once in phase with the general evolution of France, Lyon then entered the centuries of absolutism in the good city of the king.

Religion in the Renaissance, between decay and renewal
In Lyon, the end of the 15 century as the beginning of the 16 century, are raised without periods of religious point of view. Archbishop François de Rohan (1501-1536), “the best of his time” according to Henri Hours, marks the first century of modern times with his imprint. He often resides in his diocese, takes care of it and does not fail, during the provincial council of 1528, to condemn the doctrines of Luther.

After 1537, with the appointments of court archbishops Jean de Lorraine (1537-1539), then Hippolyte d’Este (1539-1551), the spiritual life of the diocese was abandoned. They don’t bring in notable preachers anymore. The stakes are falling order books, while at the same time rising competition from secular works, humanist spirit or already reformers.

The first signs of the Reformation are visible from the 1520s, but they remain isolated for a long time; the first Protestant temple was established in 1546. The development of the movement throughout Lyon society did not take place until the 1550s. This significant expansion can be explained in several ways. Distance from the Sorbonne, pro11mity to Geneva or passage of royal personalities protecting new ideas such as Marguerite de Navarre are important external causes. Among the factors specific to the city, there is the dedication of some of the printers, the spiritual neglect of archbishops residing above all at the king’s court, or the slumber of part of the religious forces of the city. All layers of society are affected by conversions, in proportions impossible to assess. Only Lyonnais of Italian origin remained away from this movement.

The 1560s are the time of the religious heartbreak of the Rhone capital, ending in the blood of Lyon vespers in September 1572. Catholic restoration was carried out in Lyon less by the action of the archbishops than by that of resolute priests, foremost among whom we must cite Father Émond Auger, who arrived in town in 1563. The latter displayed considerable energy for fifteen years, making a large number of sermons, showing great devotion during the plague episode of 1564, sustaining controversies with pastors and having a widely distributed catechism published. He was helped by what constituted the Catholic pillar of the city at that time: the college of the Trinity, entrusted toJesuits in 1567.

Finally, the Catholic restoration was completed by Archbishop Pierre D’Épinac (1574-1599). Rigorous and serious, he reformed the administration of the diocese with energy, but above all set an example for the population.

Modern Era – 17 and 18 centuries

Urban transformations
The city of Lyon, under the last two centuries of the Ancien Régime, underwent several important transformations. It becomes denser, embellished and areas of activities are moving. The city’s banking center thus moves from the Change district to rue Mercière. On the other hand, it waits for the eve of the Revolution to extend beyond its ancient walls; which remain during this period still real limits for the subdivision. Thus, despite the destruction of the Lanterne ditch, north of Terreaux, the subdivisions hardly rise on the slopes of Cro9-Rousse.

As the population of Lyon increases, many neighborhoods see their homes being raised, most often by destruction and reconstruction. For the same reason, the few areas still fallow were built. The density ends up becoming very important, with a large number of buildings of 4 to 6 floors, which causes many inconveniences. The average degree of cohabitation of the entire city, which measures the average number of inhabitants in a given dwelling, whatever the number of floors, goes from 2.2 in 1597 to 10 in 1780. This while at the same time, large bourgeois and noble houses were built in certain districts, around Terreaux and Bellecour, mainly, causing the average to drop. Thus, according to Olivier Zeller, “few French towns experienced such overcrowding at that time”.

During the second half of the 18 century, various projects therefore emerge to push the boundaries of the city.

The first, in the 1750s, aims to build an entire district outside the ramparts, in Saint-Clair, in the north-east of the peninsula. Led by Jacques-Germain Soufflot and his students Musset and Milanois, it was devolved to the bourgeoisie. In the 1770s, Antoine Michel Perrache developed and launched the project to make the south of Ainay healthy, by filling in the channels to lengthen the peninsula. Complex, this project did not see the day of the life of its creator, and is completed in the 19 century. Finally, a last is launched by Jean-Antoine Morandin the last decades of the century to create a district in Brotteaux. It was barely started at the dawn of the Revolution.

Furthermore, during these two centuries, a large number of monuments were built in Lyon, both religious and secular. Many convents moved to Lyon in the 17 century, mainly south of the peninsula, and on the slopes of two hills. Three churches accompany the increase in population: Saint-Bruno des Chartreux (end 16 century), St. Polycarp (1665) and St. Francis de Sales (building opened in 1690 and different from the current).

The Hôpital de la Charité was built in 1624, the town hall between 1646 and 1651. In 1653 saw the inauguration of the lodge Change, which is then enlarged by Soufflot at the beginning of the 18 century. The latter also draws the plans for the Hôtel-Dieu, a theater in the Saint-Clair district or the first opera house in the city.

But Lyon is also seeing its urban equipment increase. Two bridges were built over the Saône (between Saint-Jean and Bellecour and between Saint-Paul and Saint-Vincent) in the 17th and two others in the 18th. This shows the still vital importance for the city of the right bank of the Saône. The Place Bellecour, opened by the Baron of Adrets during the religious conflict, becomes a place of pleasure, and is continuously arranged (trees, buildings, facades).

A specialized economy – Lyon silk capital
Lyon, a large commercial city of the modern era, has, alongside traditional sectors of activity, a large population of workers attached to distant exchanges. The city, in terms of production, exhibits characteristics similar to most cities of its size and era. Construction, food and clothing dominate and employ most of the population. Lyon is a city in perpetual transformation, and the building trades rarely experience the crisis. Food trades are present throughout the city, except butchers, who are concentrated in demarcated neighborhoods.

In the field of textiles, Lyon inherited from the Renaissance an already developed silk industry, which entered a new dimension with the importation by Claude Dangon of the pulling loom from Italy, which enabled it to achieve large shaped. In 1655, a Lyon silk, Octavio Mey, invented the polishing silk, which increases the gloss of the fabric. Lyon is at the 18 century a teeming city of inventions to improve the efficiency of the silk industry, the factory. These innovations and a daring commercial policy made it possible to compete with the silky Italian cities and ensure the commercial success of this activity. Silk is gradually becoming the engine of the Lyon economy, requiring a large workforce and, in part, highly qualified.

Lyon remained over the two centuries a great city of publishing and printing. However, it faces competition from other cities, Rouen and especially Paris, the capital obtaining publishing privileges that Lyon can no longer have. Turning therefore in part to the lucrative area of contraband, the bookselling circles of Lyon remained until the Revolution important local economic forces.

The big business and banking circles in Lyon are a powerful and dynamic elite. The merchants, carried by the four annual fairs inherited from past centuries, travel all over Europe and do business in all fields. Conversely, a large number of foreigners regularly come to the Rhône city to exchange their products; the dynasties of foreign traders, mostly Italians, Germans and Swiss, came to the 15 and 16 centuries still very present. The Lyon authorities are committed to maintaining, and even to developing when possible, the tax privileges for this profession..

The domination of Lyon by different social groups evolves over time. If from the 16 century, the city is governed primarily by merchant bankers, a trend is emerging gradually. She sees them give up their place at the consulate and the key positions, with silky masters. In the 18 century, evolution is successful and the Lyon elite is dominated entirely by the producers of molded and brocades.

Lyon Company during the Enlightenment

Political life – a consulate submitted to the king
Lyon’s political life was profoundly transformed by the Edict of Chauny of 1595, imposed by Henri IV. The latter restricted the number of members of the consulate, in order to supervise and control them more effectively, the aim being to ensure the loyalty of a city that had long been a league. This reform resulted in a consulate of only four aldermen, chaired by a provost of merchants. The election of the consulate is subject to the approval of the King, who can thus place at the head of the city people who are favorable and indebted to him.

During the 17 and 18 centuries, the city is guarded by two men of the king: the governor and the intendant. The governor has the function of representing the king, and directs the local military forces. In Lyon, as a representative, it is he who influences the choice of members of the consulate to satisfy the king, sometimes going so far as to directly choose such and such a person. He has the power to overturn an election if he thinks it would bring a rebellious person to municipal power. The governor is the most important relay of royal authority in the region, unlike others, where this place is vested in the steward.. This preeminence reached its apogee with Camille de Neufville de Villeroy who, for 40 years, combined the functions of governor and archbishop, relegating the intendant to a minor role.

However, it is indeed the consulate that manages the Rhone city on a daily basis. This one still possesses, in spite of its royal submission, a very great local prestige; the largest families are constantly working to gain access. This chandelier is staged on numerous occasions, especially during royal entrances. Present in the best places during religious processions, during national festivities, its members preside over all local festivals. The construction of the sumptuous town hall, Place des Terreaux, is part of this desire for glorification.

If the important families of the city wish to enter the consulate, it is because it is the gateway to great careers, and offers places and jobs for family and friends. Entrance to the consulate automatically confers nobility, numerous tax exemptions and important emoluments. During the 17 century, the consulate is essentially composed of lawyers, from the government, and pensioners; which corresponds to a period of economic weakness in the city. Instead, the 18 century silk merchant heavily reinvest consular seats at the expense of pensioners, this at a time when the city’s industries grow considerably.

The consulate manages all of the city’s services. But his most important decisions are always targeted by royal agents, and likely to be refused. Thus, the biggest decisions of the city are often not taken in Lyon, but with the governor, and therefore in Paris or Versailles.

A changing society
During the two centuries of absolutism, Lyon sees its social geography turn, wealth areas from early 17 century an a11s “Change Pont de Saône-Herberie” to an a11s “City Hall – Place Bellecour “late 18 century. This displacement of the elites is accompanied by an affirmed social segregation, districts becoming exclusively bourgeois, mainly around Terreaux and Bellecour. This while the density of working-class neighborhoods increases considerably.

The two centuries of absolutism saw social unrest continue. Some emotions are classic fruit movements, such as the movements of the year. Other troubles are caused by new taxes or charges. Almost every novelty in this area leads to clashes or looting. In 1632, on two occasions, a crowd rose to attack people who had come from the capital to collect a new fee. Faced with these revolts, the consulate finds itself in an uncomfortable position. He must simultaneously protest his loyalty to the king, and try to maintain legitimacy against the Lyonnais. He succeeded less and less, and imposed himself more and more by force.

Social transformation occurs most significant during the 18 century, with the increase of the population directly employed in the manufacture of silk pieces. A particular social sensitivity is developing. Indeed, the world of La Grande Fabrique is developing and changing. The silk workers found themselves very numerous, but also more and more dependent on a small elite of silk merchants through whom they were obliged to pass in order to have orders and access outlets.

A new type of conflict is therefore developing within a group large enough to create a full-fledged society. Solidarity is established, with common threats (crisis in demand, lower prices) and a common profession. This leads to new disputes, not linked to a crisis, but which takes place during good times, in particular the revolts of 1717, 1744-45 and 1786. It is a question of guaranteeing the income in front of the principals, by creating a f9ed price, independent of fluctuations in demand. Faced with these claims, royal justice is particularly severe. Thus, the revolt of the two sous of August 7, 1786 was vigorously repressed from August 10 by decision of the consulate.

Lyon, the Counter-Reformation to the Enlightenment

A strong religious vitality, and declining
During the first half of the 17 century, after the release of religious crises and the ups and downs of the league, the royal power uses all its influence to impose archbishops reliable, no political profile and mystical. The different prelates who succeed one another do not reside much on the spot, often being at the king’s court, or on mission for him. This policy found its acme with the appointment of Richelieu’s own brother, Alphonse-Louis du Plessis de Richelieu, in 1628. They lead a policy of support for royal power and of religious reconquest of the entire population. Camille de Neufville de Villeroy(1653-1693), from the illustrious Neufville de Villeroy family, marks the diocese of Lyon by her presence and the duration of her episcopate. In unison with the country, the region is experiencing great religious development, around three major axes: supervision of all the faithful, spiritual instruction of the population with in particular the work of Charles Démia, and training of the clergy.

Ultimately, the efforts undertaken make it possible to build in the city and its surroundings a solid and framed faith. According to Jacques Gadille, “considered around the middle of the century, the diocese of Lyon appears to be in full health and gives the feeling of having entered full sail into this new Christianity that French Catholicism has been building for 150 years”.

During the second half of the 18 century, the reversal of tendency is obvious, the religious vivacity giving way to a doze, while disrespect or indifference interfere in the intellectual sphere of the region.

Recruitment in all areas of religious life is slowly drying up. The number of vocations of priests and religious, both male and female, is considerably reduced. Certain religious orders disappear. Likewise, secular associations disappeared from the Lyon public landscape, no longer organizing, for example, major popular demonstrations of piety. Another symbol of the relaxation of religious consciousness, a Jewish community moved back to the city during the 1780s.

During this period, poorly combated Jansenist currents reappear without their being imposed. Likewise, Freemasonry has had some success.

New Enlightenment
In the 17 century, partly under the influence of the Jesuit Trinity College, Lyon became an intellectual center of the Republic of Letters. An academy was founded in 1700 and its members animate the intellectual life of the city. The notables of Lyon are enlightened amateurs of paintings, medals, and books. Curious about novelties, they are passionate about the steamboat developed by Antoine Frerejean and the Marquis de Jouffroy d’Abbans in Lyon, as well as for the hot air balloon. As for the classical arts, taught and practiced, they are not represented in Lyon by major personalities. The two outstanding artists of the modern era are Thomas Blanchet, painter, and Jacques-Germain Soufflot, architect. At the same time, the Lyonnais developed a great taste for theater and opera, which opened in 1688. Molière spent between 1653 and 1658, before his great period of glory; Lyonnais authors make themselves known, such as Françoise Pascal. Lyon finally knows a notable musical activity, a permanent orchestra being established in 1713.

With the Enlightenment, Lyon knew, like all the great European cities, a Masonic proliferation. The sources fail to accurately date the first Masonic lodges Lyon, we can estimate appear around the 1730. The official documents of French masonry mention that of Lyon from the 1750s, and reveal a dynamic life from the 1770s. The two main animators are Jean-Baptiste Willermoz and Jean Paganucci. Around them, many lodges are born, split or meet, for reasons which may be due as much to theoretical research as to social affinities or enmities.

For a brief moment, in 1761, the lodge held by Willermoz and Paganucci, “The Grand Lodge of Regular Masters of Lyon”, received the agreement of the Grand Lodge of France to establish itself as a local mother lodge. After many conflicts of precedence, this right to recognize other lodges in Lyon was withdrawn from them in 1765 by the Count of Clermont. After a period of uncertainty, following a serious split of the Grande Loge de France, the Lyon lodge invested itself with the title of “Grand Orient de Lyon”. This lodge plays a large part (Willermoz, in particular) in the reconstruction of the Grand Orient de France.

Subsequently, in 1774, Willermoz created another lodge, the “Directory of the Province of Auvergne”, resulting from the Germanic obedience of the Templar Strict observance. More mystical, organized in more numerous and hierarchical ranks, this movement met with good success and took precedence over the Lyon lodge of French obedience. At his side, other non-regular lodges opened, of various trends and origins. Ultimately, according to Olivier Zeller, “between one thousand two hundred and one thousand five hundred resident brothers seem a plausible estimate and, without question, Lyon had then become the first Masonic city of the kingdom after Paris, clearly ahead of Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux”.

The development of religious indifference and the shift of a certain elite towards a critical philosophical thought thus accompanied the Rhone city towards the French Revolution.

French Revolution
In Lyon, the revolt of the canuts of 1786 prepared in an original way the revolutionary upheavals. Brutally suppressed, it allowed the silk workers to organize, and above all to do it in secret. Popular elements regroup, publish leaflets to mobilize the population, circulate petitions. To this agitated climate within the working masses is superimposed a very bad agricultural year in 1788, pushing up the prices and exacerbating the tensions.

At the same time, the Lyon elites are awakened to politics, in an intellectual climate conducive to reforms. Many personalities or companies evoke and debate the projects of Turgot, Maupeou or Loménie de Brienne.

Early revolutionary times
During the preparatory assemblies for the convocation of the States General, many of the Lyon elite wanted many reforms, such as Mathon de la Cour, Delandine or Bérenger. They oppose a group of moderate or preservatives determined as Archbishop M Marbeuf. As of this time, cliques form, foreshadowing the political parties of the Revolution.

On March 14, 1789, the first meeting of the three orders took place at the Cordeliers church. From this first meeting, noble, ecclesiastical and bourgeois elements propose the abandonment of their privileges to solve the financial problems of the country. At the time, they dominate people who do not want to disturb the established order too much. The grievance books are therefore largely imbued with new ideas and the deputies reflect them.

During the first revolutionary months, as in Paris, the popular masses regularly overwhelmed the liberal bourgeoisie, whether it was that of the municipal authority or that which held the clubs. On June 29, 1789, on the announcement of the merger of the three orders, a riot stormed the grants, accused of the increase in food prices, and targets of all accusations in times of scarcity. The king sends troops to restore order. But on July 14, Pierre Scize’s castle was taken. Order is again forcibly restored.

During the Great Fear, looting took place against noble houses or bourgeois owners. To restore order, a draft national guard was established in Lyon. Finally, the most advanced factions overthrew, on February 7, 1790, the volunteer militias from the bourgeoisie, which were replaced by the National Guard. Imbert-Colonès, first alderman, who had suppressed previous revolts, fled.

The Constituent, by decree of January 13, 1790, made Lyon the capital of the Rhône-et-Loire department which was split in two after the Lyon uprising of 1793.

Revolution to the rebellion
The new municipality, moderate and led by Palermo de Savy, is immediately confronted with radical clubs, who accuse it of being linked to conservatives from all walks of life. These groups are led by Marie Joseph Chalier who maintains and develops an atmosphere of protest, and always more revolutionary. Opposite, a group of royalists develops a plot intended to bring the king to Lyon, to assemble armies of the faithful and to rely on foreign forces to overthrow the constituent assembly and reverse revolutionary advances. The plan slowly went up during the year 1790, but it was stolen and failed.

The same year, the religious division is established in Lyon, more than elsewhere, because Archbishop Marbeuf is opposed vigorously and very early on to the religious claims of the national assembly and to the civil constitution of the clergy. On December 5, 1790, he made a solemn speech firmly recalling that authority over the clergy came only from him and the Holy See. He refuses any oath.

The years 1789, 1790 and 1791 were bad for the crops and the economy. The popular mass, which suffers from it, becomes more and more sensitive to the themes conveyed by the democratic clubs through a combative press with, above all, Le Journal de Lyon and Le Courier de Lyon. The news of the king’s flight triggered many disturbances, mainly in rural areas. It is in this atmosphere that the first municipal elections bring to power a Rolandine majority, with Louis Vitet as mayor, facing a directorate of the departmentmuch more moderate. This was suspended in December 1791 following a conflict with Chalier; Lyon sinks into revolutionary unrest. The beginning of the year 1792 again saw a food shortage, and to prevent new overflows, troops were massed near the city, which further added to the concern. On September 9, 1792, agitators stirred up a crowd and massacred a dozen people, nine officers of these troops and three priests, this is the event nicknamed the “Lyon septembrisades”.

The apogee of this radicalization comes during the elections of November 1792, when Chalier and several mountain people are elected to the town hall. Still in the minority, they deploy violent propaganda to try to rally the population to their views, in vain. On February 18, 1793, a new election brought Antoine Nivière-Chol to the post of mayor, still with a majority of moderates. But the agitation of the Lyon Jacobins is bearing fruit. Following unrest and street fighting, the Conventionsends three of his own to hunt down the counter-revolutionaries, with orders to mount a revolutionary army on Lyon. Several moderate members of the town hall are arrested. Thanks to the intervention of the three Convention members, the following elections brought a majority of Jacobins to the town hall, with Antoine-Marie Bertrand as mayor.

Finally free to act as they please, they multiply extreme decisions and very quickly find themselves highly unpopular. They were therefore overthrown on May 29, 1793 by a coup by the Girondins. With this return to a moderate majority, even if fully republican, Lyon found itself out of time, since a few days later, it was the Gironde which was outlawed by the Parisians.

The new town hall, headed by Jean-Jacques Coindre, is too far removed from the Jacobin ideals in power, and the break is inevitable. on July 12, 1793, the Convention decreed Lyon “in a state of rebellion against legitimate authority”.

Lyon headquarters
The Lyon authorities, despite the threats of a clash with Paris, remain faithful to their line of conduct. Trials condemn Chalier and several of his friends, himself being executed on July 16, 1793. Faced with the advance of the revolutionary armies, led by Kellermann, the authorities prepare a siege while launching appeals for help, which remain unanswered.. The defense was organized by Louis François Perrin, Count de Précy, who built redoubts, set up a defensive organization and mobilized an army of around 12,000 to 14,000 men.

The siege of Lyon began on August 7, but the revolutionary armies could not ensure a complete blockade until September 17. The siege begins with artillery duels and attempts to capture strategic points, during which the Lyonnais are stubborn. Faced with the failure of his first attempts, Kellermann decides to bombard the city to undermine the morale of the inhabitants. The shelling began on the night of August 22 to 23, only to end with the surrender of Lyon. During the first weeks, however, the Lyonnais are still holding on. Kellermann was replaced at the end of September by Doppet, who benefited from a betrayal upon his arrival to take a strategic position in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon without a fight.. From then on, the Lyon positions were no longer tenable, and after two weeks of fighting, Lyon capitulated on October 9,.

On October 12, 1793, the conventional Barère boasts of his success in these terms: “Lyon waged war on freedom, Lyon is no more. ” Lyon and took the name” City-stamped. ” 1,604 people were shot or guillotined, and several wealthy buildings around Place Bellecour were destroyed. For many months, the Terror descended on Lyon and the revolutionary festivals neither mobilized nor convinced traumatized populations.

When Lyon on 1 August 1794, teaches the fall of Robespierre, it turns into a new cycle of vengeful violence.

Reconstruction of the Lyon company
In a weakened city, the revolutionary or civil authorities tried to moderate the passions, but quickly, the Jacobins were sought and persecuted. The busts of Chalier are destroyed. Throughout the year 1795, Lyon was the scene of violence, the culmination of which was the massacre of people imprisoned and awaiting trial, all of them former “Mathevons”, the Jacobins of Lyon, including Antoine Dorfeuille. The local authorities did not manage to control these crowd movements, and fearing a complicity, the Convention again declared Lyon under siege, sending troops to Les Brotteaux.

In the elections of October 1795, these fears were reinforced by the election for the first Directory of three constitutional monarchist deputies, including Pierre-Thomas Rambaud. The government therefore appoints a proven Republican, Paul Cayre, as head of Lyon. For two years, until 1797, a latent conflict between Republicans and Counter-Revolutionaries was held throughout the city. Deeply divided, it does not unite around celebrations and official projects. The population frequents clubs and theaters, where rivalries are openly expressed and sharpened.

In 1797, the monarchist forces succeeded in bringing Jacques Imbert-Colomès and Camille Jordan into the Council of the Five Hundred. The latter were forced to flee following the coup d’état of 18 Fructidor Year V (September 4, 1797). The elections are broken in the Rhône, energetic authorities replace the previous ones accused of not having fought enough against the counter-revolutionaries. During the last two years of the French Revolution, the authorities struggled unsuccessfully to instill republican ideology in a population that did not adhere to it. They also try to counter the monarchist libels, without succeeding. A last plot is hatched in June 1799 by the Englishman William Wickham, but it is stopped by the victory of Masséna in Zurich.

In conclusion, the majority of Lyonnais are not fervent monarchists. Sincerely committed to the revolutionary ideal of the early years, they were especially traumatized by the siege of Lyon and the repression that followed. They no longer have confidence in the Parisian authorities, and above all want to find peace and prosperity.

Lyon Church during the Revolution
Like most dioceses in France, that of Lyon suffered severely from the revolutionary episode, which divided consciences and strongly weakened the religious communities in the region. The Archbishop of Marbeuf refused any oath, fled from the beginning of the Revolution, and organized the resistance from Italy with the help of determined men on the spot.

Division of a clergy
At the eve of the Revolution, Lyon saw the arrival at the head of the diocese a conservative archbishop, M Marbeuf. As soon as the preparations for the meeting of the Estates-General were prepared, he drew attention to Lyon’s public opinion by worrying about the disturbances and disorder that this initiative generated. Groups of Lyonnais then mock him in a masquerade, and he does not dare to come to his diocese, fearing that his arrival will cause riots. As revolutionary events continued, he quickly emigrated; and Lyon never sees the one who fights fiercely against reforms from a distance.

The clergy, from the preparation of the notebooks of grievances, is divided between the most modest priests and the vicars and other holders of ecclesiastical benefits. This division is accentuated by the final refusal of the Archbishop of the civil constitution of the clergy and of the oaths. From this moment, he engages in a systematic opposition to the constitutional church and organizes from abroad the “legitimate” Church.

The replacement of M Marbeuf is Antoine-Adrien Lamourette which lies fairly in his diocese, being elected to the Legislative Assembly. In the years 1791 – 1793, a large number of priests remained in the bosom of the Constitutional Church. But gradually, as and anathemas uttered by M Marbeuf against various oaths, more and more priests refuse or retract. During this period, however, both clergy coe11st properly, the e11le of measures against refractory being applied very loosely.

Cancellation of the Constitutional Church and resistance of the refractory Church

Everything changed with Lyon’s opposition to the Convention and the siege of the city in 1793. Falling into the hands of the most fierce Lyon revolutionaries, anti-religious measures multiplied. The most notable are the transformation of Saint-Jean Cathedral into a temple of Reason, burlesque processions, the destruction of many religious public symbols, the arrest of many priests, including many constitutionalists. This first wave completely destroys the official Church of Lyon, and the second assault during the persecutions of Fructidor ends up rendering it bloodless. After the death of Lamourette, guillotined in 1794, we waited until 1797 to elect a replacement,Claude François Marie Primat, who, for fear of the local climate, did not come until 1799.

Throughout the Revolution, a hidden cult survived and developed, massively supported by the population, especially in the countryside. Immediately after the day of August 10, 1792, a vicar of M Marbeuf, De Castillon, secretly returned from e11le and contacts Abbot Linsolas. Between them, they secretly reorganized the refractory clergy, maintaining a close and regular correspondence with the archbishop who remained in Italy. From Castillon taken and executed at the end of 1793, Linsolas held alone until the end of the revolutionary period the reins of the refractory Lyon clergy. He developed a complete pastoral organization, with twenty five missions distributed throughout the diocese, managing to build a minor seminary, and to lay the foundations for.

At the end of the revolutionary period, religious indifference or hostility towards the Church seems to have clearly increased. In working-class towns such as Roanne or Saint-Étienne, still very practicing before, large sections of the population have moved away from religion. Very divided, the two clergy did not come together easily, Marbeuf and Linsolas refusing any conciliation with the constitutionalists. On the death of Marbeuf in 1799, the diocese is dilapidated and must wait three years to find a prelate who began raising.

19 century – the First to the Second Empire
Between Bonaparte’s seizure of power and the collapse of the Second Empire, Lyon experienced considerable development. Living an economic “golden age” thanks to silk, it grew considerably, began to industrialize, and its population, often at the forefront of republican and anticlerical battles, rose on several occasions.

Lyon, from a medieval city to an industrial city
During the first two thirds of the 19th, the city of Lyon underwent profound transformation, both under the pressure of the elites who created for themselves large bourgeois neighborhoods, and the silky and industrial expansion, which brought a very working population. important. During this period, Lyon finally came out of its ancient walls, to spread out in the direction of Brotteaux, Guillotière and Vaise.

Within these original limits, large spaces were freed under the Revolution by the sale of the goods of the clergy which essentially belonged to the church of Ainay. They are quickly built at the beginning of the new century. The workers who work the silk, having to equip themselves with new very large looms, migrate from the Saint Jean and Saint Paul districts to new buildings, built especially for this activity in the 1830s and 1840s, on Cro9-Rousse. in particular.

It was under the Second Empire that most of the urban renovations took place. The prefect of the Rhône and mayor of Lyon Claude-Marius Vaïsse undertook these broad transformations, like Haussmann in Paris, both for reasons of prestige and of security. The main contractors of these transformations are above all the chief city architect Tony Desjardins and the chief road engineer Gustave Bonnet. The peninsula is pierced by two new wide avenues, bridges, after removal of tolls, are renovated, quays are raised so that the new districts are protected from the floods of the Rhône, theTête d’Or park has been developed and three stations are established in the Perrache, Brotteaux and Guillotière. Finally, further offshore, a ring of fortifications was begun in 1830 and built throughout the 19 century, intended to defend the city against foreign attacks.

A political life under surveillance
From 1800 to 1870, political life was tightly controlled, and was expressed only in restricted settings.

Bonaparte’s seizure of power is viewed favorably, as the end of the black period and the return to civil peace. Under the Empire, all the city authorities depend on the central power: the prefect, the mayor Fay de Sathonay, the commissioner general and the archbishop Joseph Fesch. The press, like all clubs and societies of notables, is monitored. The only outline of protest comes from the Catholics, who use to convey information and libels the secrecy of the congregations and reactivate the counter-revolutionary networks set up by Linsolas. They will be brought to light in 1811. The great mass of the population is favorable to the emperor, as evidenced by the enthusiastic reception which is reserved for him during the Hundred Days.

With the return of the monarchy in 1815, the political landscape is structured around two great forces, the ultras, conservatives and ultramontanes, and the liberals. A lively opposition then began, through the interposed press (with La Gazette Universelle de Lyon for the ultras and Le Précurseur for the liberals) and through clubs or associations of notables. Opinions are crystallized by the elections which, even census-based, punctuate life in Lyon. The people, totally excluded from the political space, are largely crossed by the republican or Bonapartist ideals. The liberal ideas develop sufficiently so that, at the announcement ofordinances of July 1830, a riot takes shape, dismisses the authorities and creates a provisional municipality, guarantor of freedoms, with Doctor Prunelle as mayor. This is then confirmed by the new prefect.

Lyon enters the July Monarchy rocked by two strong revolt of the silk workers in 1831 and 1834. These uprisings are of a new kind for the time. Made up of workers united to improve their working conditions, they have a very strong impact in France and Europe. Many politicians, journalists, writers and philosophers including Armand Carrel, Saint-Marc Girardin, Chateaubriand, Stendhal, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Charles Fourier, Blanqui, seize these revolts to think the world of then. These events serve as examples for many other social struggles during the 19 century. These two revolts were bloodily suppressed and Lyon, severely monitored, then remained politically calm until 1848.

Political debates were again restricted to the sole legal framework of elections, where the vast majority of elected officials were moderate Orleanists. The Legitimists, very in the minority, then took refuge in the defense of religion and the rights of the Church. During the events of 1848, the city learned with surprise of the flight of King Louis-Philippe. The prefect’s appeals for calmChaper are heard, except by a few hundred workers descended from the slopes of Cro9-Rousse who seek to invade the prefecture and to put pressure on the municipal council by forming revolutionary committees. During a few months, these committees obtain symbolic victories, but during the election of the constituent, the rural voices make that the elections of the Rhône are acquired to the moderates. Gradually, the revolutionary committees gave up their arms and returned to rank.

The Second Republic confirmed the attachment of the people of Lyon to the prestige of the name of Bonaparte, and the e11stence of a solid nucleus of Republicans, based mainly in Cro9-Rousse and Guillotière. Even if in the Constituent elections, the candidates of the Order are in the majority, in the presidential elections, Louis-Napoléon obtains 62% of the votes, and Raspail 14%. Workers’ disturbances are few in number, contrary to what the authorities and the bourgeois elites fear. The republican masses cannot rise up on the news of the coup d’etat of 1851, the city being squared by the army. But the results of the plebiscite clearly indicate the opinion of the people of Lyon; abstention reaches 25%, and not 35%.

Under the Second Empire, Lyon’s political life was still buried under a cloak of surveillance and repression, as evidenced by the severe censorship imposed on newspapers and theaters, including that, very popular, of the puppet Guignol. The municipality is reformed. The decree of March 24, 1852 annexed the municipalities of Guillotière, Cro9-Rousse and Vaise in Lyon, divided the city into five districts with mayors appointed at their head, who only had subordinate functions. The powers remain jealously in the hands of the prefect. In March 1853, Claude-Marius Vaïsse was placed at this post, which remains eleven years and transforms the center of the city.

Under its control, the city remains calm, but it cannot prevent the progress of the republican or socialist ideas which manage, in spite of the pressures, to express themselves during the elections. Thus, during those of 1857, Jacques-Louis Hénon was re-elected as a Republican candidate. It is the same during the election of 1863, date on which Jules Favre is also, proving the rise of the republican currents in the population. The Lyon left, from that date, organized committees to further promote its ideas, despite numerous internal divisions between, for example, Republicans and Socialists. The slow liberalization of the Empireallows many newspapers to flourish in Lyon, representing all political tendencies.

This division will be found in the last imperial elections in 1869, where against the moderate republicans Favre and Hénon, the advanced movements propose François-Désiré Bancel and Raspail, who are elected. They are supporting the demands of the working masses at the very moment when many strikes are taking place, in close coordination with the International, to which many trades are adhering. At the beginning of 1870, a national congress was organized in Les Brotteaux, and a project for a Lyon workers’ federation was set up.

The declaration of war on Prussia does not provoke patriotic flights, and the first defeats quickly provoke republican movements. On September 4, when the announcement of the defeat of Sedan reached Lyon, the population took over the Town Hall and proclaimed, even before Paris, the founding of a Lyon commune and the downfall of the Empire.

Economy dominated by the silk
During the years 1800 – 1870, Lyon found an important place in the national economy. It achieves this for the most part with its traditional silk industry. Nevertheless, other industries are gradually taking their place alongside it, as well as a very active banking sector.

Napoleonic period and economic reconstruction
Coming out of the Revolution, Lyon is a devastated and ruined city. The economic elite have partly fled, especially foreigners. A third of the population deserted a city without work, going from appro11mately 150,000 to 100,000 between 1788 and 1800. Opportunities are very limited. The First Empire worked to try to revive the economy.

Intended to compensate for the lack of capital, due to the disappearance of the four annual fairs, the Banque de France, established in 1808, was poorly accepted by bankers wary of fiat money and the stability of the regime. The workers’ booklet, ill adapted to the world of the Factory, is diverted to summarize the relations between weaver and merchant. On the other hand, the Condition des silks, essential for unambiguously measuring the moisture content of the material, and therefore its quality, recreated and unified in 1805 by a decree of Napoleon, was adopted. A purely Lyon creation also immediately finds its use: theindustrial tribunal. Created in 1806, it has from the outset a function of conciliation and arbitration, and fluidifies the relationship between social groups with firmly antagonistic positions.

La Fabrique, the economic heart
In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard developed a mechanical loom, the Jacquard loom, allowing a single worker to operate the loom, instead of several previously. This allows a rapid increase in productivity, without fully explaining the tremendous expansion experienced by the Lyon silk industry at that time.

During the first two thirds of the 19 century, silk production has the wealth of the Rhone city, with annual growth rates of 4%, while the French average is 1.5%. The Industrial Revolution hardly penetrated the Factory, which remained an economy with a high labor cost, easily supported by the high value of the finished product. This is how the number of trades rose from 18,000 in 1815 to 30,000 in 1866 for Lyon alone. This growth obliges contractors to install them no longer in the city, which is saturated, but in the suburbs and the surrounding countryside, to reach a total of 95,000 in the countryside in 1866.

The masters of the Factory fully control the outlets for production. These evolve greatly over the century. Before 1815, most of the silks were sold on the continent, in all the courts of Europe. Then, the sharp rise in customs barriers deported sales channels to the United Kingdom and the United States.

The world of silk entrepreneurs steadily widens with the expansion of activity, to double during the first fifty years of the century. Subsequently, the number stagnates, which means that on average, everyone’s wealth increases. At the same time, a certain concentration takes place, placing in the hands of an elite most of the means of production. In 1855, the thirteen main companies supplied 43% of the silk woven in Lyon. This proportion rose to 57% in 1867. These most powerful houses had the funds to invest in mechanical machines, standardizing the products produced. They are often the ones who integrate a large number of ancillary companies into their midst: manufacturer of embossing machines, finishing machines,.

Lyon City Industrial and banking
Both the Lyon textile companies are all structured from a family nucleus, as other industries Lyons 19 century for some of them known creation in ways most modern in partnership or corporation. The start-up took place in the 1820s.

The growth of the transport network is the most salient indicator of Lyon’s industrial transformation. The city is linked to Saint-Étienne by one of the first railway lines in the world (the first in France) by the engineer Marc Seguin from 1826 to 1832. Three water stations were created in the same years, in Perrache, Givors and Vaise, essential to absorb the increase in traffic on the Rhône, by 122% between 1828 and 1853. Throughout the period, many transport companies, often very profitable, operated waterways and railways.

The steel industry and mechanics are developing strongly in Lyon. The establishment of the Jacquard loom marks the beginning of a culture of complex mechanical systems. The inventions of the sewing machine by Barthélemy Thimonnier and, later that of the cinema by the Lumière brothers, are indebted to the mechanical tricks of the weaving loom linking series of successive actions, including jerked band progressions. The steel industry is experiencing vigorous growth thanks to an easy supply of raw materials from Saint-Étienne, both by water and by rail. “In 1847, a ton of hard coal was worth 19 F in the Rhône and 32 F in the Seine. “. The first and most powerful steel company was that of the Frèrejean brothers, born before the Revolution but which enjoyed success especially after the First Empire. It became the first Lyon public limited company in 1821, and the first French steel company in the middle of the century.

From the 1830s, Lyon was equipped with city gas, and many companies were born in the city, to become powerful industries equipping many French and European cities.

The chemical industry in Lyon benefits from the prosperity of the Fabrique, which leads this sector with enormous needs for dyeing products. During the first half of the 19 century, powerful industrial houses are centered around an inventor or process. Among the most notable inventors are Jean-Baptiste Guimet, discoverer of artificial ultramarine, Claude Perret, exploiting the Clément-Desormes process to manufacture sulfuric acid and the Coignet family using the Arcet method. to produce osteocolle. Some are placed among the most important French industries, in particular the “Company of chemical products of Alais and Camargue”, directed by Émile Guimet, which becomes Péchiney in the 20 century.

Technical education was born in Lyon very early, with the founding in 1826 of the school of Martinière. This school trains qualified staff in factories where the staff is already well educated. The Rhône department, in the 1820s, was one of the most literate in France: 69% against an average of 54.3%. But the need for technicians increased, in 1857 a central Lyonnaise school was created and in 1872 a business school.

During the whole period, it is difficult to separate the bankers from the investors, the merchants or the heads of industry. The large Lyon fortunes resulting from one activity are not limited to this, and all the people recognized as bankers are also present in other activities. The growth of the bank in Lyon began with the founding of the Banque de Lyon in 1835, which in 1848 became a branch of the Banque de France. Other funds appear, with varying fortunes. It was only in the 1860s that the freely open bank, with counters and numerous branches, arrived in Lyon. It was at this time, in 1863, that Crédit Lyonnais was born, founded by Arlès-Dufour and Henri Germain.