Jean-Denis-François Camus
Jean-Denis-François Camus (also called Le Camus ; * February 28, 1752 in Chartres ; † April 26, 1814 in Paris ) was nominally bishop of the diocese of Aachen and previously vicar general in the dioceses of Nancy-Toul and Meaux .
Live and act
After studying theology in Paris, Camus took over the office of vicar general in Nancy in 1783 , where he made a significant contribution to the formation of priests. A year later he became a member of the Société Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Nancy . In 1791, two years after the beginning of the French Revolution , Camus evaded the pursuit of the radical unleashed by a study trip, first to Italy and a year later to Lucerne in Switzerlandwhere he took Swiss citizenship. He remained connected to his diocese in Nancy, was the contact person for priests and religious from his previous diocese, which he temporarily housed with him, and advised the bishop on theological questions. It also acted as the central point of contact for correspondence between Nancy, Bavaria and Vienna. In 1797 he fled from the French to Nuremberg via Constance and Augsburg.
It was not until 1803 that Camus was able to return to France after the intercession of a former archbishop of Paris and was appointed honorary canon of the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral . Finally, the bishop of Meaux , Louis-Mathias de Barral, appointed him on August 22, 1805 as vicar general for the diocese of Meaux, where Camus earned significant services in church administration. Thereupon, Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte appointed him Knight of the Legion of Honor on August 15, 1810 and, after a 13-month vacancy, to Bishop of Aachen, where he took office on January 4, 1811. However, due to the rifts between the emperor and the Vatican , Pope Pius VII denied him the necessary confirmation and the episcopal ordination and thus the appointment. Finally, the Aachen cathedral chapter found a balance and Camus was recognized as a kind of diocesan administrator and thus as the actual head of the diocese. He himself mostly carried the title "évêque nommé d'Aix-la-Chapelle". Because of his lack of a license to practice medicine, Camus, who in the meantime had been appointed "Baron Camus et de l'Empire" by letters patent dated December 16, 1810, met with little acceptance from the priests and citizens of Aachen and he left on January 16, 1814 before arrival of the Prussian troops the city and moved to Paris, where he died on April 26, 1814. His tomb is in the cathedral of Meaux .
After the death of Camus in 1814, the bishopric was not occupied again. The Aachen diocese was abolished in 1821 and only rebuilt in 1930. The official business was led by the vicar of the capitular Martin Wilhelm Fonck until the final dissolution .
literature
- Thomas R. Kraus : On the way to the modern age - Aachen in the French time 1792/93. 1794–1814 , Verlag des Aachener Geschichtsverein , Aachen 1994, ISBN 3-9802705-1-3 ; P. 644/645 and a.
Web links
- History of the Diocese of Aachen on the website of the Diocese of Aachen
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Marc-Antoine Berdolet |
Administrator of the Diocese of Aachen 1810–1814 |
- |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Camus, Jean-Denis-François |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Camus, Jean Denis François; Camus, Le |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French Roman Catholic vicar general and nominal bishop of the diocese of Aachen |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 28, 1752 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chartres |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 26, 1814 |
| Place of death | Paris |