were also eight collegiate churches, with chapters of canons. These included: Baranum (dean and 12 canons), Castrum novum [Castelnau de Magnoac] (10 canons, 2 prebendiaries), Jégun (8 canons), Nogaroli (12 canons, 5 prebendaries, and other members), Tria (6 canons), Vic-Fézenac (12 canons and 6 prebendiaries), Bassous (10 canons), and Sauciate [Sos] (6 canons, 4 prebendaries). Seminary The Council of Trent, in its 23rd session, on 15 July 1563, published a decree requiring all dioceses to have and maintain a seminary for youth studying for the priesthood. Cardinal Luigi d'Este (died 1586) did not carry out the decree, due to non-residence, but he allocated funds in his last will and testament, which his sister, Antoinette d' Este, the Duchesse de Nemours, was to use for the founding of a seminary in Auch. She failed to do so, and it was her heir, Henri de Savoie, Duc de Nemours, who finally made the funds available in 1603. It was the next archbishop, Léonard de Trapes, who began to acquire property for building a seminary in 1609. The thirty-five year reign of his successor, Dominique de Vic, produced few results and no seminary. It was Archbishop Henri de la Mothe-Houdancourt who finally chartered the seminary on 29 April 1667. In 1687, Archbishop La Baume de Suze invited the Jesuits to take charge of the Seminary of Auch. The building which was finally constructed is now the Maison Diocésaine of the diocese of Auch. Revolution In 1790 the National Constituent Assembly decided to bring the French church under the control of the State. Civil government of the provinces was to be reorganized into new units called 'départements', originally intended to be 83 or 84 in number. The dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church were to be reduced in number, to coincide as much as possible with the new departments. Since there were more than 130 bishoprics at the time of the Revolution, more than fifty dioceses needed to be suppressed and their territories consolidated. Clergy would need to take an oath of allegiance to the State and its Constitution, specified by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and they would become salaried officials of the State. Both bishops and priests would be elected by special 'electors' in each department. This meant schism, since bishops would no longer need to be approved (preconised) by the Papacy; the transfer of bishops, likewise, which had formerly been