of the National Constituent Assembly (an act which was uncanonical); their property was confiscated "for the public good", and sold to pay the bills of the French government. Cathedral Chapters were also dissolved. The legitimate bishop of Oloron, Jean-Baptiste-Auguste de Villoutreix, was in Paris when the Civil Constitution was enacted on 27 July 1790. He declined to take the required oath to the Civil Constitution, and instead wrote a monitory letter to the clergy of his diocese on 22 February 1791, encouraging them to resist. He then fled to England where he died in March 1792. The diocese was not reestablished after the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Concordat of 1801. From the point of view of Canon Law, it was Pope Pius VII's bull Qui Christi Domini of 29 November 1801, which reestablished the dioceses of France, that did not restore Oleron. Its territory was merged into the Diocese of Bayonne. On 22 June 1909, however, the title, though not the diocese, was revived along with that of the former Diocese of Lescar, and assigned as titles of the successor Diocese of Bayonne; the former cathedrals of the former dioceses did not obtain the status of a co-cathedral. This change was purely decorative, involving no change in the life of the diocese. One of the branches of the pilgrimage route called The Way of St James passes through Oloron on its way to Santiago in Galicia. Notable buildings Cathedral The episcopal see of the bishops of Oloron was in the Cathédrale Sainte-Marie, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, in the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The former cathedral has now reverted to the status of a parish church, and is called the Ancienne cathédrale Sainte-Marie. Chateau de Lamothe Another significant building is Chateau de Lamothe, dating from the early 12th century, when a Moorish fortification on the hill, was destroyed as the French drove the Moorish forces from France, and rebuilt to serve as the summer residence for the bishops of Oloron, a role it filled for 600 years. Seminary The collège-seminaire Oleron-Sainte-Marie was founded in 1708 by Bishop Joseph de Révol, and was entrusted to priests of the Barnabite Order of the Congregation of Saint-Paul de Lascar. They fell into disfavor, however, and in 1768 Bishop François de Révol remarked that they had not talent for bringing up young ecclesiastics. In 1776 he began the process for expelling them