Roman Catholic Diocese of Maillezais

The Benedictine monastery of Maillezais was founded in about 989 by Gauzbert, Abbot of St-Julien de Tours,[1] at the request of William IV, Duke of Aquitaine, and his wife Emma.

[5] On 13 May 1197, by a solemn bull Officii nostri, subscribed by eighteen cardinals, Pope Clement III took the monastery of Maillezais under papal protection, listing all of its dependencies and properties.

Geoffroy la Grand' Dent was compelled to seek absolution for his misdeeds against the abbey of Maillezais from Pope Gregory IX at Spoleto in 1232.

[9] François Rabelais, who had begun a career in religion as a Franciscan at Fontenay-le-Comte, became, in 1524, with the special permission of Pope Clement VII, a Benedictine monk in the monastery of Maillezais.

But next year in June, Henri de Navarre retook Maillezais, defended only by one monk and some locals, ordering the town to be fortified, and then returned to La Rochelle.

[21] Efforts were made by Cardinal Richelieu to assist Bishop Henri de Bethune to undertake reconstruction,[22] but King Louis XIII decided that the headquarters of the diocese should be moved to Fontenay-le-Comte.

[23] On 14 January 1631 Pope Urban VIII, with a view to a more active struggle against Protestantism, issued bulls which would have transferred the residence of the Bishop of Maillezais to Fontenay-le-Comte.

On 4 May 1648 the see of Maillezais was in fact suppressed by Pope Innocent X in the Bull In supereminenti,[25] and confirmed by letters patent of King Louis XIV.

The Chapter of the Cathedral of Saintes, which was losing a number of parishes and benefices in the territory which was being annexed to the new diocese of La Rochelle, protested and engaged in negotiations which were not concluded until 15 May 1650.

[29] On 16 November 1666, the Bishop of Poitiers, as commissioner of the Holy See, read out the bull of secularization, bringing to an end the history of the diocese and abbey of Maillezais.