Basilica of Saint Justus

Lyon was founded in 43 BC as the Roman Lugdunum, on the site of a Gallic trading settlement that already had a shrine to the god Lugh.

[3] Sidonius wrote of a grand ceremony in honor of Saint-Just which would have taken place around 461,[4] and mentions the socializing and games that occurred between the pre-dawn procession and the mid-morning mass.After the vigil service was over, ...everyone withdrew in various directions, but not far, as we wanted to be present ...when Mass was to be celebrated.

...Conversation ensued, pleasant, jesting, bantering, and a specially happy feature in it was that there was no mention of officials or of taxes, no talk that invited betrayal, no informer to betray it; ...we raised a two-fold clamor demanding ...either ball or gaming board, ...Domnicius had seized the dice and was busy shaking them as a sort of trumpet-call summoning the players.

(Letter V, 17: 3-11, to Eriphius of Lyon)[5]In the Carolingian period, the church had a chapter of twenty canons which became increasingly important in the life of the city.

The city of Rome was then in the possession of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, whom Innocent excommunicated at the First Council of Lyon in 1245.

[7] The church also received a visit from Louis XI in 1483, Margaret of Austria 8 December 1490 and of Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany in 1497.

The Protestant troops of Baron Adrets entered Lyon on the night of 30 April 1562 and the suburb of Saint-Just the next day.