[5] Ferdinando Ughelli[6] places the first bishop, Theodorus, in the reign of Emperor Commodus (180–192), and the second, St. Salvator, as succeeding under Pertinax (193).

On 10 September 963, Bishop Joannes II (959) obtained from Emperor Otto I for himself and his successors the title of count and temporal sovereignty over the city and the surrounding territory.

In the spring of 1197, Bishop Gerardo de Taccoli joined the united armies of Belluno, Padua and Forogiulio to besiege the Castello of Zumelle.

[10] In the 16th century, Giulio Doglioni published a catalogue of bishops of Belluno from old manuscripts, which contained the notice: "Drudus de Camino Feltren.

Another ancient catalogue was published by Gianantonio degli Egregii, containing the statement: "Uniti sunt episcopalus Belluni et Feltri.

Luigi Lollin (1595) promoted the love of learning among the clergy and left bequests to provide for a number of priests at the University of Padua.

Giulio Berlendis (1655) completed the work of enforcing the Tridentine reforms, and Gianfrancesco Bembo, a member of the Somaschi (1695), was zealous in the cause of popular education.

In 1751, pressured both by Austria and Venice, who were exasperated by the numerous discords in the patriarchate of Aquileia, Pope Benedict XIV was compelled to intervene in the ecclesiastical and political disturbances.

In the bull "Injuncta Nobis" of 6 July 1751, the patriarchate of Aquileia was completely suppressed, and in its place the Pope created two separate archdioceses, Udine and Goritza.

[15] The violent expansionist military policies of the French Revolutionary Republic had brought confusion and dislocation to the Po Valley.

Pope Pius VII, therefore, issued the bull "De Salute Dominici Gregis" on 1 May 1818, embodying the conclusions of arduous negotiations.

The co-cathedral functions as a parish, and therefore the Canon called the Sacristan has the responsibility of caring for the spiritual needs of the parishioners ("the cure of souls").

He was particularly concerned with liturgical laxness, and with teaching correct doctrine in face of Protestant infiltration from Germany; his predecessor had already introduced the Franciscans and the Inquisition to Belluno.

[27] A project begun on orders from Pope John XXIII, and continued under his successors, was intended to reduce the number of dioceses in Italy and to rationalize their borders in terms of modern population changes and shortages of clergy.