Andeolus, a disciple and subdeacon of Polycarp of Smyrna (died 155), brought Christianity to the Vivarais under Emperor Septimius Severus (193–211), and was martyred in 208.

In the thirteenth century, under the reign of King Louis IX of France, the Bishop of Viviers was obliged to recognize the jurisdiction of the Seneschal of Beaucaire.

In 1528, a former Franciscan named Étienne Machopolis, a doctor of theology, who had known Martin Luther in Saxony, began preaching in public against the cults of saints and other superstitions.

He was driven out, but in the next year another ex-Franciscan, Étienne Rénier, who preached a similar policy, was arrested, taken to Vienne, and burned at the stake.

[9] After the massacre of Huguenots at Vassy on 1 March 1562, led by the Catholic François, Duke of Guise, the Protestant Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, abandoned the French court and met the Protestant lords at Orleans on 11 April 1562; the city of Viviers joined his party, along with Privas, Tournon, Annonay, Aubenas, and Villeneuve-de Berg.

[11] In February 1567, Noël Aubert made a second attack on Viviers, and ordered the cathedral to be pulled down and the episcopal palace, which had been built by Bishop Claude de Tournon (1499–1523) to be demolished.

One of the first acts of the French Revolution was the abolition of feudalism and its institutions, including estates, provinces, duchies, baillies, and other obsolete organs of government.

The National Constituent Assembly ordered their replacement by political subdivisions called "departments", to be characterized by a single administrative city in the center of a compact area.

[22] In 1800, he made an effort to regain the bishopric of Viviers, but was firmly rebuffed by the clergy of the diocese, led by the Grand Vicar.

[23] While Bishop de Savine was in schism and apostasy, the administration of the diocese of Viviers were entrusted to the archbishop of Vienne, Charles d'Aviau, by a special grant of powers by Pope Pius VI.

[26] Negotiations began immediately, and resulted in the Concordat of 1801 (July and August) with Pope Pius VII, which was highly favorable to Napoleon's interests.

As under the ancien régime, the nomination to bishoprics belonged to the head of state, and the pope reserved the right to approve or reject the candidate.

[27] The bishopric of Viviers and all the other dioceses in France were suppressed by Pius VII in the bull "Qui Christi Domini" of 29 November 1801.

On 24 September 1821, in the bull "Novam de Galliarum," at the request of King Louis XVIII, Pope Pius VII assigned the new diocese of Viviers as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Avignon.