Clair of Nantes

According to the traditional account, Clair was sent to Nantes by Pope Linus, the successor of Peter, seventy years after the birth of Christ.

[3] He arrived from Rome, with a nail in his possession from the cross that bore the martyrdom of Peter.

[5] However, Breton historian Arthur Le Moyne de La Borderie makes the following points: According to French historian Georges Goyau, the earliest list of the bishops of Nantes (made, according to historian Louis Duchesne, at the beginning of the tenth century) does not favour the thesis of a bishop of Nantes prior to Constantine.

[7] During the mid-seventeenth century, the Estates of Brittany were in frequent conflict with the court in Paris over what they considered infringements on Breton autonomy.

While not necessarily a strong Breton patriot, the Estates saw things otherwise, as, to them, Le Grand's book reinforced the ancient prerogatives of Brittany.