The traditions of the diocese mention as its first apostle of Christianity St. Antoninus, born at Fredelacum (Frédélas) near Pamiers in the Rouergue, and martyred in his native country at a date uncertain.

[2] A castle built on the site of the abbey by Roger II Count of Foix (1070–1125) was called Appamia; hence the name of Pamiers which passed to the neighbouring small town.

[3] Pope Boniface VIII created a see at Pamiers by the Bull Romanus Pontifex 23 July 1295, and made it a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Narbonne.

In that bull, also called Romanus Pontifex, he noted that he had taken action in creating the new diocese based on a plan of Pope Clement IV (1265–1268), who had been Bishop of Puy and Archbishop of Narbonne, which had not been put into effect.

On 18 December 1295, no doubt as a rebuff to the Bishop of Toulouse, Pope Boniface issued the Bull Dum sollicite considerationis, creating the University of Pamiers.

Before the creation of the diocese in 1295, the inhabitants of the monastery of Saint-Antonin lived as canons regular according to the Rule of Saint Augustine.

This was left to his successor, Bishop Pilfort de Rabastens, who immediately met violent opposition from the canons of Saint-Antonin.

This document is most important for the history of the Inquisition, representing as it does, and perhaps in this instance only, that particular tribunal in which the inquisitor and the diocesan bishop had almost equal responsibility, as decreed in 1312 by the Council of Vienne.

Angered, the Vicomte threw his forces at Le Mas, set fire to the gates, used his siege engines against the walls, drove out Bishop Pascal Dufour and established in his place Mathieu d'Artigueloube.

Her forces arrived on 28 August, entered and rescued the city, killing the leader of the attackers, the Sieur de Lavelanet.

The Commissioner was refused entry on the grounds that a plague was active, but he returned on the 7th, and his demand to place the arms of Mathieu d'Artigueloube above the door of the episcopal palace was agreed to by the Consuls of Pamiers.

[19] Mathieu then used his influence with the Vicomtes de Narbonne to have the Parlement of Toulouse to place the Diocese of Pamiers and the Abbey of Lḕzat in the hands of the King of France, Louis XII.

Two parliamentary Commissioners arrived in Pamiers on 29 February 1503 to carry out the orders of the Parlement, but they could not obtain the submission of the Abbey of Lḕzat since the Abbot, Cardinal Amanieu d'Albret, was in Rome.

[22] During the episcopate of Robert of Pellevé (1557–79), brother of Bishop Nicolas de Pellevé of Amiens, the French Wars of Religion gave rise to cruel strife: Protestants destroyed every church in Pamiers, among them the magnificent church of Notre-Dame du Camp, and three times they demolished the episcopal palace of the Mas Saint-Antonin.

The efforts of three Jesuit priests to carry out the plan was repeatedly obstructed by the Consuls, as well as by the hostility of Huguenot believers in Pamiers.

[23] In July 1561 the Consuls of Pamiers absolutely refused to publish the edict of King Charles IX which prohibited Huguenots from assembling publicly or raising troops; in 1562, now thoroughly Protestant, they attempted to close the Jesuit college by not renewing its permit to operate.

At the time of the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572, however, Pamiers was in the hands of the Catholic party, and there was every attempt to allow both sides the chance to live in peace and exercise their religions.

He carried out the project so well that he won the high praise of the Cardinal and the attention of Pope Paul V, who named Sponde rector of the French church in Rome, San Luigi dei Francesi.

Paul V also gave Sponde a post in the Roman Curia as Revisor of Petitions in the office of the Major Penitentiary.

When the Estates General had been summoned in 1789, the legitimate bishop of Pamiers, Joseph-Mathieu d'Agoult, behaved in such an authoritarian and aristocratic way when the cahiers (Notes of complaints and recommendations) were being drawn up that his own clergy refused to elect him as their representative for the meeting in Paris, and chose Canon Bernard Font instead.

The diocese of Pamiers was not one of those revived by Pope Pius VII in his bull Qui Christi Domini of 29 November 1801.

[30] Under the Concordat, however, Bonaparte exercised the same privileges as had the kings of France, especially that of nominating bishops for vacant dioceses, with the approval of the Pope.

Louis XVIII, however, nominated François de La Tour-Landorthe on 13 January 1823, and he was approved by Pope Pius VII on 16 May 1823.