10G8

URSICINUS

URSINUS

of Yifcalis, is related in a letter once ascribed toSt. Ambrose {Ep. 2 al. 53, §§ 7, 8 in Pat. Lat.xvii. 744). He is mentioned in the AncientPoman Mart ., the Pom. Mart.) Usuard, and Ado.The period is said to have been the reign ofNero (Tillem. ii. 75, 496). [C. H.]

URSICINUS (2), July 24th, ninth bishop ofSens, succeeded Simplicius, and seems to havebeen one of the Catholic bishops exiled at thecouncil of Beziers a.d. 356, but he is not men-tioned in Hilary’s account of the council {Opp. ii.563 in P. L. x. 579). Returning in 360, hefounded c. 386 the monastery of St. Gervasiusand St. Protasius, and in it he was interred.(Boll. A. SS. Jul. v. 545-6 ; Tillemont, H. E. x.195 ed. 1732 ; Gall. Christ, xii. 4.) [J. G.]

URSICINUS (3), bishop, bearer in a.d. 493of a letter of pope Gelasius to the bishops ofDardania to announce his election, and to exhortthem to abandon the Eutychian heresy (GelasiiEpist. 3 in Migne, Pair. Lat. lix. 25). Threefragments of a letter alleged to be addressed tohim by pope Anastasius, the successor of Gelasius(Mansi, viii. 193), are merely extracts from theletter of Gelasius to Laurentius, bishop ofLvchnidus. [F. D.]

URSICINUS (4), 9th bishop of Cahors,between Maurilio and Eusebius, towards theclose of the sixth century, was originally refe-rendarius to queen Ultrogottha, wife of Childe-bert. Maurilio, in his last illness, nominatedhim as his successor, and begged that he mightbe consecrated before his own death. He wasliberal in the dispensing of alms, very learned inthe Holy Scriptures, a just judge, and a zealouschampion of the poor of his church (Greg. Tur.Hist. Franc, v. 43). His episcopate was troubledfirst by a hot dispute with Innocentius, bishopof Rodez, as to the jurisdiction over certainparishes, which was finally settled in Ursicinus’favour by an assembly of bishops convoked atClermont by the metropolitan, said to be Sul-pieius of Bourges {ibid. vi. 38), and secondly bythe appearance in France of the pretender, Gundo-vald, in 582, with whom he sided, a proceedingwhich caused his suspension for three years bythe second council of Macon, held in 585 {ibid.viii. 20; Mansi, ix. 958). in the Gallia Chris-tiana he has the prefix of saint, but it does notappear on what authority (i. 119). [S. A. B.]

URSICINUS (5) wrote to Constantius,bishop of Milan, against Joannes, bishop ofRavenna. (Gregorius, Epp. iv. 39.) [F. D.]

URSICINUS (6), bishop of Turin. TheFranks, under Guntram, having conquered theoutlying parts of his diocese, formed them intothe diocese of St. Jean de Maurieune and Susa,as Turin itself was in the hands of their enemies,the Lombards. Ursicinus naturally objected tohis diocese being thus diminished, and com-plained to Gregory the Great, who wrote toTheoderic and Theodebert, the kings of theFranks, asking that the severed districts mightbe restored to Ursicinus, and also complainingof his imprisonment. Gregory further wrote toSyagrius, bishop of Autun, asking him to usehis influence with the kings for the same object.{Epist. lib. ix. ind. ii. 116, 115, in Migne, Pair.

Lat. 1047, 1045.) Gregory’s intervention wasfruitless, and St. Jean de Maurienne has re-mained a separate diocese to the present day.

[F. D.]

URSINUS (1) ST., first bishop of Bourges.According to the De Gloria Confessorum ofGregory of Tours, Bourges first received theGospel from St. Qrsinus , who was ordained bishopbn the disciples of the Apostles and sent into Gaul.He first founded and ruled the church atBourges, and when he died, was buried outsidethe city (cap. 80). But the same author in hisHidoria Francorum, after enumerating variousSaints who, he says, came to Gaul in the middleof the 3rd century (i. 28), goes on to relate thatsome disciple of these came to Bourges andannounced Christ to the people, of whom manybelieved and were ordained as clergy. He furtherrelates the difficulty experienced by the congre-gation in obtaining a church, till a rich senatorLeocadius gave his house, which became the firstchurch of Bourges, and was made illustrious byrelics of Stephen the protomartyr (i. 29). Thesetwo accounts, probably representing distincttraditions, heard by Gregory at different times,are quite irreconcileable, and we have no furtherknowledge on the subject to assist us. Ursinusis commemorated Nov. 9 and Dec. 29. Aboutthe year 558, Germanus, bishop of Paris, visitingBourges, was warned in sleep that he shouldcause the body, whose resting-place was now for-gotten, to be removed to a more decent grave.Miraculously (it is said) guided to the spot,then occupied by a vineyard, he exhumed andtransferred it to the church of St. Symphorian,which afterwards took Ursinus’s name {De Glor.Conf. ibid.). In 1239, the remains were enclosedin a silver coffin, which in 1475 was opened inthe presence of Louis XI., and in 1562 wascarried off by Calvinists {Gall. Christ, ii. 4).

[S. A. B.]

URSINUS (2) (Urcicinus), anti-pope,elected after the death of Liberi us in the Septem-ber of the year 366, in opposition to Damasus.The conflicts during the life of Liberius betweenhis adherents and those of Felix, who had beenintruded into the see by the emperor Constantius,are spoken of under Liberius (4) and Felix (2).To the existence of these two parties at Romethe election of an anti-pope was due, Damasusbeing set up by the party of Felix, Ursinus bythat of Liberius. The virulence of the contestthat ensued, and the fact that the party ofDamasus triumphed, seem to show that Felixhad had a larger and more influential followingthan extant accounts would have led us to sup-pose. Conflicting evidence is before us as to thecircumstances of the election and ordination ofthe two rivals, and as to which was most toblame for the disgraceful and even bloody con-flicts that, according to all accounts, arose. Onthe one hand, S. Jerome ( Chron .), Rufinus (1. ii.c. 10), and Socrates (1. iv. c. 24), agree in sayingthat Damasus was elected first, and lay theblame on Ursinus, who after this election is saidto have got hold with his followers of the churchof Sicinus (or Sicininus), and to have beenordained. Rufinus says that Damasus had alreadybeen not only elected but ordained, and that theconsecrator of Ursinus was a certain “imperituset agrestis episcopus,” whom he persuaded to