COUNTS OF CLERMONT  . Clermont was at one time the seat of a countship, the lords of which were already powerful in the 11th century . Raoul de Clermont, constable of France, died at Acre in 1191,leaving a daughter who brought Clermont to her husband, Louis, count of Blois and Chartres . Theobald, count of Blois and Clermont, died in 1218 without issue, and King Philip Augustus, having received the countship of Clermont from the collateral heirs of this lord, gave it to his son Philip Hurepel,whose daughter Jeanne, and his widow, Mahaut, countess of Dammartin, next held the countship . It was united by Saint Louis to the crown, and afterwards given by him (1269) to his son Robert, from whom sprang the house of Bourbon . In 1524 the countship of Clermont was confiscated from the constable de Bourbon, and later (1540) given to the duke of Orleans, to Catherine de' Medici (1562), to Eric, duke of Brunswick (1569), from whom it passed to his brother-in-law Charles'of Lorraine (1596), and finally toHenry II., prince of Conde (1611) . In 1641 it was again confiscated from Louis de Bourbon, count of Soissons, then in 1696 sold to Louis Thomas Amadeus of Savoy,count of Soissons,in 1702 to Francoise de Brancas, princesse d'Harcourt, and in 1719 to Louis-Henry, prince of Conde . From a branch of the old lords of Clermont were descended the lords of Nesle and Chantilly . CLERMONT-FERRAND, a city of central France, capital of the department of Puy=de-Dome, 113 M . W. of Lyons on the Paris-Lyon railway . Pop . (1906) town, 44,113; commune, 58,363 .

Clermont-Ferrand is situated on an

eminence on the western border of the fertile plain of Limagne . On the north, west and south it is surrounded by hills, with a background of mountains amongst which the Puy-de-Dome stands out prominently . A small river, the Tiretaine, borders the town on the north . Since 1731 it has been composed of the two towns of Clermont and Montferrand, now connected by a fine avenue of walnut trees and willows, 2 M. in length, bordered on one side by barracks . The watering-place of Royat lies a little more than a mile to the west . Clermont has several handsome squares ornamented with fountains, the chief of which is a graceful structure erected by Bishop Jacques d'Amboise in 1515 . The streets of the older and busier quarter of Clermont in the neighbourhood of the cathedral and the Place de Jaude, the principal square, are for the most part narrow, sombre and bordered by old houses built of lava; boulevards divide this part from more modern and spacious quarters, which adjoin it . To the south lies the fine promenade known as the Jardin Lecoq . The principal building is the cathedral, a Gothic edifice begun in the 13th century . It was not completed, however, till the 19th century, when the west portal and towers and two bays of the nave were added, according to the plans of Violletle-Duc . The fine stained glass of the windows dates from the13th to the 15th centuries . A monument of the Crusades with a statue of Pope Urban II. stands in the Cathedral square .

The

church of Notre-Dame du Port is a typical example of the Romanesque style of Auvergne, dating chiefly from the 11th and 12th centuries . The exterior of the choir, with its four radiating chapels, its jutting cornices supported by modillions and columns with carved capitals, and its mosaic decoration of black and white stones, is the most interesting part of the exterior The rest of the church comprises a narthex surmounted by a tower, three naves and a transept, over which rises another tower . There are several churches of minor importance in the town . Among the old houses one, dating from the 16th century, was the birthplace of Blaise Pascal, whose statue stands in a neighbouring square . There is a statue of General Louis Charles Deaix de Veygoux in the Place de Jaude . Montferrand has several interesting houses of the 15th and 16th centuries, and a church of the r3th,14th and 15th centuries . Clermont-Ferrand is the seat of a bishopric and a prefecture and headquarters of the XIII. army corps; it has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce, an exchange and a branch of the Bank of France . The town is the centre of an educational division (academie), and has faculties of science and of literature . It also has lycees and training colleges for both sexes, ecclesiastical seminaries, a preparatory school of medicine and pharmacy, schools of architecture, music, commerce and industry, museums of art and antiquities and natural history and a library . A great variety of industries is carried on, the chief being the manufacture of semolina and other farinaceous foods, confectionery, preserved fruit and jams, chemicals and rubber goods . Li4ueurs, chicory, chocolate, candles, hats, boots and shoes, and woollen and linen goods are also made, and tanning is practised . Clermont is the chief market for the grain and other agricultural produce of Auvergne and Velay .

Its

waters are in local repute . On the bank of the Tiretaine there is a remarkable calcareous spring, the fountain of St Allyre, the copious deposits of which have formed a curious natural bridge over the stream . Clermont is identified with the ancient Augustonemetum, the chief town of the Arverni, and it still preserves some remains of the Roman period . The present name, derived from Clarus Mons and originally applied only to the citadel, was used of the town as early as the 9th century . During the disintegration of the Roman empire Clermont suffered as much perhaps from capture and pillage as any city in the country i its history during the middle ages chiefly records the struggles between its bishops and the counts of Auvergne, and between the citizens and their overlord the bishop . It was the seat of seven ecclesiastical councils, held in the years 535, 549, 587, 1095, 1110, 1124 and 113o; and of these the council of 1095 is for ever memorable as that in which Pope Urban II. proclaimed the first crusade . In the wars against the English in the 14th and 15th centuries and the religious wars of the 16th century the town had its full participation; and in x665 it acquired a terrible notoriety by the trial and execution of many members of the nobility of Auvergne who had tyrannized over the neighbouring districts . The proceedings lasted six months, and the episode is known as les Grands Jours de Clermont . Before the Revolution the town possessed several monastic establishments, of which the most important were the abbey of Saint Allyre, founded, it is said, in the 3rd century by St Austremonius (St Stremoine), the apostle of Auvergne and first bishop of Clermont, and the abbey of St Andre, where the counts of Clermont were interred . CLERMONT-GANNEAU, CHARLES SIMON (1846–French Orientalist, the son of a sculptor of some repute, was born in Paris on the 19th of February 1846 . After an education at the Ecole des Langues Orientales, he entered the diplomatic service as dragoman to the consulate at Jerusalem, and afterwards at Constantinople . He laid the foundation of his reputation by his discovery (in 187o) of the " stele " of Mesha (Moabite Stone), which bears the oldest Semitic inscription known .

In 1874 he was employed by the

British government to take charge of an archaeological expedition to Palestine, and was subsequently entrusted by his own government with similar missions to Syria and the Red Sea . He was made chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1875 . After serving as vice-consul at Jaffa from 188o to 1882, he returned to Paris as " secretaireinterprete " for oriental languages, and in 1886 was appointed consul of the first class, He subsequently accepted the post of director of the Rcole des Langues Orientales and professor at the College de France . In 1889 he was elected a member of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, of which he had been a correspondent since 1880 . In 1896 he was promoted to be consul-general, and was minister plenipotentiary in 1906 . He was the first in England to expose the famous forgeries of Hebrew texts offered to the British Museum by M.W.Shapira(q.v.) in 1883, and in 1903 he took a prominent part in the investigation of the so-called " tiara of Saitapharnes." This tiara had been purchased by the Louvre for 400,000 francs, and exhibited as a genuine antique . Much discussion arose as to the perpetrators of the fraud, some believing that it came from southern Russia . It was agreed, however, that the whole object, except perhaps the band round the tiara, was of modern manufacture . His chief publications, besides a number of contributions to journals, are :Palestine inconnue (1886), Etudes d'archeologie orientale (1880, &c.), Les Fraudes archeologiques (1885), Recueil d'archeologie orienlale (1885, &c.), Album d antiquites orientales (1897, &c.) . CLERMONT-L'HERAULT, or CLERMONT DE LODEVE, a town of southern France in the department of Herault, 10 m . S.S.E. by rail of Lodeve . Pop .

(1906) 4731 . The town is built on the slope of a

hill which is crowned by an ancient castle and skirted by the Rhonel, a tributary of the Lergue . It has an interesting church of the 13th and 14th centuries . The chief manufacture is that of cloth for military clothing, and woollen goods, an industry which dates from the latter half of the 17th century . Tanning and leather-dressing are also carried on, and there is trade in wine, wool and grain . Among the public institutions are a tribunal of commerce, a chamber of arts and manufactures, a board of trade-arbitration and a communal college . The town was several times taken and retaken in the religious wars of the 16th century . CLERMONT-TONNERRE, the name of a French family, members of which played some part in the history of France, especially in Dauphine, from about i loo to the Revolution . Sibaud, lord of Clermont in Viennois, who first appears in 1080, was the founder of the family . His descendant, another Sibaud, commanded some troops which aided Pope Calixtus II. in his struggle with the anti-pope Gregory VIII.; and in return for this service it is said that the pope allowed him to add certain emblems—two keys and a tiara—to the arms of his family . A direct descendant, Ainard (d . 1349), called vicomte de Clermont, was granted the dignity of captain-general and first baron of Dauphine by his suzerain Humbert, dauphin of Viennois, in 1340; and in 1547 Clermont was made a county for Antoine (d .

1578), who was

governor of Dauphine and the French king's lieutenant in Savoy . In 1572 Antoine's son Henri was created a duke, but as this was only a " brevet " title it did not descend to his ton . Henri was killed before La Rochelle in 1573 . In 1596 Henri's son, Charles Henri, count of Clermont (d . 1640), added Tonnerre to his heritage; but in 1648 this county was sold by his son and successor, Francois (d . 1679) . A member of a younger branch of Charles Henri's descendants was Gaspard de Clermont-Tonnerre (1688-1781) . This soldier served his country during a long period, fighting in Bohemia and Alsace, and then distinguishing himself greatly at the battles of Fontenoy and Lawfeldt . In 1775 he was created duke of Clermont-Tonnerre, and made a peer of France; as the senior marshal (cr . 1747) of France he assisted as constable at the coronation of Louis XVI. in 1974 . His son and successor, Charles Henri Jules, governor of Dauphine, was guillotined in July 1794, a fate which his grandson, Gaspard Charles, had suffered at Lyons in the previous year . A later duke, Aline Marie Gaspard (1779--1865), served for some years as a soldier, afterwards becoming minister of marine and then minister of war under Charles X.,and retiring into private life after the revolution of 1830 .

Rime's grandson,

Roger, duke of Clermont-Tonnerre, was born in 1842 . Among other distinguished• members of this family was Catherine (c . 1545-1603), only daughter of Claude de Clermont-Tonnerre . This lady, dame d'honneur to Henry II.'s queen, Catherine de' Medici, and afterwards wife of Albert de Gondi, duc de Retz, won a great reputation by her intellectual attainments, being referred to as the " tenth muse " and the " fourth grace." One of her grandsons was the famous cardinal de Retz . Other noteworthy members of collateral branches of the family were: Francois (1629-1701), bishop of Noyon from 1661 until his death, a member of the French Academy, notorious for his inordinate vanity; Stanislas M . A., comte de Clermont-Tonnerre (q.v.); and Anne Antoine Jules (1749-1830), cardinal and bishop of Chalons, who was a member of the states-general in 1789, afterwards retiring into Germany, and after the return of the Bourbons to France became archbishop of Toulouse . CLERMONT-TONNERRE, STANISLAS MARIE ADELAIDE, COMTE DE (1757-1792), French politican, was born at Pont-a-Mousson on the loth of October 1757 . At the beginning of the Revolution he was a colonel, with some reputation as a free-mason and a Liberal . He was elected to the states-general of 1789 by the noblesse of Paris, and was the spokesman of the minority of Liberal nobles who joined the Third Estate on the 25th of June . He desired to model the new constitution of France on that of England . He was elected president of the Constituent Assembly on the 17th of August 1789; but on the rejection by the Assembly of the scheme elaborated by the first constitutional committee, he attached himself to the party of moderate royalists, known as monarchiens, led by P . V .

Malouet . His speech in favour of reserving to the crown the right of absolute veto under the new constitution drew down upon him the wrath of the advanced politicians of the Palais Royal; but in spite of threats and abuse he continued to advocate a moderate liberal policy, especially in the matter of removing the political disabilities of Jews and Protestants and of extending the system of trial by jury . In January 1790 he collaborated with Malouet in founding the Club des Impartiaux and the Journal des Impartiaux, the names of which were changed in November to the Societe des Amis de la ConstitutionMonarchique and Journal de la Societe, &c., in order to emphasize their opposition to the Jacobins (Societe des Amis de la Constitution) . This club was denounced by Barnave in the Assembly (January 21st, 1791), and on the 28th of March it was attacked by a mob, whereupon it was closed by order of the Assembly . Clermont-Tonnerre was murdered by the populace during the rising of the 9th and loth of August 1792 . He was an excellent orator, having acquired practice in speaking, before the Revolution, in the masonic lodges . He is a good representative of the type of the grands seigneurs holding advanced and liberal ideas, who helped to bring about the movement of 1789, and then tried in vain to arrest its course . See Recueil des opinions de Stanislas de Clermont-Tonnerre (q vols., Paris, 1791), the text of his speeches as published by himself; A . Aulard, Les Orateurs de la Constituante (2nd ed., Paris, 1905) .