ARTHUR

See also:

• RICHARD
• RICHARD (d. 1184)
• RICHARD, FRANCOIS MARIE BENJAMIN (18,9-1908)
• RICHARD, HENRY (1812-1888)
• RICHARD, ST

RICHARD

See also:

• ARTHUR RICHARD DILLON (172I-1807)
• DILLON, JOHN (1851– )

DILLON (172I-1807)  , French arch-bishop, was the son of Arthur Dillon (167o-1733), an Irish gentleman who became general in the French service . He was born at St Germain, entered the priesthood and was successively cure of Elan near Mezieres, vicar-general of Pontoise (1747), bishop of Evreux (1753) and archbishop of Toulouse (1758), archbishop of Narbonne in 1763, and in that capacity, president o: the estates of Languedoc . He devoted himself much less to the spiritual direction of his diocese than to its temporal welfare, carrying out many works of public utility, bridges, canals, roads, harbours, &c.; had chairs of chemistry and of physics created at Montpellier and at Toulouse, and tried to reduce the poverty, 'especially in Narbonne . In 1787 and in 1788 he was a member of the Assembly of Notables called together by Louis XVI., and in 1788 presided over the assembly of the clergy . Having refused to accept the civil constitution of the clergy, Dillon had to leave Narbonne in 1790, then to emigrate to Coblenz in 1791 . Soon afterwards he went to London, where he lived until his death in 1807, never accepting the Concordat, which had suppressed his archiepiscopal see . See L . Audibret, Le Dernier President des Etats du Languedoc, Mgr . Arthur Richard Dillon, archeveeque de Narbonne (Bordeaux, 1868) ; L. de Lavergne, Les Assemblees provinciales sous Louis X VI (Paris, 1864) .