AUVERGNE

auvergne, formerly a province of france, corresponding to the departments of cantal and puy-de-dome, with the arrondissement of brioude in haute-loire. it contains many mountains volcanic in origin (plomb du cantal, puy de dome, mont dore), fertile valleys such as that of limagne, vast pasture-lands, and numerous medicinal springs. up to the present day the population retains strongly-marked celtic characteristics. in the time of caesar the _arverni_ were a powerful confederation, the arvernian vercingetorix being the most famous of the gallic chieftains who fought against the romans. under the empire _arvernia_ formed part of _prima aquitania_, and the district shared in the fortunes of aquitaine during the merovingian and carolingian periods. auvergne was the seat of a separate countship before the end of the 8th century; the first hereditary count was william the pious (886). by the marriage of eleanor of aquitaine with henry plantagenet, the countship passed under the suzerainty of the kings of england, but at the same time it was divided, william vii., called the young (1145-1168), having been despoiled of a portion of his domain by his uncle william viii., called the old, who was supported by henry ii. of england, so that he only retained the region bounded by the allier and the coux. it is this district that from the end of the 13th century was called the _dauphine d'auvergne_. this family quarrel occasioned the intervention of philip augustus, king of france, who succeeded in possessing himself of a large part of the country, which was annexed to the royal domains under the name of _terre d'auvergne_. as the price of his concurrence with the king in this matter, the bishop of clermont, robert i. (1195-1227), was granted the lordship of the town of clermont, which subsequently became a countship. such was the origin of the four great historic lordships of auvergne. the _terre d'auvergne_ was first an appanage of count alphonse of poitiers (1241-1271), and in 1360 was erected into a duchy in the peerage of france (duche-pairie) by king john ii. in favour of his son john, through whose daughter the new title passed in 1416 to the house of bourbon. the last duke, the celebrated constable charles of bourbon, united the domains of the _dauphine_ to those of the [v.03 p.0050] duchy, but all were confiscated by the crown in consequence of the sentence which punished the constable's treason in 1527. the countship, however, had passed in 1422 to the house of la tour, and was not annexed to the domain until 1615. the administration of the royal province of auvergne was organized under louis xiv. at the time of the revolution it formed what was called a "government," with two divisions: upper auvergne (aurillac), and lower auvergne (clermont). bibliography.--baluze, _histoire genealogique de la maison d'auvergne_ (1708); andre imberdis, _histoire generale de l'auvergne_ (1867); j. b. m. bielawski, _histoire de la comte d'auvergne et de sa capitale vic-le-comte_ (1868); b. gonot, _catalogue des ouvrages imprimes et manuscrits concernant l'auvergne_ (1849). see further chevalier, _repertoire des sources hist., topobibliographie_, s.v. auxanometer (gr. [greek: auxanein], to increase, [greek: metron], measure), an apparatus for measuring increase or rate of growth in plants. auxentius (fl. _c._ 370), of cappadocia, an arian theologian of some eminence (see arius). when constantine deposed the orthodox bishops who resisted, auxentius was installed into the seat of dionysius, bishop of milan, and came to be regarded as the great opponent of the nicene doctrine in the west. so prominent did he become, that he was specially mentioned by name in the condemnatory decree of the synod which damasus, bishop of rome, urged by athanasius, convened in defence of the nicene doctrine (a.d. 369). when the orthodox emperor valentinian ascended the throne, auxentius was left undisturbed in his diocese, but his theological doctrines were publicly attacked by hilary of poitiers. the chief source of information about him is the _liber contra auxentium_ in the benedictine edition of the works of hilary.