Records do not show when the first High Altar was installed in the cathedral ("Maître-Autel") but in 1410 it was recorded that Monseigneur Étienne Coeuret commissioned the Rennes sculptor Pierre Picart to create columns around the existing High Altar these bearing coats of arms and angels holding the instruments of the passion. Near this altar and under a baldaquin the relics of saint Samson were placed. Above this was a cross holding the "pyxide" which held the ciborium. This altar disappeared in 1744 and a new High Altar was installed, this at the instigation of Monseigneur Jean-Louis de Bouschet de Sourches. It was the work of the Laval atelier of Maurice Pierlet and Honoré Pincé. In 1877, a completely new High Altar was installed this by the goldsmiths Poussièlgue-Rusand based on a design by Canon Brune.