Pierre de Castelnau

Pierre de Castelnau (* unknown; † January 15, 1208 near the Abbey of Saint-Gilles ) was a Cistercian and papal legate . He is venerated as a martyr in the Catholic Church .

The first sources about Pierre de Castelnau come from the year 1189. At that time he was canon of the Abbey of Maguelone near Montpellier . Nine years later, in 1197, Castelnau was elected archdeacon of the abbey there. However, his election was not made until 1199 by the newly elected Pope Innocent III. approved.

Innocent III. appointed Castelnau in 1202, who joined the Cistercian order that year, as papal legate and commissioned him and Raoul von Castelnau to lead the "heretics in southern France" or the people of the "heretical" Cathars on the " right path ". Unsuccessful in this mission, Innocent placed Abbot Arnaud Amaury von Citeaux at his side, who was given the power to: “ ... to destroy, to exterminate and to uproot what you recognize as worth destroying, exterminating and uprooting ... ". In 1204 Castelnau took part in disputes in Carcassonne , 1207 in Montréal and Palmiers . With Dominikus he traveled as a mendicant monk through southern France to preach against the heretics. Because of their careless attitude in the fight against heretics, Castelnau took action against the bishops of the Midi , suspended the bishops of Toulouse and Béziers and excommunicated Count Raimund VI. from Toulouse .

A conversation that Castelnau had with Raimund VI in 1208. led in the Abbey of Saint-Gilles, ended in dispute. On his way home, Castelnau was slain on January 15th, 1208 - presumably by one of the count's followers. Innocent III. Thereupon confirmed the excommunication of Raimund and began in 1209 the crusade against the Albigensians , which lasted until 1229.

Innocent III. called Pierre de Castelnau in a bull dated March 10, 1208 a holy martyr . Since then he has been venerated in the dioceses of Carcassonne , Montpellier , Nîmes and in the Cistercian order. His bones, which were in Saint-Gilles until 1562, were burned by the Huguenots .

literature

• Christoph Auffarth : The heretics: Cathars, Waldensians and other religious movements , CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-50883-9
• Lothar Kolmer:  Pierre de Castelnau. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 7, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-048-4 , Sp. 338-339.
• Jörg Oberste: The crusade against the Albigensians. Heresy and power politics in the Middle Ages , Darmstadt, Primus Verlag 2003, ISBN 3-89678-464-1
• Steven Runciman: Heresy and Christianity: Der Mittelalterliche Manichäismus , Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-7705-2498-5
• Pierre des Vaux-de-Cernay: Crusade against the Albigensians - The 'Historia Albigensis' translated into German by Gerhard E. Sollbach , Manesse, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-7175-8228-3

Web links

• http://www.sehepunkte.de/2006/05/2145.html
• http://www.inquisition2000.de/Info/Info_Albigenser.htm ( Memento from October 17, 2004 in the Internet Archive )