Berengar from Barcelona

Berengar of Barcelona ( Catalan: Berenguer de Barcelona ; * around 1140; † 1212 at the latest ) was a Bishop of Lleida from 1177 to 1191 and Archbishop of Narbonne from 1190 to 1212. He was an illegitimate son of Count Raimund Berengar IV of Barcelona and probably his oldest child.

Life

Intended for an ecclesiastical career, Berengar served as abbot of the monastic castle of Montearagón from 1170 and as bishop of Lleida from 1177. In 1190 he was finally elected Archbishop of Narbonne, one of the largest and at the same time most problematic ecclesiastical provinces in Western Europe, as it encompassed almost the entire "Albigenserland" (terre Albigensis) , that is, the landscape in which the "Albigensians" ( Cathars ) particularly believed was widespread and anchored in society. The Roman Catholic Church had classified Catharism as heretical and urged its officials to combat it.

Berengar was an excellent organizer and financier who laid the financial basis for the construction of the La Seu Vella cathedral in Lleida and rehabilitated the desolate finances left by his predecessor Pons d'Arsac in Narbonne . He was considered a friend of Pope Coelestin III. to whom he owed his installation in Narbonne, and as politically influential. As abbot of Montearagón Abbey, he defended their monastery property against claims by the Bishop of Huesca , whose authority he did not recognize. In 1198 in Perpignan, together with Count Bernard IV of Comminges , he brokered a peace between his nephew, King Peter II of Aragon , and Count Raymond VI. from Toulouse . Apart from that, Berengar pursued anything but a pious lifestyle and paid little attention to the religious state of his province. The newly elected Pope Innocent III. In 1198, in two letters to the archbishop of Auch, expressed his disdainful opinion of the state of the province of Narbonne and deplored the competence of its prelates in combating heresy . In the year 1200 the Pope finally commissioned his cardinal legate Giovanni di San Paolo to investigate Berengar's administration in Narbonne.

On May 30, 1203 Berengar was first by Pope Innocent III. Faced with the choice between his offices in Montearagón and Narbonne, one of which he should give up. This request came in the context of a purge ordered by the Pope in the province of Narbonne, after which a number of bishops who had proven incapable of fighting heretics were urged to resign from their offices. Berengar ignored the invitation made to him. In the autumn of 1203 the papal legates Pierre de Castelnau and Raoul de Fontfroide came to Narbonne and asked Berengar to go with them to Toulouse to meet Count Raymond VI. to press for action against the Cathars. Berengar refused. In a letter from January 1204, the Pope finally denounced his transgressions. With the payment for the bishopric election of Maguelone in 1195 he was guilty of simony , ran a mistress economy and never demonstrated spiritual leadership. Furthermore, he was charged with inaction against the spread of heresy. Above all, Berengar never submitted a visitation to his ecclesiastical province, which every bishop was obliged to make annually since the decree Ad abolendam issued in 1184 , and he refused to take the oath required by the legates to unconditionally support the fight against heretics. Berengar had refused to do so with reference to his official authority, which he saw attacked by the oath.

On May 28 and 29, 1204, the Pope finally commissioned his legates, who had been placed under the direction of Abbot Arnaud Amaury of Cîteaux , to remove Berengar in both Narbonne and Montearagón. In a letter to the Pope dated November 26, 1204, he complained about the actions of the legates, who had given false testimony about him and had not given him time to travel to Rome , where he would have justified himself to the Pope as to whether the allegations were made can. This letter did not fail to have its effect when the Pope invited Berengar to Rome on June 26, 1205 in order to clear up the mutual disproportion. Berengar took his time with the trip and did not go to Rome until February 1206. To put the Pope in a mild mood, he had previously entrusted the management of Montearagón to his nephew, Infant Ferdinand. The trip to Rome paid off for Berengar when in June 1206 the Pope ordered his legates to be reconciled with him and to remain in Narbonne.

During the Albigensian Crusade proclaimed in October 1208 , Berengar was largely passive. When the crusaders started to march towards Narbonne in July 1209, he hurriedly issued an edict against heresy, whereupon the crusade moved on to Carcassonne . In doing so, he spared his city a fate similar to that which had happened to Béziers shortly before . In July 1210 he was present at the siege of Minerve and one of the signatories of their deed of surrender. Apparently he continued to attract the suspicion of the papal legates, especially Arnaud Amaury, so that the pope had to forbid his legates to take any further action against him in the autumn of 1210. This is also the last mention of Berengar; in the spring of 1212 Arnaud Amaury is mentioned for the first time as Archbishop of Narbonne. Due to a lack of sources, it cannot be determined whether Berengar died by the spring of 1212 or whether Arnaud Amaury eventually ousted him from his office.

literature

• Johannes Joseph Bauer: La Corona de Aragón y las alecciones de abad en Montearagón durante les siglos XI al XIV , In: VII Congreso de Historía de la Corona de Aragón , Vol. 3 (1962), pp. 9-20.
• Elaine Graham-Leigh: Hirelings and Shepherds: Archbischop Berenguer of Narbonne (1191-1211) and the Ideal Bischop , In: English Historical Review , Vol. 116 (2001), pp. 1083-1102.
• Damian J. Smith: Innocent III and the Crown of Aragon: The Limits of Papal Authority. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004.
• Michel Roquebert: The History of the Cathars, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Languedoc. German translation by Ursula Blank-Sangmeister, Philipp Reclam jun. GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart 2012. (French first edition, Histoire des Cathares. Hérésie, Croisade, Inquisition du XIe au XIVe siècle. Éditions Perrin, Paris 1999).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gallia Christiana Vol. 6 (1739), No. 35, Col. 58-65.
2. ↑ Innocentii III Registrorum sive Epistolarum , ed. by Jacques Paul Migne in, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Vol. 214, Col. 71 and 904.
3. ↑ Innocentii III Registrorum sive Epistolarum , ed. by Jacques Paul Migne in, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Vol. 214, Col. 903-906.
4. ↑ Innocentii III Registrorum sive Epistolarum , ed. by Jacques Paul Migne in, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Vol. 215, Col. 83-84.
5. ↑ Innocentii III Registrorum sive Epistolarum , ed. by Jacques Paul Migne in, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Vol. 215, Col. 273-274.
6. ↑ Innocentii III Registrorum sive Epistolarum , ed. by Jacques Paul Migne in, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Vol. 215, Col. 335-337 and 360-361.
7. ^ Histoire générale de Languedoc avec des notes et les pièces justificatives. Vol. 8, ed. by Claude Devic and Joseph Vaissète (1879), no. 124, col. 509–511.
8. ↑ Innocentii III Registrorum sive Epistolarum , ed. by Jacques Paul Migne in, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Vol. 215, Col. 674-675.
9. ↑ Innocentii III Registrorum sive Epistolarum , ed. by Jacques Paul Migne in, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Vol. 215, Col. 883-885.
10. ↑ Bibliothèque nationale de France , Collection Baluze 81, fol. 25th
11. ↑ Innocentii III Registrorum sive Epistolarum , ed. by Jacques Paul Migne in, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Vol. 216, Col. 283-284.
12. ↑ Innocentii III Registrorum sive Epistolarum , ed. by Jacques Paul Migne in, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Vol. 216, Col. 613-614.

predecessor	Office	successor
Guillem Pere de Ravidats	Bishop of Lleida 1177–1191	Gombau de Camporrells
Bernard Gaucelin	Archbishop of Narbonne 1190–1212	Arnaud Amaury