Bernard Saisset

Bernard Saisset (* around 1232, † 1314 ) was the first bishop of Pamiers . He became known for his rivalry with King Philip IV the Beautiful of France in his conflict with Pope Boniface VIII.

Life

Saisset was appointed Abbot of Saint-Antonin in Pamiers in 1267 . In this office he led a varied feud with Count Roger Bernard III. von Foix on the common rulership rights in Pamiers ( paréage ). In 1297 he was finally forced to recognize the Count as co-lords in Pamiers after King Philip IV the Handsome had repeatedly sided with the Count.

The ensuing hostility between Saisset and the king had a decisive impact on his conflict with Pope Boniface VIII. In 1296 there was a first power struggle between the French king and the Pope, which had ignited over the taxation of the French clergy by the crown. In order to demonstrate his room for maneuver in France, Boniface VIII had founded a new bishopric in Pamiers without consulting the king and Saisset, the king's opponent, was appointed his first bishop.

After a brief relaxation in 1297, the conflict soon broke out again and even more bitterly when the Pope openly sided with Count Guido of Flanders in the War of Flanders . The Pope appointed Saisset to be his legate in Flanders. When he openly demanded the release of the captured Count of Flanders in this function, the king had an investigative commission set up to investigate suspicions of high treason against Saisset, who was ultimately a French subject. The Counts of Foix and Comminges appeared as witnesses to the crime, and the Saisset accused them of having called on them to revolt against the crown. Saisset was arrested in 1301 and tried in a royal court in Senlis , where he was accused of heresy by the royal councilor Pierre Flote .

Both the Pope and the Archbishop of Narbonne , Gilles Aycelin , protested in vain, since Saisset, as a bishop, was outside of secular jurisdiction. Saisset was found guilty and sentenced to several years in prison, which he initially served in Narbonne . In the spring of 1302, however, he was granted exile to Rome . The conflict between king and pope escalated completely and ended in 1303 with the assassination attempt of Anagni and the ensuing beginning of the exile of the Catholic Church in Avignon .

Saisset was completely pardoned by the French king in 1308 with the intercession of Pope Clement V , which allowed him to return to France. In the same year he signed a paréage contract with the crown to Les Allemans (today La Tour-du-Crieu ), where a royal vicar took his permanent seat.

swell

• Chronicon Girardi de Fracheto et anonyma ejusdem operis continuation . In: Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France , 21, 1840, p. 19

literature

• Saisset, Bernard . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 24 : Sainte-Claire Deville - Shuttle . London 1911, p. 52 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

predecessor	Office	successor
Office newly created	Bishop of Pamirs 1297-1314	Pilfort de Rabastens