Blessed Pierre de Castelnau | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Diocese of Montpellier, France |
| Died | 15 January 1208 Rhône valley, Provence, France |
| Sainthood | |
| Beatified | 1208 by Pope Innocent III |
Pierre de Castelnau (? - died 15 January 1208),[1][2] French ecclesiastic, was born in the diocese of Montpellier.[1][2]
He was archdeacon of Maguelonne, and in 1199 was appointed by Pope Innocent III as one of the papal legates for the suppression of the Cathar heresy in Languedoc.[1][3] In 1202, he made profession as a Cistercian monk at the abbey of Fontfroide,[3] Narbonne, and was confirmed as papal legate and chief inquisitor,[2] first in Toulouse, and afterwards at Viviers and Montpellier.[1]
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In 1207 he was in the Rhone valley and in Provence, where he became involved in the strife between the count of Baux and Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse.[1] Castelnau was assassinated on 15 January 1208,[1] possibly by an agent of Raymond,[4] but this was never proved.[5] Nevertheless, Pope Innocent III, held Raymond responsible. The murder was the immediate cause of Raymond's excommunication and the start of the Albigensian Crusade.[6]
He was beatified in the year of his death by Pope Innocent III,[1] who held Raymond responsible. The relics of Pierre de Castelnau are interred in the church of the ancient Abbey of St-Gilles.[2][4]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 591.
- ^ a b c d Obrecht, Edmond Mary (1911). . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ a b Sumption 1978, p. 68.
- ^ a b Sumption 1978, p. 15.
- ^ Taylor, Claire. Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Medieval Quercy, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2011, p. 89ISBN 9781903153383
- ^ Sumption 1978, p. 77.
Sources
- Graham-Leigh, Elaine. The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2005. ISBN 1-84383-129-5
- Sumption, Jonathan (1978). The Albigensian Crusade. Faber and Faber.