Bernard Saisset

Bernard Saisset is a French prelate born about 1232 and died about 1314.

Abbot of the canons of Saint-Antonin of Pamiers then bishop of this city when Boniface VIII set it up in seat of a new diocese, it is famous for his contentions with Philippe Beautiful the. This last showed it to have disputed the legitimacy of the capacity of the Capétiens in Languedoc. Saisset would have suggested with the Count de Foix, Roger Bernard III, and with the Count de Comminges to release itself from the French supervision. Philippe Beautiful the opened an investigation and put the goods of the bishop under sequestration, with the contempt of ecclesiastical immunity and undoubtedly by provocation towards Boniface VIII. In the night of the 12 to the July 13rd 1301, whereas it is about to escape from Rome, Saisset was stopped. It appears before the royal council with Senlis the 24 of October 1301. To the charge of high treason and insults against the person of the king charges of Hérésie are then added to its opposition, which were the work of Guillaume de Nogaret. The arrest and the royal procedure against Saisset started the great conflict of Philippe Beautiful the with Boniface VIII, which led to the Attentat of Anagni in 1303. Indeed, to claim with a procedure against the bishop, Philippe IV was to obtain the degradation of Saisset by the Pope. Instead of that, Boniface VIII orders to the king of released the bishop, so that it can go to Rome to give the opportunity to him to be explained. This fact envenime again relations between the king and of the pope, prolonging a quarrel which brooded since the bubble Clericis laicos of 1296. For on November 1st, 1302, Boniface VIII convenes in Rome all the French prelates in order to examine possible sanctions.

In the middle of this fight, Saisset is somewhat forgotten after being driven out kingdom. It leaves to Rome in February 1302, city which it leaves after the attack of Anagni. In 1308, thanks to a pope more reconciling, (Clement VII, first pope of Avignon), Saisset is pardoned by the king. It then takes again its load of bishop of Pamiers, and dies in Pamiers about 1314.

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