Pierre Flote is one of the most known legists of the reign of Philippe Beautiful the.

Its origins

For some it was born in Dauphiné in the middle of the XIIIe century. He would be the son junior by Arnaldus Flotte lord of Rock-of-Arnauds the. For others that of Raimond Ier, small son of Arnaud II and Adélaïs de Comps.

Laroche-près-Feyt asserts being its birthplace.

The armorial bearings of Flote of Auvergne are fascés of gold and azure of six parts and those of Flote of the Dauphine rhombus of money and mouths to the chief of gold

Biography

It is of 1273 with 1291 the right-hand man of Humbert Ier of the Viennese who will become by his marriage in 1273 Dolphin of the Viennese.

It is pilot with the donation by Béatrix of the Tower of the Pine on February 24th, 1280 for the chartreuse one of the Holy-Cross (current village of Holy-Cross-in-Jarez). In 1283 it intervenes like guarantor of the marriage contract of the girl of Humbert. In 1287, it negotiates the problems of border between Dauphinée and Amédée V of Savoy. In 1294 it intervened in the treaty between the king and the dolphin for the supply of 200 lances. Gilles I Aycelin de Montaigut whose father Pierre II Aycelin could have married the sister of Pierre Flote, was one of its close relations.

Always in 1294, at the time of the Franco-English conflict, he is negotiator for Philippe IV in Gascogne. It enters to the Council of the king in 1296 and consequently organizes the fight plan against papacy. Boniface VIII then had just published its décrétale Clericis laicos reminding the king the pontifical assent to impose the clergy. On the council of Flote and other legists, Philippe IV interdict very left gold and money out of the kingdom, thus depriving the pope of a good part of her incomes. Boniface VIII returns then to better feelings. Its bubble Romana MATER ecclesia of 1298 cancels the decisions of Clericis laicos . In 1297 it receives in gift of Philippe Beautiful the Château of Ravel. In 1297 it is named Chancelier of France, load hitherto reserved for the clergy. The conflict takes again in 1301 when the king makes stop and condemn the bishop of Pamiers, Bernard Saisset, shown treason. A new bubble of the pope, Auscultated filii , reaffirms the preeminence of spiritual on the temporal one and denies with the king the right to judge a member of the French clergy. It is Pierre Flote which organizes the royal response again. It makes convene with Notre-Dame de Paris, in April 1302, an assembly of barons, prelates and of middle-class man that certain historians regard as the first General states of the History. There, it summarizes to them with its way the last pontifical bubble while bringing back it to 6 proposals of which this one: " We want that you know that you are subjected to us to spiritual and with the temporel". Consequently occasion, it makes them approve the anti-papal policy of the king. The members of the assembly give their support but the clergy does it with less enthusiasm than the others.

Three months later, the July 11th, Pierre Flote are killed with the battles of Courtrai. Guillaume de Nogaret then takes its place like strategist of the royal policy with regard to the St-Seat.

Here what Boniface VIII declares in connection with Pierre Flote shortly after the assembly of Notre-Dame: “ It is the had devil or one of the devil. God already punished it by plugging his body (it is one-eyed) as is blind his spirit. It is Pierre Flote, man full with acid and gall, heretic to be corrected and condemn as tel. It is the ruin of his/her own brother. He is to advise of the king and since this time the king and the kingdom made only deteriorate their relations with the Church ”.

Reference

• Jean Favier, Philippe Beautiful the , Beech, 1978.
• Ann Mc Namara Gilles Aycelin The serving off two masters Syracuse close 1970