Guillaume de Grimoard (born in 1310 in Grizac, Lozere and deceased in 1370 with?) became pope under the name of Urbain V . He also bears the name of Bienheureux pope Urbain V since his Béatification in 1870 by the pope Pie IX.

Biography

Birth and childhood

Oldest son of Guillaume de Grimoard lord of Grisac and Amphélise (or Elects) of Montferrand, the future pope Urbain V carried the same patronym as his father. he was born in 1310 with the family castle from Grizac located on the commune from the Bridge-with-Monvert meadows from Mende. This castle, bought and restored by Mr. Renaud de Lausbespin, was built little before its birth by his/her father, knight-peasant. It will have two brothers: Etienne, died without descent and Anglic which will become monk with the abbey of Saint-Ruf of Valence and will be made cardinal by his brother. This last which will survive 18 years the Happy Urbain V died the April 14th 1388 and will be buried with the church of Saint-Ruf of Valence. The future pope also has a sister, Delphine who Maria with Guillaume de Monyaut.

Guillaume de Grimoard was baptized in 1310 and had as a godfather Elzéar de Sabran of which he will proclaim to him even holiness the April 15th 1369. Raise shining, it will leave the family home towards the 12 years age to go to study with Montpellier. His/her mother said to him with humility: " My son, I do not include myself/understand, but God, him, you comprends". It then Toulouse will perfect its studies to .

The monk

Its studies finished, it entered the order of the Bénédictins to the priory of the Monastier where his/her maternal uncle, Anglic, probably the godfather of his young brother, were prior. This monastery with some lieus of Mende, close to the boroughs of Chirac and Marvejols depended on the congregation victorine on Marseilles. Its completed noviciate, it went to Marseilles where it made its profession of faith then turned over to Monastier where it accepted sacerdotal ordination.

It left then to the University Montpellier where it taught and became a famous specialist in the Right. It was accepted doctor in 1342. It is always in this city when the terrible plague of 1348 is propagated and is some deeply marked.

Pierre d' Aigrefeuille has just been appointed bishop of Clermont-Ferrand takes it as general vicar. Once transferred to Uzés, the bishop will keep Guillaume de Grimoard at his sides. Remained black monk but of Cluny and either of Saint-Victor, it is named prior with the diocese of Auxerre. At this point in time, on February 13rd, 1352, the pope Clément VI made it pass to the head of the Saint-Germain Abbey of Auxerre.

The diplomat

He was an adviser listened of the popes as well of Clément VI as of Innocent VI from where the attribution of several missions in Italy.

Giovanni Visconti, imprudently appointed archbishop of Milan by Clement VI, wanted to be made main from Bologna. After an unhappy military intervention, Clément VI called upon Guillaume de Grimoard to enter into a delicate negociation. September 6th, 1352 it took in the name of the pope possession of Bologna to then yield it to Visconti against an annual payment. Guillaume de Grimoard saw himself entrusting to a similar mission by Innocent VI near Bernabo Visconti the nephew of Giovanni.

In recognition of the rendered services, Innocent VI named it the 2 aouût 1361 abbot of Saint-Victor in Marseilles after the death of Etienne de Clapier, holder of this seat.

Less than one year after its nomination, it accepted on June 10th, 1362 a message of the pope demendant to him to go urgently to Avignon. Indeed the prince Louis de Tarente, second husband of the queen Jeanne of Naples, countess of Provence, had just died. The pope asked him to go to Naples to carry to young the 36 year old widow his instructions. June 27th, 1362 it took the way of Italy.

The pope

Election

Depressed by the events, Innocent VI died on September 12th, 1362 whereas Guillaume de Grimoard was in the kingdom of Naples. To proceed to its succession the conclave opened on September 22nd, 1362; the cardinal Hugues Roger, brother of the late pope Clément VI was elected but challenged himself. The choice of a foreign prelate with Crowned College was essential and the 28 sepembre Guillaume de Grimoard was elected. To inform it mails left in the greatest secrecy so that Italian does not retain it. The abbot of Healthy-Victor took the sea immediately; arrived at Marseilles on October 27th, was initially ordered bishop because he was simply priest then established pope in Avignon the November 23rd. He since is regarded as the first of the popes Humaniste S and an European of the first hour. He would have declared with its arrived at the Palais of the popes: “But I do not even have an end of garden to see growing some fruit-lofts, eating my salad and gathering a grape”. It is perhaps following this sentence, or with its lack of gardens such as he knew them in his the native Cevennes that he undertaken during his pontificate of expensive work of extension of the jardins.sous the term of his choice Urbain V. Dice on November 26th, 1362, he chaired the translation of ashes of his predecessor Innocent VI in the chartreuse one of Villeneuve-the-Avignon in the presence of the king of France Jean II the Good.

Scientist and benefactor

He enriches considerably the library pontifical which contains a grnad number of work of history of the right, theology and philosophy. He benefits from his position to support teaching by the foundation of several " studium" , kinds of house of higher learning intended to prepare young people at the universities in particular with Trets (Mouth-of-Rône), Manosque (the Alps de Haute Provence), Saint-Germain-with-Calberte (Lozere), Saint-Novel (Gard) etc…

He works with the creation of several university colleges (Orange, Cracow, Vienna), from a music school in Toulouse. But it is especially the university of Montpellier, strongly shaken by the plague and the passage of the companies, which profits from its benefits.

Urbain V, if préoccpé of the spiritual interests, showed himself very generous to finance many work. Gévaudan and its diocese of Mende were submerged of benefits: a new cathedral with Mende, the collegial ones in Bédoués and Quézac, a parish church with Grisac its native village, embellishments with the priory of Chirac, a bridge on the Batch with Salmon etc… It made rebuild the Marseilles abbey of Saint-Victor of which he had been abbot and who was in very bad condition. Only two months after its crowning an immense building site is open. Pierre Boquier, librarian-archivist of the Benedictines of Marseilles is selected as accountant and director of work. To the maximum of the building site, one estimates at 200 the number of ouviers employed. The completed work, the pope went to Marseilles at the semi October 1365 to bless the embellishments and to devote the new furnace bridge. He was accepted in the middle of an immense crowd by the Dominican bishop Guillaume Sudre. He left then Marseilles to return to Avignon on October 24th, 1365.

Return to Rome

Urbain V had always estimated that the pope was to sit at Rome and not elsewhere. A relative calm having appeared in Italy following the military successes gained by the cardinal Albornoz against Bernabo Visconti, the pope estimated that it could settle in Rome. It was in fact a complete displacement of the court with its services, its files and its provisioning. The procession left Avignon and arrived at Marseilles on May 6th, 1367 when, before embarking, it devoted cardinal a 28 year old young man, Guillaume d' Aigrefeuille, homonym of his/her uncle. The fleet left Marseilles on May 19th, 1367.

The pope was accommodated on June 3rd with Cornéto (today Tarquina) by Albornoz which then leads it to Viterbe in the middle of an enthusiastic crowd. Albornoz was to hardly survive to date of glory and died 2 months later on August 24th, 1367. October 16th Urbain V enters triumphantly to Rome.

In March 1368 it receives the Jeanne queen and the king of Cyprus, Pierre de Lusignan who wished the departure of a new crusade. To this occasion Urbain V gave to the Jeanne queen the " pink of or" , distinction allotted for the first time to a woman. With those were astonished by this choice to the detriment of valorous Pierre de Lusignan, it recalled with humor that one had ever seen an abbot Maseille either to become pope.

The summer the 1370 pope resided at Montéfiasco when a revolt burst in Perugia. He folded up himself in Viterbe where the soldiers of Perugia and the company of the English captain John Hawkwood besieged it. During this time Bernado Visconti devastated Tuscany. The pope understood that its return was premature and decided to return to Avignon. The eloquence of his/her friend Pétrarque and the mystical forecasts of Brigitte of Sweden did not modify its decision.

Return to Avignon and death

September 27th, 1370 the court entered in large pump to Avignon. In November it felt the first attacks of the evil which deait to carry it. It settled in the house of his brother, the Anglic cardinal, to die there on December 19th, 1370. It wished to be buried with the manner of the poor to very the ground, then its body reduced in ash, that its bones be carried to the church of Saint-Victor of Marseilles. The Guy cardinal of Boulogne pronounced the funeral praise. In Montpellier an imposing ceremony took place the Christmas day before.

May 31st 1372, under the direction of his brother the cardinal Anglic, the remainders of the pope were exhumed tomb of the Notre-Dame cathedral of Doms and were transferred in Saint-Victor from Marseilles where its burial was the object of pilgrimages.

It is known very near to his origins gévaudanaises, and, in order to help its young people compatriot, it founds with Montpellier the Saint Martin's day college, intended to accommodate 12 (then 8) medical students resulting from Gévaudan. This attachment with medicine is explained by its friendship with one of the fathers of the medical surgery, Guy de Chauliac.

It marked its pontificate deeply by restoring the the Holy See with Rome in 1367. In 1370, in order to alleviate the wars devastating the France, it had to return to Avignon where it died the December 19th.

Striking facts

  • During its Pontificate, it will have restored the universities of Montpellier, Toulouse and Paris and works with the creation of several university colleges (Vienna, Cracow) and of the évéché first of Beijing.
  • It enriched particularly the Cevennes area by religious buildings: cathedral of Mende, collegiate churches of Quézac and Bédouès.
  • the king Charles V, to thank it, exempted the seigniory of Grizac of any tax becoming thus a frank ground, privilege preserved until the 18th century.

Its beatification

Its lawsuit of canonization is required by Valdemar IV of Denmark and promised by the pope Gregoire V since 1375. But the crisis of the Great Schism which shook the Catholic church had early made stop it. Thus it is only the March 10th 1870 which he was declared happy by the pope Pie IX.

An association was constituted to promote the cause of its sanctification.

Other information

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