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193 E P I L O G U E I I I The Council of Vienne and Beyond By a bull of 12 August 1308 (Regnans in excelsis), Clement V had called for a universal church council to convene on 1 November 1310 in order to deal with the Templar question, the general reform of the church, and the organization of a new crusade.1 But with the Templar inquiries dragging on and the posthumous trial of Boniface VIII still pending, on 4 April 1310—just as the trials of Marguerite and Guiard were in full swing—Clement postponed the opening of the council until October 1311. In the meantime (on 27 April 1311) the pope effectively brought the process against Boniface VIII to a close by suppressing specific acts that had been prejudicial to Philip IV, recognizing that Philip had acted through righteous zeal in confronting Boniface, and absolving William of Nogaret for his role in the attack at Anagni.2 When the Council of Vienne opened on 16 October 1311, it was lightly attended compared to the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the two Councils of Lyon (1245 and 1274). Still, close to 170 cardinals, archbishops, bishops, abbots, and assorted church dignitaries gathered at Vienne.3 This modest town just south of Lyon lay on the imperial side of the Rhône, but French influence at the council was nevertheless dominant. At least half the abbots and a third of the bishops were from France, including men such as Philip of Marigny and John of Châteauvillain who had played a role in determining Marguerite Porete’s fate.4 Indeed, among the twenty-one theologians who had the year before condemned extracts from Marguerite’s book, at least six—Jacques of Thérines, Gerard of Bologna, John of Pouilly, Henry of Friemar, Berenger of Landora, and Jacob of Ascoli—now made the trip to Vienne. Other close royal advisors such as Enguerran of Marigny, William of Nogaret, and William of Plaisians appeared by February 1312 to pressure Clement V on the Templar issue, and Philip IV arrived in person on 20 March.5 There is no direct evidence as to whether William of Paris—still the royal confessor—was also in Vienne for the conclusion of the council, but it is certainly possible. In short, a substantial number of men with direct knowledge of the trials of Marguerite Porete and Guiard of Cressonessart took part in the Council of Vienne. The council, however, did not speak with one voice in either its deliberations or its eventual legislation. For one thing, it did its work through commissions, such as those assigned to deal with the large issues of the Templars, the crusade, and general reform, as well as with more specific questions such as the Franciscan conflict over poverty. Moreover, the canons of the council were not published immediately in May 1312. Rather, Clement and his advisors subjected them to further revision before they were finally read in consistory on 21 March 1314. Even then, however, they had not yet been “published” by being sent out to universities at the time of Clement’s death a month later on 20 April. It was only after John XXII’s election (on 7 August 1316) that a corrected version of the “Clementine” decrees was issued in 1317. Thus some canons must reflect Clement’s personal revisions, and others may have been influenced by the corrections of John XXII (who had himself been present at Vienne as bishop of Avignon).6 These complicating factors notwithstanding, this final section will assess the links between events in Paris in 1310 and actions taken in Vienne in 1311–12 and will then conclude with a brief reflection on the resulting repressions (and their limits) that characterized the next several decades. Vienne and the End of the Templars The most pressing matter before the pope and council was resolving the Templar question. Most of the participants of the council favored allowing the Templars to offer a defense (as indeed Clement had previ194 THE BEGUINE, THE ANGEL, AND THE INQUISITOR ously promised would be the case). Even the French prelates leaned this way, with the unsurprising exception of a few who had been intimately involved in the earlier investigations, such as Philip of Marigny and Gilles Aycelin.7 Philip IV, however, convoked a meeting of the Estates in Lyon for February 1312 to whip up public outcry just as his ambassadors were negotiating with Clement and the...

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