Gaillard de la Mothe

Gaillard de La Mothe (also spelled de La Motte, de LaMotte, della Motta) was a fourteenth-century prelate and Cardinal, of Gascon extraction. Gaillard was born towards the end of the 13th century, either in Toulouse or Bordeaux,[1] and died in Avignon on 20 December 1356. He was the son of Amanieu Levieux de La Motte, seigneur de Langon et de Rochetaillé. His mother was Elips (Alix) de Got, daughter of Arnaud-Garsale de Got, brother of Bertrand de Got. He was therefore a nephew of Pope Clement V (Bertrand de Got).[2] Gaillard had a brother, Bertrand.[3] Another uncle, his father's brother, Guillaume de la Mothe, was Bishop of Bazas from 1303-1313, when he was transferred to Saintes, and again from 1318 to 1319.[4]

Cardinal

Gaillard de La Mothe
Cardinal-Deacon
ChurchSanta Lucia in Silice (1316-1356)
Orders
Created cardinal18 December 1316
by Pope John XXII
Personal details
Died20 December 1356
Avignon, FR
BuriedBazas, Church of S. Jean
NationalityGascon
ParentsAmanieu de La Motte
Elips (Alix) de Got
Occupationcleric

Early career

Pope Clement V (1305-1314) had secularized the monastery of S. Emilion, and converted it into a Collegiate Church with canons. The first Dean of the Canons of S. Emilion was Gaillard de La Mothe.[5]

By 1313 he was Protonotary Apostolic and Archdeacon of Narbonne, thanks to his uncle's patronage.[6] On 20 May 1313 Pope Clement reserved for his nephew a prebend in the Church of Compostella in Spain. On 23 June he made him Canon and Prebend of the Church of Rouen.[7] On 17 August 1313 the Pope granted Gaillard the privilege of visiting his Archdeaconry of Oxford in the Church of Lincoln by proxy, for a period of three years. On 23 October he was granted the same privilege with respect to his Archdeaconry of Grand-Caux in the Church of Rouen.[8] These positions were granted for the sake of the income. There was no expectation that the recipient would ever appear personally, and in the case of the English benefices, Gaillard did not. He appointed procurators in England to act as his legal agents.

Cardinal

He was named a cardinal by Pope John XXII in his first Consistory for the creation of cardinals on 18 December 1316. He was named Deacon of Santa Lucia in Silice.[9]

Cardinal de la Mothe took part in the Conclave of 13–20 December 1334, following the death of Pope John. Twenty-four cardinals participated, two-thirds of them French, five from Cahors. The cardinals chose the Cistercian Cardinal Jacques Fournier, from the town of Savardun near Toulouse, in the Diocese of Pamiers.[10] He took the throne name of Benedict XII.

In 1336, Gaillard de La Mothe was one of five cardinals, and numerous other prelates and lay persons, who were appointed to revise the Statutes of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans).[11]

Cardinal Gaillard de La Mothe also took part in the Conclave of 5–7 May 1342, following the death of Pope Benedict XII (Jacques Fournier). Eighteen of the nineteen cardinals took part in the election, which took place in the Apostolic Palace in Avignon. The Cardinals elected Cardinal Pierre Roger of Limoges. Pope Clement VI was crowned at the Church of the Convent of the Dominicans in Avignon, on Pentecost Sunday, 19 May 1342, by Cardinal Raymond Guillaume de Fargues, the Protodeacon. Among the witnesses were John Duke of Normandy, the eldest son of the King, Jacques Duke of Bourbon, Philip Duke of Burgundy, and Imbert Dauphin of Vienne.[12]

English benefices and French hostility

On 21 June 1339, Pope Benedict XII wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Winchester, and the Bishop of Paris, issuing a mandate for them to protect Cardinal Gaillard de La Mothe against those who molest him, touching his benefices and possessions in their dioceses.[13] This indicates that, in addition to the benefices already noted, Gaillard also had benefices in Canterbury, Winchester and Paris.

On 20 February 1345, Cardinal de La Mothe still held in England the benefices of: Archdeacon of Oxford, Archdeacon of Ely, Precentor of Chichester (by 1321), and Prebend of Milton in the Church of Lincoln.[14] The possession of such a number of English benefices should cause no surprise. Gascony and Guyenne belonged to the English crown, and both the de Gots and the de la Mothes owed allegiance to the King of England.

In the summer of 1346 Cardinal de La Mothe found himself in serious trouble. Two of his familiares hid themselves near the Cardinal's presence, and claimed to have overheard the Cardinal make remarks which were injurious to the King and Queen of France. They caused the alleged remarks to be circulated among the subjects of the French King. King Philip VI wrote to the Pope, who ordered an investigation in which subjects of the King were examined. The solemn investigation found that the remarks had been invented, and Cardinal de La Mothe was cleared. When they were released, the familiars headed immediately for the French Court. The Pope, therefore, had to write a letter to the King, fully explaining what he had done to seek the truth, explaining that the whole set of remarks had been invented, and that Cardinal de La Mothe had been exonerated.[15] In that same summer, Prince John of France was campaigning against the English in Languedoc and Gascony, and he happened to attack a castle belonging to the nephew of Cardinal de La Mothe.[16]

In 1348, Cardinal de La Mothe and two other cardinals were assigned to be Relatores (discussion leaders) when the portion of the process for the Canonization of St. Yvo Helori which included his claimed miracles was discussed and voted on. Their efforts were successful.[17]

De La Mothe took part in the Conclave of 1352, following the death of Clement VI on 6 December 1352. The Conclave opened on Sunday 16 December, in the Apostolic Palace in Avignon, with twenty-six cardinals in attendance. It ended on the morning of Tuesday 18 December, with the election of Innocent VI (Étienne Aubert, the Bishop of Ostia).[18] He was crowned in the Apostolic Palace at Avignon on Sunday 30 December by Cardinal Gaillard de la Mothe, the Protodeacon.[19]

On 5 February 1355 Cardinal de La Mothe was present in Consistory along with Pope Innocent VI and twenty other cardinals to discuss the petition submitted by Pierre Bertrand de Colombiers, Bishop of Ostia, to be granted the pallium before he set off for Rome to preside at the Coronation of the Emperor Charles IV. Next day, the Pope, having consulted the cardinals as a group and individually, issued his decree granting the pallium and assigning Cardinal Gaillard and Cardinal Bernard de Torre of S. Eustachio to present it according to the accepted ritual.[20]

Cardinal Gaillard de La Mothe died on 20 December 1356, and was buried at Bazas in the Church of Saint Jean, where he was building a magnificent monument for his uncle Pope Clement V. The church was devastated by the Huguenots in 1577.[21]

Of Cardinal de La Mothe Jean Roy remarked,[22] "... it is true that this prelate did not have all the talents necessary to administer advantageously the affairs of the Church and of the Holy See...."

See also

References
  1. His uncle, Bertrand de Got, was Archbishop of Bordeaux from 1299 to 1305: Eubel, p. 150.
  2. Chevalier de Courcelles (1826). Histoire généalogique et héraldique des pairs de France, des grands dignitaires de la couronne, des principales familles nobles du royaume, et des Maisons princières de l'Europe, précédée de la généalogie de la Maison de France (in French). Tome sixieme. Paris: l'auteur. p. 16.
  3. Philippe-Joseph Caffiaux (1777). Trésor généalogique, ou extraits de titres anciens qui concernent les maisons & familles de France & des environs, connus en 1400 ou auparavant (in French). Tome premier. Paris: De l'imprimerie de Philippe-Denys Pierres. p. 249.
  4. Eubel, p. 516. Patrice John O'Reilly (1840). Essai sur l'Histoire de la ville et de l'arrondissement de Bazas, depuis la conquête des Romains dans la Novempopulanie, jusqu'à la fin du 18e siècle (in French). Bazas: Labarriere. pp. 190–191.. Gaillard's brother, Raymond Bernardi de La Mothe, was also Bishop of Bazas (1348-1358), appointed on the recommendation of Cardinal Gaillard de La Mothe. Roy, p. 5.
  5. Joseph Guadet (1841). Saint-Émilion, son histoire et ses monuments. [With] Atlas (in French). Paris: Imprimerie royale. p. 35. (in French).
  6. Martin, p. 590, no. 2523. This document happens to contain the names of both Bishop Gaillard de la Mothe de Preissac of Toulouse and Msgr. Gaillard de La Mothe the papal nephew, proving that they are different persons.
  7. Martin, p. 592, no. 2531 and 2532..
  8. Martin, p. 593, no. 2536; p. 594, no. 2537. Gaillard was admitted to the Archdeaconry of Oxford on 13 March 1313: Le Neve, II, p. 65.
  9. Eubel, p. 15.
  10. J. P. Adams, Sede Vacante 1334. Retrieved: 2016-05-30.
  11. Baronio (ed. Theiner), Vol. 25, p. 88, under the year 1336, § 65.
  12. J. P. Adams, Sede Vacante 1342. Retrieved: 2016-05-30.
  13. Bliss, W. H., ed. (1895). Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters (1305-1342). Vol. II. London: H.M. Stationery Office.
  14. Thomas Rymer (1739). "Vol. II, part ii". Foedera, conventiones, literae, et cujuscumque generis acta publica inter reges Angliae, et alios quosvis imperatores, reges, pontifices... ab 1101 ad nostra usque tempora (in Latin). Volume II, parts i and ii (third ed.). Hague: Neauline. p. 173. On the prebend of Milton, which was settled in 1321, see Deeley, Ann (1928). "Papal Provision and Royal Rights of Patronage in the Early Fourteenth Century". The English Historical Review. 43 (172): 497–527, at 522. JSTOR 551827.
  15. Baluze (1693), II, pp. 667-668 [ed. Mollat IV, pp. 66-67].
  16. Giovanni Villani, Cronica Book XII, chapter LXI [ed. Dragomanni, Tomo IV (Firenze 1845), pp. 102-103].
  17. Henschen, G.; Papebroch, D. (1685). Acta sanctorum: Acta sanctorum maii. Tomus IV. Antwerp: apud Michaelem Cnobarum. p. 578F.
  18. Zacour, Norman (1957). "A Note on the Papal Election of 1352: The Candidacy of Jean Birel". Traditio. 13: 456–462. JSTOR 27830358.
  19. J. P. Adams, Sede Vacante 1352. Retrieved: 2016-05-30.
  20. Ioannes Porta de Annoniaco (1913). Liber de Coronatione Caroli IV Imperatoris. Hannover and Leipzig: Hahn. pp. 13, 19. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  21. Roy, p. 8.
  22. Roy, p. 4.
  23. Baluze (1693), I, p. 732. Roy, p. 3. Benedictines of St. Maur, Gallia christiana XIII (Paris 1785), p. 37. Conradus Eubel, Hierarchia catholica I, editio altera (Monasterii 1913), p. 488. Note that our Gaillard was only a Canon of Narbonne, not a bishop, when he became a Cardinal in 1316.

Bibliography
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