Franciscan inquisition and mendicant rivalry in mid-thirteenth-century Marseille

Abstract Although Dominicans are more widely studied as the work force behind medieval inquisitions, Franciscan friars began to act as inquisitors of heretical depravity within Provence and elsewhere by the mid-thirteenth century. In this article, the testimony of a Marseille priest, Master Durand, found in the Archives Départementales de Vaucluse Cordeliers d'Avignon 24 H 3, reveals much about the period of political intrigue within the commune of Marseille when the order of Friars Minor first assumed control of the inquisition within the county of Provence. The testimony exposes the tensions between members of the Dominican convent at Marseille and the Franciscan inquisitors as the Franciscans sought to establish themselves as heresy inquisitors in the region and as both mendicant orders sought to retain the approval of the count of Provence, Charles I of Anjou. Keywords: Charles I of AnjouDominicanFalse testimonyFranciscanInquisitionMarseille Notes † Bullarium Franciscanum Romanorum Pontificum Constitutiones, Epistolas ac Diplomata Continens Tribus Ordinibus S.P.N. Francisci Spectantia v. 1-4, ed. Giovanni Giacinto Sbaraglia, (Rome, 1759-1768); v. 5-7, ed. Konrad Eubel, (Rome: 1898-1904). ‡ I completed this article while in residence as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of Toronto; I am grateful for the time and resources I enjoyed there as a fellow. In addition, I would like to thank Professor William Chester Jordan and Drew Thomas Levy for their help in the preparation of this article. 1 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 3-4. 2 Durand is referred to as magister throughout the interrogation. In 1266, this typically would indicate someone with university credentials. Unfortunately, his educational background remains a mystery. Presumably he was a secular cleric, however, since each member of the regular clergy is identified by order in the document. 3 The document is not housed at the Archives Départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône, as one might expect. A papal bull from 9 October 1331 may provide a reasonable explanation. In the bull, John XXII orders the Friars Minor of Avignon to welcome the Franciscan inquisitor Guilhem Astre at their convent and to allow him use of the buildings originally constructed to house the inquisitors and their archives. Since no inquisitor had been in residence for some time, the brothers had taken over these buildings for their own use. It is possible that documents from the earliest period of Franciscan inquisition were once housed at the Franciscan convent at Avignon, which may explain why this document is bound up with the collection of bulls from the city's Franciscan convent. It should be noted that a number of the bulls pertain to Franciscan administration of heresy inquisition in the region. Bullarium Franciscanum (henceforth BF), 5, 509, no. 936. 4 Jacques Chiffoleau appears to have been the first and only scholar until now to make mention or use of the trial against Master Durand since Giovanni Giacinto Sbaraglia published volume three of the Bullarium franciscanum in the mid-eighteenth century, ‘Les mendiants, le prince, et l'hérésie à Marseille vers 1260’, Provence historique, 36 (1986), 3–19. Sbaraglia refers to the provincial minister of Provence, qui in epistola S. Bonaventurae ad eum anno sequenti data dicitur B. Saucellis, sed in quodam actu ab Inquisitore Guillelmo Bertrandi eodem anno Massiliae cum Presbytero Durando m. Januario habito ex Archivo nostri Conventus Avenionensis Jaucelinus appellatur. See BF, 3, 38, no. 40, note c. 5 In particular, John H. Arnold, Inquisition and power: Catharism and the confessing subject in medieval Languedoc (Philadelphia, 2001); Caterina Bruschi and Peter Biller, Texts and the repression of medieval heresy, ed. Caterina Bruschi and Peter Biller (York, 2003); James B. Given, Inquisition and medieval society: power, discipline and resistance in Languedoc (Ithaca, 1997); and Mark Gregory Pegg, The corruption of angels: the great inquisition of 1245–1246 (Princeton, 2001). 6 Yves Dossat, ‘Débuts de l'inquisition à Montpellier et en Provence’, Bulletin philologique et historique (jusqu'à 1610) (Paris, 1963), especially 567 and 574; and Crises de l'Inquisition toulousaine (Bordeaux, 1959), 170. 7 Yves Dossat argues that Franciscans must have begun acting as inquisitors in Provence starting in 1258–1259, but cites no documents that support this claim. Dossat, ‘Les origines de la querelle entre Prêcheurs et Mineurs provençaux: Bernard Délicieux’, Cahiers de Fanjeaux: Franciscains d'Oc: Les Spirituels ca. 1280–1324, 10 (Toulouse, 1975), 317–8. See also Dossat's article ‘Débuts de l'Inquisition’, 561–79. Innocent IV wrote the Dominicans at Paris on 11 July 1254 and again on 13 July 1254, requesting them to enlist (or re-enlist, as the case was) in the fight against heresy. Innocent IV sent a letter in the exact same form as no. 4111 to the Franciscans on 21 July 1254. Layettes du Trésor des Chartes, III, ed. Joseph De Laborde (Paris, 1875), no. 4111, 215–6; no. 4112, 216–7; and no. 4113, 216 respectively. Alexander IV repeated these requests a year later in a bull from 13 December 1255 addressed to the provincial prior of the Dominicans in France and to the Guardian of the Franciscans at Paris. Layettes, III, no. 4224, 281. By contrast, there is firm evidence that Guilhem Bertrand was already a heresy inquisitor as of 25 November 1263, when he was mentioned as such in a bull of Urban IV. BF, 2, no. 108, 527. 8 Marguerite, the eldest, was married to Louis IX of France, Eléanor to Henry III of England, and Sancie to Henry's brother, Richard of Cornwall. V.-L. Bourrilly and Raoul Busquet, La Provence au moyen âge: histoire politique, l'église, les institutions (1112–1481) (Marseille, 1924), 61. 9 For the history of Marseille and Provence during this period, see the following: V.-L. Bourrilly, Essai sur l'histoire politique de la commune de Marseille à la victoire de Charles d'Anjou (1264) (Aix-en-Provence, 1926); Bourrilly and Busquet, La Provence au moyen âge; and Georges Le Sage, Marseille angevine (Paris, 1950). 10 Jean Dunbabin, Charles I of Anjou: Power, kingship and state-making in thirteenth-century Europe (London, 1998), 46. 11 Dunbabin, Charles I of Anjou, 41–3. 12 Georges Le Sage, Marseille angevine, 8. 13 Bourrilly, Essai sur l'histoire politique de la commune de Marseille, 223. 14 Bourrilly, Essai sur l'histoire politique de la commune de Marseille, 237–40. 15 Dossat, ‘Débuts de l'inquisition’, 579 for unrest within Provence and Languedoc. For unrest further afield, Dossat, ‘Les Origines de la Querelle’, 321. 16 The political and social character of inquisition in the Middle Ages was first brought to light by Richard Wilder Emery in Heresy and inquisition in Narbonne (New York, 1941; repr. New York, 1967). Madeleine Villard has done a short study of Marseille along similar, if not the same, lines, ‘Vaudois marseillais au XIIIe siècle’, Provence historique, 31 (1981), 341–54. 17 Dossat, ‘Débuts de l'inquisition’, 561–79 and ‘Les origines de la querelle’, 315–54; Villard, ‘Vaudois marseillais’, 341–54; and Chiffoleau, ‘Les mendiants, le prince et l'hérésie à Marseille’, 3–19. On the issue of support for Dominican and Franciscan friars within medieval cities, see Daniel R. Lesnick, Preaching in medieval Florence: the social world of Franciscan and Dominican spirituality (Athens, GA, 1989) 45, 67. 18 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 5–6. 19 Bourrilly, Essai sur l'histoire politique de la commune de Marseille, 223, and 449–74, no. xlv, second peace treaty, negotiated at Marseille, 6 June 1257. See page 451 specifically: Manifestum fiat presentibus et futuris, quod domini Symeon Laguetus, Andreas de Portu, Bertrandus de Bucco, Guillelmus Cornutus et Hugo Audoardi, rectores comunis Massilie tam consiliariorum quam capitum misteriorum ad sonum campanarum et voce preconia more solio in aula viridi palatii Massilie congregata (sic) et omnes et singuli de eodem consili in hoc unanimiter concordantes, nomine comunis et universitatis civitatis vicecometalis Massilie creaverunt et ordinaverunt et constituerunt Raolinum Draperium, civem Massilie, hic presentem et infrascriptum syndicatum recipientem, syndicym, actorem seu procuratorem comunis et universitatis Massilie…. 20 Bourrilly, Essai sur l'histoire politique de la commune de Marseille, 475–83, no. xlvi, third peace treaty, negotiated at Aix, 12–13 November 1262. Chiffoleau, ‘Les mendiants, le prince, et l'hérésie à Marseille’, 6. 21 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, Cordeliers d'Avignon, 24 H 3, ll.6-7. 22 The regalium Massilie was the Angevin royal money of Marseille, not to be confused with the ‘mixed money’ of Marseille coined by its citizens in opposition to the counts of Provence. See Peter Spufford, Handbook of medieval exchange (London, 1986), 117. According to Spufford, in 1268 (roughly the same time as the process of inquisition), one livre regalium Massilie equaled 16 sous tournois of France. According to this conversion, the 14 l. regalium that Simon Laguet owed Master Durand were worth 11 l. 4 s. tournois. For comparison, see Joseph R. Strayer, The reign of Philip the Fair (Princeton, 1980), 53 and 56, note 2. A roofer paid 18 d. t per day working 360 days per year (a gross overestimate) would earn 27 l. t. per year. We do not know how the debt was incurred, but it is interesting to note, because Villard has shown that Simon Laguet was a wealthy man, who even acted as a money lender within his community. ‘Vaudois marseillais’, 348. 23 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, l. 8. For evidence of Laguet's arrest, see Villard, ‘Vaudois marseillais’, 344; for his standing within the city, 348–9. Louis Blancard does not specifically note that Simon Laguet had been imprisoned, but he does edit a document that shows that just before the failed uprising of 1263, the count paid expenses for the incarceration of 16 people for a period of 27 days. Moreover, the same receipt makes note of a sum paid to Fratri Maurino inquisitori for expenses also incurred before the failed plot. ‘Documents inédits sur l'histoire politique de Marseille au XIIIe siècle’, Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 21 (1860), 516–31. 24 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 11–3. 25 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 14–6. Jaucelin was provincial minister of the Franciscan province of Provence from 1262 until 1272. For more on Jaucelin, see Pierre Péano, ‘Les ministres provinciaux de la primitive province de Provence’, AFH, 79 (1986), 22–5. According to Péano, Jaucelin was present at Aix for the signing of a treaty between Charles of Anjou and the Commune of Marseille on 12 November 1262 and placed his seal as provincial minister of the Franciscan province of Provence on the treaty. 26 Edward Peters, Inquisition (New York, 1988) 66. Yves Dossat, Les crises de l'inquisition toulousaine au XIIIe siècle (1233–1273) (Bordeaux, 1959), 207. Livario Oliger, ‘Summula inquisitionis auctore Fr. Angelo de Assisio, O.M. (1361)’, Antonianum, 5 (1930), 486. 27 Bourrilly, Essai sur l'histoire politique de la commune de Marseille, 223. 28 BF, 2, 555, no. 142. Chiffoleau, ‘Les mendiants, le prince et l'hérésie à Marseille’, 4. 29 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 19–20. 30 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 20–3. David Abulafia, Frederick II: a medieval emperor (London, 1988), 408–21. 31 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 23–4. 32 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 24–5. 33 Again, in the context of heresy inquisition, witness testimony was kept private — but this was not inquisition testimony. Oliger, ‘Summula inquisitionis auctore Fr. Angelo de Assisio’, 486. The priests gave their testimony within the episcopal palace of Marseille — possibly even in the same room in which Master Durand later testified before the inquisitor, Guilhem Bertrand. 34 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 30–2. 35 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 33–4. 36 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 35–7. 37 Other records notarised by Pons Genes in Marseille can be found in the Archives Communales de Marseille, 2 II 15, 26 April 1259, and 2 II 21, 30 September 1260. Unfortunately, none of the notary's registers is extant. Louis Blancard edited one act by Pons from 24 March 1260 in Documents inédits sur le commerce de Marseille, 218–21. 38 Maguelonne was the Mediterranean port used by the inland town Montpellier and also the site of that region's episcopal see. 39 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 52–6. 40 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 59–60. 41 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 63–5. 42 Dunbabin, Charles I of Anjou, 86–7. 43 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 78–9. 44 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 82–4. 45 Et cum ad quasdam interrogationes ipsum negotium suo judicio contingentes interrogati saepius ab eodem nullum vellent dare responsum, eas dicentes esse impertinentes ad dictum officium; sicut de peritorum consilio se habuisse dicebant; ipse Fr. Guillelmus Bertrandi ex hoc eos judicans esse contumaces, excommmunicationis sententiam in eos protulit sapientium communicatis consiliis; prout asserit; et eamdem fecit Massiliae publicari…. BF, 3, 85, no. 83, 12 June 1266. In fact, the Dominicans' actions bore directly on the relation of Guilhem Bertrand and Brother Maurin to their office as inquisitors: It undermined their authority and position in the community, and as such, threatened their ability to perform their duties effectively. By papal decree, hindering the process of inquisition or the work of inquisitors was an offense punishable in the same manner as heresy itself. Innocent IV, BF, 1, 725–30, no. 549, 15 May 1254. 46 Nos igitur attendentes, quod licet dicti Fratres Supprior, et Johannes Guidonis graviter excessissent; appellationi tamen eorum, si legitima extiterit, idem F. G. Bertrandi deferre debuit, suadente justitia; etiamsi non fuerit legitima; et contra Fratres dicti Ordinis non tam cito procedere; sed Nos potius, aut dilectum Filium nostrum Johannem Tituli Sancti Nicolai in Carcere Tulliano Diaconum Cardinalem consulere debuisset; dictos ergo Fratres Suppriorem, et Johannem ad cautelam absolvi fecimus. BF, 3, 85, no. 83, 12 June 1266. 47 Volumus etiam, et mandamus, quatenus ad tuum praeceptum Frater Benedictus ejusdem Praedicatorum Ordinis, qui publice os suum aperuit in praedicti Fratris Maurini non modicam contumeliam, quem ab objectis immunem in omnibus, et per omnia reputamus, publice coram Cleri, et populi multitudine convocata Massilie prostrates petat veniam ab eodem. BF, 3, 83, no. 82, 11 or 12 June 1266. 48 Clement IV ordered that those sent away not return until a period of three years had passed: Volumus, et tibi in virtute obedientiae firmiter praecipiendo mandamus, quatenus dictum Fratrem Benedictum in Provinciam Franciae, et duos alios in Provinciam Narbonensem mittere non postponas; postquam illa compleverint, quae eisdem per Venerabilem Fratrem nostrum Aquensem Archiepiscopum injungentur; dictoque Fratri Benedicto inhibeas, ne in partem aliquam tuae Provinciae infra triennium veniat; dictisque duobus aliis Fratribus ne Narbonensem Provinciam exeant infra eundem terminum auctoritate districtius interdicas. BF, 3 87, no. 85. See also Dossat, ‘Les origines de la querelle’, 320. 49 Clement IV, 12 June 1266, BF, 3, no. 83, 84–6. 50 Ceterum ne similia praexumantur in posterum; et scissura praedictorum Ordinum augeatur prohibemus omnino, ne Frater Praedicator contra Fratrem Minorem, vel Fr. Minor contra Fratrem Praedicatorem ex comisso, vel committendo in posterum Inquisitionis officio hujusmodi; quantumcumque sciat, aut aestimet eum, reum, aliqua ratione procedat; sed vel eumdem Superiori denuntiet; quando crediderit corrigendum; vel ad Sedem Apostolicam referat, si maluerit, et viderit expedire. BF, 3 no. 83, 85. 51 Richard W. Emery, The friars in medieval France: a catalogue of French mendicant convents, 1200–1550 (New York, 1962), 6, 10–1, and passim. 52 Fratri Maurino inquisitori, pro expensis suis, ante dictam subversionem, vj. lib. Document edited by Blancard, ‘Documents inédits sur l'histoire politique de Marseille’, 530. Chiffoleau also makes note of the daily interactions between the Franciscan inquisitor and the count of Provence, calling it a ‘collaboration quotidienne’, though ultimately we come to different conclusions about Franciscan inquisition in Provence. Chiffoleau, ‘Les mendiants, le prince et l'hérésie à Marseille’, 11. 53 Chiffoleau, ‘Les mendiants, le prince et l'hérésie à Marseille’, 11. In his own words: De plus — et c'est un argument majeur —, il faut que Charles d'Anjou accorde une certaine confiance à l'inquisiteur pour accepter que Simon Laguet, un de ses partisans supposés, soit incarcéré, et le demeure, alors même qu'il a repris le contrôle de Marseille et qu'il impose sa paix à toute la Provence. Villard believes the suspected Waldensians (including Simon Laguet) are those mentioned in Louis Blancard's edition of a list of expenses paid by the viguerie of Marseille. ‘Vaudois Marseillais’, 344. Simon Laguet and the other suspected heretics were incarcerated for a period of 27 days ante subversionem civitatis, at a cost of 72 solidi, according to Blancard, ‘Documents inédits sur l'histoire politique de Marseille’, 530. It is unknown whether the prisoners were simply released, or whether they were condemned to the stake. 54 Blancard, ‘Documents inédits sur l'histoire politique de Marseille’, Bourilly, La commune de Marseille, 239. 55 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, l. 23. 56 Christine Caldwell Ames, ‘Doctors of souls: inquisition and the Dominican order, 1231–1331’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Notre Dame, 2002), 43. Also see chapter five, ‘The Dominican inquisitor as saint’, 268–324 and chapter six, ‘Dominic, the history of the order, and Inquisition’, 325–77. 57 Ames, ‘Doctors of souls’, 366–70. 58 Ames, ‘Doctors of souls’, 356. 59 Ames, ‘Doctors of souls’, 270–3 and 297. Bernard Montagnes, ‘Les inquisiteurs martyrs de la France méridionale’, in: Praedicatores, inquisitores I: The Dominicans and the medieval inquisition. Acts of the 1st international seminar on the Dominicans and the inquisition (Rome, 2004), 513–38. 60 Jacques Chiffoleau, ‘Les mendiants, le prince, et l'hérésie à Marseille’, 17–8. 61 This is a topic I address in chapters two and three of my Ph.D. thesis, ‘A dilemma of obedience and authority: The Franciscan inquisition and Franciscan inquisitors in Provence, 1235-1340’ (unpublished, Princeton University, 2004). 62 See David Burr's excellent study, The Spiritual Franciscans: from protest to persecution in the century after Saint Francis (University Park, 2001). 63 Avignon, Archives Départementales de Vaucluse, 24 H 3, ll. 77–8. 64 In 1327, the city council at Marseille ruled that the familia of the Franciscan inquisitor, Michel Le Moine, should be prohibited from bearing arms, to preserve safety and order within the city. Archives Communales de Marseille BB 15, fol. 25r. 65 Burr, The Spiritual Franciscans, 197–8; 204–6. Additional informationNotes on contributorsHolly J. GriecoFootnote † ,Footnote ‡ † Bullarium Franciscanum Romanorum Pontificum Constitutiones, Epistolas ac Diplomata Continens Tribus Ordinibus S.P.N. Francisci Spectantia v. 1-4, ed. Giovanni Giacinto Sbaraglia, (Rome, 1759-1768); v. 5-7, ed. Konrad Eubel, (Rome: 1898-1904). ‡ I completed this article while in residence as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of Toronto; I am grateful for the time and resources I enjoyed there as a fellow. In addition, I would like to thank Professor William Chester Jordan and Drew Thomas Levy for their help in the preparation of this article.

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