Guillaume d'Aure

Guillaume d'Aure, OSB, was born in Toulouse, France and died on 3 December 1353 in Avignon. He was a French Benedictine monk and Cardinal. He was the son of Bernard VII Dodon, Count of Comminges, and Bertrande, Countess d'Aure, daughter of Arnaud, Vicomte de l'Arboust. He had a brother, Raymond Roger d'Aure. Biography Abbot Guillaume began his religious life by taking the Benedictine habit, professing his vows, and living for a number of years in the Abbey of Lézat. The Abbey lay in the ancient diocese of Toulouse, some thirty miles south of the city. Later, after an ecclesiastical reorganization in the diocese of Rieux. Lézat became a dependency of the abbey of Moissat. In 1326, Guillaume became Abbot of the monastery of Aynai (Athanacum) in Lyon (1326-1330). He took a degree as Doctor in utroque iure (Civil Law and Canon Law). He was named Abbot of the Abbey of Montolieu (Montis Olivi) in the diocese of Carcassonne in 1333, by appointment of Pope John XXII. Benedict XII gave Abbot Guillaume and five other abbots, all Doctors in utroque iure, the task of drawing up the new statutes for the reform of the Order of St. Benedict. The revised statutes were published by Benedict XII on 20 June 1336. In 1338, Guillaume and Bertrand de Deaulx, Archbishop of Embrun, were named Assessors by Pope Benedict XII to arbitrate the case between the Bishop of Maguelone and the University of Montpellier. The University had drawn up some new statutes, which (the Bishop believed) infringed his traditional rights as bishop of the diocese in which the University was situated. The two arbitrators were unable to reach a solution at the time when both were elevated to the cardinalate. Cardinal Bertrand in 1339 imposed a settlement, in favor of the bishop. When Guillaume became a cardinal, he was succeeded as Abbot of Montolieu by his brother Raymond Roger (died 7 November 1347), who had also been a monk at Lézat.