Pierre Jugie, “La Formation Intellectuelle du Cardinal Pierre Roger de Beaufort, le Pape Grégoire XI: Nouveau Point sur la Quéstion” in Vaticana et Medievalia: Études en l’Honneur de Louis Duval-Arnould, edited by Jean Marie Martin, Bernadette Martin-Hisard, and Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, 267-285. Florence: SISMEL, 2008. http://digital.casalini.it/3028764

“The Intellectual Training of Cardinal Pierre Roger of Beaufort, Pope Gregory XI:

A New Point on the Question”

by Pierre Jugie

A rough translation by Ryan Patrick Crisp

         When I had the opportunity to write a short article on the pre-university training of the cardinals of the Avignon papacy, my attention was drawn to the uncertainties which surrounded the intellectual training of Cardinal Pierre Roger de Beaufort, the last Avignon pope elected before the Great Schism under the name Gregory XI.1 The very pleasant duties of friendship now offering me the possibility to again work on this delicate question, I could not ignore it, imploring the indulgence of the magister [teacher] for his humble discipulus [student]. To whoever might not take care and would be content to simply open the biographical dictionaries and encyclopedias, the case would seem to be closed in advance. But in comparing the information given in the aforementioned works, I found that there was some variation with respect to the progress, to the dates, and to the places of the intellectual training of the future pope, and to the people who trained him. To be able to clarify these points is in itself a worthwhile goal regarding the biography of a lord pontiff. Having done this, could we not better delineate the timeline of Cardinal de Beaufort compared to that of his colleagues in the Sacred College and bring some clarification to certain aspects of his pontificate on the cusp of a major event? Making a study of all the available sources, I will examine, in succession, assumptions about the training of the young man, then the hypothesis of his enrollment in the universities of Angers, Orléans, and finally Perugia. [268]

His Earliest Training

         Pierre Roger, born around 1330 at the family chateau of Maumont (in the parish of Rosiers d’Égletons) in Lower Limousin, was the second son of Guillaume Roger I, older brother of Pope Clement VI, and of Marie de Chambon (d. 1344), his first wife.2 His father, a member of the lower landed nobility, having become lord and then count of Beaufort-en-Vallée (in Anjou) in 1347, he was thereafter known as Pierre Roger de Beaufort. He seems to have been originally destined for a secular career, since on 9 October 1338, about age nine, he received, under the name ‘Pierre Roger, nephew of the archbishop of Rouen [Pierre Roger]’, the livery of squire to Etienne Aubert I, bishop of Noyon.3 It was thus in the familia of the future cardinal then Pope Innocent VI, a Limousin like himself, that he began his career. Between the example of his mentor, Etienne Aubert, a doctor of civil law since 1329-1330 at the University of Toulouse, where he perhaps taught for a short time, and a counselor and diplomat for the king of France;4 and the constant support of his uncle Pierre Roger, an eminent theologian, a close counselor of Philip VI and cardinal from 1338; the young Pierre Roger, once a clerical career was chosen, would not have seen, right from the start, any obstacle to serious studies.

         That is, at least, what we can glimpse through the bulls of dispensation of residence, which were quickly granted to him, like many of the offspring of the families of high prelates. Already endowed with several benefices at Bayeux, Narbonne, Saint-Omer, and Paris, he obtained, on 31 July 1342, a first dispensation of residence, which, however, did not specify that it was in order to study.5 On 12 August 1344, he received, [269] for the space of twelve years, a dispensation of residence in his archdeaconate of Blésois in the church of Chartres in order to study and read civil law and to follow the scholastic course of study until he received his doctorate at a university (studium generale).6 Finally, four years later, on 19 July 1348, our man benefited from a completely exceptional favor, in fact unique in this era: since he had already been made a cardinal by his uncle two months prior, a new indult, recalling that he had been given to studying the civil law in his early youth (etatis tue primordia), authorized him, himself and everyone, secular or regular, in his presence, to “read and hear the civil law” in the university of his choice, without, however, specifying the place.7 No other cardinal of this period, to my knowledge, enjoyed such a privilege. The interpretation of this text could be subject to caution if this genre of letter was very common and reflected a routine formula of the chancery. Its uniqueness leads me to think that it alludes to an authentic situation: Pierre Roger, therefore, began, without any doubt, his studies of civil law in the years 1342 to 1348. The exception of this indult makes, in the end, such an impression that the chronicler of the Prima vita [First Life] of Gregory XI, edited by Étienne Baluze, specifically mentions the fact in this passage: “volensque in eis proficere amplius post promotionem suam ad statum huiusmodi {= cardinalatus}. accersitis sibi notabilibus clericis, quos secum continue habuit, audiendo et legendo circa legalem scientiam diutius insudavit (. . .).” [“and desiring that he be more useful among them after his promotion to the cardinalate. Some notable clerics, whom he had always with him, having been summoned to himself, he toiled for a while at hearing and reading legal knowledge…”]8 It’s enough to wonder if the anonymous author did not have access to the letter of Clement VI itself. I will soon return to this chronicle. It remains to determine which places of instruction it pertained to, by reviewing the hypotheses put forward up to now by the historians: the Universities of Angers, of Orléans, and of Perugia. [270]

The Hypothesis of the University of Angers

         Following the information given by his predecessors, Michel Hayez suggests that Pierre Roger would have begun his university studies at Angers.9 A re-examination of the sources demands some clarification of this assertion. It is to the Angevin historian of the 18th century Pierre Rangeard that we owe this hypothesis. Discussing Gregory XI’s relations with the University of Angers, this author first takes advantage of the chronicles and the notes of the Vitae paparum Avenionensium [Lives of the Avignon Popes] of Baluze and the Gallia Christiana [Christian France], before adding, “I believe that Pierre Roger did his first studies at the university of Angers, a city so close to the lordship of Beaufort, where he had spent his first years.”10 Recalling the assignment of the land of Beaufort-en-Vallée to Guillaume Roger, he continues in these terms: “What makes us believe that Gregory XI spent enough time at our schools that he knew intimately the customs of those who were studying there, is that the ancient tradition from Anjou says that one of the inhabitants of the city of Angers, having gone to Rome to fulfill his duties, His Holiness, setting aside for a moment his usual seriousness, asked him for news of the pastimes and of the ordinary disputes among the Angevine youths.” He does not indicate at all the source of this ‘Angevin tradition’. Finally, he likes to emphasize that Gregory XI, contrary to his predecessor, preferred to promote the professors and students of the university of Angers. None of these arguments seems to me resistant to critique. Pierre Roger was born in the Limousin and the only information about his childhood that we have shows him in the entourage of Etienne Aubert I, Bishop of Noyon. The recourse to ancient Angevin tradition, nowhere supported, moves him from the most common place to the least likely. As for the favors bestowed by the pope upon the University of Angers, although well attested, they don’t reveal an Angevin partiality when we put them into the global context of the beneficial and university policy of Gregory XI following the reforms of Urban V.11 I thus do not accept the Angevin hypothesis. [271]

Pierre Roger and the University of Orléans

         Much more serious clues point us towards the University of Orléans. Baluze, in his own notes to the Vitae Paparum Avenionensium [Lives of the Avignon Popes], tries to explain a passage from the First Life of Gregory XI in which Pierre Roger is described as “studio litterarum valde usus” [having been devoted much to the study of letters] with the following note: “praeceptore ac magistro Petro Masoerio, doctore legum, qui postea fuit archidiaconus Cameracensis et episcopus Atrebatensis” [with the precept and master Peter Masoer, a doctor of the law, who afterwards was archdeacon of Cambrai and bishop of Arras].12 What should we understand by that and what conclusions can we draw? From an old Auvergnat family of Montferrand, Pierre Masuer, or Masuyer,13 had a good ecclesiastical career which owed much to his belonging to the Beaufort familia. In 1348, doctor of civil law, domestic and household chaplain of the cardinal, he already had several benefices.14 Between 1348 and 1360, having notably become canon of Gérone, Orléans, Sens, Metz, and Clermont, he obtained in 1360 a canonry and a prebend from the cathedral of Saint-Géry of Cambrai, and the custody of this church.15 Generally residing at Cambrai from 1360 to 1370, all while remaining the socius [companion] and chaplain of the cardinal, in 1362 he received the archdeaconate of Anvers in this church.16 Abandoning his title of cardinal’s chaplain for that of household member of the pope at the election of Gregory XI, he resided from 1370 to 1374 at the Curia. Referendary of the pope in January 1374, at the side of Gilles Bellemère, Guillaume Noëllet, and other excellent jurists, he [272] was promised the bishopric of Arras on 21 July and remained there until his death on 16 March 1391.17

         In the roll of petitions addressed by the rector and collegium [board] of the university of Orléans to Clement VI and having obtained a date for when it was registered at the pontifical chancery of 23 May 1349, Pierre Masuer, doctor of civil law, who received, like his colleagues, an expectation of benefice, appears in fourth position.18 It is not, however, specified if he is “actu regens” [acting governor]. It is through his nephew, Jean Masuer, that we know for certain of his teaching activity at the university of Orléans. He mentions, in effect, with respect to title 27, de retractu [On Retraction], of his treatise called Practica Forensis [Effective Public Discourse], an opinion supported by his uncle in a public act issued at Orléans: “Idem tenuit quondam dominus et patruus meus, dominus Petrus Masuerii, utriusque iuris professor, et episcopus Atrebatensis, in quaestione quam disputavit publice Aurelianis actu regens.” [“A certain lord and my uncle, lord Pierre Masuer, both a professor of the law and the bishop of Arras, asserted the same thing in a question which he debated publicly at Orléans while acting governor.”]19 The opinion of Pierre Masuer was sufficiently important that he was cited around 1400 by Jean Noaillé, professor of civil law at Orléans, in his lectura [treatise] entitled De actionibus des Institutes [“On the suits of the Institutes”] in the same breath with Jean de Vitry and even his own master, Gérard Bagoil.20 As to the source used by Baluze, the Annales Gallo-Flandriae of Jean Bucelin,21 it directly influenced the [273] Chronicon Belgicum of Ferry de Locre, where one reads, “Anno 1370 Gerardo ad Morinorum episcopatum migranti. Petrus Masoërius Arvernensis, legum doctor, atque Cameraci archidiaconus Antverpiensis paulo ante Gregorii XI pontifices maximi (creatus est anno 1372 [sic]) institutor directorque, sedis Atrebatensis episcopus renuntiatur,” [In the year 1370, Gerard having moved to the bishopric of Cassel. Peter Masuer of Auvergne, a teacher of the laws, and as archdeacon of Cambrai the founder and director of Antwerp a little before the pontificate of Gregory XI (he became pope in 1372 [sic]), was elected as the bishop of the see of Artois] and further: “Petrus Masoërius, doctor utriusque iuris ex praeceptore Gregorii undecimi, canonico et archidiacono Cameracensi, factus episcopus Atrebatensis, edidit varios tractatus, super aliquot titulus utriusque iuris.” [Pierre Masuer, a doctor in both laws after being the teacher of Gregory XI, and a canon and archdeacon of Cambrai, having become Bishop of Artois, published various tracts besides some title on each of the laws.]22 Ultimately, the Gallia Christiana repeats the information given by the Practica Forensis, on the one hand, and Locre, on the other.23 Let us continue: Pierre Masuer, doctor of civil law (rather than of both types of law), taught this subject at the University of Orléans around 1348-1360 and is given according to the tradition from Artois as the tutor of the future Gregory XI. Other clues come in to corroborate the strong suppositions pointing to Orléans. In the first place, close kinsmen of Pierre Roger, like himself, were turned towards legal studies at Orléans (civil law for Jean de Cros and canon law for Guillaume de La Garde, or de Daumar).24 Then, since he was a prebended canon of Orléans and archdeacon of Sully in this church from 4 December 1344, we are entitled to wonder, following the view of Charles Vulliez, if “contrary to how it was, no doubt, for many of the benefices obtained by the future Pope Gregory XI … the possession of this Orléanais office was not accompanied for him with an actual residence in the city on the Loire…. In December 1349, he appeared, as the archdeacon of Sully, for an archdeacon’s living.”25 He was certainly already a cardinal but had received an indult to study law. I hold, therefore, until better information is found, that Pierre Roger de Beaufort certainly did study civil law at Orléans in the years 1348 to 1360 under the baton of his companion and chaplain Pierre [274] Masuer, whose career he fostered. One tradition would have him go further away, much further away, beyond the Alps, for his studies. We must take up this argument and pass it through the sieve of critique.

Did Gregory XI do his university studies in Italy?

         To attempt to answer such a question is, no doubt, already of a certain interest in itself. But such an undertaking is, in addition, likely to clarify an historiographical debate that is both old and lively, that of the influences of Italy on the Avignon popes. Let us examine right at first the first point by going back to the sources. For the authors of the biographies of Gregory XI, one thing is certain: this man was sent by his uncle Clement VI to study law at the prestigious University of Perugia, some talking of civil law, others of the two laws.26 As to the instruction, it was, according to some, delivered by Baldo degli Ubaldi, the great Baldus, according to others by Pietro, the brother of Baldo. All draw, however, directly or indirectly, from the same source, Baluze’s Vitae paparum [Lives of the Popes], which should be examined first.

         Of the six Vitae [Lives] of Clement VI published by Baluze, only the first mentions the intellectual training of the future Gregory XI, the second, third, and fourth making absolutely no reference to it, while the fifth and sixth don’t even talk about his promotion to the cardinalate. The Prima Vita [First Life] of Clement VI, composed in one draft between 1394 and 1398, by an anonymous French author, without doubt a Toulousian Dominican, courtier, and (canon?) lawyer, mentions the elevation of Pierre Roger de Beaufort to the cardinalate in describing him: “aptus, ingeniosus et subtilis ac ad studium litterarum multum intentus et iam in iure civili secundum tempus, quo circa ipsum versatus fuerat bene sapiebat.” [capable, clever, and sharp, and quite intent on the study of letters, and already in civil law for a second time, with which he had been situated about him he was understanding well]27 The qualities of the subject are, above all, fairly stereotypical. Of the five Vitae [Lives] of [275] Gregory XI published by Baluze, the second, the fourth, and the fifth make no reference to his education.28 The author of the Prima Vita [First Life] of Gregory XI, the same who wrote the Prima Vita [First Life] of Clement VI cited above, only gives a little information about his career before his elevation to the cardinalate, expanding, however, his discussion on his intellectual training: “This man, even though he was still a youth when he was made a cardinal, since he had not yet reached the age of eighteen, nevertheless he was very clever and intelligent and quite intent on the study of letters: and desirous to pursue them more after his promotion to the cardinalate, having gathered about him some noteworthy clerics, whom he had with him constantly, he toiled at listening to and reading around the legal science for a long time, and he labored in that for so long that he became one of the most learned and capable of the whole world in that field. At length he turned himself to the study of the canons, to theology and moral philosophy, in which fields he most famously delved so much that he spoke the final word in meetings and councils and in all acts, everyone agreeing to his position, in which things according to the skills of this man it was determined what was applicable.”29 But to repeat the view of Mollat, does Gregory XI’s actual juridical knowledge justify the writer in saying that this pope was, for his time, “one of the deepest and most knowledgeable lawyers in the whole world?”30

         We must wait until the Tertia Vita [Third Life] of Gregory XI—an anonymous work written between 1414 and 1435 by an Italian continuator of the chronicle of Tolomeo de Lucca—for a reference to Perugia and to Baldo to see the light of day, but interpretatively, it seems to me, only in a vague way. Here is a translation of this text: “Clement VI . . . so that no one might attribute his promotion solely to his flesh and blood connections, sent him immediately to be trained by the most excellent doctors in both the laws and by eminent preceptors of other subjects. He thus made such progress in all kinds of subjects that he was considered by all as a doctor of a subject, and not just some middling sort but the most eminent. He achieved such a degree and such a reputation for doctrine that his views and his counsel were cited in debates by the most famous doctors of Italy, and especially by Baldo at Perugia, who was teaching civil law and, often enough in offering up the views of this man, saying, ‘Our master says about such a law . . .’, meaning by this Gregory XI, whose writings had come into the hands not only of good but [276] especially the best doctors.”31 Let us note, first of all, that the Latin text contains a fairly convoluted construction. The clumsy alternating possessive adjectives leaves some doubt hovering over the origin of the views and the alleged writings and over the identity of the authors of the citations. If the anonymous author had wanted to indicate that the one who said “Dominus noster in hac lege sic dicit” [Our master speaks thus concerning this law] was Baldo, he would have had to write after “intellegens de domino Baldo” [meaning from master Baldo]. Or else it would be appropriate to rectify it in this way: “… by Baldo of Perugia, who was teaching civil law and, more often citing his [i.e. those of the pope] views, saying, “Our lord (the pope) says concerning this law…” The ambiguity lies then in the very term dominus [lord, master], which could signify ‘master’ in the sense used by a student to refer to his professor, or ‘master’ in the more generic sense of ‘lord’. In any case, the expressions used by the anonymous author, puffed up and grandiloquent, fall under the tone of a panegyric. And, if there is an author whose juridical works “have come into the hands not only of good but especially the best doctors,” it is Baldo and not Gregory XI, to whose credit no treatise on civil law has been, until further informed, recovered or even attributed. I would gladly see an alternate explanation for this confusion: the anonymous author could very well have, knowingly or carried away by his enthusiasm as a panegyrist, attributed to Gregory XI the formula so often used in juridical treatises: “Our master says concerning this law”, which must without any doubt have been repeated often in the treatises of Baldo concerning his own noteworthy master Bartolo, the Great Bartolo.32

         Paradoxically, even though he emphasized that “the anonymous author shows himself too poorly informed about the events which marked the pontificate of Gregory XI to maintain our confidence,”33 Mollat did, however, summarize the text in these terms: “Instead of allowing himself to be seduced by the charms of sumptuous Avignon, the young man moved to Perugia to follow a course of study from the celebrated jurist Pietro Baldo degli Ubaldi. In this encounter with the master, he acquired a deep knowledge of the law and a particular weight of judgment. His biographers tell how, proud of his student, Baldo loved to cite his juridical views.”34 Let us note, an error already noticed by Diego Quaglione, that Mollat has confused, one can only wonder why, Baldo, professor of civil law, with his brother, also a jurist but in canon law, Pietro degli Ubaldi.35 This confusion has been maintained up to today by various biographers of the pope.36 In the French historiography, even before Baluze, François Duchesne in 1653 spread the tradition of the Perugian and Baldian education in his Histoire des papes et souverains chefs de l’Église [History of the popes and chief rulers of the Church],37 and then in 1660 in his Histoire de tous les cardinaux français de naissance [History of all the French-by-birth cardinals].38

         Do other sources corroborate or weaken the hypothesis of instruction received from Baldo by the cardinal de Beaufort? Bartolomeo Platina (1421-1481), for his part, took up in his Historia de vitis pontificum Romanorum, drafted around 1450-1481, the text of the Tertia Vita, synthesizing it in the following form: “Clemens sextus … ne videretur carni ac sanguini magis quam ecclesiae consuluisse, eundem ad exquisitissimos doctors, maxime vero ad Baldum, qui tum Perusii legebat, disciplinae gratia statim misit, ubi tantum in quovis genere doctrinae profecit ut idem Baldus eius auctoritate in confirmandis rebus dubiis plerumque uteretur.” [Clement VI . . . lest he appear to have favored his own flesh and blood more than the church, immediately sent him as a student to the most excellent teachers, especially to Baldo, who was reading then at Perugia, where he advanced so much in that kind of teaching that that same Baldo often used him as an authority in asserting things which were uncertain.]39 For Platina, who is clearly inspired by the Tertia Vita, Gregory XI was sent, without a doubt, to Perugia to study with Baldo. The same thing occurs with Raffaele Maffei da Volterra (1451-1522), compiler and translator, [278] following Platina, when he writes around 1480-1511 about Baldo: “Baldus Perusinus, Bartoli discipulus, praeceptor Gregorii XI ante pontificatum, qui et causa fuit ut ille longo postliminio ex Gallia ad urbem Romam rediret.” [Baldo of Perugia, a student of Bartolo, Gregory XI’s teacher before his pontificate, who was even the reason why he, after his long exile, returned from Gaul to the city of Rome.]40 Maffei, always following Platina, attributes to Baldo the honor of having prompted the pope to bring the Curia back to Rome. This piece of historiography is not negligible. In the end, the double tradition of Gregory XI’s training with Baldo at Perugia and of the role of this figure in the return of the papacy to Rome was definitively ‘officialized’ in the same period, according to Platina and Maffei, by Tommaso Diplovataccio in his celebrated account of the famous jurists.41 This version has since been invariably included, up to today, in the Italian historiography of Scalvanti in the works of Diego Quaglione.42

         A few other sources should be included in this dossier. The first is a citation of the canonist and close courtier of the cardinal, Gilles Bellemère. In his Decisiones Rotae [Verdicts of the Apostolic Court of Audience], compiled between 1374 and 1407 and dealing with the decisions of the Rota [the Apostolic Court of Audience] for the years 1374 to 1378, Bellemère makes an allusion to the juridical knowledge of his patron; thus, concerning a question relative to the law of patronage, he recalls that the pope had given his acquiescence, which was for him “lucerna iuris civilis, vir utique subtilis ingenii optimi iudicii et intellectus valde clari.” [a lamp of civil law, a man assuredly known for the highest legal intellect and quite clear in his perception]43 If, on the one hand, this remark is interesting, [279] coming from a renowned canonist trained at the University of Orléans around 1365-1366; on the other hand, it must be accepted with prudence, the author having passed his whole career in the shadow of Beaufort, and then in the Clementist party. We are once more in the panegyrical vein, or not far from it.44 Is it not surprising that Bellemère, who knew Baldo’s treatise,45 did not think it useful to report, if such was the case, about the training of Beaufort with the great master?46 The last source that I will bring forth is the testimony of a contemporary of the pope, Dietrich de Nieheim (c. 1340–1418).47 In the description of the popes that he was brought to serve and to often be around during his residence at the pontifical Curia, included in his treatise of Nemus unionis [The Forest of Unity] of 1408, this ocular witness mentions Gregory XI at first in these terms: “fuit vir parvae staturae, licenciatus in legibus, acutus, studiosus in libris, et libenter cum intelligentibus disputabat et diligebat eosdem, liberalis, honorabilis et verecundus.” [he was a man of small stature, licensed in the laws, acute, zealous towards books, and he was freely debating with the intelligentsia and esteeming them, liberal honorable, and modest]48 No mention therefore of any training with the Italian masters. The author, instead, is the only one to attribute to Pierre Roger the university degree of ‘licensed in civil law’. None of the numerous bulls, nor any of the chroniclers’ texts concerning our man, award him such a university degree.49 Even if this degree is subject to caution, coming in a text written thirty-eight years after the events, the suggestion of a sure knowledge of civil law by the pope is a new clue about his intellectual orientation. Furthermore, D. de Nieheim’s association with the Urbanist party leaves no room to suspect a tendentious bias towards Gregory XI.

         Finally, the last point to examine in the hypothesis of instruction received at Perugia from Baldo, that of the period in which this training would have taken place, leaving aside here the case of Pietro degli Ubaldi, whose name does not appear in this regard except by an obvious error of Mollat. The career of Baldo is, however, well known, a colloquium having been devoted to him in 2000.50 Born in 1327, at Perugia, doctor of civil law in 1347 or just after this date, he taught at this university from 1351 to 1356, then at Pisa in 1357–1358, at Florence from 1359 to 1364, again at Perugia from 1364 to 1376, at Padua from 1378 to 1379, and finally at Perugia from 1379 to 1390.51 Two possibilities lay before us, the years 1351–1356 or the years 1364–1370. The first period is not at first glance compatible with the recorded activities and proofs of the presence of Beaufort in France, in particular at the Curia. The second period, however, coincides in part with the attested presence of the cardinal in Italy in the entourage of Urban V, in 1367–1370. In June 1367, in fact, Beaufort followed Pope Urban V on the way to Rome, but by a land route (through Alessandria and Placentia, being in Mantua on June 18 where he was solemnly received by the marquis d’Este; on June 19 at Bologna; on June 25 at Rimini; around July 8 at Viterbo;52 [281] on the way he stopped at Pavia where he met Petrarch53). During the winter of 1367, he presided over theological debates between the master of the Sacred Palace, the Dominican Guillaume Romain, and the Augustinian Hugoninus.54 We have for the years 1368–1370 a few rare witnesses of his presence in the entourage of the pope, whom he accompanied from September 5, 1370, during his return trip to Avignon.55 Baldo, for his part, played a certain role in the determination of the new relations between Perugia and the Holy See, following the wars between the papacy and the Visconti, between 1367 and 1371.56 Two missions, probable but not certain, by Baldo to the pope would have taken place in 1367, to submit to Urban V at Corneto, and in 1369, when Perugia was threatened with interdict. We find him again, this time for certain, in the Perugian delegation to the pope on September 3, 1370, which is to say at the same time as the departure of the Curia for its return to Avignon, and then to Cardinal Anglic Grimoard, at Bologna, the following November. Quite honestly, I can hardly see the political situation allowing Beaufort, a cardinal, to come to Perugia even to meet Baldo as a private citizen, nor that Baldo’s missions leave him any time to seriously converse with Beaufort about civil law. As for the fact that Gregory XI created, by a bull of October 11, 1371, a faculty of theology at the University of Perugia, that does not prove by itself any unwavering attachment to it, knowing that at the same time the new pope was showing great intransigence towards the city in political affairs.57 [282]

         I take away from this deeper study of the sources that the study of civil law with the great Baldo at Perugia by Pierre Roger de Beaufort seems to me to raise more of a fragile hypothesis than a certitude. Without any specific document in the archives of the university, the only version of the Tertia vita [Third Life] of Gregory XI, ambiguous to say the least and very late, does not seem to me to be sufficient proof. The authors of the Vitae paparum [Lives of the Popes], edited by Baluze, are not generally bereft of providing specific information about the intellectual training of the pope of Avignon as soon as they have it and this in an explicit manner. The Tertia vita [Third Life], written no less than thirty-six years after the death of Gregory XI, is the only one to mention Perugia and Baldo. The other sources confirm to us that Beaufort certainly had a knowledge of civil law, but without having achieved a university degree (despite the unique mention in the Nemus unionis [The Forest of Unity] of D. de Nieheim of a license in civil law). If it is not impossible that Beaufort and Baldo could have met in Italy between 1367 and 1370, such a fact is pure conjecture, such a meeting hardly qualifying as a student-teacher relationship.

         To follow my reasoning to its natural conclusion, the questioning of Beaufort’s juridical training with Baldo at Perugia brings me logically to qualify certain conclusions from the synthesis by D. Quaglione. For him, indeed, Diplovataccio’s assertions, concerning “the expression of a kind of categorical pride” on the part of the jurists, seems to make evident “the juridical character, clearly highlighted in all the public acts of Gregory XI’s pontificate, of the trial against the Visconti in the war against Florence, without speaking of his desire, opposing himself to the corporatist interests prevailing at the heart of the Holy College, to restore the seat of the papacy to Rome, a desire that can be discerned, even more than by the portentous mentions of troubles and rebellion coming from Italy or of the dramatic appeal of Catherine of Siena, by a lofty conscience of his own role, which could be nourished by the tradition of the great Italian law school.”58 It is not at all my purpose to reopen here the very complex historiographical dossier concerning the impact of the development of legal experts on political theory and practice at the end of the Middle Ages, but only to propose to look again at the basis of the supposed influence of the study of civil law [283] by Pierre Roger de Beaufort on his political acts. Would it not be more on the side of the juridical competencies demonstrated by the immediate entourage of Beaufort, even from before his elevation to the pontificate as well as during it, that it would be best to seek one of the reasons for this evolution, to look at Guillaume Noëllet, Pierre Flandrin, Pierre de Vergne, Gui de Malsec, all made cardinals by this pope and who would subsequently play a definite role in the Great Schism?59

         If we remember that Pierre Roger de Beaufort did his studies in civil law without a doubt at the University of Orléans, perhaps from 1344 and surely between 1348 to 1360, especially under the tutelage of Pierre Masuer, without actually earning the university degree, and that it is little likely that he continued his studies at an Italian university, we can attempt, in concluding, to put his educational path into perspective in comparison to the other cardinals in the second half of the fourteenth century.60 Of the 94 clerics who were members of the Sacred College between the death of Benedict XII (1342) and that of Gregory XI (1378), 84% undertook studies. Of the 20 distinct places (including the convents of the mendicant orders) that they frequented, only four were outside the borders of France, two in Italy (the Universities of Bologna and Padua) and two in Spain (the cathedral school of Saragossa and the Dominicans of Majorca), and no French cardinal studied there.61 The attendance records of the six French universities allow us to rank them in the following decreasing order: Toulouse (12), Paris (11), Orléans (7), Montpellier (5), Avignon (1), and Angers (1). All university degrees considered together, the study of civil law and that of canon law are about equal, but civil law is the discipline in which they progressed the least. It is in canon law that the cardinals of the second half of the fourteenth century took their studies the furthest, up to the doctorate, followed by civil law, far ahead of theology. Beaufort is not the only one whom we know undertook studies in civil [284] law without acquiring a degree, the cardinals of Boulogne and of Périgord also being in this situation.

         But he remains, in the end, an exception in several ways, since he was manifestly the only cardinal to continue his studies after his promotion to the purple, while also being the youngest cleric appointed to this dignity (at eighteen years), this second exception being the reason for the first. It is for you, dear reader, whom I thank for your patience, to carry to this unstable edifice a new stone, or to take one away…

1 P. Jugie, “Avant ou hors de l’université: remarques sur la formation intellectuelle initiale des cardinaux de la papauté d’Avignon,” [“Before or Outside the University: Notes on the earliest intellectual training of the Cardinals of the Avignon Papacy”] in L’Université d’Avignon. Naissance et Renaissance, 1303-2003 [The University of Avignon: Birth and Re-birth, 1303-2003] (Arles, 2003): 118-121 [version published without notes], re-edited with notes in Études vauclusiennes 69 (January-June 2003) {January 2005}, 25-27.

2 The two most recent and full biographical treatises of Gregory XI are those of M. Hayez, “Gregory XI” in Enciclopedia dei papi [Encyclopedia of the Popes] (Rome, 2000), vol. II, 550-561, and “Gregory XI” in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani [Biographical Dictionary of the Italians], vol. 59 (2003): 186-195. On his family, see the synthesis of B. Guillemain, La cour pontificale d’Avignon, 1309-1376: étude d’une société [The Pontifical Court of Avignon, 1309-1376: Study of a Society], republished {1st ed. 1962} (Paris, 1966) (B.E.F.A.R. [= Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome {Library of the French Schools of Athens and Rome}], 201): 158-160 and 167-168 and family tree in note 345.

3 D. Williman, “Memoranda and Sermons of Etienne Aubert (Innocent VI) as Bishop (1338-1341),” Medieval Studies 37 (1975): 13, no. {A, 72}. Williman identifies him with the future Gregory XI, but does not omit the hypothesis that a different nephew of the future Clement VI could have been called Pierre Roger. Let us note that four names down the list there is a Guillaume Roger, “nephew of the Archbishop of Rouen”, that is Guillaume II Roger, elder brother of Gregory XI. It is thus quite likely that this Pierre Roger is our subject.

4 H. Gilles, “Le clergé meridional entre le roi et l’Eglise [The southern clergy between the king and the Church],” Cahiers de Fanjeaux 7, Les évêques, les clercs, et le roi [The bishops, the clerics, and the king] (1972), 394-396, 409, 411-412.

5 Archivio Segreto Vaticano (hereafter cited as ASV), Reg. Vat. 214, fol. 480. This indult also benefited two other nephews of the pope: Hugues and Nicolas Roger, as well as their cousin Hugues de La Jugie.

6 The text reads: “… ut per duodecim annos audire et legere iura civilian ac studere in illis et quoslibet actus scolasticos exercere in loco ubi stadium vigeat generale et in eodem iure doctorari libere et licite valeas fe. rec. Honorii pape III predecessoris nostri . . . constitutionibus in contrarium editis non obstantibus, auctoritate tibi presentium indulgemus…” (ASV, Reg. Av. 77, fol. 288, no. 133). This indult was simultaneously granted to his kinsmen Nicolas, Guillaume, and Jean Roger (no. 132, 134, and 135).

7 Analyzed in Clement VI (1342-1352). Lettres closes, patentes, et curiales se rapportant à la France [Clement VI (1342-1352): Letters close, patent, and curial relating to France], edited by E. Déprez, J. Glénisson, and G. Mollat (Paris, 1910-1961), no. 3922. The text is edited in the appendix at the end of the present article.

8 Étienne Baluze, ed., Vitae paparum Avenionensium [Lives of the Avignon Popes], re-edited by G. Mollat (Paris, 1914-1927) {hereafter cited as Baluze-Mollat}, I:415.

9 “Gregory XI,” in Enciclopedia dei papi… [Encyclopedia of the Popes], 550 and Dizionario biografico degli Italiani… [Biographical Dictionary of the Italians], 186. I express here my friendly gratitude to Anne-Marie and Michel Hayez, as well as Janine Mathieu, for the clarifications that they furnished me.

10 Histoire de l’Université d’Angers [History of the University of Angers], edited by A. Lemarchand (Angers, 1868-1877), I:270-271. I thank most sincerely Louis-Philippe Dugal, author of a dissertation from the University of Montreal entitled “Du studium à l’Université d’Angers. L’intégration d’une instruction scolaire à l’ordre du royaume de France [From a studium {a medieval university} to the University of Angers: The integration of scholastic teaching into the order of the Kingdom of France],” for his kind help.

11 The extension from three to five years, then the continuation of five new years of the privilege of non-residence in their benefices for the professors and students (M. Fournier, Les statuts et privileges des universités française depuis leur foundation jusqu’en 1789 [The statutes and privileges of the French universities from their foundations up to 1789] (Paris, 1890-1894): I, no. 393 and 404, returning to the limitation of three years by Urban V, no. 392) was not specific to Angers. None of these letters make the least allusion to any Angevin studies by the new pope. If there were, moreover, favors accorded to the University of Angers, they testify to a benevolent pontifical diplomacy towards the Duke of Anjou rather than some nostalgia. See, finally, J. Verger, “La politique universitaire des papes d’Avignon” [The university policy of the Avignon popes] in Les papes d’Avignon et la culture [The Popes of Avignon and Culture], Annuaire de la Société des amis du Palais des papes [Yearbook of the Friends of the Papal Palace] (2000), 17-29.

12 The passage from the First Life of Gregory XI is in Baluze-Mollat, I:415, and the commentary of Baluze in Baluze-Mollat, II:578.

13 His name is written in the following forms: Masuer, Masuyer, Mazoyer, Masoyer, Mazuier, Masuier.

14 Chaplainship of Saint-Martin in the cathedral of Nevers, a canon with an expected prebend at Langers and the parish church of Axat, in the diocese of Alet (letter of 25 December, ASV, Reg. Aven. 103, fol. 108, cited by D. Lourme, “Chanoines, officiers, et dignitaire du chapiter cathédrale de Cambrai (1357-1426). Étude prosopographique et institutionelle [Canons, officers, and dignitaries of the cathedral chapter of Cambrai (1357-1426). A Prosopographical and Institutional Study],” thèse de l’École nationale des chartes (1991), notice biog. no. 81). My sincere gratitude goes to Damien Lourme for referring me to this notice, the most complete about Pierre Masuer.

15 Suppliques d’Innocent VI [Petitions of Innocent VI], ed. U. Berlière (Rome-Brussels, 1911) (Analecta Vaticano Belgica, 5), 135, no. 341, note 2, and no. 1447 and D. Lourme, loc. cit.

16 Suppliques d’Urban V (1362-1370) [Petitions of Urban V], ed. A. Fierens (Rome-Brussels, 1924) (Analecta Vaticano Belgica, 7), no. 142 and 482.

17 Lettres de Grégoire XI (1370-1378) [Letters of Gregory XI], ed. C. Tihon (Rome-Brussels, 1958-1975), no. 2454 and 2485.

18 M. Fournier, Statuts et privileges des universités françaises [Statutes and Privileges of the French Universities], vol. III (Paris, 1892), 454. Fournier gives the erroneous date of 22 May 1349. Having made a verification, the source given by him, ASV, “Reg. Suppl. Cl VI ann V, pars 3, fol. 9v” is a clear mistake, as it has to do with a register of supplications from the eighth year. The correct source is Reg. Suppl. 19, fol. 18v, and it carries the date of 10 kal. Junii [10 days before the kalends of June = 23 May] (Suppliques de Clément VI (1342-1352), ed. U. Berlière (Rome-Brussels, 1906) (Analecta Vaticano Belgica I), no. 1730-1731).

19 Cited in A. Tardif, “Practica Forensis de Jean Masuer,” Nouvelle revue historique du droit français et étranger 7 (1883): 283-292: 284. Jean Masuyer, bachelor in civil law at the University of Orléans from 1394, certainly didn’t follow the same path as his uncle. He was, in 1449, a counselor and keeper of the seal of the Duke of Burgundy and of Auvergne and chancellor of Riom (besides Tardif, see A. Thomas, “Notes biographiques sur le jurisconsulte Jean Masuer (1394-1432)” Annales du Midi 8 (1896): 361-362 and, finally, C. Gut, “Practica Forensis de Jean Masuer” École nationale des chartes, Positions des theses de la promotion de 1955: 43-45).

20 M. Duynstee, “Jean Noaillé et sa lectura sur le titre De actionibus des Institutes” Études néerlandaises de droit et d’histoire présentées a l’Universitén d’Orléans pour le 750e anniversaire des enseignements juridiques, Bulletin de la Société archéologique et historique de l’Orléans, n.s. 9, no 68 (April 1985): 129.

21 Johannes Buzelinus (Douai, 1624), 353. This work is cited by Baluze under the erroneous title of Gallo-Flandria sacra et profana. Jean Bucelin actually published two different works at Douai, one in 1625 under the title Gallo-Flandria sacra et profana, the other in 1624, entitled Annales Gallo-Flandriae, which were bound together, each with its own distinct pagination, in the same volume in this precise order.

22 Ferreolus Locritus, historian from Artois, 1571-1614, Chronicon Belgicum (Arras, 1614-1616), 474 and 694 (work edited posthumously and ending with a Catalogus Scriptorum Artesiae on pp. 677-687). 

23 Vol. III (Paris, 1725), col. 340.

24 Both in 1339 (Benoît XII (1334-1342). Lettres communes. ed. J.-M. Vidal (Paris, 1903-1911), no. 1710 and 1751.)

25 Charles Vulliez, “Un maître orléanais du XIVe siècle: Pierre de Dinteville et les origins du culte de saint Yves à Orléans” Bulletin de la Société archéologique et historique de l’Orléanais, n.s., 17, no. 140 (2ème trimestre 2004): 22. This relates to the living of Saint-Aubin. Gregory XI sought in 1371-1372 the reform of the cathedral chapter of Orleans. In his first bull on the subject, he recalls that he had been earlier a prebended canon and archdeacon in this church. It does not make, however, any allusion to his possible studies at Orleans. I sincerely thank Ch. Vulliez for the friendly communication of his information.

26 To the biographical works mentioned in note 2, we can, from this point of view, add, among others, R. Darricau, “Grégoire XI” in Dictionnaire de biographie française 16 (1985), col. 1137-1138; J. Grohe, “Gregor XI” in Lexikon des Mittelalters 4 (1989), col. 1673-74; A.-M. Hayez, “Grégoire XI” in Dictionnaire historique de la papauté, ed. Ph. Levillan (Paris 1994), 756-757.

27 Prima vita Clementis VI, Baluze-Mollat I, 252. Neither Baluze nor Mollat in his edited version commented on this passage. According to Mollat, with the author making a defense in favor of the popes of Avignon and working at second, nay at third hand, this information should not be used except with great prudence (Mollat, Étude critique sur les Vitae paparum Avenionensium d’Étienne Baluze (Paris, 1917), 59 and 80.

28 Respectively in Baluze-Mollat I:439, 463, and 466.

29 Ibid., I:415-416.

30 Mollat, Étude critique…, loc. cit.

31 Baluze-Mollat, I:460 (my translation). As Mollat highlighted, Duchesne edited a text in his Liber pontificalis quite close to that of the Third Life of Gregory XI (Le Liber pontificalis, ed. L. Duchesne (Paris, 1892), II:495.)

32 Stimulated by the complexity of this affair, I have attempted to find if, in the writings of Baldo, any possible allusions to reports from master to student between the jurist and the pope are to be found, but in vain, invariably coming up against a citation of this passage from the Third Life. The quest was submitted to Professor Vincenzo Colli, at the Max-Plank Institute of Frankfort, an eminent specialist in the work of Baldo, whom I thank here very sincerely for his help: without having conducted a systematic search in this matter, he did not recall having encountered a citation of this sort in the writings of Baldo. There is, finally, a strong chance that the issue could not even be resolved in finding such a citation.

33 Mollat, Étude critique, 20.

34 Mollat, Les papes d’Avignon (1305-1378), 10th ed. (Paris, 1964), 130.

35 D. Quaglione, “L’ultimo period avignonese e i ritorni a Roma” in La crisi del trecento e il papato avignonese (1274-1378), edited by D. Quaglione, 281-310 (Storia della Chiesa [History of the Church], Italian edition of the original works by A. Fliche and V. Martin, XI) (Milan: San Paolo, 1994), 306 n.120.

36 Darricau, “Grégoire XI” loc. cit., M. Hayez, “Gregorio XI” in Enciclopedia dei papi, loc. cit., and Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, loc. cit.

37 Paris, 1653, vol. II:275.

38 Paris, 1660, vol. I:615.

39 Historia de vitis Pontificum Romanorum, re-edited by O. Panvinio (Cologne, 1568), 264.

40 Commentariorum urbanorum octo et trignita libri (Paris, 1511 [and 1515]), Book 21, fol. 224r-v. He clarifies his point of view in Book 22 (fol. 234v) where, after a quick summary of the events of the years 1376-1377, he writes: “Igitur Gregorius ut his occurreret malis, Romam ire statuit, revocatus litteris divae Catharinae, virginis Senensis, hortante etiam Baldo Perusino, eius olim praeceptore, ac palam dictitante, quod salva conscientia urbem neglinere [sic for negligere] non posset.” [Therefore Gregory, so that he might oppose those wicked men, decided to go to Rome, having been summoned by the letters of St. Catherine, the virgin of Siena, hearkening also to Baldo of Perugia, his former teacher, and saying openly that he could not in good conscience ignore the city.]

41 “Qui Gregorius fuit discipulus et auditor Baldi predicti et ipse Baldus dedit causam reducendi curiam ex Gallia Romam. Nam cum Innocentius VI [sic for Clemens VI] predictus creasset Petrum Belfortem suum nepotem Sancte Marie diaconum cardinalem adolescentem vix 17 annuum attingentem, ne videretur carni et sanguini magis quam ecclesie consuluisse, eundem ad Baldum, qui tunc Perusii legebat, discipline gratia misit, ubi tantum in quovis genere doctrine perfecit, ut idem Baldus eius auctoritate in confirmandis rebus dubiis plerumque uteretur. Qui postmodum omnium consensu Avignoni summus pontifex et maxime quia nutritus verbis Baldi Italiam cognovit, Romam pervenit et curiam ex Gallia Romam reduxit anno incarnationis Domini 1377, idibus januarii, pontificates sui anni 7, migrationis vero Romane curie in Gallias anno 70.” [Which Gregory was a student and hearer of the aforesaid Baldo, and that Baldo gave him the desire to return the curia from Gaul to Rome. For when the aforementioned Clement VI had made Pierre of Beaufort, his nephew, a youth who had barely reached 17 years of age, the cardinal deacon of Saint Mary’s, lest he appear to have concerned himself more about his flesh and blood than the church, he sent that young man for the purpose of study to Baldo, who was then teaching at Perugia, where he succeeded in whatever subject he undertook, such that that same Baldo often made use of his authority in asserting debatable positions. Afterwards, by the consent of all, the last and greatest pope of Avignon, because he knew Italy, having been nourished by the words of Baldo, he came to Rome and returned the curia from Gaul to Rome in the year of the incarnation of our Lord 1377, on the ides of January, in the seventh year of his pontificate, indeed in the seventieth year of the migration of the Roman curia to Gaul.] (Liber de Claris iuris consultis, pars posterior, edited by F. Schulz, H. Kantorowicz, and G. Rabotti, Studia Gratiana X (Bologne, 1968), 305-307.)

42 O. Scalvanti, “Notizie e documenti sulla vita di Baldo, Angelo e Pietro degli Ubaldi,” in L’opera di Baldo, published through the auspices of the University of Perugia on the fifth centenary of the death of the great jurisconsult (Perugia, 1901), 203-206; Quaglione, “L’ultimo period avignonese e i ritorni a Roma,” 306-308. The author develops therein a perspective already brought forth in “Giovanni da Legnano (d. 1383), e il Somnium viridarii. Il sogno del giurista tra scisma e concilio,” in ‘Civilis sapientia’. Dottrine giuridiche e dottrine politiche fra medioevo ed età moderna. Saggi per la storia del pensiero giuridico moderno (Rimini, 1989), 145-167, on pp. 152-153.

43 The complete citation is “Et vere pars ista est multum probabilis et in ea consentiebat dominus Gregorius papa XI nomine Jo. [sic pro Petrus] Rogerii, antea cardinalis Bellifortis et nepos ex fratre domini Clementis pape VI, lucerna iuris civilis vir utique subtilis ingenii optimi iudicii et intellectus valde clari…” [And truly that position is quite probable and our lord Pope Gregory XI, by name Joseph [sic for Pierre] Roger, previously Cardinal Beaufort and a fraternal nephew of Pope Clement VI, a lamp of civil law, a man assuredly known for the highest legal intellect and quite clear in his perception, was agreeing with it…] (Decisiones Egidii Bellemere Romani, edited by Lyon (Vincent de Portemaires, 1538), fol. 196v, line 9). In this edition, refer to decisio 753; Baluze makes an allusion to it in citing 752 (Baluze-Mollat II:757), but as H. Gilles notes, the editions contain sometimes 755 sometimes 756 decisions (“La vie et les ouvres de Gilles Bellemere” Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes 124 (1966): 30-136 and 382-431; at p. 417).

44 Student of or fellow disciple with Alain du Bey, Bertrand Chabrol, Jean Nicot, and Jean Roland at Orléans, Bellemère was household chaplain and longtime table mate of Beaufort from 1367 to 1370 and accompanied his master to Italy along with the Curia in 1367-1370. He liked to report that he had numerous legal discussions with the great jurists in the household of the cardinal, Guillaume Noellet and Pierre Flandrin, both of them hearers of the cases in the Sacred Palace (H. Gilles, art. cit. 38-40).

45 Bellemere often cites Baldo in his work Statuts and adduces from him a certain number of repetitions which he had copied (ibid., 404 n. 5).

46 Citing the text of the Third Life of Gregory XI, H. Gilles wrote that in the familia [household] of the cardinal, Bellemere ‘had been able to study for some time the views of Baldo de Ubaldis, with whom the future Gregory XI had acquired his first legal rudiments (ibid., 404, reprinted most recently in H. Gilles, “Gilles Bellemère, canoniste,” in Histoire littéraire de la France, vol. 40 (Paris, 1974), 265.) 

47 Notary of a judge of the Rota at Avignon, around 1370, he was part of the entourage of Gregory XI at the time of the return of the papacy to Rome in 1376. Appointed scribe and abbreviator in the papal chancery by Urban VI in 1378, he remained in the service of the Roman popes until the council of Pisa [sic] in 1415 (K. Colbert, “Dietrich von Nieheim (Niem, Nyem)” in Lexikon des Mittelalters III (1986), col. 1037-1038).

48 The exact text is “Ego iam lustris septem et parumper ultra sequendo Romanam Curiam recolo vidisse me et peroptime cognovisse electos interim quinque summos pontifices, videlicet Gregorii XI, qui fuit, dum eligebatur in papam, forsitan circa XXXV annos et sic attigit mediam aetatem; fuit vir parvae staturae, licenciatus in legibus, acutus, studiosus in libris, et libenter cum intelligentibus disputabat et diligebat eosdem, liberalis, honorabilis et verecundus [I recall at that time, following the Roman Curia for thirty-five years and for a short time beyond, that I had seen and known well in that time the greatest of the five elected popes, namely Gregory XI, who was when he was elected pope perhaps 35 years old, thus having reached middle age; he was a man of small stature, licensed in the laws, acute, zealous towards books, and he was freely debating with the intelligentsia and esteeming them, liberal honorable, and modest] (Historiae Theodorici a Niem, scribae quondam pontifici, deinde episcopi Verdensis, de progressu schismatis sub Urbani VI excitati… liber III, ed. Simon Schard (Bale, 1566), 387-388, Chap. XXXIX). He alludes, a little further on, to his own presence in 1376 around the pope, which leads one to think that he did not especially seek out his information in other sources for this description.

49 The title of magister [master, teacher] that he carries in the bull naming him a notary of the pope, 21 August 1347, pertains to this office and not to a university degree (Clement VI (1342-1352). Lettres closes, patentes et curiales se rapportant à la France, ed. E. Déprez, J. Glenisson, and G. Mollat (Paris 1910-1961), no. 3411).

50 VI Centenario della morte di Baldo degli Ubaldi 1400-2000, ed. C. Frova, M.-G. Nico Ottaviani, and S. Zucchini (Perugia, 2005). I owe my knowledge of this very recently published collection to the amiability of Professor Colli, which unfortunately I was unable to consult in France. I will ultimately only make a reference here to the biographies supplied in M.-G. Nico Ottaviani, “Su Baldo e i Baldeschi: Scalvani rivisitato” Ius Commune 27 (2000), 27-68.

51 Ibid., 28-31 and K. Pennington, “Baldus de Ubaldis” Rivista internazionale di diritto comune 8 (1997): 35-61, at 38-39.

52 Gilles, “La vie et les ouvres…”, 39.

53 U. Dotti, Vita di Petrarca, 2nd ed. Biblioteca Laterza 370 (Rome-Bari, 1992), 397.

54 Gilles, “La vie et les oeuvres”, 40.

55 In November 1368 (G. Pirchan, Italien und Kaiser Karl IV. in der Zeit zeiner zweiten  Romfahrt II (Prague, 1930), 175, no. CXII); on June 13, 1369, Charles IV named Cardinal [Guy] of Boulogne imperial vicar general for three years at Lucca and in all its territory, subrogating to him, in case of his death and at the choice of the pope, Cardinal Guillaume d’Aigrefeuille the elder, Bishop of Sabine, or Beaufort (P. Jugie, “Le vicariat imperial du cardinal Gui de Boulogne à Lucques en 1369-1370,” Mélanges de l’École française de Rome: Moyen Age–Temps modernes 103 (1991-1), 288 and 347); on April 16, 1370, at Rome, as Archbishop of St. John Lateran, he solemnly received from the hands of Cardinals Tebaldeschi and Orsini two new reliquaries of the chiefs of the saints, Peter and Paul, by order of the pope, which he deposited in the tabernacle of the basilica (Gilles, “La vie et les oeuvres”, 42).

56 I refer you to the summary of the situation and the events, as well as the bibliography, provided in M.-G. Nico Ottaviani, “Su Baldo e i Baldeschi,” 32-35.

57 G. Ermini has insisted on this creation (Storia della università di Perugia (Bologna, 1947), 18). According to A. Sorbelli, before being elected pope, Beaufort financially supported some students at Bologna, where he founded the “Gregorian College” (Storia dell’Università di Bologna I: Il Medioevo (sec. XI-XV) (Bologna, 1940), 227). Perugia, without even mentioning the French universities, was thus not the center of his preoccupations (see Verger, “La politique universitaire,” see note 11 above.

58 Quaglione, “L’ultimo periodo,” 306 (my translation).

59 A.-L. Rey-Courtel. “Les cardinaux du Midi pendent le Grand Schisme,” in Le Midi et le Grand Schisme d’Occident, 39th colloquium of Fanjeaux (2003), Cahiers de Fanjeaux 39 (2004), 49-108.

60 Allow me to refer you to my own article “Les cardinaux de la papauté d’Avignon, des lettrés?” given at a conference at the University Paul Valéry-Montpellier III, March 8, 2001, to appear in Les élites lettrées au Moyen Âge en Méditérranée occidentale, published by the University Presses of Montpellier (2007), 171-193.

61 Those who attended, respectively, the universities of Bologna: the Italians S. Borsano, N. Capocci, and the Spaniard Pedro II Gómez Alvarez; and Padua: the Italian Ghini; as well as the cathedral school of Saragossa: G. Albornoz; and the convent of the Jacobins of Majorca: N. Rosell.