Ancient Diocese of Carpentras
[4] Carpentras is not mentioned in the context of the occupation of Provence by the Saracens (Arabs) in the ninth century or the depredations of the Northmen or of the Hungarians (924) in the tenth,[5] which may be explained by its depopulation.
[10] Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, who ruled Provence in the name of his wife Joan of Toulouse, from 1249 until his death in 1271, was a vigorous persecutor of the Jews.
On 19 July 1275, the Papal Chamberlain and Provost of Marseille, Berenguer de Séguret, was appointed sole judge in cases concerning the Jews, to the exclusion of all other magistrates.
In 1320, a different Pope, John XXII (Jacques Duèse), agreed to defend the Jews of the Comtat from the murderous onslaught of the marauding bands of antisemitic shepherds, the Pastoureaux.
This situation lasted for twenty years, until a new Pope, Clement VI revoked John XXII's expulsion order, and granted permission in 1343 for the rebuilding of the synagogue of Carpentras.
By virtue of a bull of 26 February 1569, Pope Pius V expelled the Jews from Italian and French territory, which was immediately followed by an order of 3 August 1570 from the Legate of Avignon for them to leave by October.
[17] In March 1313, at the beginning of the Avignon Papacy, Pope Clement V took up residence, with the Roman Curia, in Carpentras, where he stayed until April 1314; but, finding the city inconvenient, he departed for his home in Gascony, where he expected to recover his health, but died shortly thereafter.
The twenty-three cardinals in the Conclave proceeded at a leisurely pace, though without coming to an agreement on the election, until the Feast of S. Mary Magdalen on Monday, 22 July 1314.
The Italian cardinals were supporting Guillaume de Mandagot of Lodève, Bishop of Palestrina, who was a Frenchman and a subject of Philip IV of France.
The cardinals scattered, the Italian ones reassembling at Valence and complaining loudly about the Gascons and demanding that the papal Court return to Rome where a proper Conclave could be held.
[24] The Comtat Venaissin had been papal property since 1274, a legacy of Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, younger brother of Louis IX of France.
[25] Two years later he engaged in an exchange of properties and powers with the Bishop, making the Pope the temporal lord of Carpentras as well as the Comtat.
In the Great Western Schism, the French had decided to repudiate Benedict XIII of the Avignon Obedience, who had been deposed by the Council of Pisa.
The leaders of Avignon had besieged the Catalans and Aragonese, led by Rodrigo de Luna, who were holding the Papal Palace for Benedict XIII.
The first stone was laid in a solemn ceremony on 22 February 1404, the Feast of Saint Peter's Chair, presided over by Archbishop Artaud of Arles, in the name of Pope Benedict XIII.
According to the legend retailed by Gregory of Tours, two of the nails were given by Saint Helena to her son Constantine the Great, who wore one on his helmet and had the other fashioned into a bit for his horse's mouth (or into a bridle ornament).
[37] On his death in November 1452, Bishop Georges d'Ornas ordered in his Will that his library be sold, and the proceeds contributed to the building of the new cathedral.
A part of the library was sold, but then a number of people, led by the new bishop Michel Anglici and by Roger de Foix the Rector of the Comtat Venaissin, intervened, and determined to preserve the remaining books for the education and training of clerics and of the citizens and inhabitants of Carpentras.
[38] The first Protestant to be found in Carpentras was Claude Baduel, a humanist scholar and a Lutheran, who had been a teacher at the collège of arts in Nîmes.
In 1544, just as Sadoleto and the Consuls of Carpentras were engaged in a search for a new principal for their collège, Baduel make known his desire to seek a new field for his work outside Nîmes.
[39] His application for the position at Carpentras took the form of an elegantly written Latin treatise on education of the youth, and addressed to Cardinal Sadoleto.
The royally authorized massacre of Waldensians (Vaudois) eventually involved more than twenty-two towns and villages including Cabrières, and Baduel decided in December to return to his former position in Nîmes.
[41] In 1562, at the beginning of the Wars of Religion in France, the Huguenot general, the Baron des Adrets, made his descent on the Venaissin from the Dauphiné, where he had been very successful.
In the meantime Fabrice Serbelloni, the nephew of Pope Pius IV and General of the papal troops, arrived in the neighborhood, and the Huguenots were forced to retire on 3 and 4 August.
[42] Next year, after the Peace of Amboise on 25 March 1563, the Huguenot forces returned, took Monteux, and advanced to Carpentras, but they were driven away with considerable losses.
This hospices became the major depository of abandoned children in the department, due in part to the convenience offered by the regular market at Carpentras.
