Guillaume de Bray

[1] It is claimed Guillaume was Master of Theology,[2] but the Cardinal's tombstone indicates that he was learned in Canon and Civil Law.

[11] At Perugia on 21 May 1265, Pope Clement IV confirmed a judgment made by Cardinal Guillaume of S. Marco and Cardinal Ottavio Ubaldini of S. Maria in Via lata, on a dispute involving members of the Roman Curia and the townspeople of Perugia regarding the paying of rents for domiciles when they were absent from the Curia or when no audiences were being held.

[16] Pope Clement IV confirmed a judgment of Cardinal Guillaume in favor of the Preceptor of the Knights of the Order of S. John of Jerusalem in Germany against a monastery in the diocese of Constanz on 23 December 1267.

At his own request he was buried in the Dominican church, S. Maria in Gradi, though his body was transferred, during the Sede Vacante, to the Cathedral of S. Lorenzo.

He was present at Lausanne on 20 October 1275, when the German King Rudolf I of Habsburg swore his oath of fealty to the Roman Church, in anticipation of his being crowned Emperor by the Pope.

He suspended the papal Constitution "Ubi Periculum", which had been drawn up by Pope Gregory X and ratified by the Second Council of Lyon in 1274.

Cardinal Guillaume of S. Marco is specifically mentioned as not having been present, due to illness, at the discussions which lead to the suspension of "Ubi Periculum".

An appeal had been lodged with Pope Gregory, and Cardinal Matteo Rosso Orsini had been assigned as Auditor.

But Gregory had died in January, 1276, and the opponents to the appeal withdrew their objections, and so Cardinal Guillaume and his colleagues were appointed by Pope Innocent V to proceed to the examination of the election itself and the candidate.

Then Innocent V died, and shortly after that Adrian V as well, and it was finally John XXI who accepted the examiners' judgment and ratified the election.

[32] On 27 March, 1277, the election of an Archimandrite (Abbot) of the Basilian monastery of Cardona was confirmed by Pope John XXI on the recommendation of a committee of cardinals which included Guillaume of S.

Conradus, O.Min., publicly ratified the agreements reached between the King and the late Pope Gregory X at Lausanne on 20 October 1275.

[38] A similar case, that of Giovanni Boccamazza, the Archbishop-elect of Monreale (and future cardinal), was handled in the summer of 1278.

When Bishop Guy died in October, 1270, the Cathedral Chapter split into two parties and engaged in a double election.

The case was still pending when Gregory died, and John XXI appointed another committee, of which Cardinal Guillaume de Bray was a member.

[44] Early in 1280 Cardinal Guillaume was Auditor (judge) in the case of a disputed election in the monastery of S. Launomarius Blesensis in the Diocese of Chartres.

But suddenly, on 2 February 1281, the Conclave was invaded by a mob led by Riccardo Annibaldi and six of his captains, and the three Orsini cardinals were seized.

Three days later, the late Pope's brother, Cardinal Giordano Orsini, was released and allowed to rejoin his colleagues in Conclave.

Martin IV and the Papal Curia therefore moved to Orvieto, where he was crowned in the Cathedral of S. Pietro on Sunday, March 23, 1281, and where he resided for the next fifteen months.

Under Martin IV (Simon de Brion), Cardinal Guillaume continued to be appointed to episcopal and abbatial examination committees.

[50] He was also a member of a committee of cardinals who had been appointed by Pope Nicholas IV to examine the election of an Abbess of the monastery of S. Victorino in Benevento, but then Nicholas died and the examination continued under Martin IV, but Cardinal Guillaume of S. Marco died before the final papal decision, which was given on 23 November 1282.

[51] Cardinal Guillaume de Bray died in Orvieto on 29 April 1282,[52] and was buried in the Church of the Dominicans, with a monument designed by Arnolfo di Cambio, that is his first signed work.

The inscription gives the Cardinal credit for mathesis, lex et decreta, and poesis (mathematics, Canon and civil law, poetry).