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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Jean Birel, prior general of the Carthusian order (1346–1360), is now remembered for the most part as an unsuccessful candidate for the papal throne in December 1352, following the death of Clement VI. From the early history of the order by Petrus Dorlandus (1454–1507) to the most recent biographical articles, this remains his chief claim to fame. The story of his candidacy can be found, however, in only one source, an anonymous history of the Carthusian order upon which Dorlandus and later writers have relied.
1 D. Petri Dorlandi Diestensis olim Cartusiae prioris doctissimi chronicon Cartusiense , 4.22 (ed. Theo. Petraeus [Cologne 1608] 230–32); Dictionnaire de biographie française 6 (Paris 1952) 515; DHGE 8 (Paris 1935) 1527.Google Scholar
2 The chronicle has been published, under the title Brevis historia ordinis Carthusiensis, by Mart, E. ène and Durand, U., Veterum scriptorum et monumentorum historicorum, dogmaticorum , moralium, amplissima collectio 6 (Paris 1729) 151–216, from a late and somewhat contaminated MS (on which see André Wilmart, ‘La Chronique des premiers Chartreux,’ Revue Mabillon [March 1926] 79 n. 7, and 108–109). The section of the chronicle dealing with the priorate of Birel, as published by Martène (cols. 187–193), does not, however, vary overmuch from better MSS, e.g., Westdeutsche Bibliothek, Marburg, MS lat. qu. 704 (old Görres, 133), fols. 75v-78v (which I have used for the above translation); Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels, MS 15137, fols. 213v-215v, and MS 11925, fols. 25v-29r; Bibliothèque municipale, Grenoble, MS 420, fols. 36r-42r (an early 17th-century copy); Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, MS, lat. 10886, fols. 59v-62v (an early 16th-century copy).Google Scholar
3 Annales ecclesiastici post Baronium ab anno 1198 usque ad annum 1565 , 16 (Cologne 1691) 336 (an. 1352, cap. 25).Google Scholar
4 Charles le Couteulx, Annales ordinis Cartusiensis ab anno 1084 ad annum 1429, 5 (Montreuil 1889) 245–247, 278–279. Google Scholar
5 Charles le Couteulx, Annales ordinis Cartusiensis 5.513. The idea that Birel, the candidate of the majority of cardinals, was too humble to accept the papal tiara, and that he got his good friend Talleyrand to dissuade his partisans in the college from electing him, is accepted by Louis de Nussac, ‘Dom Jean Birel,’ Bulletin de la Société scientifique, historique et archéologique de la Corrèze 20 (1898) 158. I have been unable to examine the work of l'abbé François Arbellot, Dom Jean Birel, général des Chartreux (Paris 1900), although his acceptance of the main lines of the story seems apparent from the citation of his work in the Dict. de biog. française 6 (1952) 515. Needless to add, the notion of Birel's refusal to accept the papal office is not even supported by the sole source for his candidacy. Google Scholar
6 And, as the anonymous chronicler describes him, ‘tam admirabilis in vita contemplativa pariter et activa.’ We need not detract from Birel's reputation for a sanctity which is well attested, by pointing out that he was far from being as ‘unworldly’ as this coupling with Celestine would suggest. Google Scholar
7 Indeed, there is some evidence that the relations between the cardinal and the prior were not unfriendly. Birel himself bore witness to Talleyrand's generosity towards the Carthusian house of Vauclaire. The cardinal had made a grant of 12,000 florins in 1359 for the finishing of the house, which undoubtedly would have been long since brought to completion the prior said, if the warfare in that area (between the forces of the French and English) had not made it impossible (Le Couteulx, Annales 6.7–8). It was through Talleyrand's mediation, also, that Birel was able to obtain papal permission for the Carthusians to choose a confessor who might give a plenary indulgence ‘in articulo mortis’ (ibid. 5.452). Rolewinck, in the late fifteenth century, preserved the memory of Talleyrand's friendliness to the order: ‘Taliarandus, cardinalis sancti Petri ad Vincula, praelatus devotus, et amicus religiosorum, et promotor bonorum fuit,’ Fasciculus temporum, aet. 6, anno Christi 1334, in Johannes Pistorius, Germanici scriptores 2 (3rd ed. Ratisbon 1726) 565; also in the Petrus Drach edition (Speier 1477) fol 61. Google Scholar
8 Couteulx, Le, Annales 5.513.Google Scholar
9 Souchon, Martin, Die Papstwahlen von Bonifaz VIII. bis Urban VI. und die Entstehung des Schismas 1378 (Brunswick 1888) 55–57.Google Scholar
10 Martène and Durand, Vet. script. 6.189: ‘qui etiam patris nomine Amedeus vocatus, nunc comes Sabaudiae est effectus.’ I am unable to date the chronicle earlier than 1383–1391. Wilmart, Rev. Mabillon (Mar. 1926) 108–109, puts it in 1367. He has called attention to the Westdeutsche Bibliothek MS lat. qu. 704, which, although itself compiled shortly after 1398, contains a copy of the chronicle which breaks off in 1367: ‘nous l'avons ici sous sa vraie forme, c'est-à-dire jusqu'au temps du prieur Helisarius (1360–1367); la date de la composition est ainsi livrée’ (ibid. 108). Despite the fact that it breaks off in 1367, the chronicle in this MS still refers to Amadeus VII as the present count of Savoy (fol. 76r). Thus, the question as to whether the story of Birel's candidacy goes back beyond the period 1383–1391 is at present impossible to answer. We can be certain, however, that it comes a full generation before Souchon's 1420. Google Scholar
11 Les Papes d'Avignon (1305–1378) (9th ed. Paris 1949) 97–98.Google Scholar
12 Clement VI died 6 December 1352. The cardinals entered the conclave on the 16th, and elected Innocent two days later, the 18th (E. Baluze, Vitae paparum Avenionensium ed. Mollat, G. 2 [Paris 1914] 309, 331, 342). Cf. Matteo Villani 3.44 (Ignazio Moutier [ed.] Cronica di Matteo Villani a miglior lezione ridotta [Florence 1825] 2.59).Google Scholar
13 See Jean Lulvès, ‘Die Machtbestrebungen des Kardinalats bis zur Aufstellung der ersten päpstlichen Wahlkapitulationen,’ Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken 13 (1910) 73–102. esp. 84ff. On the income of the college, Baumgarten, P. M., Untersuchungen und Urkunden über die Camera Collegii Cardinalium (Leipzig 1898) xcvii ff.Google Scholar
14 For the thesis that the schism was caused by the assault of the oligarchical college of cardinals on the papal headship of the church, see Walter Ullmann, The Origins of the Great Schism: A Study in Fourteenth-Century Ecclesiastical History (London 1948) 170–190. Google Scholar
15 Souchon, , Die Papstwahlen 57–66, has given much attention to this ‘Wahlcapitulation,’ without, however, connecting it with the question of Birel's candidacy.Google Scholar
16 Bullarum diplomatum et privilegiorum sanctorum Romanum pontificum Taurinensis editio 4 (Turin 1859) 506–508. The capitulation is summarized and discussed by Mollat, G., ‘Contribution à l'histoire du sacré collège de Clément V à Eugène IV,’ Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 46 (1951) 100ff; Lulvès, ‘Die Machtbestrebungen’ 94ff.Google Scholar
17
Like another story to be found in Carthusian literature: ‘Dum enim quidam papa priorem carthusiensem in cardinalem esse voluit, rennuit ille et sustinuit per aliquot menses excommunicationem [!], qaousque cardinales dicerent pape: Dimittatis eum in pace, quia si hic veniret 
sellum equitaret et omnes nos confunderet’ (B.N. MS lat. 10886, fol. 28v). Neither the pope nor the prior are identified, but this is clearly a reflection of the story in our chronicle of Innocent's offer of a cardinal's h
t and Birel's refusal.
Google Scholar
18 For his influence on the election of Benedict XII, see Giovanni Villani 11.21 (Ignazio Moutier [ed.], Cronica di Giovanni Villani a miglior lezione ridotta 4 [Floreı ce 1824] 58–59); cf. Baluze-Mollat, Vitae paparum Avenionensium 2.276; Karl Jacob, Studien über Papst Benedikt XII. (Berlin 1909) 21–22. And see Petrarch's comment to his friend Socrates (Ludwig van Kempen) in September 1352, referring to Talleyrand's reputation: ‘… everyone maintains that he has created two Roman pontiffs in a row …,’ who could only have been Benedict XII and Clement VI (Ep. fam. 14.2). The writer of the MS of the chronicle as published by Martène would insert his own description of the cardinal — one not to be found in earlier redactions: ‘qui tunc temporis inter cardinales quasi vexillifer habebatur’ (col. 187). Google Scholar
19 For example, Matteo Villani 4.86 (in Moutier, I. ed. Florence 2.282–283), calls him ‘baldanzoso e superbo,’ and credits him with the slaying of three disorderly knights from Gascony.Google Scholar