Gilles-Ayceltn De Montaigut
Gilles-Ayceltn De Montaigut [1]
a French prelate, was born at Glaine-Montaigut, near Billom (Auvergne), about 1252; appointed provost of the cathedral of Clermont in 1285, and shortly after canon of Narbonne. He was finally chosen archbishop of that city by a part of the chapter, in 1287. Ordained priest, March 17, 1291, by Simon de Beaulieu, archbishop of Bourges, he subsequently started for Rome, and cardinal Gerard Bianchi, bishop of Sabine, consecrated him at Viterbo in the following May. He is found in the number of counsellors of state present at the Louvre in 1296, when the chancellor, Pierre Flotte, read the letters by which Guy, count of Flanders, revoked the powers of his ambassadors commissioned to negotiate a peace with Philip the Fair. Gilles, in the name of the latter prince, signed, June, 1299, the truce concluded with the king of England at Montreuil, October 24, 1301, he was one of the assembly convoked at Senlis to judge Bernard Saisset, bishop of Pamiers, legate of the pope, and one of his suffragans. Called to Rome by this affair, Gilles was ordered by the king not to repair to that city, and he obeyed his royal master. He was one of the five prelates of the council at the Louvre, March 12, 1303, held against Boniface VIII, and labored for the election of Bertrand de Goth (Clement V), his friend. He was also the first of the French bishops appointed to proceed against the Templars. February 27, 1309, he was made keeper of the seals; and after having presided over a diocesan synod at Narbonne, and in 1310 over a council at Beziers, he exchanged his bishopric, May 5, 1311, for that of Rouen. Present at the council-general of Vienna, he was there persuaded that it was useless to allow the Templars to attempt to vindicate themselves. On his return to Rouen, he there presided at a provincial council, October, 1313; held two others at Rouen in 1315, and one at Pontoise, November 17, 1317. Montaigut died at Paric June 23, 1318. By his testament, December 13, 1314, he constituted his nephew, Albert Aycelin de Montaigut, bishop of Clermont, his heir, on the condition of maintaining in the houses belonging to him in Paris as many poor scholars as the number of times the sum of ten pounds should be contained in the annual revenue of these houses. Such was the origin of the College of Montaigut, on the site of which the Library of Saint Genevieve now stands. See Gallia Chrsistiana, volumes 6 and 12; Du Chesne, Histoires des Chanceliers de Fraince; France Pontificale.
