Who he was
Bertrand de Got came from a distinguished Gascon family, studied at Toulouse, Orléans and Bologna, and was Bishop of Comminges and then Archbishop of Bordeaux. He was elected at Perugia in June 1305, after a conclave of eleven months divided between French and Italian cardinals, and was crowned at Lyons. He never went to Rome; after some years in different towns of France he settled at Avignon in 1309. He died at Roquemaure in April 1314.
What he is remembered for
He began the long residence of the popes at Avignon, which lasted most of the 14th century. Under heavy pressure from King Philip IV of France, he suppressed the Order of the Knights Templar at the Council of Vienne in 1312 and gave its property to the Hospitallers. He also completed the medieval body of Church law with the collection of decrees known as the Clementines.
Sources
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