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Reconsidering a Long and Difficult Episcopacy: Guillem de Tavertet, Bishop of Vic (1195–1233)

Zusammenfassung: Das katalanische Bistum Vic erlebte während des Pontifikats von Guillem de Tavertet (1195–1233) erhebliche Unruhen. Mitglieder des Domkapitels beschuldigten den Bischof der Veruntreuung von Kircheneigentum und der Anstiftung zur Gewalt. Der Bischof sah sich auch mit Anfechtungen der adligen Familie Montcada konfrontiert, die eng mit dem König von Aragonien verbündet war und den oberen Teil der Stadt beherrschte, was die Rechtsprechung und die Abgaben betraf. Ein Rückblick auf den langwierigen Verlauf der Streitigkeiten mit den Kanonikern und die Versuche von Papst Innozenz III., sie zu lösen, zeigt ein komplexeres Bild von Guillems Politik und seinen Schwierigkeiten, als ich es in meiner früheren Arbeit über das Bistum Vic dargestellt habe.

Abstract: The Catalan bishopric of Vic experienced considerable turmoil during the pontificate of Guillem de Tavertet (1195–1233). Members of the chapter accused the bishop of dilapidation of church property and of fomenting violence. The bishop also faced challenges over jurisdiction and revenues from the noble Montcada family, close allies of the king of Aragon, who held the upper part of the town. Reviewing the torturous course of the disputes with the canons and the attempts of Pope Innocent III to resolve them shows a more complex picture of Guillem’s policies and difficulties than what I presented in my earlier work on the diocese of Vic.


Although Catalonia is distant from the geographical area of Sabine von Heusinger’s research, this brief study is inspired by her work on towns and her concern with the fascinating sources for medieval history.

The occasion serves as an opportunity to revisit my earlier estimation of the turbulent pontificate of Guillem de Tavertet, Bishop of Vic from 1194 until his forced resignation in 1233. In a doctoral dissertation (1978) and book on the 12th-century bishops and chapter of Vic (1983), I considered this sub-Pyrenean diocese in terms of the expansion of Catalonia.[1] Vic had been a cultural and political center in the 10th and 11th centuries, but it seemed to me that the “weltliche Herrschaft” of the bishops (as Odilo Engels formulated it)[2] declined as the center of gravity of the County of Barcelona, joined by marriage in the mid-12th century to the Kingdom of Aragon, shifted south and west, especially with the conquests of Lleida and Tortosa in 1148 and 1149. The era of Guillem de Tavertet witnessed two simultaneous conflicts: between the bishop and the cathedral canons, and between the church and the secular co-rulers of the city of Vic. These struggles seemed to mark a dramatic acceleration of an earlier slow decline in episcopal authority over jurisdiction, coinage, revenue from land and markets, and the administration of castles.

It is now evident that this overall trajectory does not sufficiently allow for fluctuations in episcopal power. Ramon Gaufred, for example, bishop from 1110 to 1145, re-established the vita canonica for the chapter, restored the endowment of the affiliated Augustinian chapter of Santa Maria de l’Estany, and attempted to limit claims of monastic exemption. Moreover, far from the bishops of Vic being isolated from the centers of secular power as I had posited for the 11th century, Ramon Gaufred was an intimate counselor to Count Ramon Berenguer IV (1131–1162).[3]

The long episcopacy of Guillem de Tavertet was embattled and his ultimate and unwilling resignation an undoubted humiliation, but he also made certain effective innovations. His administration elaborated justification for the secular power of the bishops of Vic, and a cartulary known as the Liber Dotationum Antiquarum was created. New endowments regularized the liturgy, established new altars, and offered canons financial support to study law in Lombardy or France. The episcopal archive was separated from the capitular archive in a fashion that endures.[4] The leading townsmen of Vic were able to negotiate an agreement with Bishop Guillem in 1198 over taxes on newly constructed houses.[5]

Despite accusations of corruption, dilapidation and violence leveled by dissident canons against the bishop, charges that Pope Innocent III tried to adjudicate, Guillem de Tavertet was entrusted by both the pope and the king of Aragon with considerable responsibility.[6] He was closely involved with the administration of King Pere I (1196–1213) and the cathedral and town received a number of exemptions from royal fiscal exactions.[7] With regard to the papacy, Guillem de Tavertet attended the Fourth Lateran Council where he undertook to defend Tarragona against the claims of ecclesiastical primacy over Iberia made by the archbishop of Toledo.[8] In 1224, Pope Honorius III requested that Bishop Guillem restore to office the abbot of Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert who had resigned without papal permission. Once that was achieved, he was then to oversee the abbot’s canonical resignation and the election of a new administrator. Honorius III also had Guillem decide a case involving a monk of Sant Cugat who disputed his excommunication by the abbot of that monastery.[9]

Notwithstanding such interludes, the years of Guillem’s episcopacy were not peaceful. Elected in 1195, Guillem had been a canon since 1181 and his uncle, Pere de Tavertet, had entered the chapter in 1157 and would serve as sacristan until his death in 1218. Guillem’s difficulties began almost immediately. He obtained three letters of Pope Celestine III in November 1196 in order to strengthen his authority. The first refers to canons who refuse to participate in the cathedral liturgy and act insultingly toward the bishop. In response to such contumacy, the pope allows Guillem to rely on the sanior pars of the chapter to oppose those who defy episcopal authority, excommunicating them if necessary.[10] On the following day, Pope Celestine adds that clergy in the diocese of Vic who refuse to attend synods and are in other respects unworthy of their tonsure should be deprived of their benefices and subject to severe penalties.[11] Another letter allowed the bishop to wield the “material sword” to repress the iniquity of evil men in accord with a privilege of the king of the Franks.[12] The prauorum hominum inequitates referred to in this third letter are specified as invasions of church property, but whether these were committed by townsmen or members of the entourage of the Montcadas, lords of the upper part of the town, is not clear.

Beginning in 1205, Bishop Guillem was waging a two-front war. On behalf of the cathedral chapter, Guislabert de Montral and Guillem Gros appeared at the papal curia to accuse Bishop Guillem of extorting homage from the canons and bestowing capitular revenues on laymen. They also denounced the bishop for protecting Guillem Escuder, a member of the episcopal household and royal bailiff for Vic, who in 1203 had murdered the canon Bernat de Montral, a cousin of Guislabert. The bishop, they asserted, had obtained a royal pardon for Guillem Escuder in return for money which was extracted from parish priests. Moreover, the bishop was devoted to hunting rather than religion and was notoriously consorting with a married woman.[13]

Bishop Guillem too made his way to Rome and claimed that the charges should not be considered because the canons were oath breakers and criminals. A letter from the bishop to the pope denies the charges by stating that the condition of the cathedral when he took over was lamentable and then listing the various castles and properties he had acquired and presenting his struggles to relieve the church and the town from royal exactions.[14]

The year 1205 also saw a new phase in the tensions over jurisdiction in the city of Vic. Guillem III de Montcada refused to recognize that he held his rights in the town from the bishop, claiming to be an equal co-seigneur as regards judgment, coinage and market administration. This quarrel too was marked by violence, the acute phase of which was between 1205 and 1211.[15] An agreement in 1224 recognized the Montcadas as effective rulers of what was now a clearly divided town, but disputes continued throughout the 13th century.[16]

For the conflict with the chapter, Innocent III appointed an investigation committee consisting of the archbishop of Tarragona, the treasurer of the same cathedral and the archdeacon of Barcelona. As Damien Smith has shown, this letter of appointment was followed by the important decretal Cum oporteat (September 1, 1206) which established norms for considering reputation (fama) before following through with an investigation of wrongdoing.[17] Once the judges reported, the pope ruled in favor of the bishop and the two canons who had brought the complaint to Rome were suspended until they performed penance.

This did not end matters because in 1213 disaffected members of the chapter renewed the earlier charges of maladministration. Shortly before the convening of the Fourth Lateran Council, Bishop Guillem obtained from Innocent III a confirmation of the privilege of Celestine III allowing him, along with the sanior pars of the chapter, to discipline uncooperative canons.[18]

The last year of Guillem’s pontificate, 1233, witnessed yet again the complaints of canons about arbitrary and extortionate rule. Once more he was summoned to Rome. A hearing took place before John of Abbeville who was familiar with Iberian affairs through service as a legate. Pope Gregory IX played a direct role and probably induced Bishop Guillem to offer his resignation in return for papal protection and immunity from further spiritual or physical punishment. On his return to Catalonia, Guillem retired to the monastery of Sant Pere de Casserres where he died late in 1233.[19]

It is hard to determine fault for this protracted series of disputes between bishop and at least some members of the chapter. What was presented as mistreatment of the chapter and depletion of the cathedral’s wealth might also be interpreted as attempts at reform and the restoration of a common life. Clearly Guillem’s original innovation in separating episcopal from capitular property met with resistance and broke with an arrangement by which the bishop was closer to a first among equals with regard to the chapter. It is also obvious that Bishop Guillem was intransigent and prone to intemperate actions. The first years of his pontificate were successful in that he obtained the various privileges from Celestine III, but those documents sanctioning minority rule and encouraging resort to worldly arms show a level of determination not likely to result in compromise or harmony.

Against this background, we end with one of the recently uncovered documents in the Vic cathedral archives from this period demonstrating the complexity of the quarrels and their unpredictable turns. Before Lateran IV, when Guillem was again being denounced to the papal curia, eighteen canons (including Guillem’s uncle, the sacristan Pere de Tavertet as well as the former rebel Guislabert de Montral) wrote to Innocent III defending the bishop against the accusations of a canon identified as “G.”.[20] The signatories “protest and strongly affirm” that, since his return from Rome after the initial resolution (i.e., 1206), Bishop Guillem has acted graciously towards the chapter, has done nothing to undermine the church of Vic but rather has defended its interests viriliter et potenter.

Bishop Guillem de Tavertet represents a familiar managerial type, one who is skilled at identifying problems but, through arrogance, haste or intransigence, finds it difficult to persuade others to agree. Despite the trust placed in him by pope and king and although his uncle was a respected and long-serving member of the chapter, Guillem was unable to resolve problems with the chapter. Townsmen, other church officials, even the Montcadas were more tractable than the members of his cathedral community. The humiliation of a forced resignation should not be the sole measure for estimating Bishop Guillem’s career, but it indicates the level of conflict that persisted throughout his thirty-eight-year pontificate.

[1] Paul Freedman, Church and Society in the Diocese of Vich in the Twelfth Century, Ph. D. diss., University of California, Berkeley 1978; id., The Diocese of Vic: Tradition and Regeneration in Medieval Catalonia, New Brunswick, NJ, 1983. The change in spelling reflects the modernization of Catalan placenames after the end of the Franco regime.

[2] Odilo Engels, Die weltliche Herrschaft des Bischofs von Ausona-Vich (869–1315), in: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kulturgeschichte Spaniens 24 (1968), pp. 1–40.

[3] Josep M. Masnou Pratdesaba, El bisbat de Vic durant l’episcopat de Ramon Gaufred (1110–1145), in: Revista catalana de teologia 27/2 (2002), pp. 257–93.

[4] Josep M. Masnou Pratdesaba, La vida canonical al bisbat de Vic (886-1230), Barcelona 2022, pp. 347–63; Paul Freedman and Josep M. Masnou Pratdesaba, Some Additional Letters of Pope Innocent III Concerning the Cathedral Chapter of Vic, in: Römische Historische Mitteilungen 44 (2002), p. 107. The scholarship fund is mentioned by Peter Linehan, A Papal Legation and its Aftermath. Cardinal John of Abbeville in Spain and Portugal, 1228–1229, in: A Ennio Cortese, ed. by Domenico Maffei et al., Rome 2001, p. 247.

[5] Freedman, The Diocese of Vic (as n. 1), p. 88.

[6] The meaning of “dilapidation” with regard to episcopal maladministration is discussed in Bruno Lemesle, Le gouvernement des évêques: La charge pastorale au milieu du Moyen Âge, Rennes 2015, pp. 165-212.

[7] Josep M. Masnou Pratdesaba, La vida canonical a la cathedral de Vic (886–1230): L’aplicació de la reforma gregoriana a partir de l’estudi prosopogràfic, Ph.D. diss., University of Barcelona 2021, pp. 500–03.

[8] Juan Francisco Rivera, Personajes hispanos asistentes en 1215 al IV Concilio de Letrán, in: Hispania Sacra 7–8 (1954), pp. 335–55. The intervention of the bishop of Vic was in place of the archbishop of Tarragona because the previous archbishop had died, and his successor was not yet elected.

[9] Demetrio Mansilla, La documentación pontificia de Honorio III (1216–1227), Rome 1965, no. 528, p. 391; no. 605, pp. 461–62. Bishop Guillem also arbitrated, in 1224, a dispute between the cathedral of Girona and the abbey of Ripoll over the presentation of clergy in Tossa, Josep M. Marquès i Planagumà, El Cartoral de Rúbriques Vermelles de Pere de Rocabertí, bisbe de Girona (1318–1324), Barcelona 2009, no. 28 (59), pp. 179–80.

[10] JL 17439; Paul Fridolin Kehr, Papsturkunden in Spanien: Vorarbeiten zur Hispania Pontificia, vol. 1. Katalanien, Göttingen 1976; first published Berlin 1926, no. 571, pp. 580–81.

[11] JL 17441; Kehr, Papsturkunden 1 (as n. 10), no. 573, pp. 582–83.

[12] JL 17440; Kehr, Papsturkunden 1 (as n. 10), no. 572, pp. 581–82. The royal privilege refers to a donation of King Eudes in 889 to Bishop Ermemir of Vic. The document is interpolated and according to Robert-Henri Bautier, Recuil des actes d’Eudes, roi de France (888–898), Paris 1967, no. 5, pp. 20–29, only the valley of Artés was included in the original concession.

[13] Damian Smith, A Letter of Innocent III from the Archive of Vic Shedding Light on Cum Oporteat (X 5.1.19), in: Römische Historische Mitteilungen 50 (2008), pp. 200–02; Masnou Pratdesaba, La vida canonical (as n. 4), pp. 353–56.

[14] Vic, Arxiu Capitular, Calaix 31, vol. 42, no. 45, ed. by Masnou Pratdesaba, La vida canonical (as n. 7), no. 38, pp. 245–46.

[15] John C. Shideler, Les tactiques politiques des Montcada seigneurs de Vic du début du XIIIe siècle, in: Ausa 9 (1981), pp. 329–42.

[16] Joseph Gudiol y Cunill, Les bregues sobre lo senyoriu de Vich en temps del rey Jaume I, in: Congrès d’història de la Corona d’Aragó (Barcelona 1909), vol. 1, Barcelona 1913, pp. 194–218.

[17] Smith, A Letter of Innocent III (as n. 13).

[18] Vic, Arxiu Capitular, Calaix 37, vol. 6, no. 34, ed. by Freedman and Masnou Pratdesaba, Some Additional Letters of Pope Innocent III, doc. 3 (as n. 4), pp. 117–18; Butllari de Catalunya. documents pontificis originals conservats als arxius de Catalunya (1198-1417), ed. by Roser Sabanés i Fernández, and Tilmann Schmidt, vol. 1, Barcelona 2016, doc. 53, pp. 115–16.

[19] Anscari Mundó, La renúncia del bisbe de Vic, Guillem de Tavertet (1233) segons la correspondència de Bages i els registres vaticans, in: VII Congresso de historia de la Corona de Aragón, 1-6 octubre 1962, vol. 3, Barcelona 1964, pp. 77–95.

[20] Lateran IV opened on November 13, 1215. This letter, Vic, Arxiu Episcopal, vol. XVI, no. 70, is dated February 4, 1215, ed. by Masnou Pratdesaba, La vida canonical (as n. 7), no. 400, p. 1270.


D O W N L O A D

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Empfohlene Zitierweise / Suggested Citation: Paul Freedman, Reconsidering a Long and Difficult Episcopacy: Guillem de Tavertet, Bishop of Vic (1195–1233), in: Von unbequemen Dominikanern, organisierten Handwerkern und gefertigten Dingen. Festschrift für Sabine von Heusinger zum 60. Geburtstag, hrsg. von Julia Bruch, Eva-Maria Cersovsky und Andreas Lehnertz (Mittelalter. Interdisziplinäre Forschung und Rezeptionsgeschichte, Beihefte 5,1), S. 179–185, DOI: https://doi.org/10.26012/mittelalter-33670.


OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Paul Freedman (17. Januar 2025). Reconsidering a Long and Difficult Episcopacy: Guillem de Tavertet, Bishop of Vic (1195–1233). Mittelalter. Abgerufen am 13. Februar 2025 von https://doi.org/10.58079/133lg


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