Berenger Fredoli

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Berenger Fredoli (b. at Vérune, France, c. 1250; d. at Avignon, 11 June 1323) was a French canon lawyer and Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati.^[1]

He was canon and precentor of Béziers, secular Abbot of Saint-Aphrodise in the same city, canon and archdeacon of Corbières, and canon of Aix. He later held the chair of canon law at the University of Bologna, and was appointed chaplain to Pope Celestine V, who in 1294 consecrated him Bishop of Béziers.

Fredoli was one of those entrusted by Pope Boniface VIII with the compilation of the text of the Decretals, and afterwards known as the Liber Sextus. He took a prominent part in the negotiations then in progress between the pope and Philip the Fair, and attended the council held in Rome in 1302.

In 1305 Pope Clement V created him cardinal, with the title of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus, appointed him Major Penitentiary (1306), and in 1309 raised him the Cardinal-Bishopric of Frascati. The same pontiff employed him in investigating the charges made against the Knights Templars, and also in the enquiry into the peculiar tenets entertained at that time by a section of the Franciscan Order.

On the death of Clement V, Fredoli was proposed by the French cardinals for the vacant chair, but without success. He continued in favour with the new pope, Pope John XXII, by whose order he deposed the Abbot of Gerald and Hugo, Bishop of Cahors, for conspiring against the pope's life.

He became Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals in April 1321.

The works of Fredoli are chiefly concerned with canon law, and include "Oculus", a commentary on the "Summa" of Henry of Segusio (Basle, 1573), "Inventarium juris canonici", and "Inventarium speculi judicialis", abridged from a work of Durand, Bishop of Mende.

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This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.