Guillaume d'Estouteville

A bust of Guillaume d'Estouteville done shortly after his death by Mino da Fiesole, now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York

Guillaume d'Estouteville, O.S.B., (1403/1412–1483) was a French Benedictine monk who became a leading bishop and cardinal. He was a survivor of the first outbreak of the Black Death in a generation, which killed many of the clergy of the country as well as the general public. As a result, he held a number of Church offices simultaneously. He has the distinction of being the origin of the oldest extant episcopal lineage within the Catholic Church and the most numerous non-Rebiban lineage.[1]

Life

D'Estouteville was born in 1403 (or 1412) in either Valmont or Estouteville-Écalles in the Duchy of Normandy, a member of the most powerful family in the region. He became a Benedictine monk at the Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs in Paris, where he soon became prior. He later became abbot simultaneously of the Abbeys of Mont Saint-Michel (1444-1483), of Saint-Ouen at Rouen and of Montebourg. On 30 March 1439 he was installed as the Bishop of Angers, as well as being named the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Mirepoix. Six months later he was also appointed to head the Diocese of Digne. He was named a cardinal in the consistory of 18 December 1439 by Pope Eugene IV, even before his consecration as a bishop in January 1440. The following year he was additionally appointed as Administrator of the Dioceses of Béziers and Nîmes, which offices he carried out for the next few years.<ref name=CH /[2]

By January 1450 D'Estouteville had resigned his various offices and become the Administrator of the Diocese of Lodève. He served in this office alone for three years, before also being appointed as bishop of the Diocese of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. In April 1453 he was elevated to the additional office of Archbishop of Rouen. He became Cardinal Bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina in 1454, moving permanently to Rome the following year. He was named the Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia (1461) and became the Dean of the College of Cardinals (November 1472).[3]

D'Estouteville participated in the papal conclaves that elected Pope Nicholas V, Pope Pius II, Pope Paul II and Pope Sixtus IV, but was absent from Rome during the sede vacante prior to the election of Pope Calixtus III. He served as Camerlengo of the Holy See from 1477 until his death; he was the last non-Italian cardinal to hold the office for nearly five hundred years until Jean-Marie Villot in 1970.

D'Estouteville was sent to France as legate by Pope Nicholas V to make peace between King Charles VII of France and England (1451), and undertook at the instigation of the Inquisitor General Jean Brehal an ex officio revision of the trial of Joan of Arc; he afterwards reformed the statutes of the University of Paris. He then went to preside over the assembly of clergy which met at Bourges to discuss the observation of the Pragmatic Sanction, finally returning to Rome, where he passed almost all the rest of his life.

D'Estouteville was a candidate for the papacy after the death of Pope Calixtus, but he was defeated by Cardinal Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, who became Pope Pius II.

Rouen, Mont Saint-Michel, Pontoise and Gaillon owe the construction of many buildings to his initiative. The cardinal also underwrote the building of the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome. He then had the remains of Saint Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, brought from Ostia Antica for entombment in a marble sarcophagus he had built for them.

D'Estouteville died in Rome on 22 January 1483.[3] His remains were buried in the Basilica of Sant'Agostino. His heart, however, was removed and taken to be kept in the tomb he had built for himself in the Cathedral of Rouen. A bust of him was placed at the entrance to the sacristy of the basilica.

Works

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guillaume d'Estouteville.

References

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Hardouin de Bueil
Bishop of Angers (Jean I Michel in fact in possession)
1439–1447
Succeeded by
Jean de Beauvau
Preceded by
Pierre de Verceil
Bishop of Digne
1439–1445
Succeeded by
Pierre Turelure
Preceded by
Jean III
Bishop of Couserans
1439–1441
Succeeded by
Jordanes d'Aure
Preceded by
Guillaume du Puy
Administrator of the Diocese of Mirepoix
1439–1441
Succeeded by
Jourdain d'Aure
Preceded by
Guillaume de Champeaux
Administrator of the Diocese of Nîmes
1441–1450
Succeeded by
Geoffroy Soreau
Preceded by
?
Administrator of the Diocese of Béziers
1444–1447
Succeeded by
?
Preceded by
Jacques de Gaujac
Administrator of the Diocese of Lodève
1450–1453
Succeeded by
Jean de Corguilleray
Preceded by
Juan de Segovia
Bishop of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
1453–1483
Succeeded by
Etienne de Morel
Preceded by
Raoul Roussel
Archbishop of Rouen
1453–1483
Succeeded by
Robert de Croixmare
Preceded by
Francesco Condulmer
Cardinal-bishop of Porto
1459–1461
Succeeded by
Juan Carvajal
Preceded by
Giorgio Fieschi
Cardinal-bishop of Ostia
1461–1483
Succeeded by
Giuliano della Rovere
Preceded by
Basilios Bessarion
Dean of the College of Cardinals
1472–1483
Succeeded by
Rodrigo Borgia
Preceded by
Latino Orsini
Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church
1477–1483
Succeeded by
Raffaele Riario
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