The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

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(18) 1. FOIX, O.F.M., le vieux, Pierre de (1386-1464)

Birth. 1386, (no place found), France. Of the counts of Carcassonne. Son of Archambaud de Grailly, captal de Buch, and Isabelle de Foix; part of her dowry was the county of Foix. Their descendants took the name "de Foix" Grand uncle of Cardinal Pierre de Foix, le jeune (1476). He is also listed as Pétro de Fuxo. He was called the Cardinal of Foix.

Education. Studied in Toulouse. Entered the Order of the Friars Minor (Franciscans) at the convent of Morlaas; he was a novice and professed in that convent.

Sacred orders. He had not been ordained a priest when he was promoted to the episcopate.

Episcopate. Elected bishop of Lescar by Antipope Alexander V on October 23, 1409, with dispensation for not having yet reached the canonical age; on the following November 11, he was given license to be consecrated by any Catholic bishop; he kept the administration of the see after his promotion to the cardinalate until 1422; administrator again, January 24 until April 20, 1433; and again, August 4, 1433. Promoted to the metropolitan see of Toulouse (?). Antipope Benedict XIII, ignoring this promotion, named him administrator of Lescar on February 5, 1410; later, on February 3, 1414, he threatened him with deposition.

Cardinalate. Created pseudocardinal priest in the consistory of September 1414 (1); received the red hat in October 1414; kept his see in commendam; received the title of S. Stefano al Monte Celio in 1417 from Pope Martin V. Named camerlengo of Antipope John XXIII on October 30, 1414. Abbot commendatario of the Cluniancese monastery of Lézat, diocese of Rieux, May 5, 1415. Arrived at the Council of Constance on February 5, 1416. Participated in the conclave of 1417, which elected Pope Martin V. Arrived in Florence from Avignon on March 2, 1419; left on April 15, 1420 arriving in Rome on December 16, 1423. Administrator of Saint-Bertrand de Comminges, August 7, 1422 until 1451. Named ambassador before King Alfonso V of Aragón, January 6, 1425; he left Rome the following March 2; legate again in 1426; and in 1429; he obtained the abdication of Antipope Clement VIII on July 26, 1429. Administrator of Lombés, from the beginning of 1425 until March 25 of the same year. He celebrated the Council of Tortosa, Catalonia, for the extinction of the schism from September 19 to November 5, 1429; returned to Rome at the end of 1429. Named legate in Comtat Venaissin on March 9, 1430; he took possession of the apostolic palace of Avignon on July 7, 1433. Did not participate in the conclave of 1431, which elected Pope Eugenius IV. The new pope transferred him to the suburbicarian see of Albano on March 14, 1431. Administrator of Mirepoix, November 9, 1432 until July 1433. An insurrection to depose Cardinal legate Foix and chase him out of his palace was repressed on September 15, 1443. Did not participate in the conclave of 1447, which elected Pope Nicholas V. The new pope named Cardinal Foix his vicar general in temporalibus in the city of Avignon and Comtat Venaissin and district on May 12, 1447. He celebrated a council in Arles at the end of November 1448. On December 3, 1448, at Notre-Dame de la Mer (now Les Saintes Maries de la Mer), he took part, as papal legate in the invention of the relics of Saints Marie Salomé, Marie Jacobé; and the servant Sarah (2) in the presence of King René I of Naples and his wife, Queen Isabel. Named administrator of the metropolitan see of Arles, September 25, 1450; resigned the post on March 24, 1463. Abbot commendatario of the monastery of Montmajour, October 9, 1450. Administrator of Dax, July 5, 1451 until May 30, 1459. Celebrated a provincial council in Arles in 1453; and another one in Avignon in 1458; this council published the first formal decree in favor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Did not participate in the conclave of 1455, which elected Pope Callistus III. Did not participate in the conclave of 1458, which elected Pope Pius II. Named administrator of the metropolitan see of Auch on February 11, 1463; resigned on that same day in favor of his nephew Jean de Lescur (Jean V d'Armagnac), who was preconized the following March 14. Administrator of the see of Tarbes, February 11, 1463 until his death. Did not participate in the conclave of 1464, which elected Pope Paul II. He founded in Toulouse the famous Collège Foix.

Death. December 13 (or 30), 1464, Avignon. Buried in the church of the Franciscans (Cordeliers) in Avignon (3).

Bibliography. Albanès, Joseph Mathias Hyacinthe ; Chevalier, Ulysse. Gallia christiana novissima. Histoire des archevêchés, évêques et abbayes de France. 7 vols. 1895-1920, cols. 841-869; Berton, Charles. Dictionnaire des cardinaux, contenant des notions générales sur le cardinalat, la nomenclature compléte ..., des cardinaux de tous les temps et de tous les pays ... les détails biographiques essentiels sur tous les cardinaux ... de longues études sur les cardinaux célèbre ... Paris : J.-P. Migne, 1857 ; Facsimile edition. Farnborough ; Gregg, 1969, cols. 914-921; Chacón, Alfonso. Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificvm Romanorum et S. R. E. Cardinalivm ab initio nascentis Ecclesiæ vsque ad Vrbanvm VIII. Pont. Max. 2 volumes. Romae : Typis Vaticanis, 1630, II, col. 742-743; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. VI. Les cardinaux du Grand Schisme (1378-1417)". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1931. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1931, p. 161-162; Eubel, Conradus and Gulik, Guglielmus van. Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi. Volumen I (1198-1431). Münich : Sumptibus et Typis Librariae Regensbergianae, 1913; reprint, Padua : Il Messagero di S. Antonio, 1960, pp. 33, 5, 47, 295 and 310; Eubel, Conradus and Gulik, Guglielmus van. Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi. Volumen II (1431-1503). Münich : Sumptibus et Typis Librariae Regensbergianae, 1914; reprint, Padua : Il Messagero di S. Antonio, 1960, pp. 91, 93, 100, 178, 193 and 246.

Webgraphy. Biography, Histoire de Carombe, in French; his image, arms and biography, in French, Wikipédia; biography, Gallia christiana novissima. Histoire des archevêchés, évêques et abbayes de France. ARLES / d'après les documents authentiques recueillis dans les registres du Vatican et les archives locales; completée, annotée et publiée par le chanoine Joseph-Hyacinthe Albanès (1822-1897). Auteur du texte, in French, col. 841-869, Gallica; his genealogy, A4 B5, euweb.cz; his arms, Araldica Vaticana.

(1) Berton, Dictionnaire des cardinaux, col. 914; and Chacón, Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificvm Romanorum et S. R. E. Cardinalivm, II, col. 742, indicate that he was promoted by Antipope Benedict XIII in 1408.
(2) She was canonized by the people and now attracts, as patron saint, gypsies from all over the world.
(3) This is the text of his epitaph taken from Berton, Dictionnaire des cardinaux, col. 920-921:

Sub hoc humili jacet loco F. Petrus de Fuxo
creatus cardinalis anno suæ ætatis XXII,
qui in concilio Constantiensi cum R. cardinalibus,
et in Hispania legatus schisma delevit,
et duos Hispaniæ reges confoederavit.
Tiaram B. Sylvestri Lateranensi ecclesiæ retituit,
Avenionensem ac diversas provincias,
ut pater patriæ annos XXXIV rexit;
Jacobi, et Salomes Marias alto locavit;
tandem MCCCCLXIV,
mense Decembri animam coelo reddidit
quem sancta suscepit de terris lucia.
Pauli Pont. Max. anno I.

SERVIRE DEO REGNARE EST.

 Chacón, Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificvm Romanorum et S. R. E. Cardinalivm, II, col. 743, also transcribes the text of the epitaph.

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