Carpentras (Lat. dioecesis Carpentoratensis) was a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the Provence region (later part of France), from the later Roman Empire until 1801. It was part of the ecclesiastical province under the Metropolitan, the Archbishop of Arles. The bishop was a major figure in the Comtat Venaissin, and a member of the Estates of the Comtat. He was a direct appointee of the pope.

History The first historically documented bishop of Carpentras is Constantianus, who was represented at the Council of Riez in 439, of Orange in 441, and of Vaison in 442.Duchesne, p. 272, no. 1. Carpentras was a suffragan see of Arles from 450 to 1475, when it became a suffragan of Avignon.

Bishop Siffredus (Sigefridus) (c. 530–540) became the patron saint of Carpentras.Siffredus, according to legend, derived from a family in Campania, but his name points to northern origins. De Terris, p. 59, note 1, pointing out that the documents begin in the 8th or 9th century.

Later 6th and 7th centuries the bishops called themselves bishops of Venasque, with the exception of Boethius, who at Valence in 584 signed the acts of the council as Bishop of Carpentras. This suggests that, after Carpentras had fallen into ruin,The early 5th-century Notitia Galliarum does not mention Carpentras among the cities of the area, perhaps an indication of its decay at the time; cf. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Chronica minora , I, p. 559. Negative evidence, however, is always problematical. the bishops lived in nearby Venasque.De Terris, Les Evêques de Carpentras. Etude historique, chapter II. Carpentras is not mentioned in the context of the occupation of Provence by the Saracens (Arabs) in the ninth century or the depredations of the Northmen or of the Hungarians (924) in the tenth,Liabestres, pp. 13-14. which may be explained by its depopulation. The bishops of Carpentras are still speaking of the "See of Carpentras or Venasque" in the late tenth century.Gallia christiana I, Instrumenta, p. 148: in ecclesia Sancti Petri Apostoli sedis Carpentoratensium sive Vendascensium.

The Jews of Carpentras: the Carrière

Already by the beginning of the sixth century, there were significant numbers of Jews in the Midi.A survey of the evidence is given by Loeb, pp. 36-38. The bishops, who met at Agde in 507, and those who met at Epaona in 517, considered it necessary to make canons concerning fraternization with Jews even more stringent. One of these was Bishop Julianus of Carpentras. It was already forbidden for clerics to dine with Jews, but the prohibition was also extended to laymen. The earliest reference to a Jewish community in Carpentras is found in a set of community statutes, approved by several prominent rabbis in France, including the Rabbi of Carpentras, who may have been Jacob Tam. These belong to the first half of the twelfth century. At the beginning of the thirteenth century the Jews were expelled from Carpentras, but they returned in 1263.Bardinet (1880), pp. 7-9 Apparently they were able to reach an accommodation with Bishop Raimundus de Barjols, who unfortunately died in February 1275.Loeb, pp. 37-38. S. Kahn, in: Adler & Singer (1907), Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 589 column 1.

Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, who ruled Provence in the name of his wife Joan of Toulouse, from 1249 until his death in 1271, was a vigorous persecutor of the Jews. In 1269 he issued an order for a general persecution of the Jews in his domains.Loeb, p. 39. In his Last Will and Testament, he left the Comtat Venaissin to the papacy, and though the rest of his Will was quashed, that one provision was allowed. In 1274, therefore, Pope Gregory X became the ruler of the Comtat, and in 1275 a new bishop of Carpentras was appointed, following the death of Bishop de Barjols. The political climate had changed. On 19 July 1275, the Papal Chamberlain and Provost of Marseille, Berenguer de Séguret, was appointed sole judge in cases concerning the Jews, to the exclusion of all other magistrates.Collier, p. 20. Bardinet (1880), p. 9. On 28 February 1276, shortly after the Comtat Venaissin became the property of the popes, the Jews of Carpentras entered into an agreement with the Bishop of Carpentras, Pierre Rostaing, in which they agreed to become his vassals in exchange for his protection. They agreed as well to pay to him and his successors a series of specified taxes, but the Bishop agreed not to impose any other additional taxes on them, to guard their property, and to protect them from violence and injustice. The document was signed by sixty-four heads of families.Loeb, pp. 40-46. The details of the provisions are listed by S. Kahn, p. 589 column 2. Carpentras thus became, along with Avignon, Cavaillon, and L'Isle-sur-Sorgue, one of the recognized cities of refuge from antisemitic persecution in the Comtat Venaissin.

In 1320, a different Pope, John XXII (Jacques Duèse), agreed to defend the Jews of the Comtat from the murderous onslaught of the marauding bands of antisemitic shepherds, the Pastoureaux.Malcolm Barber, "The Pastoureaux of 1320," Journal of Ecclesiastical History Volume 32 (2) (April 1981), pp. 143-166. Papal protection was not, however, without a price. In a bull of 12 April 1320 that same pope revoked the agreement between the bishops of Carpentras and their Jewish community, as he took the temporal power over Carpentras which had belonged to the bishops. The Pope was now the overlord of the Jews. And in 1322 he expelled the Jews and turned their synagogue into a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. This situation lasted for twenty years, until a new Pope, Clement VI revoked John XXII's expulsion order, and granted permission in 1343 for the rebuilding of the synagogue of Carpentras.Loeb, pp. 49-53. In 1343 only 12 heads of families are known, which is down from a figure of 300 heads of families before the expulsion. The synagogue was completed in 1367, and rebuilt in 1741; it was repaired in 1784 and 1899.Loeb, pp. 46-48. S. Kahn, p. 589 column 2. In 1403 Pope Benedict XIII claimed all of the taxes which the Jews had formerly paid to the bishops. Pope Clement VII confirmed their privileges in 1524, and Pope Paul III revoked them in 1539. By virtue of a bull of 26 February 1569, Pope Pius V expelled the Jews from Italian and French territory, which was immediately followed by an order of 3 August 1570 from the Legate of Avignon for them to leave by October. The Rector of the Comtat, however, permitted some of them to remain, and they eventually restored their numbers. The French Revolution brought about their complete emancipation, and after the annexation of the Comtat Venaissin in 1793 they became French citizens.Kahn, p. 590.

Avignon Popes and Carpentras In March 1313, at the beginning of the Avignon Papacy, Pope Clement V took up residence, with the Roman Curia, in Carpentras, where he stayed until April 1314; but, finding the city inconvenient, he departed for his home in Gascony, where he expected to recover his health, but died shortly thereafter.It was his successor Pope John XXII who settled definitively at Avignon. The popes resided in the Episcopal Palace in Carpentras. Expilly, p. 88 column 1. The comings and goings of the Papal Curia can be followed by noting the places at which their documents were written and signed.For example, Clement V was there in January and February of 1314:

Clement V was responsible for the building of the aqueduct of Carpentras.Séguin de Pazzis, pp. 117-118. Its pipes were made of lead.Expilly, p. 104.

Following the death of Pope Clement V, and once the mourning for the deceased pope was ended, the Conclave met in the Episcopal Palace at Carpentras. It began around 1 May 1314. The twenty-three cardinals in the Conclave proceeded at a leisurely pace, though without coming to an agreement on the election, until the Feast of S. Mary Magdalen on Monday, 22 July 1314. The Italian cardinals were supporting Guillaume de Mandagot of Lodève, Bishop of Palestrina, who was a Frenchman and a subject of Philip IV of France. The Gascon cardinals, however, who had been appointed by Clement, and were not French subjects, refused to agree. On 22 July rioting broke out among the entourages of various cardinals, and some Gascons (it is claimed) burned down the palace and much of the city. The cardinals scattered, the Italian ones reassembling at Valence and complaining loudly about the Gascons and demanding that the papal Court return to Rome where a proper Conclave could be held.Martin Souchon, Die Papstwahlen von Bonifaz VIII bis Urban VI (Braunschweig: Benno Goeritz 1888) 35-45. It was not until 28 June 1316, nearly two years later, that the Cardinals reassembled, this time at Lyon, and on 7 August elected Cardinal Jacques Duèse, who became John XXII.

The Comtat Venaissin had been papal property since 1274, a legacy of Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, younger brother of Louis IX of France. The capital, which gave the county its name, had been at Venasque, but in 1320 Pope John XXII transferred the capital to Carpentras. Two years later he engaged in an exchange of properties and powers with the Bishop, making the Pope the temporal lord of Carpentras as well as the Comtat.

In 1410 the Consuls of Carpentras received a request from the Consuls of Avignon to borrow Carpentras' heavy artillery and other war machines. In the Great Western Schism, the French had decided to repudiate Benedict XIII of the Avignon Obedience, who had been deposed by the Council of Pisa. They had accepted Alexander V, who had just been elected by the Cardinals who were at the Council of Pisa in June 1409. The leaders of Avignon had besieged the Catalans and Aragonese, led by Rodrigo de Luna, who were holding the Papal Palace for Benedict XIII. With the permission of Cardinal Pierre de Thury, the new Legate of Avignon and Vicar in the Comtat of Pope Alexander V, soldiers were enrolled at Carpentras and sent to Avignon.Expilly, p. 89 column 1. It was not until the end of 1411 that the supporters of Benedict XIII surrendered and departed.

Cathedral of Carpentras The cathedral of Carpentras was the Church of St. Siffrein, dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Siffrein. The foundation charter of the Chapter speaks of the Church of Saint Peter the Apostle: Gallia christiana I, Instrumenta, p. 148: in ecclesia Sancti Petri Apostoli sedis Carpentoratensium sive Vendascensium. The present church, according to E. Andreoli, is the fifth on the site. The first was built in the sixth century; the second in the Carolingian period; the third in the tenth century; and the fourth at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the work of Bishop Geoffroy de Garosse.E. Andreoli, Monographie de l'église cathédrale Saint-Siffrein de Carpentras, p. 62. The fifth is of the fifteenth century, begun under the patronage of the Avignon pope, Benedict XIII. The first stone was laid in a solemn ceremony on 22 February 1404, the Feast of Saint Peter's Chair, presided over by Archbishop Artaud of Arles, in the name of Pope Benedict XIII. The commemorative inscription survives, on the south wall of the cathedral.De Terris, pp. 188-189, quoting the full text of the inscription. The consecration took place in 1515.De Terris, p. 206, says the consecration took place in 1520.