SIMON OF CRAMAUD

Cardinal; b. Diocese of Limoges, France, c. 1360; d. Dec. 14, 1422. He first studied law at Orléans and was licensed there; later he received a doctorate of jurisprudence from Paris and became a noted canonist and influential orator. He greatly admired the University of Paris and championed its cause in connection with the western schism. He served as chancellor for the Duke of Berry for ten years. His was a brilliant career: on May 30, 1382, he was named bishop of Agen; in 1383, bishop of Béziers; in 1385, bishop of Poitiers, and finally on May 27, 1390, archbishop of Sens. On March 17, 1391, he was raised to the rank of titular patriarch of Alexandria and was made administrator of Avignon by Pope clement vii, whom he served during the Western Schism. In 1409 he was made archbishop of Reims and was elected president of the Council of pisa, where he proclaimed that both benedict xiii and gregory xii should be deposed and championed the election of alexander v. In a council at Rome convoked in 1413 by John XXIII, he was named a cardinal. There he assisted in condemning the writings of J. hus and J. wyclif. He was a forerunner of Gallicanism in that he staunchly supported temporal authority, At the Council of constance he showed himself violently opposed to the Hussites. After martin v was elected pope in 1417, Simon lost his influence in Church affairs, and for the rest of his life was the administrator of the diocese of Poitiers. His tomb was found in the cathedral of Poitiers in 1859.

Bibliography: k. a. fink, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 9:765–766. l. salembier, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant, 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables générales 1951–) 3.2:2022–26. c. j. von hefele, Histoire des conciles d'après les documents originaux, tr. and continued by h. leclercq, 10 v. in 19 (Paris 1907–38) 6.2:1193–95; 1210–26.

[f. d. lazenby]