Bertrand de Got, Pope Clement V

Bertrand de Got (c. 1264–1314), born to a Gascon family, studied law and became Archbishop of Bordeaux in 1297. As archbishop he was an English subject but a friend of Philip IV of France.

Elected pope in 1305 as Clement V, he transferred the papal court from Rome to Avignon in 1309, opening the Avignon Papacy. Yielding to Philip IV, he moved against the Knights Templar, allowed the execution of many of its members and suppressed the order. He repressed the Dulcinians in Lombardy as heretics, issued the Clementine Constitutions in 1313 and died on 20 April 1314.