Council of Vienne
Pope Clement V opens the Council of Vienne
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The council opened with the Templars still entitled to a defence; their suppression came nearly six months later.
Saturday, 16 October 1311
Clement V formally opened the council in Vienne's cathedral on Saturday, 16 October 1311, and preached to the assembled clergy.
He identified three principal subjects: the Templar case, assistance for the Holy Land and reform of the Church.
The opening assembly included 20 cardinals, four patriarchs, about 100 archbishops and bishops, and a number of abbots and priors — out of 231 ecclesiastics invited.
What did not happen that day
The Templars were not dissolved, their property was not transferred, and the order was not judicially declared heretical at this opening session.
Clement had convoked the council through Regnans in coelis on 12 August 1308; its opening was postponed while inquiries into the Templars continued.
Many of the council fathers initially favoured allowing the order a proper defence rather than immediate condemnation.
Where the work happened
Deliberation began, much of it through the papal consistory and a selected conciliar committee rather than the full assembly. The Templar question remained unresolved for months.
Philip IV of France, who had initiated the French arrests and prosecutions, did not attend the opening; he arrived the following March. Vienne was not then part of the Kingdom of France, although he exercised immense political pressure nearby.
The opening session should not be merged with Vox in excelso, dated 22 March 1312 and publicly proclaimed on 3 April.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources not yet audited
How this was checked
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What the sources leave uncertain
- The Catholic Church numbers Vienne as its fifteenth ecumenical council; that numbering is confessional rather than universal across all Christian traditions.
- The conventional date is the contemporary Julian date. It should not be silently converted to a proleptic Gregorian date.