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WILLIAM OF VAUROUILLON, 0,MIN, 309 the decree Sic decet (Siena, 28 April 1460) which cancelled all letters of Callistus III (or Nicholas V) in favor of the Conventuals, restored the letter Sane of Nicholas V, and commanded that the Chateauroux convent be given to the Observants 93 • Encouraged by this and a royal mandate of early July 1461, the Observants again went into action. The underlings of the Viscount scaled the walls of the convent, broke down the doors, and while the Conventuals were singing Vespers installed the Observants, to the great scandal of the people and disturbance of law and order, not to say of the worship of God94, This long story, rehearsed by Pius II, induced the latter to establish still another commission (1461) to adjudicate the matter, to judge and punish, even with the help of the secular arm, those who laid hands on Vaurouillon, his clerk, the Conventuals, or who pillaged the convent, etc., etc. 95 • And yet this is not the end of the story, for the following year Guy II either went to Pius II or wrote such a petition that he succeeded in having the letter of 1461 completely revoked. The Viscount has shown Us, says the Pope, that Nicholas V had definitely installed the Observants and imposed silence on the Conventuals, and that Our succeeding letters - and the obstinate malice of the minister provincial and his party - have been the cause of much perturbation and scandal. He therefore revokes Novit ille (of 1461) and restores Sic decet (of 1460) and the decision of Nicholas V 96 • This decree ended the affair, for to all appearances the Observants henceforth had peaceful possession of the convent. Perhaps by this time too William was out of office as provincial: he is certainly not spoken of as minister when he came to Rome shortly afterwards; or perhaps he was too surfeited with the whole quarrel to put up any further resistance. Undoubtedly, other and more constructive events marked the provincialate of our scholastic. To date, however, few if any documents throw additional light on this decade of his life. He would have taken part in several General Chapters of the Order, perhaps that os Bull.Franc. n.s. II, n.774, p.396ss. 01 Pius II, Novit ille (Bull.Franc. n.s. II, n.937, p.488). This would mean, however, that the Observants were out of the convent from 1456 until 1461 or even 1462. o5 Ibid., p.489a. oe Justis et rationabilibus (Viterbo, 18 May 1462), in Bull.Franc. n.s. II, n.1016, p.530ss. - That the convent of Tours was the object of a similar struggle is implied by P. Chambon (note 91 above) and Boniface de Ceva: « ••• sine... adiutorio ministri alias commode reformare non possunt, ut patet de conventibus huiusmodi ad veram observantiam reductis et refor– matis in provinciis Colonie, Aquitanie, Sancti Bonaventure, et aliis. Nam si conventus Tu– ronensis non fuisset ab eorum manibus retractus: provincia ipsa turonie iam non est refor– mata sicut est» (Firmamentum trium ordinum, pars IV, f.177d).
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