Guy of Vaux-de-Cernay


Guy was the sixth abbot of Vaux-de-Cernay from 1181 until 1210 and then the bishop of Carcassonne from 1212 until his death.
Guy became abbot of Vaux-de-Cernay in 1181. He was one of four Cistercian abbots who joined the Fourth Crusade "by command of the supreme pontiff, by the entreaties of the marquis and the counts of Flanders and Blois", a decision confirmed by the Cistercian general chapter at Cîteaux in 1201. Guy strongly opposed the decision of the leaders of the crusade—Marquis Boniface of Montferrat, Count Baldwin IX of Flanders and Count Louis of Blois—to attack Zadar and Constantinople. He read out to the army Pope Innocent III's letter threatening excommunication on those who participated in any attack on a Christian city. After the siege of Zadar, in April 1203 Guy left the army. He traveled through Hungary and took ship in Italy to complete his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
In the summer of 1206, Guy was one of twelve Cistercian abbots delegated by the general chapter at the request of the pope and the abbot of Cîteaux, Arnaud Amaury, to root out the Cathar heresy in southern France by preaching. In a papal bull dated 28 March 1208, Innocent III designated Guy as master of preachers in charge of the evangelization efforts. Guy stepped down as abbot in 1210 because of his increasing involvement with the Albigensian Crusade. He "appears in the sources as a preacher primarily, not a participant in military action." In 1212, he was consecrated bishop of Carcassonne. He died in 1223. Guy's nephew, Peter, also a monk of Vaux-de-Cernay, chronicled his uncle's career in his Hystoria Albigensis.