“ VIENNE, COUNCIL OF, an ecclesiastical council, which in the Roman Catholic Church ranks as the fifteenth ecumenical synod. It met from October 16, 1311, to May 6, 1312, under the presidency of Pope Clement V. The transference of the Curia from Rome to Avignon (1309) had brought the papacy under the influence of the French crown ”

“ Under pressure from the king, who was himself present in Vienne, the pope determined that, as the order gave occasion for scandal but could not be condemned as heretical by a judicial sentence (de jure) , it should be abolished per modum provisionis seu ordinationis apostolicae; in other words, by an administrative ruling based on considerations of the general welfare. To this procedure the council agreed, and on the 22nd of March the order of the Temple was suppressed by the bull Vox clamantis ”

“ Additional decisions were necessitated by the violent disputes which raged within the Franciscan order as to the observance of the rules of St Francis of Assisi, and by the multitude of subordinate questions arising from this. ”