Pope Martin IV
In 1280, an ordinance signed by Philip the Bold proclaims the more or less complete attachment of Vezelay to the royal domain. Pope Martin IV approved the decree. With the Order of 1312, Philip the Fair confirmed that city and abbey are an ordinary dependency of the royal domain. The inhabitants understood that this authority allowed them to contain the abbatial independence, and to escape the brutalities of feudal lords. Vezelay enters the restricted circle of the towns of the kingdom (there were only 16).