Jacques de Vitry

Jacques de Vitry (c. 1160/70 – May 1, 1240) was a theologian chronicler and cardinal from 1229 – 40.
He was born in central France (perhaps Rheims) and studied at the University of Paris, becoming a regular canon in 1210 at the church of Saint-Nicolas d'Oignies in the Diocese of Liège, a post he maintained until 1216. From 1211 to 1213 he preached the Albigensian Crusade, touring France and Germany with William, archdeacon of Paris and recruiting many Crusaders.Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis 285. It was perhaps during this preaching campaign that he met Bishop Foulques of Toulouse; cf. Guillaume de Puylaurens, Chronica 28. In 1214 he was elected Bishop of Acre. He received episcopal consecration and arrived to his see in 1216. He was subsequently heavily involved in the Fifth Crusade, participating in the siege of Damietta from 1218 to 1220. In 1219 he began to write the Historia Hierosolymitana, a history of the Holy Land from the advent of Islam until the crusades of his own day, but only two parts were completed. He returned to Europe in 1225. Between April 16 and July 29, 1229 Pope Gregory IX elevated him to the College of Cardinals and transferred him to the suburbicarian see of Frascati. With exception of short legation before Emperor Frederick II in 1232 he spent his last years working in the papal curia. He subscribed the papal bulls between July 29, 1229 and June 23, 1239. He died at Rome as Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals. His remains have been transferred to Oignies and buried there in 1241. 
From the document issued by Gregory IX on May 14, 1240 appears that Jacques de Vitry shortly before his death was elected Patriarch of Jerusalem, but this election was not ratified by the Pope.
Aside from the Historia, his works include hundreds of sermons, and letters to Pope Honorius III. He also wrote about the immoral life of the students at the University of Paris and the holy life of the Beguines of Liege and, in particular, the Life of Marie d'Oignies.
==Notes==
==Bibliography==
*Lettres de Jacques de Vitry ed. R. B. C. Huygens. Leiden, 1960.
*The exempla or illustrative stories from the Sermones Vulgares of Jacques de Vitry ed. T. F. Crane. London, 1890.
*The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: consistory of December 1228
*Biographical entry in The Catholic Encyclopedia
*Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Cardinali di curia e "familiae" cardinalizie dal 1227 al 1254, Padova 1972, pt. I, p. 99-112
Category:13th-century Latin writers
Category:People of the Albigensian Crusade
Category:Christians of the Fifth Crusade
Category:French cardinals
Category:Cardinal-bishops of Frascati
Category:French historians
Category:French theologians
Category:Deans of the College of Cardinals
de:Jakob von Vitry
es:Jacobo de Vitry
fr:Jacques de Vitry
it:Jacques de Vitry
he:ז'ק דה ויטרי
la:Iacobus Vitriacensis
hu:Jacques de Vitry
pl:Jacques de Vitry
pt:Jacques de Vitry
ru:Де Витри, Жак