Saisset, Bernard [key], d. 1314, French churchman. In 1295 he became bishop of Pamiers (near Foix, S France). He was sent (1301) by Pope Boniface VIII as papal legate to King Philip IV of France to protest the king's anticlerical measures. He also urged the king's support for Boniface's projected crusade. On his return to Pamiers, Saisset, who was openly hostile to Philip, was arrested for seeking to incite rebellion against the king. Philip asked Boniface to depose Saisset; the pope replied by asking that Saisset be sent to Rome for trial by an ecclesiastic court. Philip refused and had Saisset indicted by a civil court. This strictly illegal measure revived and intensified the struggle between church and state. In the meantime, Saisset, the relatively unimportant figure in the struggle, was forgotten. He was allowed to go to Rome and in 1308 was restored to his see.
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