Conclave of 1362
Pope Innocent VI (Pierre Roger) died in Avignon on 12 September 1362. Twenty cardinals, including Raymond de Canillac, entered Conclave on 22 September, the Feast of St. Maurice, to elect his successor. There were a number of viable candidates. The Limousin faction of some six cardinals was prepared to have one of their number elected. Both Cardinals Talleyrand and Guy de Boulogne were ambitious and interested. In his Cronica, Matteo Villani says, however, that the cardinals were in agreement on the aged Benedictine monk, Cardinal Hugues Roger, the brother of Pope Clement VI, and that in the balloting he received fifteen of the twenty votes. Cardinal Hugues was not interested, though, and refused the honor of the papacy. Then the Cardinals turned to the Cardinal of Toulouse, who was able to gather eleven votes, but no more. Another candidate was able to attract ten votes, and yet another nine, but not the required fourteen. Finally, the cardinals looked outside the Sacred College, and chose Guillaume Grimoard, the Abbot of St. Vincent in Marseille, who was Papal Nuncio in Italy. He returned to France, and on 31 October 1362 accepted the election. He was crowned as Urban V.
On 28 November 1362, the new Pope, Urban V, assigned Cardinal Raymond de Canillac the task of reforming the Statutes of the University of Law at Montpellier, where Urban had been a student in Canon Law. Raymond's uncle, Cardinal Bertrand de Déaulx had performed the same function two decades earlier.
In 1364 Cardinal de Canillac was judge in a lawsuit between the Archbishop and Canons of Tarragona and the Alanyani family. The procurators of the Archbishop and Canons placed a supplication before Pope Urban V, requesting a determination of nullity against the Cardinal. The Pope's decision was to add Cardinal Pierre Itier to the case as a second judge.
Pope Urban V finally gave way to pressure from every side, and decided to return to Rome. Despite considerable complaining from the cardinals, who were not eager to give up the pleasant life in the Rhone valley for the plague infested city of Rome, Pope Urban departed from Avignon on 30 April 1367. Only four of the cardinals were left behind to keep the business operating, Raymond de Canilhac, Pierre Itier, Jean de Blandiac, and Pierre de Monteruc, the Vice-Chancellor. Monteruc had been expected to follow the Pope to Italy, but he claimed illness and stayed behind. The Italian visit was eventful, but on 26 July 1370 the Pope wrote to the Romans that he had pressing problems north of the Alps that required his presence in Avignon. He sailed for Marseille on 16 September, reaching Avignon on the 24th. He was stricken with a serious illness in November, however, and died on Thursday, 19 December 1370.
The Conclave to elect Pope Urban V's successor began on 29 December 1370, with sixteen of the twenty cardinals in attendance, including Cardinal de Canillac. On the morning of 30 December, without resorting to a scrutiny, the Cardinals elected 'by inspiration' Cardinal Pierre Roger de Beaufort. He was ordained a priest on 4 January 1371 and consecrated a bishop and crowned Pope on 5 January. He took the throne name Gregory XI.
Cardinal Raymond de Canillac had a nephew, Reynald de Themenis, who was a Canon in Lincoln Cathedral, whose canonry and prebend were being usurped under false pretenses in 1371, and for several years previously, with the cooperation of the King. Pope Gregory XI wrote to the King and the Bishop of Lincoln threatening legal proceedings if the situation were not rectified.
