Bishop Bernard and Pope Innocent On 1 April 1198, less than three months after his election, Pope Innocent III sent a series of mandates to the archbishop of Auch. In one, the Pope complained that unworthy persons were being intruded, sometimes by secular persons, into parishes in the dioceses of the ecclesiastical Province of Auch, for which tasks they were unfit and had been rejected by their bishops; the archbishop was authorized to warn the bishops, to take an appeal, and, if they do not obey, to issue canonical censures and remove the offending clergy from their churches. Another mandate complained that reports had reached the Pope that, in the Province of Auch, monks, canons and other religious had left their cloisters and were visiting the courts of local magnates in neglect of their vows and monastic discipline, and their superiors; the archbishop was ordered to give them a warning and then, if they disobeyed, to suspend them from their offices and benefices. In a third mandate, the Pope advised the archbishop that in his Province there were clergy who were accumulating dignities and other benefices, including archdeaconries and cathedral dignities; the archbishop was granted special powers to advise the persons affected of their transgression, and invite them to choose one of the benefices and surrender the rest, and, if they do not cooperate, to apply ecclesiastical censures. Finally, in yet another letter, Innocent III reminds the archbishop of Auch that he was well advised by him and by his fellow bishops that Gascony was overrun by heretics, and he encourages and authorizes the archbishop to pursue them until they are cleared from his Province, by whatever effective measures he can muster, and suspending the right of appeal; and if necessary he may use the civil authorities (principes) and the people, and to coerce the heretics by the use of the material sword (si necesse fuerit, per principes et populum eosdem facias virtute materialis gladii coerceri). Evidently unsatisfied with Archbishop Bernard's performance as archbishop, Pope Innocent sent him a letter on 15 April 1212, remarking that when a bishop feels himself to be unequal to the task of governing his diocese, he should ask himself whether he ought to put down his burden. He then pointed out that the diocese of Auch had fallen on bad times during Bernard's administration, or rather maladministration, and that it might be appropriate for