him to consider a spontaneous resignation. In May 1213, the Pope commissioned the archbishop of Bordeaux, the bishop of Agen, and the abbot of Clariacensis (Agen), to investigate the many complaints about Archbishop Bernard which had come to the Pope's notice, and which had led to serious lapses in the temporal and spiritual administration of his diocese; there were also serious questions of his personal conduct. He was even said to be a harborer and favorer of heretics. The procurator which he had sent to the papal court had not settled the Pope's concerns, and the archbishop was suspended. The commission was authorized to determine the truth of the charges, and if appropriate to depose the archbishop and select some other suitable person to succeed him. On 4 April 1218 Pope Honorius III confirmed the decision of Pope Paschal II (1099–1118) that the archbishop of Bourges enjoyed the primacy over the archbishop of Auch. Cathedral and chapter The current cathedral of the diocese of Auch, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Gothic structure with a neo-classical Renaissance façade, but imposing in spite of this incongruity; its fifteenth-century windows are said to be the most beautiful in France. An imaginative and entirely unverified story of the earlier cathedrals, one founded by Clovis himself, is given by Abbé François Caneto. The chapter of the cathedral was the largest in France. It was composed of fifteen dignities (not dignitaries), twenty ecclesiastical canons, and five secular canons. The dignities included: the provost, the abbot of Faget, the abbot of Idrac, the abbot of Sere; the eight archdeacons (Angles, Sabanes, Sos, Vic, Armagnac, Magnoac, Astarac, and Pardaillan); the prior of Montequivo, and the prior of Beata Maria de Nivibus, the sacristan, and the canon theologicus. All the dignities were appointees of the archbishop, except the prior de Niviis. The five secular canons were: the Count of Armagnac, the Baron de Montaut, the Baron de Pardillan, the Baron de Montesquiou, and the Baron de l'Isle. There were also 36 semiprebendarii and 38 chaplains, in addition to other clergy. In 1436 the first archbishop, Philippe de Levis, received a bull from Pope Eugene IV which forbade the installation of anyone as a canon of the cathedral chapter of Auch who was not noble by blood or by education; or to appoint anyone to a dignity in the chapter who was not already a canon. There