Faciens misercordiam was a papal bull

Papal bull

A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....

 issued by Pope Clement V

Pope Clement V

Pope Clement V, born Raymond Bertrand de Got was Pope from 1305 to his death...

 on August 12, 1308, as part of the trial against the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

. It called for a new Ecumenical council

Ecumenical council

An ecumenical council is a conference of ecclesiastical dignitaries and theological experts convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice....

 to be held in 1310, and set out some structure for the collection of depositions from the arrested Templars.

Date

The bull was written on August 8, and then read aloud on the 12th at the College of Cardinals

College of Cardinals

The College of Cardinals is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church.A function of the college is to advise the pope about church matters when he summons them to an ordinary consistory. It also convenes on the death or abdication of a pope as a papal conclave to elect a successor...

.

Content

The document created papal commissions which were charged with investigating the actions of the Templars. It also called for an ecumenical council to convene in 1310 to discuss urgent problems facing Christianity, such as the organization of a new Crusade. Regarding the Templars, the bull ordered the collection of depositions from Templars across Christendom, which would be gathered and brought to the Pope for determination on the fate of the Order, which fate would be decided and announced by the Pope at the 1310 council. The document made an important distinction that the fate of the Templars rested with the papacy, and no one else.

Parisian Commission

The Papal Commission in Paris consisted of:

• Gilles Aycelin (Archbishop of Narbonne)
• Guillaume Durand (Bishop of Mende)
• William Bonnet (Bishop of Bayeux)
• Raynaud La Porte (Bishop of Limoges)
• John Montlaur (Bishop Maguelone)
• Matthew Napoli (notary Apostolic)
• John of Mantua (Archdeacon of Trent)
• William Argan (provost of the church of Aix)

Council

A few days after Faciens misericordiam, the Pope issued the bull Regnans in coelis, which indicated more details about the upcoming ecumenical council. Though directed to convene in 1310, the council was delayed due to the length of the trial against the Templars, but was eventually convened as the Council of Vienne

Council of Vienne

The Council of Vienne was the fifteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church that met between 1311 and 1312 in Vienne. Its principal act was to withdraw papal support for the Knights Templar on the instigation of Philip IV of France.-Background:...

 from 1311 to 1312 in Vienne, Isère

Vienne, Isère

Vienne is a commune in south-eastern France, located south of Lyon, on the Rhône River. It is the second largest city after Grenoble in the Isère department, of which it is a subprefecture. The city's population was of 29,400 as of the 2001 census....

, southeastern France.