Jean-Michel-d’Astorg Aubarède

Canon regular, and Vicar Capitular of Pamiers, born 1639; died 4 August, 1692. He was educated at Toulouse (France), entered the Seminary of Pamiers, and later joined the regular, who formed the cathedral chapter of that diocese. After the death of the bishop, François Caulet, Aubarède was chosen vicar capitular. As administrator of the diocese, he took up and carried on vigorously the resistance of Caulet to the royal demands in the matter of the Regalia. He refused to recognize royal nominations to local ecclesiastical benefices, and excommunicated the canons appointed by the king, when they attempted to exercise their office. He was arrested by royal order, and imprisoned for six years at Caen, where he died. His courageous resistance is remarkable at a time when ecclesiastical servility in France had reached its acme. B. Jungmann remarks (in Herder, K.L., I, 1567) that the well-known Jansenistic rigorism of Caulet and his clergy was partly responsible for their stubborn defiance of Louis XIV; they rightly feared that the nominees of the king would not belong to their faction.