ABSTRACT
The death of Pope Benedict XI was followed by an interregnum of eleven months, after which the conclave of cardinals elected Bertrand de Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux, as Benedict's successor. Shortly after his consecration on 14 November 1305, the new pope, Clement V, set the business of crusading as an absolute priority. Clement's reign comprised a series of intensive efforts, instigated by the papacy, to launch a crusade. Beginning in 1308, Clement V folded a number of measures into his preaching campaign to secure the finances for the Hospitallers' passagium; the money was to be given to the Master General of the Hospital, Fulk of Villaret. Two months after his coronation, Clement V issued the bull In superne preeminentia proclaiming the crusade of Charles of Valois, brother of King Philip IV of France, against Constantinople; its participants were granted the same rights, indulgences and privileges as those fighting for the Holy Land.
