denote a strophic poem dealing with the events surrounding the Nativity, usually
imitating French or Latin models. Noëls were sung, often as contrafacta, with the word
noël a frequent refrain. The earliest literary collection was compiled during the reign of
Charles VIII (1483–98), and noëls remained popular during the 16th century. Some Latin
motets by 15th-cen-tury Franco-Burgundian composers feature noël refrains set in a
distinctive rhythmic sequence, such as Nicolas Grenon’s isorhythmic motet Nova vobis
gaudia (ca. 1420).
J.Michael Allsen
Block, Adrienne F. The Early French Parody Noel. 2 vols. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1983.
NOGARET, GUILLAUME DE
(ca. 1260–1313). A native of the region of Toulouse, Nogaret was a professor of law at
Montpellier in 1282. By 1295, he was a member of Philip IV the Fair’s council in Paris.
In 1301, Philip ar-rested Bernard Saisset, bishop of Pamiers, on charges of treason and
prepared to try him in his royal court. Pope Boniface VIII forbade him to do so and, in
1302, issued the bull Unam sanctam, which declared that all who refused to obey the
Roman pontiff would be excluded from salvation. In response, Nogaret publicly charged
Boniface with heresy and other crimes and appealed him to a trial before a church
council. To execute his plan, Nogaret took an armed guard into Italy in the late summer
of 1303 to seize Boniface and return him to France for such a trial.
Face to face with the pope in his native village of Anagni, Nogaret doubted the
success of his mission and fled, leaving a shaken pontiff who died a few weeks later. The
“attempt” at Anagni became the most famous episode in Philip’s campaign to free his
monarchy from church control, and it gave Nogaret an enduring fame and notoriety. But
Nogaret also played the major role in Philip’s crushing of the Templars, the confiscation
of Jewish wealth and their ultimate expulsion from France, and several other schemes, all
designed to create a centralized secular monarchy.
Franklin J.Pegues
[See also: PHILIP IV THE FAIR]
Pegues, Franklin J. The Lawyers of the Last Capetians. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1962.
NOIRLAC
. The Cistercian abbey of Noirlac (Cher), founded by St. Bernard’s cousin Robert de
Clairvaux, is first mentioned in 1136. After difficult beginnings, the abbey flourished
following a generous gift in 1150 from Count Ebbes V of Charenton. The white-stone
church, measuring 195 feet in length and having eight bays with aisles, transept, and two-
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