BERTRANDO DE TURRE. — Franciscan, cardinal, homiletic writer, born ca. 1265–70 into the noble de la Tour family at Camboulit near Figeac (Lot), died at the end of 1332 or the beginning of 1333. Having entered the Franciscan Order at a young age, he studied at Toulouse and Paris, where he became a master of theology. In 1314 he was regent master at the Order’s studium in Toulouse; from 1312 to 1319 he was provincial of Aquitaine and, in that capacity, in 1315 conducted the trial of five «spirituali» (v.) of his province. On 29 January 1317, Giovanni XXII sent him, together with Bernardo Guidonis, as peacemaker to northern Italy. The report that the two made of the legation was published by S. Riezler, Vatikanische Akten zur deutschen Geschichte (Innsbruck 1891, pp. 22–39), analyzed by A. Ratti [Pio XI] in Rendiconti del R. Istituto lombardo di scienze e lettere, 2nd series, 25 (1902), pp. 985–96. In 1318 the same men were commissioned to reconcile the Flemings with the French. Their missions were not very successful. B. was appointed archbishop of Salerno (3 September 1320) and, in the following December, cardinal of S. Vitale, a title he relinquished in 1323 for that of Tusculum (Frascati). He took part in the controversy over the poverty of Christ and the Apostles, without losing the favor of Giovanni XXII, who appointed him administrator of the Franciscan Order (1328–29).
Among the scholastics he was known as Doctor famosus, probably on account of his widely disseminated homiletic works, some of which were published: Sermonet de tempore et de sanctis cum quadrargemmali epistolari (2 vols. in 4°, Strasbourg 1501, under the misspelled name of Berbardus Cura). Cardinal Pitra (Analecta novissima Spicilegii Solesmensi altera continuatio, II, Tusculum 1888, 466–512) gives the titles of the sermons contained in MSS Vat. lat. 1240–42. In the Strasbourg edition, I, fol. cclxix ff., there are 32 sermons on the Eucharist, which may be by s. Alberto Magno. A summary of the treatise on the poverty of Christ was published by F. Tocco, La quistione della povertà nel secolo XIV (Naples 1910, pp. 64–74).