FILLASTRE, GUILLAUME. - Born at La Suze (Maine), around 1348. He studied law, was a priest and an orator of great fame. Dean of Reims in 1392. He revealed his personality at the Synod of Paris of 1406, where he took up the defense of the antipope Benedict XIII against the representatives of the king and of the university, maintaining that princes have no right to judge the things of the Church and that general councils are not above the Pope.
At the time of the Council of Pisa (1409) he broke away, together with d'Ailly, from Benedict XIII, and was one of the supporters of the other antipope John XXIII, who created him cardinal on 6 June 1411. At the Council of Constance, in which he played a leading part, he took his stand against John XXIII, and, contrary to the opinions vigorously asserted at the Paris Synod of 1406, he upheld the superiority of the council over the Pope and succeeded in having the assembly approve the five famous articles, after having brought the cardinals into agreement with the emperor Sigismund. He took no part in the trial of Hus and Petit, because he was ill. He returned to the Council in 1417 and was charged with obtaining the resignation of the reluctant Benedict XIII; he fulfilled this task, and at the 37th session of 26 July 1417 he himself read the conciliar sentence of deposition of the antipope Benedict. He took a very active part in the Conclave from which Martin V emerged elected, and the latter entrusted him with various diplomatic missions in France and appointed him archpriest of St. John Lateran. He died in Rome on 6 Nov. 1428.
The fame of F., besides his ecclesiastical politics, is linked to the works he left in manuscript. His sermons are extremely important. He wrote on theology and law, on science and geography, and drew up a very detailed account of the Council of Constance. Although various accusations have been brought against him, such as the volte-face against John XXIII who had created him his cardinal and the retraction of opinions, unexceptionable from the theological point of view, expressed at the Paris Synod, he is nevertheless excused by the good intentions of finding a way out for the end of the schism.
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Gennaro Auletta