raoul of merencourt

Raoul of Merencourt (also called Ralph or Radulphus) was Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1214-1225. He succeeded the assassinated Albert Avogadro. In 1216 he attended the Fourth Lateran Council with many of his suffragan bishops, and along with Pope Innocent III, he gave a sermon on the first day of the proceedings (November 11) calling for a new crusade to recover the Holy Land. Further preparations for the crusade (the Fifth) were made on the last day of the council, November 30. However, for various reasons the crusade was postponed until 1217, after the death of Innocent. Raoul was appointed as one of Honorius III's papal legates, and was escorted back to his see in Acre by John of Brienne, nominal King of Jerusalem. He personally participated in the crusade against Egypt; at one point he carried a relic of the True Cross, and prostrated himself with his head buried under the sand in order to ensure the success of the siege at Damietta. He presumably died in 1225 and was succeeded by Gerald of Lausanne.

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