Montaigu, Pierre Guerin De

Montaigu, Pierre Guerin de thirteenth grandmaster of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, was born at Montaigu-en-Combraille, near Riom, in Auvergne, France, about 1168. He was elevated to the grand-mastery in 1208, after having successively filled all the lower offices. His devotion and valor distinguished him everywhere during the second crusade (1186); but he refused to take part in the third (1188), though he had himself encouraged pope Gregory XIV to preach it, because this movement was headed by the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa, then under the major excommunication. Guerin de Montaigu died in 1230 in Palestine. See Bosio and Baudouin, Hist. de l'ordre de Jerusalem; Naberat, Privileges de l'ordre de Jerusalem.