 Even though a layman, he possessed the ecclesiastical fief of Velines in Dordogne; because of it he was called the Archpriest of Vélines ("Archiprêtre de Velines").He was deprived of his benefice by the archbishop of Bordeaux because he was mixing "with brigands and men of base extraction".In the early 1350s, Arnaud commanded a band of 80 men in South-West France, and was known for his skill at taking walled cities and castles by escalade (ladders).