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JOHN XXII

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 437 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN XXII ., See also:pope from 1316 to 1334, was See also:born at See also:Cahors, See also:France, in 1249. His See also:original name was Jacques Duese, and he came either of a See also:family of See also:petty See also:nobility or else of well-to-do See also:middle-class parents, and was not, as has been popularly supposed, the son of a shoemaker. He began his See also:education with the See also:Dominicans at Cahors, subsequently studied See also:law at See also:Montpellier, and law and See also:medicine in See also:Paris, and finally taught at Cahors and See also:Toulouse. At Toulouse he became intimate with the See also:bishop See also:Louis, son of See also:Charles II., See also:king of See also:Naples. In 1300 he was elevated to the episcopal see of See also:Frejus by Pope See also:Boniface VIII. at the instance of the king of Naples, and in 1308 was made See also:chancellor of Naples by Charles, retaining this See also:office under Charles's successor, See also:Robert of See also:Anjou. In 1310 Pope See also:Clement V. summoned Jacques to See also:Avignon and instructed him to advise upon the affair of the See also:Templars and also upon the question of condemning the memory of Boniface VIII. Jacques decided on the legality of suppressing the See also:order of the Templars, holding that the pope would be serving the best interests of the See also:church by pronouncing its suppression; but he rejected the condemnation of Boniface as a sacrilegious affront to the church and a monstrous abuse of the See also:lay See also:power. On the 23rd of See also:December 1312 Clement appointed him See also:cardinal-bishop of See also:Porto, and it was while cardinal of Porto that he was elected pope, on the 7th of See also:August 1316. Clement had died in See also:April 1314, but the cardinals assembled at See also:Carpentras were unable to agree as to his successor. As the two-thirds See also:majority requisite for an See also:election could not be obtained, the cardinals separated, and it was not until the 28th of See also:June 1316 that they reassembled in the See also:cloister of the Dominicans at See also:Lyons, and then only in deference to the pressure exerted upon them by See also:Philip V. of France. After deliberating for more than a See also:month they elected Robert of Anjou's See also:candidate, Jacques Duese, who was crowned on the 5th of See also:September, and on the 2nd of See also:October arrived at Avignon, where he remained for the See also:rest of his See also:life. More jurist than theologian, John defended the rights of the papacy with rigorous zeal and as rigorous See also:logic.

For the restoration of the papacy to its old See also:

independence, which had been so gravely compromised under his immediate predecessors, and for the See also:execution of the vast enterprises which the papacy deemed useful for its See also:prestige and for Christendom, considerable sums were required; and to raise the necessary See also:money John burdened See also:Christian See also:Europe with new taxes and a complicated fiscal See also:system, which was fraught with serious consequences. For his See also:personal use, however, he retained but a very small fraction of the sums thus acquired, and at his See also:death his private See also:fortune amounted to scarce a million florins. The essentially See also:practical See also:character of his See also:administration has led many historians to tax him with avarice, but later See also:research on the fiscal system of the papacy of the See also:period, particularly the See also:joint See also:work of Samaran and Mollat, enables us very sensibly to modify the severe See also:judgment passed on John by See also:Gregorovius and others. John's pontificate was continually disturbed by his conflict with Louis of See also:Bavaria and by the theological revolt of the Spiritual See also:Franciscans. In October 1314 Louis of Bavaria and See also:Frederick of See also:Austria had each been elected See also:German king by the divided See also:electors. Louis was gradually recognized by the-whole of See also:Germany, especially after his victory at Muhldorf (1322), and gained numerous adherents in See also:Italy, where he supported the See also:Visconti, who had been condemned as heretics by the pope. John affected to ignore the successes of Louis, and on the 8th of October 1323 forbade his recognition as king of the See also:Romans. After demanding a See also:respite, Louis abruptly appealed at See also:Nuremberg from the future See also:sentence of the pope to a See also:general See also:council (December 8, 1323). The conflict then assumed a See also:grave doctrinal character. The See also:doctrine of the rights of the lay See also:monarchy sustained by See also:Occam and John of Paris, by Marsilius of See also:Padua, John of Jandun and See also:Leopold of See also:Bamberg, was affirmed by the jurists and theologians, penetrated into the parlements and the See also:universities, and was combated by the upholders of papal See also:absolutism, such as Alvaro Pelayo and Alonzo Trionfo. Excommunicated on the 21st of See also:March 1324, Louis retorted by appealing for a second See also:time to a general council, which was heldon the 22nd of. May 1324, and accused John of being an enemy to the See also:peace and the law, stigmatizing him as a heretic on the ground that he opposed the principle of evangelical poverty as professed by the strict Franciscans.

From this moment Louis appeared in the character of the natural ally and even the See also:

protector of the Spirituals against the persecution of the pope. On the 11th of See also:July 1324 the pope laid under an See also:interdict the places where Louis or his adherents resided, but this See also:bull had no effect in Germany. Equally futile was John's See also:declaration (April 3, 1327) that Louis had forfeited his See also:crown and abetted See also:heresy by granting See also:protection to Marsilius of Padua. Having reconciled himself with Frederick of Austria, Louis penetrated into Italy and seized See also:Rome on the 7th of See also:January 1328, with the help of the See also:Roman Ghibellines led by Sciarra See also:Colonna. After installing himself in the Vatican, Louis got himself crowned by the deputies of the Roman See also:people; instituted proceedings for the deposition of John, whom the Roman people, displeased by the spectacle of the papacy abandoning Rome, declared to have forfeited the pontificate (April 18, 1328); and finally caused a Minorite See also:friar, Pietro Rainalucci da Corvara, to be elected pope under the name of See also:Nicholas V. John preached a platonic crusade against Louis, who burned the pope's effigy at See also:Pisa and in Amelia. Soon, however, Louis See also:felt his power waning, and quitted Rome and Italy (1329). Incapable of See also:independent See also:action, the antipope was abandoned by the Romans and handed over to John, who forced him to make a See also:solemn submission with a halter See also:round his See also:neck (August 15, 1330). Nicholas was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and died in obscurity at Avignon; while the Roman people submitted to King Robert, who governed the church through his vicars. In 1317, in execution of a bull of Clement V., the royal vicariate in Italy had been conferred by John on Robert of Anjou, and this See also:appointment was renewed in 1322 and 1324, with threats of See also:excommunication against any one who should seize the vicariate of Italy without the authorization of the pope. One of John's last acts was his decision to See also:separate Italy from the See also:Empire, but this bull was of no avail and See also:fell into oblivion. After his death, however, the interdict was not removed from Germany, and the resistance of Louis and his theologians continued.

A violent manifestation of this resistance took See also:

place in connexion with the See also:accusation of heresy brought against the pope. On the third See also:Sunday in See also:Advent 1329, and afterwards in public See also:consistory, John had preached that the souls of those who have died in a See also:state of See also:grace go into See also:Abraham's bosom, sub altari Dei, and do not enjoy the beatific See also:vision (visio facie ad faciem) of the See also:Lord until after the Last Judgment and the Resurrection; and he had even instructed a Minorite friar, Gauthier of See also:Dijon, to collect the passages in the Fathers which were in favour of this doctrine. On the 27th of December 1331 a Dominican, See also:Thomas of See also:England, preached against this doctrine at Avignon itself and was thrown into See also:prison. When See also:news of this affair had reached Paris, the pope sent the general of the Minorites, See also:Gerard Odonis, accompanied by a Dominican, to sustain his doctrine in that See also:city, but King Philip VI., perhaps at the instigation of the refugee Spirituals in Paris, referred the question to the See also:faculty of See also:theology, which, on the 2nd of January 1333, declared that the souls of the blessed were elevated to the beatific vision immediately after death; the faculty, nevertheless, were of See also:opinion that the pope should have propounded his erroneous doctrine only " recitando," and not " determinando, asserendo, seu etiam opinando." The king notified this decision to the pope, who assembled his consistory in See also:November 1333, and gave a haughty reply. The theologians in Louis's following who were opposed to papal absolutism already spoke of " the new heretic, Jacques de Cahors," and reiterated with increasing insistency their demands for the See also:convocation of a general council to try the pope. John appears to have retracted shortly before his death, which occurred on the 4th of December 1334.1 1 On the 29th of January 1336 Pope See also:Benedict XII. pronounced a See also:long judgment on this point of doctrine, a judgment which he declared had been included by John in a bull which death had prevented him from sealing. John had kindled very keen animosity, not only among the upholders of the independence of the lay power, but also among the upholders of See also:absolute religious poverty, the exalted See also:Francis-cans. Clement V., at the council of See also:Vienne, had attempted to bring back the Spirituals to the See also:common See also:rule by concessions; John, on the other See also:hand, in the bull Quorundam exigit (April 13, 1317), adopted an uncompromising and absolute attitude, and by the bull Gloriosam ecclesiam (January 23, 1318) condemned the protests which had been raised against the bull Quorundam by a See also:group of seventy-four Spirituals and conveyed to Avignon by the See also:monk See also:Bernard Delicieux. Shortly afterwards four Spirituals were burned at See also:Marseilles. These were immediately hailed as martyrs, and in the eyes of the exalted Franciscans at Naples and in See also:Sicily and the See also:south of France the pope was regarded as See also:antichrist. In the bull Sancta See also:Romana et universa See also:ecclesia (December 28, 1318) John definitively excommunicated them and condemned their See also:principal See also:book, the See also:Postil (commentary) on the See also:Apocalypse (See also:February 8, 1326). The bull Quia nonnunquam (March 26, 1322) defined the derogations from the rule punished by the pope, and the bull Cum inter nonnullos (November 12, 1323) condemned the proposition which had been admitted at the general See also:chapter of the Franciscans held at See also:Perugia in 1322, according to which See also:Christ and the Apostles were represented as possessing no See also:property, either personal or common.

The See also:

minister general, See also:Michael of See also:Cesena, though opposed to the exaggerations of the Spirituals, joined with them in protesting against the condemnation of the fundamental principle of evangelical poverty, and the agitation gradually gained ground. The pope, by the bull Quia quorundam (November ro, 1324), cited Michael to appear at Avignon at the same time as Occam and Bonagratia. All three fled to the See also:court of Louis of Bavaria (May 26, 1328), while the majority of the Franciscans made submission and elected a general entirely devoted to the pope. But the resistance, aided by Louis and merged as it now was in the cause sustained by Marsilius of Padua and John of Jandun, became daily bolder. See also:Treatises on poverty appeared on every See also:side; the party of Occam clamoured with increasing imperiousness for the condemnation of John by a general council; and the Spirituals, confounded in the persecution with the Beghards and with See also:Fraticelli of every description, maintained themselves in the south of France in spite of the reign of terror instituted in that region by the See also:Inquisition. See M. Souchon, See also:Die Papstwahlen von Bonifaz VIII. bis See also:Urban VI. (See also:Brunswick, 1888) ; See also:Abbe Albe, Autour de See also:Jean XXII. (Rome, 1904) ; K. See also:Muller, Der Kampf Ludwigs See also:des Bayern mit der See also:Curie (See also:Tubingen, 1879 seq.) ; W. Preger, Memoires sur la lutte entre Jean XXII. et Louis de Baviere " in Abhandl. der bayr. Akad., hist. sec., xv., xvi., xvii.

; S. Riezler, Die litterar. Widersacher der Pdpste zur Zeit Ludwigs des Baiers (See also:

Leipzig, 1874) ; F. Ehrle, " Die Spiritualen " in Archiv See also:fur Litteratur- und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters (vols. i. and ii.); C. Samaran and G. Mollat, La Fiscalite pontificate en France au xive siecle (Paris, 19o5); A. Coulon and G. Mollat, Lettres secretes et curiales de Jean XXII. se rapportant a la France (Paris, 1899, seq.). (P.

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