Christ's Faithful People
Christ's Faithful People
1316 - 1334 AD
The pope is infallible in matters of faith and morals when he speaks ex cathedra, i.e., as supreme teacher. John XXII offers a classic example of a case where the pope is not infallible. John held that the souls of the just do not enjoy God until after the General Judgment, but he made it clear that he was not teaching this as Pope. Indeed at last convinced that he was wrong, the humble Pope admitted it.
It was only after a broken and stormy conclave that at long last on August 7,1316, Jacques d'Euse was elected pope. John XXII, as he chose to be called, was born at Cahors in 1249. He had been a brilliant professor of canon law, bishop of Avignon, and cardinal. Now at seventy-two he was a brisk little man of simple tastes and driving energy. He found the papal court disorganized by the long vacancy, and the papal treasury empty. A good administrator, John got both back in shape. He increased centralization of church government and stepped up papal taxation.
Though a thorough Frenchman, John was no man's tool. Indeed, quite in the tradition of Innocent III he interfered vigorously in a disputed imperial election. After Emperor Henry VII died Frederick of Austria and Louis of Bavaria fought for the imperial crown. John insisted that he should decide the case, but when Louis won an appeal to arms at Muhldorf in 1322, he did not give the Pope a chance to reverse that decision. Soon the Pope was excommunicating Louis, and the Emperor was appealing to a general council against the Pope. Louis marched on Rome, had himself crowned there by that same Sciarra Colonna who had outraged Boniface VIII at Anagni, and installed as antipope Peter Rainalducci, a Franciscan. Though Louis was soon forced to leave Rome, and the antipope repented, the fight between Pope and Emperor raged on. Around Louis gathered a corps of antipapal writers. Marsiglio of Padua wrote his "Defensor Pacis" and a group of renegade Franciscans, among them the nominalist philosopher William of Occam, blasted the Pope from the pulpit and in books.
The great Franciscan order had been troubled for some time by an extremist group in Southern France and Italy who panted after the pseudomystical revelations of Abbot Joachim and the vagaries of Olivi. They were now urging the quite unfounded idea that Christ and his apostles owned nothing even in common. John wished to settle this, but a general chapter of the Order anticipated the Pope by announcing that it was Catholic belief that Christ and his apostles owned nothing even in common. John then dropped the arrangement by which the Pope owned and the Friars used their possessions. He condemned the extremists' theory about Christ's poverty as heretical. This it was which sent a number of rebel friars to serve as volunteers for the Emperor in his struggle with the Pope. The majority of the Order, with true Franciscan obedience and humility, remained loyal.
John XXII died in 1334 at the age of eighty-four. He had been a great organizer and had contributed much to canon law.
