Christ's Faithful People
Christ's Faithful People
1334 - 1342 AD
"You have elected a jackass!" cried Jacques Fournier when to his astonishment he found that he had been elected on the first ballot. But the self-styled jackass was actually the outstanding theologian in the college of cardinals. Jacques Fournier was born at Saverdun in Southern France. He became a Cistercian monk, studied theology at Paris, and rose to be bishop of Pamiers and later of Mirepoix. John XXII made him a cardinal in 1327 and depended upon his theological knowledge in the struggles which marked that Pontiff's stormy reign. Elected unanimously on the first ballot, Jacques chose the name Benedict XII.
At first Benedict toyed with the idea of going back to Rome. From the Eternal City came urgent invitations. But Romans were still turbulent and Avignon was quiet and pleasant. Far from leaving, Benedict began to build that huge fort of a palace which is the landmark of the Avignon exile.
Since Benedict had been a fervent monk, the "spiritual" Franciscan minority hoped that the new Pope would be more favorable to them. But Benedict was a great lover of obedience and orthodoxy, and he soon showed the recalcitrant friars that the monk Pope had much the same ideas as his canonlawyer predecessor. He worked hard to reform religious orders. One outstanding measure was his determined effort to get wandering monks and friars back into cloister. A number of maladjusted religious had been roaming the roads seeking adventure and, of course, giving no end of scandal.
Benedict did his best to shepherd this wandering flock back into the fold. He enacted other measures which helped the Benedictines, and in general did much to check abuses and foster regularity in religious houses.
Benedict also tried to reform the abuses which were creeping into the Roman court. And he gave to all a shining example of detachment by his steady refusal to enrich his relatives. He loved peace so much that he declared he would not fight even to preserve the papal kingdom. When the storm clouds which warned of the coming Hundred Years' War loomed, Benedict exerted himself to dissipate them. Pro-French he may have been to the extent of creating a great majority of French cardinals, but when war threatened, he showed himself a truly impartial peacemaker. Unfortunately he succeeded only in postponing the terrible war.
Benedict XII has been praised by some of his contemporaries and harshly criticized by others. This is not strange, for he was a pious man and an earnest reformer. Reforms tread on toes and cause anguished outcries. Besides, Petrarch did not like Benedict because he would not come back to Rome, and the fight with Louis the Bavarian still went on. History has done justice to this holy and learned Pope. If he had any weakness it was in the field of diplomacy. His simple monastic outlook was ill-attuned to the complexities of high policy.
Benedict XII died on April 25, 1342.
