Benedict XII, Pope

BENEDICT XII, Pope. - He is the third Avignon pope, succeeding John XXII (d. 4 Dec. 1334) on 20 Dec. and crowned on the following 8 Jan. by Cardinal Orsini in the Dominican church in Avignon. Giacomo Fournier (also called Novelli) was born of humble parents at Saverdun in the diocese of Pamiers, and entered the Cistercian abbey of Boulbonne at a very young age; he then moved to that of Fontfroide, where his uncle was abbot; he studied theology in Paris and became a doctor there. Abbot of Fontfroide in 1311, he was appointed bishop of Pamiers on 19 March 1317 and from there moved to Mirepoix on 3 March 1326. In the government of the two dioceses he showed great zeal against heresy, favoring the work of the Inquisition, for which on 18 Dec. 1327 he was created cardinal of St. Prisca. Elected pontiff, he hastened to conclude the discussions on the beatific vision that had grown heated in the last years of his predecessor and, with the constitution Benedictus Deus of 20 Jan. 1336, condemning what had been the personal error of John XXII, he defined that the souls of baptized children and the souls of the just who no longer had any fault to expiate were admitted immediately to the "intuitive and even facial vision" of the divine essence, and that for them the exercise of the acts of faith and hope ceased (Denz-U, 530). He immediately set about correcting the "innumerable abuses" that afflicted the Church, beginning with the malversations of the court, obliging prelates having care of souls to observe residence (15 Jan. 1335), and prescribing more rigorous constitutions against the laxity of the Benedictines and Cistercians. He wished to do away with the plague of wandering religious, condemned the Fraticelli and regulated the activity of the Franciscans and Dominicans, striving to overcome every opposition. As for the Curia, he intended to do away with the abuse of commendams and expectatives and regulated the registration of petitions to be presented to the Pope. After an initial intention of returning to Rome, Pope B. resolved not to move from Avignon, where he began the construction of the papal palace. A success for him was the subjection of Bologna. He attempted an understanding with Louis the Bavarian, the excommunicated emperor; but the meddling of Philip VI of France and the sovereign's lack of steadiness made his work come to nothing. With the other princes of Europe B. had peaceful relations. He was praised for his scrupulous conduct toward his relatives, to whom he showed no particular favor; he married his only niece quite modestly; only to his nephew Giovanni di Cardone, an esteemed person, did he confer the archbishopric of Arles in Oct. 1341. He died in Avignon on 25 Apr. 1342 and was buried in the Cathedral. The Cistercians venerate him as blessed.

Pio Paschini