GIOVANNI of Murro. - Franciscan theologian and cardinal, born into the Minio (not Mincio) family at Morrovalle (Macerata), died at Avignon in 1312. He obtained his licentiate (1288) and doctorate (1289) in theology at Paris. Nicholas IV appointed him Master of the Apostolic Palace (1291). In 1296 at Anagni, in the presence of Boniface VIII, he was elected Minister General of the Order.
During his tenure (1296-1304) he received into the Order Louis, Bishop of Toulouse. In 1302, Boniface VIII created him cardinal and bishop of Porto and Santa Rufina, as a reward for the successful outcome of a peace mission (1297-98) he had conducted in Flanders. At the Council of Vienne he defended the legitimacy of Boniface VIII’s election, which Philip the Fair sought to have stricken from the list of legitimate popes. Of his literary activity, two collections of *sermons*, several theological pamphlets, twelve *quaestiones disputatae*, a *Quodlibet* (composed during his regency of the Franciscan studium in Paris, 1289-90), and a controversial commentary on the *Sentences* survive. Of particular importance is the encyclical letter *Inter coelestium insignia* (in *Analecta Franciscana*, 2 [1887], pp. 109-111), written in defense of poverty and addressed to the Order from Genoa in 1302.