JOHN XXII, POPE. – Reigned from 7 Aug. 1316 to 4 Dec. 1334. Born at Cahors around 1245, Jacques Duèse owed his brilliant career to his qualities as a jurist. He successively became chancellor to King Charles II of Sicily, bishop of Fréjus (4 Feb. 1300), then of Avignon (18 Mar. 1310), cardinal with the title of S. Vitale (Dec. 1312), bishop of Porto (1313). Elected pope on 7 Aug. 1316 at Lyon, he was crowned there on 5 Sept. John XXII established his temporary residence at Avignon. Despite his age, he was of prodigious activity.
Not content with contributing to the reform of the Church through the Clementines, he also promulgated a series of constitutions, the Extravagantes, which were later commented upon by canonists but never formed part of the official collection of the CIC. After the tempestuous pontificate of Clement V, the Roman Church needed reorganization. John XXII provided this with great practical sense, so much so that some of his edicts remained in force for several centuries. The bulls *Pater familias*, *Ratio iuris*, and *Qui exacti temporis* (16 Nov. 1331) ensured the perfect functioning of the complex machinery of the Chancery, the hearing of cases of the Apostolic Palace, i.e., the Rota, and the hearing of contradictory letters (v. M. Tangl, *Die päpstlichen Kanzleirodnungen von 1200-1500*, Innsbruck 1894, pp. 83-115).
Of an authoritarian character, the Pope centralized in his hands the collation of ecclesiastical benefices. His predecessors had imposed a reservation on benefices that became vacant in the Curia; he, however, considerably increased the number of those benefices that would henceforth fall into this category, through a Chancery rule of 15 Sept. 1316 and the constitution *Ex debito* (CIC, Extravagantes, comm. I, III, col. IV). The reservation also applied to regular and secular elective benefices within the territories of the Roman Church, in various ecclesiastical provinces of Italy (v. G. Mollat, *La collation des bénéfices ecclésiastiques sous les Papes d'Avignon*, Paris 1921, p. 39).
John XXII then provoked a controversy over the state of the souls of the just before the general resurrection. He maintained, in a private capacity, that they remained *sub altare Dei*, i.e., they enjoyed the contemplation of the humanity of Christ, but not the beatific vision. This strange opinion earned him violent attacks against his orthodoxy from the Franciscan Spirituals (followers of Michael of Cesena, v.), who had turned against him. Before his death, the Pope retracted what he had taught (v. E. Denifle-E. Châtelain, *Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis*, II, Paris 1890, nn. 97-87).
An exceptionally serious conflict broke out with Louis of Bavaria, elected King of the Romans in 1314 in competition with Frederick of Austria. Victorious at Mühldorf (28 Sept. 1322), Louis asked John XXII to recognize this fact. But the Pope had his own plan: to prolong the vacancy of the Empire in order to continue administering II. This would have allowed him to crush the hegemony of the Visconti in northern Italy, against whom his troops had been fighting since 1320. He also aspired to make Bologna the center of a state where the papal court would be transferred and from which Italian policy could be directed more effectively than from Rome, which was too distant from the theater of operations. John XXII imposed conditions on Louis of Bavaria that were judged unacceptable. The prince decided to come to Italy to aid the Visconti, besieged in Milan; he aggravated his wrongs by giving asylum to the Spirituals who denigrated the Pope. Despite the opposition of a number of cardinals, a canonical trial was brought against him, which ended with his excommunication (23 Mar. 1324). Louis of Bavaria responded by advancing on Rome. He entered the city and had himself proclaimed emperor illegally (11 Jan. 1328), deposed John XXII (18 Apr.), and had an antipope elected (12 May) who took the name Nicholas V. But it was an ephemeral schism that ended with the solemn abjuration of Peter of Corbara (29 July 1330).
Toward the end of his life, John XXII experienced bitter disappointments. The revolt of the Bolognese (17 Mar. 1333) brought about the collapse of his Italian policy. He died at Avignon on 4 Dec. 1334.