GIOVANNI XXII, POPE. — He was pope from 7 Aug. 1316 to 4 Dec. 1334. Born at Cahors around 1245, Giacomo Duèse owed his brilliant career to his qualities as a jurist. He subsequently became chancellor to King Charles II of Sicily, bishop of Fréjus (4 Feb. 1300), then of Avignon (18 March 1310), cardinal of the title of S. Vitale (Dec. 1312), and bishop of Porto (1313). Elected pope at Lyon on 7 Aug. 1316, he was crowned there on 5 Sept. G. XXII established his provisional residence at Avignon. Despite his age, he displayed prodigious activity.
Not content with contributing to the reform of the Church through the Clementine Constitutions, he also promulgated a series of constitutions, the Extravagantes, which were subsequently commented upon by canonists but never became part of the official collection of the CIC. After the stormy pontificate of Clement V, the Roman Church needed reorganization. G. XXII provided it with a strong practical sense, to such an extent 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 complicated machinery of the Chancery, of the hearing of cases in the Apostolic Palace, that is, of the Rota, and of the hearing of contested letters (v. M. Tangl, Die päpstlichen Kanzleiordnungen von 1200-1500, Innsbruck 1894, pp. 83-115).
An authoritarian character, the Pope concentrated in his own hands the collation of ecclesiastical benefices. His predecessors had imposed a reservation on benefices that had become vacant in the Curia; he, instead, considerably increased the number of those benefices that would henceforth fall into this category, through a Chancery regulation of 15 Sept. 1316 and the constitution Ex debito (CIC, Extravagantes, comm. I, III, col. IV). The reservation also affected regular and secular elective benefices included 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).
G. XXII subsequently provoked a further controversy concerning the state of the souls of the just before the general resurrection. He maintained, as a private opinion, that they remained sub altare Dei, that is, that they enjoyed contemplation of Christ’s humanity, but not the beatific vision. This strange opinion of his earned him violent attacks on his orthodoxy from the Michaelist Franciscans (followers of Michele da Cesena, v.), who rebelled against him. Before dying, the Pontiff retracted what he had taught (v. E. Denifle-E. Châtelain, Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, II, Paris 1890, nos. 970-87).
A conflict of exceptional gravity broke out with Ludovico of Bavaria, elected King of the Romans in 1314 in competition with Frederick of Austria. Victorious at Mühldorf (28 Sept. 1322), Ludovico asked G. XXII to recognize the fact. But the Pope had his own plan: to prolong the vacancy of the Empire in order to continue administering II. This would have enabled him to overthrow in Upper Italy the hegemony of the Visconti, against whom his troops had by then been fighting since 1320. He also aspired to establish at Bologna the center of a state to which the papal Court would be transferred and from which the po-
GIOVANNI XXII - GIOVANNI DA PENNA S. GIOVANNI
Italian policy better than from Rome, which was too far from the theatre of operations. G. XXII imposed conditions on Ludovico of Bavaria that were judged unacceptable. The prince decided to come to Italy to aid the Visconti, besieged in Milan; he compounded his offences by granting asylum to the Spirituals who denigrated the Pope. Despite the opposition of a certain number of cardinals, canonical proceedings were instituted against him, ending with his excommunication (23 March 1324). Ludovico of Bavaria responded by advancing on Rome. He entered it and had himself illegally proclaimed emperor (11 January 1328), had G. XXII deposed (18 April), and had an antipope elected (12 May), who took the name Niccolò V. But this was a short-lived schism, which ended with the solemn recantation of Pietro da Corbara (29 July 1330).
Toward the end of his life G. XXII experienced bitter disappointments. The revolt of the Bolognese (17 March 1333) brought about the collapse of his Italian policy. He died at Avignon on 4 December 1334.