Michael of Cesena

MICHAEL OF CESENA. - Friar Minor, b. at Cesena ca. 1270, d. at Munich on 29 Nov. 1342. Elected at Naples as minister general of the Order (1316) while he was probably in Paris, where he was master of theology at the University, as soon as he arrived in Italy he presided over the commission of 12 friars for the revision of the statutes of the Order (published in Arch. franc. hist., 4 [1911], pp. 276-307, 508-26). Then he went to the papal Curia at Avignon to urge the total suppression of the Spirituals (v.) and succeeded in this, not without first bringing all the rigor of the Inquisition to bear against the most obstinate. His government seemed to prove beneficial to the Order, since he, as general, took an interest not only in discipline, but also in studies and in the missions in the East.

However, while at the General Chapter of Perugia (1322) he was writing a petition to John XXII, asking him not to issue any new decision on the question of the poverty of Christ, he circulated with the capitulars a doctrinal declaration, according to which it was not erroneous to affirm that Christ and the Apostles did not enjoy any property either privately or in common. With this thesis he, by making poverty an absolute canon of virtue, thought to consolidate the excellence of Minorite poverty. The contrary decisions of the Pope were not accepted by one part of the Order; but M. showed himself reserved, and at the General Chapter of 1325 he commanded his subjects to speak of the Church, of the person of the Pontiff and of his Constitutions with due reverence and sobriety. Nevertheless and with good reason John did not trust him and in June 1327 ordered him to come into his presence. He was ordered not to leave the city without the special permission of the Pope. The open rebellion of M. broke out after the harsh reproofs that John XXII gave him in the Consistory of Apr. 1328, who also ordered that the Chapter of the Minors, to be assembled at Bologna not under the presidency of M., but of Card. Bertrand du Poujet, should elect another general. Quite strangely, the capitulars reconfirmed their votes for M. But he, before knowing the outcome, fled together with Bonagrazia and William of Ockham (v.) to Louis the Bavarian. Excommunicated on 6 June 1328, he took an active part in this sovereign's struggle against the Pope. In 1330 he accompanied him to Munich, where he still published various invectives and protests full of hatred against the Pontiff. Although expelled from the Order in 1331, he claimed to be minister general until his death, which overtook him unreconciled with the Church.

Geroldo Fussenegger