John was accused of heretical opinions, of having preached that the souls of those who die in a state of grace do not enjoy the beatific vision until after the Last Judgment and the Resurrection. He appears to have retracted shortly before his death, which occurred on Dec. 4, 1334. On Jan. 29, 1336, Pope Benedict XII. pronounced a long judgment on this point of doctrine, a judgment which he declared had been included by John in a bull which death had prevented him from sealing.
John had kindled very keen animosity, not only among the upholders of the independence of the lay power, but also among the upholders of absolute religious poverty, the exalted Francis cans. Clement V., at the council of Vienne, had attempted to bring back the Spirituals to the common rule by concessions; John, on the other hand, in the bull Quorundarn exigit (April 13, 1317), adopted an uncompromising and absolute attitude, and by the bull Gloriosam ecclesiam (Jan. 23, 1318) condemned the protests which had been raised against the bull Quorundam by a group of 74 Spirituals and conveyed to Avignon by the monk Bernard Delicieux. Shortly afterwards four Spirituals were burned at Marseilles. These were immediately hailed as martyrs, and in the eyes of the exalted Franciscans at Naples and in Sicily and the south of France the pope was regarded as antichrist. In the bull Sancta Romana et universa ecclesia (Dec. 28, 1318) John definitively excommunicated them and condemned their principal book, the Postil (commentary) on the Apocalypse (Feb. 8, 1326). The bull Quia nonnunquam (March 26, 1322) defined the deroga tions from the rule punished by the pope, and the bull Cum inter nonnullos (Nov. 12, 1323) condemned the proposition which had been admitted at the general chapter of the Franciscans held at Perugia in 1322, according to which Christ and the Apostles were represented as possessing no property, either personal or com mon. The minister general, Michael of Cesena, though opposed to
the exaggerations of the Spirituals, joined with them in protesting against the condemnation of the fundamental principle of evan gelical poverty.
The pope, by the bull Quia quorundam (Nov. 1 o, 1324), cited Michael to appear at Avignon at the same time as Occam and Bonagratia. All three fled to the court of Louis of Bavaria (May 26, 1328), while the majority of the Franciscans made submission and elected a general entirely devoted to the pope. But the re sistance, aided by Louis and merged as it now was in the cause sustained by Marsilius of Padua and John of Jandun, became daily bolder. Treatises on poverty appeared on every side ; the party of Occam clamoured with increasing imperiousness for the condemnation of John by a general council ; and the Spirituals, con founded in the persecution with the Beghards and with Fraticelli of every description, maintained themselves in the south of France in spite of the reign of terror instituted in that region by the Inquisition.
See M. Souchon, Die Papstwahlen von Bonifaz VIII. bis Urban VI. (Brunswick, i888) ; Abbe Albe, Autour de Jean XXII. (Rome, 5904) ; K. Muller, Der Kampf Ludwigs des Bayern mit der Curie (Tubingen, 5879 seq.) ; W. Preger, "Memoires sur la lutte entre Jean XXII. et Louis de Baviere" in Abhandl. der bayr. Akad., hist. sec., xv., xvi., xvii.; S. Riezler, Die litterar. Widersacher der Piipste zur Zeit Ludwigs des Baiers (Leipzig, 5874) ; F. Ehrle, "Die Spiritualen" in Archiv fiir Litteratur- and Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters (vols. i. and ii.) ; C. Samaran and G. Mollat, La Fiscalite pontificale en France an xive siecle (19°5); A. Coulon and G. Mollat, Lettres secretes et curiales de Jean XXII. se rapportant a la France (1899, seq.).