Pope Benedict XII ( la, Benedictus XII, french: Benoît XII; 1285 – 25 April 1342), born Jacques Fournier, was head of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

from 30 December 1334 to his death in April 1342. He was the third

Avignon pope The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon – at the time within the Kingdom of Arles, part of the Holy Roman Empire; now part of France – rather than in Rome. The situation arose ...

. Benedict was a careful pope who reformed monastic orders and opposed nepotism. Unable to remove his capital to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, he started the great palace at Avignon. He decided against a notion of Pope John XXII by saying that souls may attain the "fulness of the beatific vision" before the Last Judgment. Whilst being a stalwart reformer, he attempted unsuccessfully to reunite the

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...

and

es, almost three centuries after the Great Schism; he also failed to come to an understanding with

Emperor Louis IV Louis IV (german: Ludwig; 1 April 1282 – 11 October 1347), called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was King of the Romans from 1314, King of Italy from 1327, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1328. Louis' election as king of Germany in ...

Early life

Little is known of the origins of Jacques Fournier. He is believed to have been born in

Canté Canté (; oc, Cante) is a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France. Population See also *Communes of the Ariège department The following is a list of the 327 communes of the Ariège department of France ...

in the

County of Foix The County of Foix (french: Comté de Foix, ; oc, Comtat de Fois) was an independent medieval fief in southern France, and later a province of France, whose territory corresponded roughly the eastern part of the modern ''département'' of Ariè ...

around the 1280s to a family of modest means. He became a CistercianJonathan Sumption, ''Trial by Battle'', Vol.1, (Faber and Faber, 1990), 152-153.

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

and left the countryside to study at the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. In 1311 he was made

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

Fontfroide Abbey Fontfroide Abbey (french: Abbaye Sainte-Marie de Fontfroide; la, Fons frigidus) is a former Cistercian monastery in France, situated 15 kilometers south-west of Narbonne near to the Spanish border. It was founded in 1093 by Aimery I, Visc ...

and quickly became known for his intelligence and organizational ability. In 1317 he was made

Bishop of Pamiers The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pamiers, Couserans, and Mirepoix (Latin: ''Dioecesis Apamiensis, Couseranensis, et Mirapicensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Pamiers, Mirepoix, et Couserans'') is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church i ...

. There he undertook a rigorous hunt for

Cathars Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. F ...

, such as

Guillaume Bélibaste Guillaume Bélibaste ( occitan: Guilhèm Belibasta) is said to have been the last Cathar parfait in Languedoc. He was burned at the stake in 1321, as a result of the Inquisition at Pamiers led by Jacques Fournier (afterwards Pope Benedict XII). M ...

, which won him praise from religious authorities, but alienated the local people. His efforts against the Cathars of

Montaillou Montaillou (; oc, Montalhon) is a commune in the Ariège department in the south of France. Its original, medieval location was abandoned and the current village is a short distance away. History The village is best known for being the s ...

in the Ariège were carefully recorded in the Fournier Register, which he took to

and deposited in the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

. His transcription was edited by

Jean Duvernoy Jean Duvernoy (1 January 1917 – 19 August 2010, Saint-Jean de Luz) was a French medievalist. Born in 1917 in Bourgoin to a Protestant family, he began to study the Waldensians and later Catharism. He edited and translated a great number of sour ...

and has been documented by

Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie Emmanuel Bernard Le Roy Ladurie (, born 19 July 1929) is a French historian whose work is mainly focused upon Languedoc in the ''Ancien Régime'', particularly the history of the peasantry. One of the leading historians of France, Le Roy Ladurie h ...

's pioneering

microhistory Microhistory is a genre of history that focuses on small units of research, such as an event, community, individual or a settlement. In its ambition, however, microhistory can be distinguished from a simple case study insofar as microhistory aspires ...

, ''Montaillou, village occitan.'' In 1326, upon the successful rooting out of the last – it was believed – Cathars of the south, he was made

Bishop of Mirepoix The former Catholic diocese of Mirepoix, in south-west France, was created in 1317 by Pope John XXII from the diocese of Pamiers. It existed until the French Revolution, and was suffragan of the Archbishop of Toulouse. Its see was Mirepoix, Ari ...

in the Ariège, and, a year later, in 1327, he was made a cardinal.

Accession to papacy

Fournier succeeded

John XXII Pope John XXII ( la, Ioannes PP. XXII; 1244 – 4 December 1334), born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse), was head of the Catholic Church from 7 August 1316 to his death in December 1334. He was the second and longest-reigning Avignon Pope, elected by ...

pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, after being elected in the

Conclave A papal conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a bishop of Rome, also known as the pope. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church. Co ...

of 1334. The Conclave opened on 13 December, and it appeared that there might be a quick election. A two-thirds majority were prepared to elect Cardinal Jean-Raymond de Comminges, the Bishop of Porto, if he would only swear in advance to agree ''not'' to return the papacy to Rome. Comminges refused to make any promises in order to get elected. The Conclave therefore ground on through lengthy discussions. As Fournier himself said, "... in the discussion held over the election of a future pope, they could certainly have agreed on others more conspicuous for the repute of their great merits...", in other words, there were a number of possible candidates. The Cistercian cardinal, Jacques Fournier, was elected on the evening of 20 December 1334, after Vespers, on the eighth day of the Conclave. The election of Fournier happened as the result of an accident. According to the

Catholic Encyclopedia The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...

Papal policy and activity

Benedict XII was a reforming pope who did not carry out the policies of his predecessor. He chose to make peace with Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV, and as far as possible came to terms with the

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

s, who were then at odds with the

Roman See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rom ...

. He tried to curb the luxuries of the

monastic order Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important rol ...

s, though without much success. He also ordered the construction of the

Palais des Papes The Palais des Papes (English: Palace of the Popes; ''lo Palais dei Papas'' in Occitan) is a historical palace located in Avignon, Southern France. It is one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic buildings in Europe. Once a fortress ...

in Avignon. Benedict spent most of his time working on questions of

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

. He rejected many of the ideas developed by John XXII. In this regard, he promulgated an apostolic constitution, ''Benedictus Deus'', in 1336. This dogma defined the Church's belief that the souls of the departed go to their eternal reward immediately after death, as opposed to remaining in a state of unconscious existence until the Last Judgment. Though some claim that he campaigned against the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

, this is far from clear. He engaged in long theological debates with other noted figures of the age, such as

William of Ockham William of Ockham, OFM (; also Occam, from la, Gulielmus Occamus; 1287 – 10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and Catholic theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small vil ...

and

Meister Eckhart Eckhart von Hochheim ( – ), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, Master EckhartEdward III of England Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring ...

would most likely win, regardless.

Works

References

Bibliography

* 333-1356* Guillemain, B. (1952). ''La politique bénéficiale du Pape Benoît XII. Paris: École des Hautes Études. * Mahn, J. B. (1950). ''Le Pape Benoit XII et les Cisterciens''. Paris: École des Hautes études. * Melville, G. (1982). "Source Documents on the Pontificate of Benedict XII," in: ''Historisches Jahrbuch'' 102 (1982), pp. 144-182. * Vidal, Jean-Marie (1905). "Notice sur les oeuvres du Pape Benoit XII." in: ''Revue d'histoire écclesiastique'' 6 (1905), pp. 557-565.