§ 7. THE PONTIFICATE OF JOHN XXII. 1316-1334. 61
Porto. ^ Dante had written to the conclave begging that it elect an Italian pope, but the French influence was irresistible.
Said to be the son of a cobbler of Cahors, short of stature,^ with a squeaking voice, industrious and pedantic, John was, upon the whole, the most conspicuous figure among the popes of the fourteenth centun% though not the most able or worthy one. He was a man of restless disposition, and kept the papal court in constant commotion. The Vatican Archives preserve ^9 volumes of his bulls and other writings. He had been a tutor in the house of Anjou, and carried the preceptorial method into his papal utterances. It was his ambition to be a theologian as well as pope. He solemnly promised the Italian faction in the curia never to mount an ass except to start on the road to Rome. But he never left Avignon. His devotion to France was shown at the very beginning of his reign in the appointment of eight cardinals, of whom seven were Frenchmen.
The fou£_notablefeatures_of John's pontificate are his quarrel with the German emperor, Lewis the Bavarian, hi§, condemnation of the rigid^^arty of the Franciscans, his own doctrinal heresy, and his cupidity for gold.
The struggle with Lewis the Bavarj^m was a little afterplay compared with the imposing conflicts between the Hohenstauf en and the notable popes of preceding centuries. Europe looked on with slight interest at the long-protracted dispute, which was more adapted to show the petulance and weakness of both emperor and pope than to settle permanently any great principle. At Henry VII. 's death, 1313, five of the electqrs^ave their votes for Lewis of the house of Wittelsbach, and two for Frederick of Jlapsburg. j3oth appealed to the new pope, about to be elected. Frederick was crowned by
^ Villani, IX : 81, gives the suspicious report that the cardinals, weary of their inability to make a choice, left it to John. Following the advice of Cardinal Napoleon Orsini, he grasped his supreme chance and elected himself. He was crowned at Lyons.
2 Villani's statement that he was the son of a cobbler is doubted. Ferretus of Vicenza says he was "small like Zaccheus."
62 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
the archbishop of Treves at Bonn, and^Lewis by the archbishop of Mainz at Aachen. In 1317 John declared that the pope was the lawful vicar of the empire so long as the throne was vacant, and denied Lewis recognition as king of the Romans on the ground of his having neglected to submit his election to him.
The battle at Miihldorf, 1322, left Frederick a prisoner in his rival's hands^ This turn of affairs forced John to take more decisive action, and in 1323 was issued against Lewis the first of a wearisome and repetitious series of complaints and punishments from Avignon. The pope threatened him with the ban, claiming authority to aj^prove or set aside an emperor's election. ^ A year later he excommunicated Lewis and all his supporters.
In answer to this first complaint of 1323, Lewis made a formal declaration at Niirnberg^n the presence of a notary and other witnesses that he regarded the empire as independent of the pope, charged John with heresy, and appealed to a general council. The charge of heresy was based on the pope's treatment of the Spiritual party among the Franciscans. Condemned by John, prominent Spirituals, Michael of Cesena, Ockam and Bonagratia, espoused Lewis' cause, took refuge at his court, and defended him with their pens. The political conflict was thus complicated by a recondite ecclesiastical problem. Jn 1324 Lewis issued a second appeal, written in the chapel of the Teutonic Order in Sachsenhausen, which again renewed the demand for a general council and repeated the charge of heresy against the pope.
Tlie next year, 1325, Lewis_suffered a severe defeat from Leopold of Austria, who had entered into a compact to put Charles IV. of France on the German thi'one. He went so far as to express his readiness, in the compact of Ulm, 1326, to surrender the German crown to Frederick, provided he himself was confirmed in his right to Italy and the imperial dignity. At this juncture Leopold died.
By papal appointment Robert of Naples was vicar of RomCj.
iSeeMiiller: KampfLudioigs, etc., I. 61 sqq. Examinatio, approbatio ac
admonitio, repitlsio quoqne et reprohatio.