§ 7. THE PONTIFICATE OF JOHN XXII. 1316-1334. 65
mission, but the authenticity of the document was questioned at Avignon, probably with the set purpose of increasing the emperor's humiliation. Harder conditions were laid down. They were rejected by the diet at Frankfurt, 1344. But Germany was weary, and listened without revulsion to a final bull against Lewis, 1346, and a summons to the electors to proceed to a new election. The electors, John of Bohemia among them, chose Charles IV., John's son. The Bohemian king was the blind warrior who met his death on the battlefield of Crecy the same year. Before his election, Charles had visited Avignon, and promised full submission to the pope's demands. His continued complacency during his reign justified the pope's choice. The struggle was ended with Lewis' death a year later, 1341, while he was engaged near Munich in a bear-hunt. It was the last conflict of the empire and papacy along the old lines laid down by those ecclesiastical warriors, Hildebrand and Innocent III. and Gregory IX.
To return to John XXII., he became a prominent figure in the^controversy within the Francisc3.n order over the tenure of property, a controversy which had been going on from the earliest period between the two parties, the Spirituals, or Observants, and the Conventuals. The last testament of St. Francis, pleading for the practice of absolute poverty, and suppressed in Bonaventura's Life of the saint, 1263, was not fully recognized in the bull of Nicolas IIL^1279, which granted the Franciscans the right to use property as tenants, while forbidding them to hold it in fee simple. With this decision the strict party, the Spirituals, were not satisfied, and the struggle went on. Coelestine V. attempted to bring peace by merging the Spiritual wing with the order of Hermits he had founded, but the measure was without success.
Under B-Qniia^e. YIH. matters went hard with the Spirituals. This pope ^epo&ed the general, Raymond Gaufredi, putting in his place John of Murro, who belonged to tl^e laxerwing. Peter John Olivi (d.l298), whose writings were widely circulated, had declared himself in favor of Nicolas' bull, with the interpretation that the use of property and goods was to be the "use of necessity," — usus pauper, — as
66 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
opposed to the more liberal use advocated by the Conventuals and called usus moderatus. Olivi's personal fortunes were typical of the fortunes of the Spiritual branch. After his death, the attack made against his memory was, if possible, more determined, and culminated in the charges preferred at Vienne. Murro adopted violent measures, burning Olivi's writings, and casting his sympathizers into prison. Other prominent Spirituals fled. Angelo Clareno found refuge for a time in Greece, returning to Rome, 1305, under the protection of the Colonna.
The case was formally taken up by Qkmentjy'.,jwhq called a commission to Avig;nonrto devise measures to heal the division, and gave the Spirituals temporary relief from persecution. The proceedings were protracted till the meeting of the council in Vienne, when the Conventuals brought up the case in the form of an arraignment of Olivi, who had come to be regarded almost as a saint. Among the charges were that he pronounced the usus pauper to be of the essence of the Minorite rule, that Christ was still living at the time the lance was thrust into his side, and that the rational soul has not the form of a body. Olivi's memory was defended by Ubertino da Casale, and the council passed uo sentence upon his person.
In the bull Exivi de paradiso,^ issued 1313, and famous in the history ^f^ the FranGiscaii order, Clement seemed JLQ_t.akg the side qfthe Spirituals. It forbade the order or any of its members to accept bequests, possess vineyards, sell products from their gardens, build fine churches, or go to law. It permitted only " the use of necessity," usus arctus or pauper, and notliing beyond. The Minorites were to wear no shoes, ride only in cases of necessity, fast from Nov. 1 until Christmas, as well as every Friday, and possess a single mantle with a hood and one without a hood. Clement ordered the new general, Alexander of Alessandra, to turn over to Olivi's followers the convents of Narbonne, Carcas-
1 It is uncertain whether this bull was made a part of the proceedings of the (Ecumenical Council of Vienne. See Ilefele, VI. 550, who decides for it, and Ehrle, Archiv, 1885, p. 540 sqq.