§ 7. THE PONTIFICATE OF JOHN XXII. 1316-1334. 69
If the Spiritual Franciscans had been capable of taking secret delight in an adversary's misfortunes, they would have had occasion for it in the widely spread charge that John was a heretic. At any rate, he came as near being a heretic as a pope can be. His heresy concerned the nature of the beatific vision after death. In a sermon on All Souls', 1331, he announced that the blessed dead do not see God untn the general resurrectio^ In at least two more sermons he repeated this utterance. John, who was much given to theologizing, Ockam declared to be wholly ignorant in theology. i This Schoolman, Cesena, and others pronounced the view heretical. John imprisoned an English Dominican who preached against him, and so certain was he of his case that he sent the Franciscan general, Gerardus Odonis, to Paris to get the opinion of the university.
The Kin£, Pliili2_yi., took a warm interest in the subject, opposed the_pope^jind called a council of theologians at Vincennes to give its opinion. It decided that ever since the Lord descended into hades and released souls from that abode, the righteous have at death immediately entered upon the vision of the divin^_essejice_ofjthe Trinity. 2 Among the supporters of this decision was Nicolas of Lyra. When official announcement of the decision reached the pope, he summoned a council at Avignon and set before it passages from the Fathers for and against his view. They sat for five days, in December, 1333. John then made a jmbUc jmnpuiiceuieuit, which was communicated to the king and queen of France, that he had not intended to say anything in conflict, with the Fathers and the orthodox Church and, if he had done so, he retracted jiis utterances.
The question was authoritatively settledjiy Benedict XII. in the bull Benedietus deus, 1336, which-jdeclared that the blessed dead. — saints, the Apostles, virgins, martyrs, confessors who need no purgatorial cleansing — are, after death and before the resurrection of their bodies at the general
1 In facilitate theologioe omnino fuit ignarus. See Miiller : Kampf, etc., I. 24, note.
2 Mansi, XXV. 982-984.
70 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
judgment, with Christ and the angels,, and that they behold the divine essence with naked visioy.^ BenediL-t deulared that John died while he was preparing a decision.
The financial policy of John XXII. and his successors merits a chapter by itself. Here reference may be made to ^John's private^ fortune. He has had the questionable fame of not only having amassed a larger sum than any of his predecessors, but of having died Dossessed of fabulous wealth. Gre^orovius calls him the Midas of Avignon. According to Villani, he left behind him 18,000,000 gold florins and 7,000,000 florins' worth of jewels and ornaments, in all 25,- 000,000 florins, or f60,000,000^ot^our^resent_ coinage. This chronicler concludes with the remark that the words were no longer remembered which the Good Man in the Gospels spake to his disciples, " Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven."'^ Recentinvestigatiqns seem to casj: .sus.pici_oii upon this long-held view as an exaggeriLtian. John's hoard may have amounted to not more than 750,000 florins, or $2,000,- 000 3 of our money. If this be a safe estimate, it is still true that John was a shrewd financier and perhaps the richest man in Europe.
When John died he was ninety years old.
^ Divinamessentiam immediate, se Jtene et dare et aperte illis ostenclentem. Mansi, XXV. 986.
2X1. 20. Another writer, Galvaneus de La Flainma, Muratori, XIL 1009 (quoted by Haller, Fapsttum, p. 104), .says, John left 22,000,000 florins besides other "unrecorded treasure." This writer adds, the world did not have a richer Christian in it than John XXII.
3 This is the figure reached by Ehrle, Die 25 MilUonen im Schntz Johann XXII. , Archiv, 1889, pp. 155-166. It is based upon the contents of 15 coffers, opened in the year 1842 at the death of Benedict XII. These coffere contained John's treasure, and at that time yielded 750,000 florins. But it is manifestly uncertain how far John's savin,t,^s liad been reduced by Benedict, or whether these coffers were all that were left by John. For exanii)le, at his consecration, Benedict i^ave 100,000 florins to his cardinals, and 150,000 to the churches at Home, and it is quite likely he drew upon John's hoard. The gold mitres, rings, and other ornaments which John's thrift amassed, were stored in other chests. Villani got his report from his brother, a Florentine banker in the employ of the curia at Avignon. It is difiBcult to understand how, in making his statement, he should have gone so wide of the truth as Ehrle suggests.