THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
He was rather unexpectedly elected pope Dec. 20, 1334, and began his reign with reforming measures. The bishops and abbots who lingered at the court of Avignon were sent home, the system of petitions was regulated, and care was taken to select worthy men for vacant benefices. Benedict planned to restore the strict discipline of the Benedictines and Cistercians, as well as of the mendicant orders, and entirely avoided the reproach of nepotism. Soon after his elevation, the Romans begged him to return to them, and he promised to do so, but was prevented by the French majority in the Sacred College. Later he thought of removing to Bologna, but finally settled down in Avignon and began the building of a magnificent palace. His attitude toward theological and ecclesiastical controversies was a pacific one. He condemned the opinion so strongly held by his predecessor, that the souls of the just do not enjoy the Beatific Vision until after the last judgment. Negotiations took place with the Eastern Church looking toward reunion; in 1339 the emperor Andronicus sent ambassadors to Avignon, really with a view to gaining military aid against the Turks, but holding out prospects of ecclesiastical accommodation, which, however, came to little. He won a moral triumph in Spain by inducing Alfonso XI of Castile to break off his adulterous connection with Eleonora de Gusman, and rendered no slight service to the Christian cause in the peninsula by making peace between Castile and Portugal, and thus enabling the Christian forces to unite against the Mussulmans and to defeat them completely at Tarifa. The most difficult problem was the treatment of Louis of Bavaria. Benedict showed himself conciliatory, and Louis sent an embassy to Avignon (1335); but Philip VI, against whose interests this reconciliation would have been, prevented it then, and a second time in the autumn of the following year. This gave the alliance of Louis to Edward III of England against France. The electoral princes finally asserted their rights; on July 15, 1338, they swore to defend the customs and liberties of the empire and to prevent any infringement of their electoral prerogative; the next day they declared that the king of the Romans chosen by them stood in no need of papal confirmation, and notified Benedict of their attitude. At the diet held in Frankfort (Aug. 6, 1338), Louis went even further, denying any connection between the coronation by the pope and the right to bear the title of emperor, at the same time asserting the invalidity of all the censures pronounced against himself and the empire by John XXII. None the less, in the following year he reopened negotiations with Benedict ; and when he had an opportunity of concluding peace with Philip VI, he deserted his English ally, hoping to gain Philip's support with the pope. He spoiled his own case, however, by his encroachments on the Church's law of marriage and its power in such matters. In order to marry his son, Louis, margrave of Brandenburg, to Margaret, heiress of the Tyrol, he declared her previous marriage with Prince John of Bohemia null and void (following an opinion of Occam's), and on Feb. 10, 1342, in spite of the impediment of consan-
guinity in the third degree between the couple, had the marriage performed. Benedict had no opportunity to pass judgment upon these acts, as he died on Apr. 25 of the same year. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: Liber pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, ii, 486, 527, Paris, 1892; eight accounts of his life are collected in E. Baluze, Vitce paparum Avenonensium, i, 197-244, Paris, 1693; Muratori, Scriptores, iii, 527 sqq.; J. M. Watterich, Romanorum pontificum vitce, i, 203-204, Leipsic, 1862; A. Pichler, Geschichte der kirchlichen Trennung zwischen dem Orient und Occident, i, 358, Munich, 1864; C. Muller, Der Kampf Ludwigs , . . mit der romischen Curie, vol. ii, Tubingen, 1880; A. Rohrmann, Die Procuratorien Ludwigs des Baiern, Gottingen, 1882; Bower, Popes, iii, 88- 92; Pastor, Popes, i, 84-86; Benott XII, Lettres closes, patentes et curiales se rapportant a la France, ed. G. Daumet, Paris, 1899; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vi, 636-653.
Benedict XIII: 1. The title was first borne by Pedro de Luna from 1394 to 1417, in the Great Western Schism. He came of a noble family in Aragon, studied in France, taught canon law at the University of Montpellier, and was made cardinal by Gregory XI. When the schism broke out between the partizans of Urban VI and Clement VII, he took the latter's side, and went to Spain and Portugal as Clement's representative in 1379. In Sides with 1393, again, he appeared at a meeting
Clement of English and French dignitaries, in
VII in the the hope of winning England away Great from the party of Boniface IX, the
Schism, pope elected in Rome to succeed Urban VI. When the University of Paris in 1394 suggested three ways to end the schism — the resignation of both claimants, the submission of both to the decision of a tribunal agreed upon between them, or the calling of a general council — Clement sent him to Paris to prevent the choice of the first; but in fact he declared in favor of it, possibly with an eye to his own chances. Clement died the same autumn, and the cardinals of his party nearly all agreed that whichever of them might be chosen pope should do all in his power to end the schism, even by abdicating if necessary; and no voice was louder in this agreement than Pedro de Luna's. He was unanimously chosen on Sept. 28, consecrated and crowned Oct. 11. He reiterated his willingness to do anything for peace; but when the next year an embassy representing the king of France, a national synod, and the University of Paris approached him to urge the abdication of both popes, he declined, recommending rather a personal meeting of both to discuss the question. To this he adhered in spite of the opposite view of all his cardinals but one and of the personal entreaties of the dukes of Berry, Burgundy, and Orleans. Charles VI held a second national council at Paris (end of Aug., 1396), and tried to gain the support of the European sovereigns for his plan. In June, 1397, the ambassadors of France, England, and Castile pressed the necessity of abdication upon Benedict, who declined for himself while recommending it to Boniface IX. No more success attended a joint embassy (1398) from Charles and Wenceslaus, king of the Romans, headed by Pierre d'Ailly, bishop of Cambrai.
Charles held a third council in May, 1398, which decided that France should withdraw from Benedict's obedience. When this decision received the