JOHN. 
SIS 
fu-rrounded the conclave, threatening the Italian cardinals 
with immediate death, if they would not finifh the elec¬ 
tion ; and in their fury they fet fire to the palace, which 
confirmed it, as well as a great part of the city. Thefe 
difturbances obliged the cardinals to difperfe; two years 
palTed before they could agree on another place of meet¬ 
ing; till at length, in 1316, they were by ftratagem 
brought to affemble at Lyons, where they were fliut up 
in a convent, furrounded with guards, and informed that 
they would not be permitted to depart before they had 
filled the fo-long-yacant fee. Still their contentions were 
prolonged during forty days ; at the expiration of which 
they unanimoufly defied James de Ofla ; who upon his 
confecration took the name of John. Our cardinal, in 
order to gain thofe of the Italian party, promifed on oath 
never to mount a horfe or mule, but in order to go to 
Rome; and, that he might not be chargeable with break¬ 
ing it, when he removed to Avignon, which he made the 
feat of his government, he went by water, and walked 
from the landing-place to the palace, from which he ne¬ 
ver ftirred during the whole of his pontificate, unlefs it 
were to go to the cathedral, which was at no great diftance. 
In the year 1317, the pope erefted the bifhopric of 
Touloufe into an archiepilcopal fee, dividing its extenfive 
diocefe into five bifhoprics; at the fame time he removed 
Gaillardus dePreflaco, nephew of the late pope, from that 
fee, thinking him unworthy of the dignity of metropo¬ 
litan, as he had fquandered away his immenfe revenues 
in vain pomp and oftdntation. He divided in like manner 
many other (fiocefes, by which means he had the oppor¬ 
tunity of providing for his creatures and dependants. In 
the fame year, he ordered Hugh Geraldi, bifiiop of Ca- 
hors, who was found guilty of many enormous crimes, 
and among others of a defign to poifon the pope and fe- 
veral of the cardinals, to be degraded and delivered up to 
the civil magiftrates of Avignon. By them he was con¬ 
demned to be .firft flayed, and then burnt alive; and the 
pope was fo inhuman as to fuffer this fentence to be car¬ 
ried into execution. During the^latter part of the year, 
the pope was employed in endeavouring to put an end to 
a breach among the friars minorites, which had com¬ 
menced in the preceding century. The controverfy, con- 
fidered in itfelf, was rather ridiculous than important, 
fince it did not affeft religion in the leaft, but turned 
wholly on thefe two points, the form of the habits to be 
worn by the Francifcan order, and their granaries and 
Itorehoufes. The Brethren of the Community, or the leIs ri¬ 
gid Francifcans, wore long, loefe, and good, habits, with 
ample hoods; but the fpirituals, or the reformers, went in 
ftrait, fhort, and very-coarfe, ones, which they aflerted to 
be precifely the drefs enjoined by the inftitute of St. 
Francis, and what therefore no power upon earth had a 
right to alter. And whereas the former, immediately af¬ 
ter the harveft and vintage, were accultomed to lay up a 
Hock of corn and wine in their granaries and cellars; the 
latter refolntely oppofed the practice, as entirely repug¬ 
nant to the profefiion of abfolute poverty, which had been 
embraced by the minorites. In order to put an end to 
the broils occafioned by this controverfy, the pope pub- 
lifhed a long mandatory letter, in which he ordered the 
contending parties to fubmit their difputes upon the two 
points above mentioned, to the decifion of their fuperiors. 
The effects of this letter, and of other decrees, were pre¬ 
vented by his unreafonable and inhuman feverity. Hav¬ 
ing ordered the French J'pirituals to appear at Avignon, 
he exhorted them to return to their duty; and, as the firlt 
<lep to it, to lay afide their Ihort ftrait habits with the 
final 1 hoods. The greateft part of them obeyed ; but Ber¬ 
nard Delitiofi, who was the heaji of the faff ion, and twenty- 
four of the brethren, boldly refufed to fubmit to the in- 
junffion. In vindication of their condufl, they alleged 
that the rules preferibed by St. Francis were the fame 
with the Gofpel of Jefus Chrift; that the popes therefore 
had no authority to alter them ; that the popes had afted 
fjnfully in permitting the Francifcans to have granaries 
and ftore-houfes; and that they added to their guilt in 
not allowing the habits to be worn which were enjoined 
by St. Francis. John, highly exalperated by the oppo- 
fition of thefe fpirituals , gave orders that they fhould be 
proceeded againit as heretics. Delitiofi was imprifoned, 
and died in confinement; four of his adherents were con¬ 
demned to the flames, in the year 1313, at Marfeilles ; 
which cruel fentence was executed without mercy. This 
cruelty was condemned and detefted even by thofe who 
were warmly attached to John ; and th e Jpirltual Francif¬ 
cans, and their votaries, maintained, that, by procuring 
the dcftruflion of thefe holy men, he had rendered him- 
felf utterly unworthy of the papal dignity, and was the 
true Antichrill. They moreover revered thefe viffims as 
fo many martyrs, paying religious veneration to their 
bones and allies ; and inveighed more vehemently than 
ever againft long habits, large hoods, &c. The inqui- 
fitors, on the other hand, having, by the pope's order, ap¬ 
prehended as many of thefe people as they could find, 
condemned them to the flames, and thus barbaroufly fa- 
crificed them to papal relentment and fury. 
In the year 1318, at the requeft of king Edward II. the 
pope ereffed Cambridge into an univerfity. From this 
time we find norhing recorded concerning John, deferving 
of particular mention, before the year 1321, when a new 
difpute arofe concerning the poverty profefled by the 
Francifcans. A monk of this order having maintained, 
“ that neither Chrift nor his apoltles ever pollefled any 
thing, whether in common or perfonally, by right of pro¬ 
perty or dominion,” wasarrrefted at Narbonne, where the 
inquilitor, who was of the Dominican order, pronounced 
this opinion to be heretical. On the other hand, Beren- 
garius, profefl'or in the convent of Francifcans at Narbon¬ 
ne, maintained it to be orthodox, and perfectly confonant 
to a bull of pope Nicholas III. The judgment of the 
former was approved of by the Dominicans, while the de¬ 
termination of the latter was adhered to by the Francif-' 
cans. The inquilitor ordered Berengarius to recant; but, 
he appealing to the judgment of the apoftolic fee, the bu- 
finefs was brought before the pope, who endeavoured to 
put an end to the difpute by acquiefcing in the fubtleand 
equivocal decillons of a monk of great weight and repu¬ 
tation among the fpirituals, and enjoining filence and mo¬ 
deration on the contending parties. The Dominicans 
and Francifcans, however, were fo exceedingly exafpe- 
rated againft each other, that they could by no means be 
brought to conform to the papal order; and John, before 
he chofe to pronounce a definitive fentence on the fubjecl, 
thought proper to confult different univerfities, and many 
of the moft celebrated divines of the age. In the year 
1322, the Francifcans, in a general chapter at Perugia, 
having obtained information of this proceeding, unani- 
moully decreed that the difputed tenet was holy and or¬ 
thodox, and lent one of the moft learned of their fraternity- 
to Avignon, to defend this decree againft all opponents 
whatever. Highly exafperated at their taking this ftep, 
John ifiued out a decree in whicli he efpoufed an opinion 
diametrically oppofite to that of the Francifcans, which he 
pronounced to be erroneous and heretical. Adterwards he 
aboliftied all the decrees of his predeceffors on this fubjefi, 
and the ancient conftitutions which veiled the property 
of the Francifcan effects in the church of Rome; by which 
he entirely deftroyed that boafted expropriation, which was 
the main bulwark of the Francifcan order, and'which its 
founder had elleemed the diltinguilhing glory of the lo- 
ciety. Thefe meafures were obftinately refilled- by the 
Francifcans, whole boldnefs drew down on their heads a 
cruel perlecution ; for the pope having at length ifiued a 
decree, by which he declared all thole who adhered to the 
difputed tenet obltinate heretics, and rebels againft the 
church, great numbers of thofe who perfilted in maintain¬ 
ing it, were apprehended by the Dominican inquilitors, 
and committed to the flames. 
The year 1322 produced alfo an event in the political 
world, which, owing to the ambition and temerity of the 
pope. 
