21$ . J O 
pope, led to interefting ccmfequences. That was a com¬ 
plete victory which Louis of Bavaria gained over Frederic 
of Auitria, attended with the capture of his vanquifhed 
rival. Upon this he-wrote to the pope, to acquaint him 
with his fuccefs; but John, inftead of congratulating him 
upon it, returned for anfwer, that he was ready to attend to 
the claims of both the competitors, and to decide their dif- 
pute according to the laws of juffice and equity. Louis, 
however, confidering the conteft to have been already de¬ 
termined by the fword, would not allow that it fliould be 
again decided by the judgment of the pope, and took 
upon himfelf the adminiltration of the empire without afk- 
ing for his approbation. This conduct John confidered to 
be a heinous infult upon his authority; and, being befides 
provoked at Louis’s protecting Vil'conti duke of Milan, 
whom he had excommunicated, as well as at his counte¬ 
nancing the Gibellincs in Lombardy, he publifhed an 
iiifolent monitory againft him in the year 1323. By this 
Louis was commanded, on pain of excommunication, to 
relinquifh in three months the adminiltration of the em¬ 
pire, to abandon the protection of the duke of Milan and 
the other Gibellines, and to revoke and annul whatever 
he had done fince he had affumed the title of king. Louis 
was not a little furprifed at the precipitate conduct of the 
pope, and difpatched ambafladors to him, to folicit that 
the execution of the ferrtence threatened in the monitory 
might be delayed. In the mean time, without waiting 
for their return, he afl'embled fome of the chief princes of 
the empire, and, having r laid before them the pope’s vio¬ 
lent proceedings, he protefted in their prefence againft the 
monitory, and made his appeal to ageneral council. The 
pope granted to his ambafladors a delay of two months ; 
and, when he found, at the expiration of that period, that 
Louis was determined to maintain his temporal rights 
without deigning to alk for papal approbation, in the year 
1324. he-declared him excommunicated, and forbade all 
the fubjeftsof the empire, on penalty of the lame fentencc, 
to acknowledge him for king, or obey him as fuch. From 
this fentence the king appealed anew to a general coun¬ 
cil; andhealfo publifhed an edict againft the pope, paint¬ 
ing him as one who trampled upon all laws, human and 
divine, to gratify his ambition and avarice; as a ravenous 
wolf, fleecing and devouring the flock committed to his 
care; and as an avowed heretic, in condemning as herefy 
the doctrine concerning the poverty of Chrift, which pope 
Nicholas had eftabliflied as an article of faith. In the 
year 1325, an agreement was entered into between Louis 
and Frederic, by which the latter recovered his liberty, 
on condition of" renouncing all claim and title to the im¬ 
perial dignity during the life of Louis. But no foower 
did the pope hear of this agreement, than he declared it 
null; deprived both of the right derived to them from 
their elections ; and wrote to the electors to chufe a new 
king of the Romans. They were too wife, however, to 
liften to the exhortations of this arrogant pontiff, which 
were calculated only to involve their country in new wars 
and bloodfhed ; and Louis and the pope, notwithftand- 
ing their mutual efforts to dethrone each other, con¬ 
tinued both in the poffeflion of their refpe&ive dignities. 
. See the article Germany, vol. viii. p. 484. 
During the years 1332 and 1333, the pope was engaged 
in a controverfy, which fubjedted him to the dilapproba- 
tion and cenfures of almoft the whole catholic church. 
In fome public difcourfes he had advanced the dodtrine, 
“ that the fouls of the faithful, in their intermediate ftate, 
fee not, nor will they fee, the divine effence, or God, 
face to face, till the day of the general refurredtion; and 
that none are, or will be, admitted till that day to the bea¬ 
tific vifion, but will only fee the human nature of Chrift.” 
This dodtrine gave great offence ; and, as the pope had 
caufed copies of his difcourfes to be every where dif'perfed, 
in order to propagate his favourite notion, feveral emi¬ 
nent divines undertook to confute it, and to fhow that it 
rvas repugnant to the fcriptures as underltood by all the 
fathers. Their efforts were univerfally applauded 5 and, 
H N. 
when John attempted to get "his doftrine approved by the 
univerfity of Paris, they rejedted it as foon as propofed, 
and even condemned it as heretical. Thefe circumftances 
made a great noife, and, in the year 1333, induced Philip 
VI. king of France, to fummon all the divines of the uni- 
verfity, and with them all the bifhops and abbots then at 
Paris, to meet at the caftle of Vincennes, to deliver freely 
their opinion concerning the dodtrine in queftion. By 
that affembly the papal notion was clofely examined, and 
"by all prefent, to a man, condemned as repugnant to 
fcripture, and heretical. The king ordered an authentic 
adt of what palled at this affembly to be drawn up, and 
fent it to the pope, figned by twenty-fix divines, requiring 
him to acquieice in their judgment. Alarmed by theie 
vigorous proceedings, John offered fomething by way of 
excufe, for having elpouled this opinion ; but, finding 
that it was not thought latisfadtory, he made a folemn 
declaration, in a public confiftory, that he never intended 
to affert, or propofe any thing to be believed, which was 
contrary to the fcripture-or the catholic faith ; and that, if 
he had inadvertently dropped any fuch thing in his dif¬ 
courfes upon the beatific vilion, he retradted it. But even 
this declaration did not imply an entire renunciation of 
his opinion. Being foon afterwards taken dangeroufly ill, 
he fent for the cardinals and bifhops then at Avignon, 
and ftill further foftened his dodtrine by owning in their 
prefence, that the unembodied fouls of the righteous be¬ 
held the divine effence as far as their feparate ftate and 
condition would permit; and added, that lie fubmitted to 
the judgment of the church whatever he had laid, preached, 
or written, on the fubjedt, that he might not be deemed a 
heretic after his deceafe. He died in 1334, when he was 
in the ninety-firft year of his age, having filled the papal 
fee eighteen years and almoft four months. 
This pope is commended by all contemporary writers, 
as a man of parts and learning, and a friend to learned 
men; but that he was ambitious, arrogant, and of an im¬ 
prudent obftinate temper, will fufficiently appear from the 
preceding narrative, and from the troubles he endeavoured 
to foment in Germany, as fhown under that article. Pe¬ 
trarch fays, that he was wholly addicted to ftudy, and 
took delight in nothing fo much as in reading. In pafling 
this encomium upon him, he feems to have forgotten 
the pope’s predominant paffion for accumulating wealth. 
He is charged with having been daily intent on finding 
out new methods of gratifying that paffion. He is fup- 
pofed to have invented the annates , obliging every clergy¬ 
man preferred to a benefice to pay into the apoftolic 
chamber one year’s income before he took poffeflion of it. 
This tax alone, as managed and improved by the pope, 
brought in immenf'e fums. Under colour of a zeal for 
the obfervance of the canons, forbidding the fcandalous 
abufe of pluralities, he obliged thofe who had more bene¬ 
fices to refign them all but one, and, by conferring them 
upon different perfons, got the value of one year’,s income 
out of each of them. " By thefe and other means of 
fqueezing the people and clergy, he left a treafure in his 
coffers amounting to twenty-five millions of florins, in 
fpecie, plate, jewels, and other precious baubles. Some 
pretend, that he had hoarded this wealth, not out of ava¬ 
rice, but with a defign to fet on foot a new cruf’ade for 
the recovery of the Holy Land. It may be fo ; but he. 
would have fhown himfelf a better member of fociety by- 
applying it to rsfeful purpofes at home, than by devoting 
it to fuch a quixotic attempt. He was the author of a 
treatife On the Contempt of the World, which does not 
appear to have been printed ; another treatife On the 
Tranl'mutation of Metals, of which a French tranflation 
was publifhed at Lyons in 1557, 8vo. and twenty-two Con- 
ftitutions, which he ordered to be called Extravagantcs. 
They have been repeatedly printed ; but the beft edition 
is that publifhed at Lyons, with a comment, 1584, folio. 
JOHN XXII. or XXIII. pope, formerly called Balt ha - 
far Cojfa , was a native of Naples, and defcended frorn a 
noble and wealthy family in that city. He was fent to 
1 ftudy 
