Pope Benedict XII

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Pope Benedict XII

Pope Benedict XII (died April 24, 1342), born Jacques Fournier, was Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City. The current pope is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected April 19, 2005 in Papal conclave, 2005....
from 1334 to 1342.

le is known of the origins of Jacques Fournier. He is believed to have been born in Saverdun

Saverdun

Saverdun is a commune in France of the Ari?ge d?partement in France in southwestern France....
in the Comté de Foix around the 1280s to a family of modest means. He became a Cistercian monk

Monk

A Monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, the unconditioning of mind and body in favor of the realization of one's true nature, and does so living either alone or with any number of like-minded people, whilst always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose....
and left to study at the University of Paris

University of Paris

The historic University of Paris first appeared in the 12th century. In 1970 it was reorganized as 13 autonomous university . The university is often referred to as the Sorbonne or La Sorbonne after the collegiate institution founded about 1257 by Robert de Sorbon....
. In 1311 he was made Abbot

Abbot

The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery....
of Fontfroide Abbey

Fontfroide Abbey

Fontfroide Abbey or l'Abbaye Sainte-Marie de Fontfroide is a former Cistercian monastery in France, situated 15 kilometers south-west of Narbonne near to the Spain border....
and quickly became known for his intelligence and organizational ability.

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Pope Benedict XII (died April 24, 1342), born Jacques Fournier, was Pope

Pope

Life

Little is known of the origins of Jacques Fournier. He is believed to have been born in Saverdun

Saverdun

Saverdun is a commune in France of the Ari?ge d?partement in France in southwestern France....
in the Comté de Foix around the 1280s to a family of modest means. He became a Cistercian monk

Monk

University of Paris

Abbot

Fontfroide Abbey

Pamiers

Pamiers is a Communes of France in the Ari?ge Departments of France in southwestern France. It is a Subprefectures in France of Ari?ge....
. There he undertook a rigorous hunt

Hunt

Hunt may refer to:...
for Cathar

Cathar

Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualism and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries....
heretics, which won him praise from religious authorities, but alienated the local people.

His efforts against the Cathar

Cathar

Montaillou

Montaillou is a small village and commune in France in southern France. It is in the eastern half of the Pyrenees in the Ari?ge d?partement in France....
in the Ariège

Ariège

Ari?ge is a departments of France in southwestern France named after the Ari?ge River....
, were carefully recorded in the Fournier Register

Fournier Register

The Fournier Register is a set of records from the inquisition into heresy run by Jacques Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers between 1318 and 1325. Fournier was later to become Pope Benedict XII....
which he took to Rome and deposited in the Vatican Library

Vatican Library

The Vatican Library , is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts....
. This has been documented by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie

Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie

Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie is a noted French historian whose work is mainly focused upon Languedoc in the ancien regime, focusing on the history of the peasantry....
's pioneering microhistory

Microhistory

Microhistory is a branch of the study of history. First developed in the 1970s microhistory is the study of the past on a very small scale. The most common type of microhistory is the study of a small town or village....
, Montaillou, village occitan. In 1326, upon the successful rooting out of the last - it was believed - heretics of the south, he was made Bishop of Mirepoix in the Ariège

Ariège

Ari?ge is a departments of France in southwestern France named after the Ari?ge River....
. A year later, in 1327, he was made a cardinal

Cardinal (Catholicism)

A cardinal is a senior Ecclesiology official, usually a Bishop , of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope....
.

Fournier's Accession to the Papacy

Fournier succeeded Pope John XXII

Pope John XXII

Pope John XXII , born Jacques Du?ze , was pope from 1316 to 1334. He was the second Pope of the Avignon Papacy , elected by a Papal conclave in Lyon assembled by Philip V of France....
(1316–34) as Pope in 1334, being elected on the first conclave

Papal conclave

A papal conclave is a meeting of the College of Cardinals to elect the pope, or Bishop of Rome, who is considered by Catholics to be the Apostolic Succession of Saint Peter and earthly head of the Catholic Church....
ballot. But he did not carry out the policy of his predecessor. He practically made peace with the Emperor Louis IV

Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Louis IV , called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was the Duke of Bavaria from 1294/1301 together with his brother Rudolf I, Duke of Bavaria, Electoral Palatinate until 1329, King of Germany from 1314, and Holy Roman Empire from 1328....
, and as far as possible came to terms with the Franciscan

Franciscan

The term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St....
s, who were then at odds with the Roman See

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church....
.

Benedict XII was a reforming pope who tried to curb the luxuries of the monastic orders, though without much success. He also ordered the construction of the Palais des Papes

Palais des Papes

The Palais des Papes is a historical palace in Avignon, southern France, one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic architecture buildings in Europe....
in Avignon

Avignon

Avignon is a Communes of France in the Vaucluse Departments of France in southeastern France with an estimated mid-2004 population of 89,300 in the city itself and a population of 290,466 in the aire urbaine at the 1999 census....
. He spent most of his time working on questions of theology

Theology

Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
. He rejected many of the ideas developed by John XXII. In this regard, he promulgated a papal bull, "Benedictus Deus". This dogma defined the Church's belief that the souls of the departed go to their eternal reward immediately after death, as opposed to remaining in a state of unconscious existence until the Last Judgment. Though some claim that he campaigned against the Immaculate Conception

Immaculate Conception

For artistic depictions see Roman Catholic Marian art. For the novel by Ga?tan Soucy, see The Immaculate Conception.The Immaculate Conception is, according to Roman Catholic Dogma, the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary without any stain of original sin....
, this is far from clear. He engaged in long theological debates with other noted figures of the age such as William of Ockham

William of Ockham

William of Ockham was an England Franciscan friar and Scholasticism philosopher, from Ockham, Surrey, a small village in Surrey, near East Horsley....
and Meister Eckhart

Meister Eckhart

Meister Eckhart Dominican order , is the most common formula used to refer to Eckhart von Hochheim, a Germany theology, philosopher and German mysticism, born near Erfurt, in Thuringia....
.

Papal numbering

A note on the numbering: Pope Benedict X is now considered an antipope

Antipope

An antipope is a person who, in opposition to a sitting Bishop of Rome, makes a widely accepted claim to be the Pope. In the past, antipopes were typically those supported by a fairly significant faction of cardinal and kingdoms....
. At the time, however, this status was not recognized and so the man the Roman Catholic church officially considers the tenth true Pope Benedict took the official number XI, rather than X. This has advanced the numbering of all subsequent Popes Benedict by one. Popes Benedict XI-XVI are, from an official point of view, the tenth through fifteenth popes by that name.