Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction: Benedict XII, the Guardian of Orthodoxy
- 1 Jacques Fournier and Thirteenth-Century Inquisitorial Methods
- 2 Recovering a Theological Advice by Jacques Fournier
- 3 Benedict XII and the Beatific Vision
- 4 A New Seat for the Papacy: Benedict XII, Avignon, and the Comtat Venaissin
- 5 In the Footsteps of St Peter: New Light on the Half-Length Images of Benedict XII by Paolo da Siena and Boniface VIII by Arnolfo di Cambio in Old St Peter’s
- 6 Benedict XII and Italy: Restoring Orthodoxy and Consolidating Papal Sovereignty after John XXII
- 7 Benedict XII and the Outbreak of the Hundred Years’ War
- 8 Benedict XII and the Crusades
- 9 Benedict XII and the Partes Orientis
- Index of Names
- Index of Subjects
2 - Recovering a Theological Advice by Jacques Fournier
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction: Benedict XII, the Guardian of Orthodoxy
- 1 Jacques Fournier and Thirteenth-Century Inquisitorial Methods
- 2 Recovering a Theological Advice by Jacques Fournier
- 3 Benedict XII and the Beatific Vision
- 4 A New Seat for the Papacy: Benedict XII, Avignon, and the Comtat Venaissin
- 5 In the Footsteps of St Peter: New Light on the Half-Length Images of Benedict XII by Paolo da Siena and Boniface VIII by Arnolfo di Cambio in Old St Peter’s
- 6 Benedict XII and Italy: Restoring Orthodoxy and Consolidating Papal Sovereignty after John XXII
- 7 Benedict XII and the Outbreak of the Hundred Years’ War
- 8 Benedict XII and the Crusades
- 9 Benedict XII and the Partes Orientis
- Index of Names
- Index of Subjects
Summary
Abstract
A manuscript from Avignon (Bibliothèque municipale 1087) contains fragments of a long advice produced in 1325 as part of the heresy trial against Peter John Olivi's Commentary on the Apocalypse. The chapter demonstrates that this document, which also attacks authentic works by Joachim of Fiore, matches the description of a lost tract by Jacques Fournier that features in the inventories of the Avignon pontifical library. Once preserved in the same library, another lost volume, similar to the famous Inquisition register of Fournier, included the investigations of the bishop of Pamiers against Beguins active in his diocese. The doctrinal and inquisitorial fight against this movement therefore constituted a major part of his activities before his election to the Holy See.
Keywords: Beguins, heresy, Jacques Fournier, Joachim of Fiore, Peter John Olivi, theological advice
Posterity has been unfair to Jacques Fournier. During past decades, the attention of historians has been focused almost exclusively on the famous inquisitorial register of the bishop of Pamiers, which is, in the end, merely a document of his administrative practices. At the same time the scholarly works of the Cistercian theologian have remained utterly forgotten. While little or nothing survives of his oeuvre, it was actually in Avignon during his time both as cardinal and as pope that Fournier wrote his great theological opus. This monumental commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, magnificently preserved in six volumes in the papal library, has, however, rarely found a voice. It was partially published, and even then only by accident, by a Dominican who believed that he was editing the works of his fellow friar, Benedict XI (1303–1304). A second aspect of Fournier’s intellectual production is linked to his position as theological advisor to John XXII (1316–1334) during the most important doctrinal trials of the years 1325–1333. Of this activity, which is both cause and effect of his dazzling ascent to the papal Curia in this period, only the dossier of his arbitrations on the debate concerning the Beatific Vision has been preserved, although it remains for the most part unpublished. In what follows I add to this list a new document identifying one of his earliest theological assessments – an opinion or piece of advice given on the occasion of the last phase of the trial against the Commentary on the Apocalypse by the Franciscan theologian Peter John Olivi.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Pope Benedict XII (1334–1342)The Guardian of Orthodoxy, pp. 57 - 80Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018