Marriage Advice for a Pope: John XXII and the Power to Dissolve »

Patrick Nold, D.Phil. (Oxford, 1999) is Assistant Professor of History at the State University of New York at Albany. He is the author of Pope John XXII and his Franciscan Cardinal: Bertrand de la Tour and the Apostolic Poverty Controversy (Oxford, 2003).

The Medieval Church taught that marriage was indissoluble and that consent was the key. Why then could a marriage be dissolved by one spouse joining a religious order after an exchange of consent but before consummation? This question vexed Thirteenth-century academics and, in the fourteenth century, Pope John XXII asked a group of leading theologians and lawyers to study the issue. Position-papers were produced to explain the exception to the rule of indissolubility for chaste monks and nuns, and to explore whether the pope had the power to extend it to celibate priests and deacons. These texts, edited here, were used by John XXII to draft his bull Antique Concertationi (1322). This study reconstructs the story behind the constitution, providing a unique insight into the decision-making process at the Roman curia in Avignon under a controversial pope.

Pt. 1 Introduction

1 The runaway spouse joins a religious order: an inexplicable exception

2 The holdout husband takes up a holy order: an unresolved argument

Fourteenth-century developments

3 A triptych of consultation: marriage, poverty, magic

4 Introducing the experts

5 Conclusion

6 Post-scriptum

7 Manuscript description

8 Ratio editionis

Pt. 2 Edition

I Dicta fratris Vitalis de Furno 3

II Dicta fratris Bertrandi de Turre 23

III Dicta eiusdem domini Cardinalis 38

IV Dicta domini Gaucelmi Iohannis 52

V Dicta domini Bertrandi de Monte Faventino 71

VI Dicta domini Petri Textoris 82

VII Dicta domini Arnardi Roiardi 89

VIII Idem Episcopus 99

IX Dicta domini Durandi 104

X Idem Episcopus 108

XI Dicta fratris Gregorii 110

XII Dicta fratris Hervei 115

XIII Dicta fratris Iohannis de Alesto 125

XIV Dicta fratris Iohannis de Neapoli 131

XV Dicta fratris Iohannis de Reding 142

XVI Dicta magistri Iohannis Panhote 146

XVII Dicta fratris Roberti de Anglia 155

XVIII Dicta 160

XIX Frater Iohannes de Neapoli 163

Bibliography 189

Index Biblicus 197

Index of Medieval Authors and Texts 198

Index of Modern Authors 205