This study examines the use of polemical strategies in the internal Franciscan debates during the first half of the fourteenth century, focusing on the exchanges between Ubertino of Casale and his opponents during the Spiritual crisis, and between Michael of Cesena and Gerald Odonis in the aftermath of the so-called theoretical poverty controversy. By comparing the use of polemical tropes and patterns across the two conflicts, it is possible to isolate some of the strategies used by the participants in the debates, as well as highlighting the shifting boundaries of inclusion and exclusion in the definition of what constituted a »true« Franciscan. While outsiders contributed to the debates, this article focuses particularly on the ways in which members of the Franciscan order responded to challenges posed to the authors' understanding of the Franciscan vocation by other members of the order. All sides in these debates agreed on poverty and obedience as central values of the Franciscan life, but they did not accept that their opponents might share their regard for the order's rule and vocation. The debates therefore produced overlapping and competing visions of the Franciscan life which personalised and polarised the underlying larger issues, as well as estab lishing and defending the boundaries between »true« and »false« Franciscans, and there by creating and reinforcing a sense of identity against those members of the order which fell outside the vision.
a b s t r a c tIn the early fourteenth century, the order of Grandmont was crippled by internal conflict, violence and debts, causing Pope John XXII to intervene in 1317. This article examines the two stages of his reform project: a programme of constitutional reorganisation, aiming to make the order conform to standard monastic practices, and the longer process of financial reorganisation during which the pope attempted to clear the order's debts by negotiating loans and using excommunication as a sanction for non-payment. John's dealings with the order are characterised by a mixture of decisive constitutional change and painstaking financial consolidation, and an examination of the pope's actions provides insights both into his pontificate and into a neglected phase in the history of the order of Grandmont.In December 1316, only a few months after his election to the papacy, Pope John XXII wrote a letter to the bishop of Limoges, informing him of the sad state into which the order of Grandmont had fallen. He concluded his description of Grandmont's problems by lamenting that the order, 'which used to prosper in spiritual and temporal things, and to produce rich and wholesome fruit of honour and honesty, is now destroyed by scandals, divided by schisms and deformed by dissent'. 1 The order, a congregation of hermits based in the diocese of Limoges, was facing two different, but related problems: two priors were in dispute over the leadership of the order, and Grandmont faced a financial crisis, brought on by debts and mismanagement. This was not a situation the pope could ignore, and he 'Dolemus, inquam, quod idem ordo qui solebat in spiritualibus et temporalibus reflorere ac honoris et honestatis producere fructus uberes et salubres, subvertitur scandalis, scissuris dividitur et dissensionibus deformatur' (98).
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