BENEDICT XI  . (Niccolo Boccasini), pope from 1303 to 1304, the son of a notary, was born in 1240 at Treviso . Entering the Dominican order in 1254, he became lector, prior of the convent, provincial of his order in Lombardy, and in 1296 its general . In 1298 he was created cardinal priest of Santa Sabina, and in 1300 cardinal bishop of Ostia and Velletri . In 1302 he was papal legate in Hungary . On the 22nd of October 1303 he was unanimously elected pope . He did much to conciliate the enemies made by his predecessor Boniface VIII., notably France, the Colonnas and King Frederick II. of Sicily; nevertheless on the 7th of June 1304 he excommunicated William of Nogaret and all the Italians who had captured .Boniface in Anagni . Benedict died at Perugia on the 7th of July 1304; if he was really poisoned, as report had it, suspicion would fall primarily on Nogaret . His successor Clement V. transferred the papal residence to Avignon . Among Benedict's works are commentaries on part of the Psalms and on the Gospel of Matthew . His beatification took place in 1733 . See C .

Grandjean, " Registres de

Benoit XI." (Paris, 1883 ff.), Bibliotheque des Ecoles francaises d'Athenes et de Rome .