BENEDICT XII  . (Jacques Fournier), pope from 1334 to 1342,1 the son of a miller, was born at Saverdun on the Arriege . Entering the Cistercian cloister Bolbonne, and graduating doctor of theology at Paris, he became in 1311 abbot of Fontfroide, in 1317 bishop of Pamiers and in 1326 of Mirepoix . Created cardinal priest of Santa Prisca in 1327 by his uncle John XXII. he was elected his successor on the loth of December 1334 . Benedict made appointments carefully, reformed monastic orders and consistently opposed nepotism . Unable to remove his capital to Rome or to Bologna, he began to erect a great palace at Avignon . In 1336 he decided against a pet notion of John XXII. by saying that souls of saints may attain the fulness of the beatific vision before the last judgment . In 1339 he entered upon fruitless negotiations looking toward the reunion of the Greek and Roman churches . French influence made futile his attempt to come to an understanding with the emperor Louis the Bavarian . He died on the 25th of April 1342 . See the source publications of G . Daumet (Lettres closes, patentes et curiales, .

. . Paris, 1899ff.), and J .-M .Vidal (Lettres communes, .. . Paris, 1903 ff.) . (W . W .