Michael of Cesena (Michele di Cesena or Michele Fuschi) ( 1270 – 29 November 1342) was an Italian Franciscan, Minister General of that order, and theologian. His advocacy of evangelical poverty brought him into conflict with Pope John XXII. Biography Of his early life little is known. He was born at Cesena. Having entered the Franciscan Order, he studied at Paris and took the doctor's degree in theology in 1316. He taught theology at Bologna and wrote several commentaries on Holy Scripture and the Sentences of Peter Lombard. At the general chapter in Naples on 31 May 1316, he was elected minister general in absentia and went at once to Assisi, where he convoked a chapter to consider the revision of the Constitutions of the order. Returning to Bologna, he issued the document, Gravi qua premor (21 August 1316), which, together with several other ordinances regarding the matter of poverty, induced John XXII to publish the bull Quorumdam exigit (7 October 1317), whose purpose was to explain the decretals of Nicholas III, Exiit qui seminat (13 August 1279), and of Clement V, Exivi de paradiso (6 May 1312). John XXII ordered rebellious spirituals to stop arguing and obey their superiors. Initially, Michael agreed with the pope in suppressing the spirituals, whom he had been unable to persuade to conform. As the papal bull concerned the principal chapter of the Franciscan Rule, this action caused no little disturbance within the order. Earlier, in an effort to quell the disagreements between the conventuals and the zelanti, Pope Gregory IX had ruled that all property given to the Franciscans was vested in the Holy See, which granted the friars the mere use of it. This was later confirmed by Pope Nicholas III. John XXII reversed this. By the bull Ad conditorem canonum of 8 December 1322, he declared it ridiculous to pretend that every scrap of food given to the friars and eaten by them belonged to the pope, refused to accept ownership over the goods of the Franciscans in future and granted them exemption from the rule that absolutely forbade ownership of anything even in common, thus forcing them to accept ownership. This was opposed by Cesena and his supporters, who claimed that in adopting the strict poverty upon which Cesena had insisted in his letters, they were following the example and teaching of Christ and the Apostles. They held the view