XXII AND THE PAPAL STATES 205
abbeys, and Papal claims on a number of appointments, dispensations and dutiable pleas which could be artificially dragged out, and so raised receipts of the Curia to an annual average of nearly 230,000 guilders in gold. The Camera Apostolica took in money as it never had before, and in a short time was equipped to bear the enormous burdens in- cident to the wars which broke out under this and subsequent pontifi- cates.
The princes and states whose friendship John needed in order to restore complete dominion of the Papacy in Italy also received their goodly share of this store of red gold. This restoration was the major goal of his policy. It was for its sake that he persevered in his fiscal policy and his struggle with the Empire. Ludwig the Bavarian and Frederic of Austria battled for the throne, and the House of Wittels- bach gained a victory: it was, so insisted Avignon, to recognize the Papal right to administration of the Empire in Italy, custodian of which at the rime was Robert of Naples. The Bavarian prince, who had already sent his German Imperial vicar to Italy, took no heed of the Pope's declaration that a king must first have Papal endorsement; and spurning a sharp demand that he lay down his Imperial office, he himself marched southward and supported the struggle which Lom- bard Ghibellines were carrying on against the sundering of Italy from the Empire. When he had drawn down upon himself the ban, Ludwig resorted to another weapon against John: the Pope himself was declared a heretic, because during a dispute with the Franciscans he had repudiated the solemn contention of the Order that Christ and his Apostles had owned no property. The political struggle was confused with theological and religious warfare; and for a decade it seemed as if the Empire and the Church were facing serious disaster. John XXII defended his omnipotence more doggedly than ever a Pope before him; and round the banned and wavering Emperor, there gathered disciples of the Saint of Assist and of Marcilius of Padua. Yes, worlds otherwise irreconcilable found themselves in unison in men like the English Ockham, the philosopher and theologian who wore the habit of Francis, and yet taught a most uncompromising brand of Gesaro-Papism. Doubtless Ockham could form an idea of a Church without a Papacy. John spared none. During the years 13271328, when he also repudiated some sentences of Master Eck-
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