The decree Exivi de Paradiso and its implications for mendicant poverty

Many scholars have dedicated their studies to exploring the argument, begun in the late thirteenth century, between the two parties of the Franciscan Order: the so-called Conventuals and the Spirituals. The dispute ended in 1323 when John XXII issued the bull Cum inter nonnullos, condemning the position of the Spirituals regarding the poverty of Christ and his disciples. John’s edict came only at the end of a long confrontation. A decade before Cum inter nonnullos, the publication of the decree Exivi de paradiso at the very end of the Council of Vienne in 1312 marked a decisive moment in this debate.