Lentorama 2025: Perfunctory Popes

Day 7: Benedict XI

Nicola Boccasini was destined for the clergy, if for no other reason than money. His mother was a laundress for the Dominican friars of Treviso, and one of them left her and her kids a sum of money, with half pledged to Nicola if he became a Dominican. At 14 he joined the local order, and would spend many of the following years in Venice and Milan, where he both taught his fellow brothers and served as lector.

He would go on to be elected the provincial prior of Lombardy, giving him responsibility over all of the convents in that region. He would later be elected the master of his order, where one of his rulings forbade any Dominican from doubting the legitimacy of Pope Boniface VIII's election. 

And as one good turn deserves another, Boniface made Nicola a cardinal. He served as a legate to both Hungary and France, and when Boniface was seized by troops loyal to French king Philip IV (whom Boniface had sort of excommunicated), Nicola was one of two cardinals also captured while defending the pope. All were released after three days, but confinement didn't appear to agree with Boniface (he was likely beaten), and he died about a month later.

Nicola was elected pope on the first ballot of the ensuing conclave, as he was considered unlikely to further antagonize Philip. Not being Roman also helped, as he didn't have a natural allegiance to any of the parties involved in that conflict. He reversed Philip's excommunication, but then excommunicated everyone involved in the abduction of Boniface. 

Benedict died just eight months into his papacy, with rumors that he was poisoned by a French minister of state that he excommunicated over the Boniface affair (there's no evidence either way).  The ongoing dispute between the papacy and the French throne led Benedict's successor, Clement V, to move the papal court to Avignon, where it stayed for most of the 14th century.