This quotation captures the friars' changing relationship with the successor of St Peter and the vicar of Christ and summarises an extraordinary phase in the history of the order.

The Gospel and the friars' Rule

Divisions within the order formed the prelude to the bitter struggle between the pope and the Michaelists, the followers of Michael of Cesena, in the 1320s. The repression of groups of reformers brought together Bertrand de la Tour, minister provincial of Aquitaine, and Michael of Cesena, the new minister general. The partnership between Pope Clement V (1305–4) and successive ministers general, improved the conditions and the aspirations of the Spirituals. The deaths of Clement and Alexander of Alexandria in 1314 created a vacuum in which the initiative was seized by those opposed to the climate of diversity. Michael of Cesena was elected at the general chapter of Naples in 1316 and John XXII emerged from the conclave on 7 August 1316. Early in 1317 John was beginning to train his sights on the reformers, a group whom he viewed as dissidents. On 15 March he wrote to Frederick of Austria, one of the claimants to the imperial throne, urging him to expel Tuscan friars from Sicily. While Pope Clement V had accorded the zealots of Provence a measure of independence, relations deteriorated while the see was vacant from 20 April 1314 to 7 August 1316 and the persecutions were renewed.