Michael of Cesena

Michael of Cesena was a Franciscan minister general and theologian involved in disputes over poverty and papal authority in the fourteenth century. His conflict with Pope John XXII placed him in one of the major religious controversies of the late medieval church.

Michael of Cesena also held the offices or ranks of Minister General of the Order of Franciscans and superior general. Michael of Cesena was born in Cesena and died in Munich.

Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose places Michael of Cesena at the heart of the Franciscan dispute over apostolic poverty that brings papal and imperial representatives to the monastery in 1327. As minister general of the Franciscans, his position against Pope John XXII gives William of Baskerville’s diplomatic mission its political purpose, and the novel repeatedly connects the murder mystery to the real controversy that would drive Michael into open conflict with the papacy.