"In the reign of Pope John XXII (1313-1334), a puritanical sect within the Franciscan Order who called themselves "the Spirituals" held that their interpretation of the rule and lifestyle of Saint Francis, especially in the matter of practicing poverty, was the ONLY LEGITIMATE WAY TO FOLLOW JESUS CHRIST. They taught that their rule of life was identically the same as the Gospel, the very way of life led by Christ and his Apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit as were the Scriptures.

They further held that approval of their rule by earlier popes was a matter pertaining to faith and morals; and since the rule was equal to the Gospel (they said), no subsequent Pope could change or revoke it.

Pope John rejected this fantastic doctrine in a bull of 1324 entitled QUIA QUORUNDAM. He denied the "Spirituals'" contention that their rule and style of poverty was equal to the Gospel and he pointed out that papal approval of a religious order and its rule was a matter of Church legislation, not of faith or morals. Therefore, he taught, a pope could (and sometimes might have to ) modify an earlier pope's legislation or revoke it.

In the course of the encyclical, Pope John denied the existence of a "key of knowledge", in virtue of which the "Spirituals" contended that earlier popes had unchangeably established this rule and lifestyle. (The phrase `key of knowledge' comes from Luke 11:52, which the "Spirituals" misused).

Pope John was not dealing with an issue of doctrinal infallibility, but with a defective understanding of the Church's governing power as invested in the Pope.

Infallibility, as defined in the First Vatican Council, requires that the faith of the whole Church be the norm of papal definitions; that these definitions be according to Scripture; that the pope speaks infallibly only when he speaks as teacher and pastor of all the faithful, with the infallibility with which Christ endowed his Church as a whole. This is `ex cathedra' infallibility.