1) The work aims to reconstruct the individual trajectory of a remarkable, yet scarcely investigated figure of the Avignon Church. Although obscured by other prominent personalities, Benedict XII marked profoundly the political, cultural, and religious history of his time. In particular, his many interventions shed light on his major role as a defender of orthodoxy. 2) By focusing on Benedict's individual contribution, the volume examines the wider religious and political arena: it engages the major challenges involving the Western Church in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Far East in the fourteenth century, including the Hundred Years War, the pacification of Italy, and Crusades. 3) Benedict's papacy allows for a reconsideration of the Avignon period, based on fresh material, which sheds new light on problems related to the assessment of papal authority, the reorganization of the court, newly moved to France, and the repression of various kinds of adversaries.