Bonagratia joined the Franciscans in 1309, having already acquired a degree in canon and civil law.
Due to his background in law, Bonagratia became assistant Procurator of the Franciscans at the Avignon Curia.
The main question at issue seems to have been whether it is heretical to assert that Christ and His Apostles possessed no property either in particular or in common.
[5] Displeased at the action of the chapter at Perugia, Pope John XXII published the Bull "Ad conditorem canonum" in which he renounces the dominion of all the goods of the Friars Minor hitherto assumed by the Roman pontiffs, and echoes Gerard of Abbeville, declaring that the ownership of a thing cannot be separated from its actual use or consumption.
The Appellatio magna monacensis, an important manifesto of the group around Michael of Cesena, has been attributed to him.