The papal conclave held from 13 to 20 December 1334 elected Jacques Fournier to succeed John XXII as pope.

[2] An early favorite among the papabile was Cardinal Jean-Raymond de Comminges, Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina, son of Count Bernard VI of Comminges and Laura de Montfort.

The French cardinals, led by Elie de Talleyrand-Périgord, did not want to leave their native France for the plague-infested and unfriendly city of Rome.

[5] The Cistercian cardinal, Jacques Fournier, was elected on the evening of 20 December 1334, after Vespers, on the eighth day of the conclave.

On the first ballot, 20 December 1334, many electors, intending to sound the mind of the conclave, voted for the unlikely Cardinal Fournier, who, though he was one of the few men of real merit in the college, was but lightly regarded because of his obscure origin and lack of wealth and following.