At the general chapter of Perpignan (1331), Odonis and fourteen provincial ministers presented a petition to John XXII on the issue of poverty which the pope rejected in the consistory of 1 August 1331. Owing to his views concerning poverty Geraldus also became entangled in a dispute with King Robert and Queen Sanzia of Naples and Sicily. These rulers were protectors of the rigid adherents to the rule of poverty as well as of the followers of Michael of Cesena and of the Fraticelli. Notwithstanding the papal letters of admonition and the fact that John XXII sent Geraldus Odonis as his representative to the Court of Naples in 1331 and the following year, Geraldus had new statutes drawn up. These regulations were confirmed, 28 November 1336, by Pope Benedict XII(1334–42); consequently Geraldus was able at the chapter held at Cahors, 7 June 1337, to obtain, in spite of strong opposition, the enactment of the so-called "Constitutiones Benedictinae". Nevertheless, he was in danger of being removed from his position, nor did the statutes remain in force longer that the lifetime of Benedict XII and the period during which Gerardus was general. The general chapter of Assisi abrogated, 1 June 1343, the "Constitutiones Benedictinae" and re-enacted, with some additions, the constitutions of Narbonne (1260).