familiarised with funding everybody alike, whole communities, even the clergy.
Therefore whole communities were to be taxed. This led to a lot of bitterness and
hostility and expectantly many complaints arose.(Keen, 1968, 210). Clearly showing
an absence in dogmatic principles from the secular part. Cistercians were
mortified, and in France when refused to pay anything were ordered by the king to
have their goods taken from them. Cistercians were a contemplative monastic order
descended from France in 1098. Taxing the clergy was a good idea to the secular
because as well as extra money it saw the clergy work closer with the secular thus
more authoritarian power.
To prevent any further embarrassment to the church Pope Boniface intervened and
issued Clericis laicos, on February 25 1296, which forbade the clergy to pay taxes
without papal consent, (Lerner, 1968, 4) provoking reactions from both the King of
England and France. The bull was an angry message towards the kings in which it
attacks them for being so unfaithful to the church, how could they claim gods items
on clerical wealth? Items that were there due to spiritual reasons. Boniface described
it as: “a horrid abuse of secular power” .(Keen, 1968, 211)
To prove his annoyance, King Philip even went as far as cutting of all coin exports
from France. This proved a direct problem as the supreme authority of the Church
relied on the money. Even more cunningly, Philip used to his advantage a
dispute the pope had been having with a great family of Rome called the Colonna
family. Disputing due to reasons concerning Rome led to Boniface
excommunicating all their offices. To battle the Colonna in any shape would now
prove almost impossible as France were no longer aiding and no aids could occur as
they could not be transported through France. The king of France had seen a clear
dispute and used it to his advantage, as the pope did back down and go
ahead and manipulate the Clericis Laicos. The pope stated that he would rather die
than surrender the churches rightful rules, however, his latest bill had not intended to
withdraw taxing the clergy for important reasons, if the king really did need extra
money. (Keen, 1968, 213).It has been said that the real reason why the pope gave
way to the king was due to the fear of his enemy family the Colonna’s. Historian
Charles-Victor Langlois, however argues that it was due to Philip changing Italian
affairs that Boniface saw no other way to the situation other than to back down.(Wood,
1974, 4) Although, it would not be difficult to understand why one may draw the
conclusion of Boniface being fearful of his enemy family the Colona’s. The family
had been making accusations of Boniface’s legitimacy for a long while. Adrien
Baillet wrote in his book The Decline of the Medieval Church that Boniface forced
Celestine(the previous pope) to resign and then created the threat of schism on his
head and had him arrested. Boniface then became pope and then took the chance to
carry out what he had been planning all along to gain for himself a spiritual
sovereignty over every power in Christendom.( Wood, 1974, 6)
However, the family often went to the University of Paris with these accusations but
were always rejected backing up Langlois’s view that the pope had no need to be that
fearful of the family as they were often being ignored. (Wood, 1974, 4)
In the year 1300, Pope Boniface announced there to be a Jubilee where pilgrims had
the opportunity to come from far and wide to repent their sins by visiting the tombs of
the apostles during that year. It had been reported, that about 200,000 pilgrims were
constantly in the city of Florence. Demonstrating that people still felt strong for their
religion, as people travelled form as far as England -which was quite a distance in
them days. There are many reasons historians have thought of to why exactly did the
pope call this pilgrimage? The one in which seems more correct is that he was trying
to regain faith in Christianity, as he saw it was being lost. By doing this he may have
thought it would entitle him to more authority when it came to Europe’s affairs.
There were other suggestions that he was hoping to raise money for Rome, again
giving him a head start with the king of France if he had more funds behind him. (Wood, 1974, 40)
In the mean time the king of France was abusing the royal privileges that Boniface
allowed him, therefore six years after the Clericis laicos Pope Boniface bravely
sought another form of direct attack with his new bull Unam Sanctam (1302), in
which it states:
"My dove, my undefiled is but one, she is the choice one of her that bore her;
which represents one mystical body, of which body the head is Christ, but of Christ,
God.” (1)
Explaining that there is only one God and the pope’s mission on earth is to play his
part on earth therefore there is no higher authority within the spiritual earth and no
earthly body that lays above the pope. The reason this occurred was due to the
question, who did hold complete sovereignty? It came down to a Bishop -Bernard
Saisset of Pamiers who, made no concealation of his views on the king of France.
Due to recent quarrels it was plain to see there was a lot of bitterness and hostility
going around. Bishop Saisset was arrested in 1301 with charges of high treason,
sedition and heridacy. It was pressumed that Boniface would not intefere however,
before the courts could try him, the royal ministry needed the Pope to strip him of his
clerical protections. Pope Boniface, after receiving an appeal from the bishop did
intevene by writing a letter to the king of france in 1301. the letter stated that the king
had been disregarding papal order and now was his time to reppent. Unsuprisingly the
letter was disregarded(5) and from this came about the Unam Sanctum. (7)
Boniface announced that in the bull: “It is entirely necessary for salvation that all
human creation be subject to the pope of Rome”. (Lerner, 1968, 4)
From Boniface’s view, you can see that he thought the only one to judge treason of
any sort should be the pope, he could see his/ the papacy’s claims to authority were
clearly in jeopardy. The bull, however clearly clarified that King Philip did not have
full authoritarianism power.
“If the secular power strays from the way, it shall be judged by the spiritual”. (Keen, 1968, 214)
Pope Boniface was justifying his right to authority by using words of God, the
almighty, creator of the world. One could say he was ignoring the fact that society
was beginning to move on or being too stubborn to accept it however, the statement
was dramatically revolutionary in its principles. Philip Hughes, historian, disagrees,
his views are that Boniface was Pope and whatever he had done for the church may
not have just been done on personal stubbornness but due to the reason his office
imposed solemn obligations of defending the church and its tradition. (Wood, 1974, 5)
Tension was running high between Pope Boniface and the Kings, especially Philip
whom, had been drawn to measure of confiscating the property of French bishops
arriving in Paris and even captured the next position from pope, the cardinal –legate
whom was sent by Boniface to pronounce the bill to the King. (5).
Unaware Boniface continuing his conquest excommunicated King Philip from the
church. The retaliation from Philip proved to be a fatal blow for the pope. One of the
king’s ministers and some troops joined forces with Boniface’s roman enemies and
captured the now, in medieval terms, old man.
Not without hiring the best man to make up ‘legitimate’ reasons to take his hold.
Amongst these reasons included: heretic, a sorcerer, an assassin of ecclesiastics, and
guilty of keeping mistresses so he did not have to broadcast, in reality being , a
sodomist.( 6). The old Pope was released but died shortly afterwards, said due to
humiliation. None of his successors continued with the quarrel. From 1309-1337 the
king had the new pope moved to Avignog on the French border to repair any damage
with the French sovereignty and were said to become puppets of the French crown.
When questioning how much authority the pope had, and had hoped to have had
there are many events that help lead you to a conclusion. It seems that times, society
had changed, and no longer could the papacy lord it over the kings such as previously.
Pope Boniface stood up to what he believed, in and what was strong tradition
refused let his cause be lost. Who could blame him? Religion was such as massive
part of medieval life, all that many had ever known, the thought of Kings having more
authority than on of Gods princes must have been extremely terrifying. The pope was
acting on what he believed he was sent on earth to do, being the vicar off Christ,
despite fighting a losing battle.However, it did not help that the pope had other issues
to use against him such as enemies in Rome and the other events occurring, that led to
the pope leaving France and England to their own affairs at the beginning of the
dispute. Boniface was up against what it seems as a hard faced king, when it comes
to Richard. There is not much detail on him but on the trial of Bishop Bernard Saisset
an eyewitness described him; “Our king resembles an owl, the fairest of birds, but
worthless . He is the handsomest man in the world, but he only knows how to look at
people unblinkingly without speaking”. (Wood, 1974, 82) proving how difficult it
must have been for the pope to be up against somebody who had no emotion who
went for what he wanted, using all sorts of tactics. The battle of the holy and the
monarchy had been arousing all throughout the medieval period, in my opinion
change was bound to occur one day and it took an enterprising person such as King
Philip to achieve this. I have no doubt the pope tried his hardest to stop the
occurrence-whether it being because he was extremely strong willed or because of his
councils but died due to this without victory.
Word Count= 2110