Boniface, to decide the wavering balance, and precipitate before its time the baseless despotism of Rome. Those historians are, notwithstanding, in error, who date the decline of the papal supremacy from the reign of Innocent III. On the contrary, the system had not then quite attained the fulness of its force; it had not then achieved its greatest triumph, which, without question, was the deposition of Frederic II. And if it is true, that, from Innocent IV. to Boniface VIII., no additional ground was gained, that no fresh claims were asserted, even that some former claims were less effectually enforced; it is certain, on the other hand, that not one iota of the papal pretensions had been resigned; and that they had met for the most part with ready, or at least undisputed, acquiescence. But in the meantime, the understanding of mankind had been no longer stationary; knowledge and genius and reason had revived and taken courage, and were advancing to the assertion of their eternal rights; and in the eye of the philosopher, it was a circumstance of evil omen to the projects of Boniface, that they were urged by the contemporary of Dante. Nevertheless, whether insensible to the weakness of his own cause, or to the progress of the principles opposed to it, or imagining by violence to supply the want of strength, he resolved to push the temporal pretensions of the See to their most extravagant limits *. His temporal pretensions. His first measures wore, indeed, a specious appearance, since he presented himself as the advocate of peace. He endeavoured to reconcile Charles of Sicily and James of Arragon; and more than once obtruded his mediation upon the Kings of England and France: these attempts seem to have had no other fruit, than a considerable contribution levied upon the English clergy. He then turned his attention in other directions. In 1297, he gave the kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica in fief to James of Arragon and his posterity, on certain conditions of aid and subsidy to Rome. In 1300 he laid claim to the kingdom of Scotland, and directed Edward I. to withdraw his soldiers from that country; and in the correspondence thus occasioned between those two great usurpers, each party might have found it easier to invalidate the claims of the other, than to establish his own-this burst of empty arrogance passed of course without effect. He pretended to the disposal of the crown of Hungary, and gave it to a grandson of Charles le Boiteux; and when some of the nobles (in 1302) ventured to support a rival prince, he addressed his legate there established in the following terms:- The Roman pontiff established by God over kings and their kingdoms, sovereign chief of the hierarchy in the church militant, and holding the first rank above all mortals, sitteth in tranquillity in the throne of judgment and scattereth away all evil with his eyes ↑ You have yet to learn that St. Stephen, the first Christian King of Hungary, offered and gave that kingdom * Ruggiero di Loria having conquered Gerba, and some other islands, till then nearly unknown, near the coast of Africa, was contented to receive them in fief and on condition of tribute, from Boniface, who vouchsafed him a Bull of Investiture, in 1295. (Insulas objacentes Africæ, Gerbam nimirum et Cherchinas, quas Loria barbaris eripuerat, jure fiduciario, sedis Apostolicæ liberalitate Bonifacius ei possidendas attribuit. Raynaldus. Ann. 1295, s. xxxvi.) It was on the ground of this precedent, that two centuries afterwards, Alexander VÍ. assumed the right to dispose of all undiscovered tracts, continental or insular; and to concede the whole extent of terra incognita to Ferdinand and Isabella, by drawing a line on the map from pole to pole. Giannone, lib. xix. cap. 5, + Prov. xx. 8. ་ to the Roman Church, not willing to assume the crown on his own authority, but rather to receive it from the vicar of Jesus Christ; since he knew, that no man taketh this honour on himself, but he that is called of God *.' In 1303 Boniface found it expedient to acknowledge as king of the Romans the same Albert whom he had formerly reviled: this concession was attended by a recognition of his own authority, by that prince, to the following effect. I acknowledge that the Roman empire has been transferred by the holy See, from the Greeks to the Germans in the person of Charlemagne; that the right to elect a king of the Romans, destined to be emperor, has been accorded by the holy see to certain princes ecclesiastical and secular; and that the kings and emperors receive from the holy see the power of the sword.' He concluded that act of subservience by an unconditional promise of military aid, if it should be required by the Pope. His sincerity was never put to trial, and when we consider for how long a period, and with what general success, the dependence of the empire had been asserted by the Popes, and recollect the peculiar foundation on which that claim rested, we shall scarcely wonder at its unequivocal acknowledgment by Albert. From these facts, we may at least observe the assiduity, with which Boniface pressed his temporal pretensions in every quarter of Europe. We shall now proceed to the principal theatre of his exertions, and watch the accumulation of the tempest which followed them. The throne of Philip the Fair of France. France was then occupied by Philip the Fair-a man as arrogant, as jealous, as violent as Boniface, and perhaps even surpassing him in audacity. The clergy of France, though very faithfully attached to the Catholic Church and respecting the Pope as its head, had on various occasions, from the earliest period of papal usurpation, displayed an independent spirit of which we find no trace in other countries-yet not such as to give the slightest indications of schism, or even to prevent the holy see from making some successful inroads. The first † mention that we find of the liberties of the Gallican (as distinguished from the Roman) Church, is in the year 1229, and on an occasion of which it has no reason to be proud. A very rigorous Ordonnance was then published in the king's name for the extinction of Heresy-enjoining the immediate punishment of offenders, commanding the strictest search to be made for them, and offering a reward on conviction-and the end of this was- to establish the liberties and immunities of the Gallican Church.'-But the act from which those liberties really date their origin, is the celebrated Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis, published in 1269, on his departure against the Saracens. Its constitutions will be recorded in the next chapter. Their leading object was to protect episcopal election and preferment to benefices, the privileges granted to monasteries and ecclesiastical persons, and the property of the church generally, from the intrusions and exactions of Rome. Thus this matter rested till the reign of Boniface VIII. The fixed and distinct principle on which the Gallican liberties were finally placed (the inferiority of the Pope to a General Council) was not yet established, not perhaps even broached; but enough had been done to prove to a moderate Pope, that neither the king nor the clergy of France were prepared to acknowledge an implicit obedience. The first difference between Boniface and Philip was merely sufficient to discover the disposition, and inflame the animosity of both. The Fleury, liv. lxxix, sect. 1. *Heb. v. 4. Bull Clericis Pope had learnt, that the kings both of France and England had levied contributions on their clerical, as well as their lay, subjects for purposes of state. In consequence, he published, in 1296, his celebrated Bull, beginning Clericis Laicos, of which the substance was this: Antiquity relates to us the inveterate hostility of the laity to the clergy, and the experience of the present age confirms it manifestly-since, without consideration that they have no power over ecclesiastical persons or property, they load with impositions both prelates and clergy, regular and secular; and also, to our deep affliction, prelates and other ecclesiastics are found, who, from their greater dread of temporal than eternal majesty, acquiesce in this abuse.' He then proceeds to pronounce sentence of excommunication against all who shall hereafter exact such impositions, whether kings, princes, or magistrates, and against all who shall pay them. Disputes between Boniface and Philip. Very soon afterwards, Philip published, in retort, an edict, forbidding the export of money, jewels, and other articles specified, out of his dominions. The Pope, who was thereby deprived of his ecclesiastical contributions, presently put forth a long reply and remonstrance, in which he explained his preceding Bull to mean, that the consent of the Pope is necessary for the levying of the aforesaid contributions; that, in circumstances of great national exigency, even that might be dispensed with; and that the prohibition did not extend to donations strictly voluntary t At the same time he enlarged on the liberty of the Church-the ark of Noah-the spouse of Jesus Christ-to which He had given power over all the body of the faithful, and over every individual member of it. By these general expressions he intended to insinuate, not only that princes had no power over the Church, but that the Church possessed unlimited control over princes. The rejoinder on the part of the king had more reason in its theology, and more piety in its reason. It professed a holy fear of God, and respectful reverence for the ministers of the Church; but, in the full consciousness of justice, it repelled with disdain the senseless menaces of man. In the following year, the Pope had the prudence to address to the archbishop of Rheims such an interpretation of the Bull as left to Philip no reasonable ground of complaint; and French historians, with great probability, attribute the rare moderation of Boniface to his necessities or his avarice ‡. The truce thus tacitly established between the parties was of very short duration. Indeed, where were so many undefined and disputable rights, it was not possible that peace could long subsist between two rivals equally disposed to encroachment and usurpation. In the year 1301, Philip arrested (and seemingly with justice) Bernard de Saisset, bishop of Pamiers, a creature of the Pope, on the charge of sedition and treasonable language, and caused him to be confined until the sentence of degradation should be passed on him, previous to the infliction of legal punishment. At the same time he wrote a respectful letter to Boniface, praying him to * On this sentence, Fleury, the most candid of Catholics, very simply remarks, That aversion of laymen for the clergy, which the Pope mentions, ascended not to a very high antiquity; since for the five or six first ages, the clergy secured the respect and affections of all men, by their charitable and disinterested conduct.' (liv. lxxxix. s. xliii.) No clergy, which shapes its conduct by any other principle, ever will secure, or ever ought to secure, either affection or respect. Pagi, Vit. Bonif. VIII., sect. xxviii. To the same cause we may probably ascribe the proclamation of the first Jubilee, in the year 1300, by Boniface,-an institution to which we shall recur in a future chapter. But Boniface did not content himself with mere assertions. On the very same day he also published a Bull of excommunication against all persons, of whatsoever rank, even kings or emperors, who should interfere in any way to prevent or impede those, who might desire to present themselves before the Roman See. This edict was, of course, understood to be directly levelled against Philip. Soon afterwards he sent a legate into France, the bearer of twelve articles, which boldly expressed such papal pretensions, as were in opposition to those of the king; and concluded with a menace of temporal as well as spiritual proceedings. The claims contained in these articles have been already mentioned, and do not require enumeration. But what may raise our surprise is, that the answer of Philip was extremely moderate; that he condescended to explain away much that seemed objectionable in his conduct; that he promised to remedy any abuses which his officers might have committed, and expressed his strong desire for concord with the Roman Church. His moderation may have been affected, and his explanations frivolous, and the abuses in question he may not have seriously intended to alleviate. But at least it is true that he had never sought the enmity of Rome; and had Boniface availed himself of that occasion to close the breach, when he might have closed it with profit and dignity, his last days might have been passed in lofty tranquillity; he would have been respected and feared, even by those who hated him; and posterity would still have admired the courage and the policy which had contended against the most powerful prince in Europe, in no very blind or superstitious age, without disadvantage or dishonour. But the Pope did not perceive this crisis in his destiny. He proceeded in his former course-he proclaimed his dissatisfaction at the answers of the king, and repeated and redoubled his menaces. Philip had then recourse to that public measure which so deeply influ enced the future history of papacy-the convocation of a General Council, to pronounce on the proceedings of the Pope. But while he was engaged in preparations for this great contest, and for the establishment of a principle to which his clergy were not yet prepared to listen *, a latent and much shorter path was opened to the termination of his perplexities. William of Nogaret, a celebrated French civilian, in conjunction with certain Romans of the Colonna family, who had fled for Outrage refuge to Paris from the oppression of Boniface, passed on Boniface. secretly into Italy, and tampered successfully with the personal attendants of the Pope. The usual residence of the latter was Anagni, a city some forty or fifty miles to the south-east of Rome, and his birth-place. There, in the year 1303, he had composed another Bull, in which he maintained, that, as vicar of Jesus Christ, he had the power to govern kings with a rod of iron, and to dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel t;' and he had destined the 8th of September, the anniversary of the nativity of the Virgin, for its promulgation. A rude interruption disturbed his dreams of omnipotence, and discovered the secret of his real weakness. On the very day preceding the intended publication of the Bull, Nogaret, with Sciarra Colonna, and some other nobles, escorted by about three hundred horsemen, and a larger number of partizans on foot, bearing the banners of France, rushed into Anagni, with shouts of *Not only did the bishops and the whole clergy decline any active part in the proceedings against the Pope, but they refused any share in them, and only consented to the convocation of the council through the necessity of seeking some remedy for the disor ders of the Church. Psalms ii. 9. The 'Success to the king of France!-Death to Pope Boniface! After a feeble resistance, they became masters of the pontifical palace. cardinals dispersed and fled-through treachery, as some assert, or, more probably, through mere timidity. The greater part of the Pope's personal attendants fled also. Boniface, when he perceived that he was surprised and abandoned, prepared himself with uncommon resolution for the last outrage. • Since I am betrayed (he cried) as Jesus Christ was betrayed, I will at least die like a Pope.' He then clothed himself in his official vestments, and placed the crown of Constantine on his head, and grasped the keys and the cross in his hands, and seated himself in the pontifical chair. He was now eighty-six years of age. And when Sciarra Colonna, who first penetrated into his presence, beheld the venerable form and dignified composure of his enemy, his purpose, which doubtless was sanguinary, seemed suddenly to have deserted him, and his revenge did not proceed beyond verbal insult*. Nogaret followed. He approached the Pope with some respect, but at the same time imperiously informed him, that he must prepare to be present at the council forthwith to be assembled on the subject of his misconduct, and to submit to its decision. The Pope addressed him—' William of Nogaret, descended from a race of heretics, it is from thee, and such as thee, that I can patiently endure indignity.' The ancestors of Nogaret had atoned for their errors in the flames. But the expression of the pontiff was not prompted by any offence he felt at that barbarity; not by any consciousness of the iniquity of his own oppression †, or any sense of the justice of the retribution; it proceeded simply from the sectarian hatred which swelled his own breast, which he felt to be implacable, and which he believed to be mutual. While their leaders were thus employed, the body of the conspirators dispersed themselves throughout the splendid apartments in eager pursuit of plunder. Any deliberate plan which might have been formed against the person of the Pope, was disappointed by their avarice. During the day of the attack, and that which followed, the French appear to have been wholly occupied in the ransack. But in the meantime the people of Anagni were recovered from their panic; and perhaps they were more easily awakened to the shame of deserting their Pope and their citizen, when they discovered the weakness of the aggressors, and the snare into which their license had led them. They took up arms, assaulted the French, and having expelled or massacred them, restored to the pontiff his freedom and authority. But they were unable to restore his insulted honour and the spirit which had been broken by indignity. Infuriated by the disgrace of his captivity, he hurried from Anagni to Rome, burning His Death. for revenge. But the violence of his passion presently over * Some modern French historians assert that Boniface was severely wounded by the assailants-a story which is idly repeated by Mosheim, and re-echoed even by Gibbon. It is the unanimous affirmation of contemporary writers, that no hand was raised against him. See Sismondi, chap. xxiv. The words of S. Antoninus (part 3., tit. xx., cap. 8. sec. xxi.) are express. 'Domino autem disponente, ob dignitatem Apostolicæ Sedis, nemo, ex inimicis ejus ausus fuit mittere in eum manus; sed indutum sacris vestibus dimiserunt sub honesta custodia, et ipsi insistebant prædæ, &c.' See Pagi, Bonif. VIII., sec. lxx. + Boniface VIII. was a very faithful patron of the Inquisition; and if his name is not distinguished in the list of persecuting popes, it is rather from the want of opportunity, than of inclination. Persecution being now systematized by the regular machinery of the Inquisition, there were fewer occasions for individual distinction. See Whately on 'The Errors of Romanism,' ch. v., sec. iii., vi., p. 241–244. |