Boniface VIII

Boniface VIII (1235?-1303), pope (1294-1303), who upheld the absolute power of the papacy. He was one of the most forceful, colorful, and intellectually powerful medieval popes. His stormy pontificate constitutes the watershed between the medieval and the modern period.

Born Benedetto Gaetani (Caetani) in Anagni, Italy, he studied law in Bologna before accepting a series of appointments in the papal government. After serving with the embassies to France and England, he was appointed (1281) a cardinal. As papal legate in Paris from 1290 to 1291, he negotiated peace between France and Aragón. He succeeded in persuading the incompetent pope Celestine V to resign his office and succeeded him as Boniface VIII.

A major part of Boniface’s pontificate was carried on in confrontation with Philip IV of France. It began when Philip and Edward I of England imposed illegal levies on the church to finance their armies. Boniface replied with the bull Clericis Laicos (1296), in which he forbade the collection of taxes from the clergy without express papal consent. In response, Philip forbade the transfer of gold and negotiable currency to Rome. Because Edward was equally resistant, Boniface was forced to relax his position. Again in 1301 papal authority was attacked in France when Philip accused Bernard Saisset, a French bishop who was the papal legate, of treason and had him imprisoned. Boniface replied with the bull Ausculta Fili (1301), in which he accused Philip of exceeding royal jurisdiction. This was followed by the famous bull Unam Sanctam (1302), in which he asserted the supremacy of the pope over all rulers in temporal as well as in spiritual affairs. Declaring Boniface guilty of heresy, Philip ignored the bulls and soon declared his intention of deposing Boniface. In 1303 Boniface was about to excommunicate Philip for his disobedience when supporters of the king, together with Italian enemies of Boniface, made the pope prisoner at Anagni. Although liberated shortly thereafter, Boniface, probably mistreated, died three weeks later on October 11, 1303.

Boniface VIII was an able lawyer. Under his direction Liber Sextus, a collection of church legislation, was issued in 1298. The medieval papacy reached its height during his pontificate, but by the end of his reign the papacy was no longer able to withstand the growing power of the national monarchs.