The papal bull ‘Unam Sanctum’ by Pope Boniface VII in 1302 was an attempt by the pope to assert papal authority in a time of conflict with the power of King Phillip “the fair” of France. The separation of church and kings had never been completely separate but this conflict brought the issue to the fore. Boniface was attempting to hold on to papal authority in a time when ‘temporal’ or Kingly power was rising and steadily overlapping with the generally accepted spiritual sphere of authority. He outlines the supremacy of the pope’s authority on earth, and over other forms of authority as the pope is the intermediary between God and everyone else.
The conflict between Boniface VIII and King Phillip started in 1296 over who had the right to tax the churches. Phillip wanted to tax the churches in France to help fund his war against King Edward I of England. At the time, taxation of churches by Kings in Europe required papal authorization. This was agreed upon …show more content…
He talks of ‘two swords, namely the spiritual and the temporal’ which he uses to show the authority of the pope and of Kings. He goes on to say ‘the former is to be administered for the church but the latter by the church, the former in the hands off the priest, the latter by the hands of Kings and soldiers but at the will and sufferance of the priest.” It was an attempt to “assert the political hegemony of the pope and shored up the function of the church as a political agent, a function that had begun to ebb away”. “Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by god, resists the ordinance of God, unless he invent like Manicheus two beginnings, which is false and judged by us as
The conflict between Boniface VIII and King Phillip started in 1296 over who had the right to tax the churches. Phillip wanted to tax the churches in France to help fund his war against King Edward I of England. At the time, taxation of churches by Kings in Europe required papal authorization. This was agreed upon …show more content…
He talks of ‘two swords, namely the spiritual and the temporal’ which he uses to show the authority of the pope and of Kings. He goes on to say ‘the former is to be administered for the church but the latter by the church, the former in the hands off the priest, the latter by the hands of Kings and soldiers but at the will and sufferance of the priest.” It was an attempt to “assert the political hegemony of the pope and shored up the function of the church as a political agent, a function that had begun to ebb away”. “Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by god, resists the ordinance of God, unless he invent like Manicheus two beginnings, which is false and judged by us as