In response to this new assertion of royal independence from the papacy, the papalists struck back. In 1302, one such papalist, Giles of Rome, completed his treatise entitled De Ecclesiastica Potestate. Giles’ Ecclesiastica is evidence of some of the contemporary views of papal monarchists who argued for a universal monarchy, with the papacy at its head, though by the time of Giles’ writing, the views in support of a papal monarchy were beginning to die out. His theories were written in direct response to the events of the difficulties between Philip IV and Boniface VIII. It was originally believed that his attitude in regards to the conflict was in favour of the king. Yet having been confirmed to be the author of the Ecclesiastica, and with
