Pope Boniface VIII

The clash between Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip IV of France began in the year 1296 over taxation of the French Clergy. Specifically, King Philip IV implemented taxes over the clergy and all other laymen of the French kingdom with a motive to fuel a war with King Edward I of England. Refuting this, Boniface asserted that no cleric was to pay taxes to a king without proper papal consent. If the clergy went against his commands, Boniface threatened excommunication to all who ignored him. Though on the surface it appeared as if the quarrel was over taxation, in reality it represented who had the ultimate control and power over the French Clergy. This conflict over influence between Philip and Boniface is commonly referred to as a “Crisis…

near the early 1800’s is because of Pope Boniface VIII. Pope Boniface the VIII was not a saint, but a scoundrel. He influenced the church in a negative way by opposing King Philip IV of France, trying to make many changes in the Church that produced outcomes which were negative and issuing the Unam Sanctum. His family and his background had a big influence on his beliefs and those beliefs affected everything he did and said. Pope Boniface VIII original name was Benedetto Caetani. He was born…

Throughout the late Middle Ages, there were numerous powers of authority that were overlapping their jurisdiction. This caused great upheaval in terms whose authority hand the final say in the land. The papal authority held fast to the hierocratic state which believed God gave the papacy both swords of authority (civil and spiritual) leading the church to believe that the sword of civil authority could be withdrawn from those in power. This created a stain on civil and papal authorities which…

From humble beginnings to an oppressive doctrine, the Holy Catholic Church truly underwent change throughout the course of Medieval history. Seen in these two letters, Clericis Laicos and Unam Sanctam, are what would seem to be the culmination of all this history: the responses of Pope Boniface VIII to the continued pressures of secular rule and its jurisdiction in relation to the Church and its functioning. With the Church’s rapid increase in size and influence over the past several centuries,…

own exile from God. Whereas Dante the pilgrim, and by extension Dante the author, has the opportunity to repent and repel the sins that lead a soul to Hell, those already within Hell become the definition of hopelessness. Dante’s introduction to the hopelessness that accompanies exile began sometime in 1301 as he accompanied an embassy sent by the Florentine government, primarily led by the “White” Guelphs, to appeal to Pope Boniface VIII to mediate the strife between the two factions. Dante,…

The reason Boniface is placed in the eighth circle is that many of his contemporaries thought he was guilty of simony, despite a lack of hard proof. One of the sins that Boniface committed was that he took “the beautiful Lady by deceit” (XIX.52). According to the endnotes, the “Lady” is how people in Dante’s time referred to the Church. Boniface was accused of causing the abdication of the previous pope, Pope Celestine V and ascending to the papacy through simony. Pope Celestine is mentioned…

The period from 1296 to the early 1500s was an era that saw significant change in the relationship between temporal and ecclesiastical authority. The driving force in relations between these two entities shifted from assessing the role of canon law to the strength of new ideas and political thought. Historians such as Ullmann place emphasis on the translation of Aristotelean ideas for this change whereas others, like Black and Coleman argue the change was as the result of a natural progression…

and learns many things from his environment, the people he meets in hell, as well as his guide Virgil. However as he is traveling through the hellscape Dante is commentating about the state of affairs as he sees it in 12th century Europe. In the time that this was published it was heavily based in the figures of that era. With Pope Clement V being mentioned as well as several famous or infamous individuals from the northern Italian city states. Dante’s largest claim however is the pope has…

dialects, Accents of anger, words of agony” (III.25). After asking Virgil what he was hearing Dante learns that the cries he was hearing were from the souls of people who never made the decision to be either good or evil, and consequently was sent to neither heaven nor hell. The first moments after passing through the gates of hell are undoubtedly thought-provoking, but there’s something else noteworthy that happens during this part of the poem. Dante also recognizes the “shade of him who from…

19 Dante meets Pope Nicholas III. The Pope was the son of a senator, one of the most powerful families in Rome whose family emblem is noted by a bear. After many years of working for different kings, Pope Nicholas III was appointed as the head of the inquisition and while elected for the papacy, the Pope continued his relations with the German king. Some people agreed with his ideas and sometimes his ideas began controversies where he was accused of “simony” and “nepotism” as he used the church…