Christian History Institute

“Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” (Unam sanctam, 1302)

Boniface VIII was satirized in drawings such as this.

When Benedict Gaetani becomes pope in 1294, he does so under a cloud. In recent years Papal politics had been deadlocked between two powerful Italian families who desired to hold the bishopric of Rome, the ultimate prize in religious politics. The situation has been so bad that, having gone for more than two years without a pope, the electors select an other-worldly Franciscan hermit, Peter of Morrone, to the post. He takes the name Celestine V and quickly proves utterly out of his element.

After five months, Gaetani convinces Celestine to resign. No one knows if this is legal, but the pope agrees anyway, and is promptly imprisoned by his successor. Taking the name Pope Boniface VIII, Gaetani steps into the vacancy he helped create. Cardinal Llanduff writes of him, “He is all tongue and eyes, and the rest of him is all rotten.”

Boniface VIII has high ambitions. For centuries, popes have been making increasingly grandiose claims for their office. Boniface will push these assertions even farther. He surrounds himself with theorists who sustain the loftiest claims for the papacy.

Boniface crushes his main rivals, the Colonna family of Italy, raising a crusade against them and humiliating the survivors. He reduces Albert of Hapsburg to submission on terms favorable to the papacy. Scotland yields itself as a fief to him in return for protection from England. England ignores the “protection,” but to Boniface Scotland’s appeal is one more evidence that the pope is meant to rule all. A man with less pride would recognize his limits. The Sicilians, for example, completely ignore an interdict he places on them when Frederick of Aragon accepts its throne against the pope’s wishes, and it is the pope who is finally forced to yield. An interdict on Florence proves equally futile.

Because the church is rich, kings covet its wealth. Philip IV “the Fair” of France attempts to extract gold from the clergy to finance war with England. Boniface issues the bull Clericis laicos forbidding the clergy to contribute to the civil authorities.

But Philip IV (whose nickname “the fair” has nothing to do with character, but only with looks) proves to be an antagonist as wily as the pope. Both men are power-hungry and haughty. Each has formidable weapons. Philip outlaws the export of jewels and gold, and forbids French merchants to remain in Italy. This effectively cuts off a huge source of papal revenue. Boniface issues a new bull, sanctioning “voluntary” contributions from the clergy to assist the state. The terms are such that rulers determine when these “voluntary” contributions are to be made—a significant victory for Philip.

Suffering financially, Boniface calls a jubilee, pretending such has been a custom of the church for centuries. He promises spiritual benefits to anyone who will visit the tombs of Peter and Paul in Rome. So many pilgrims show up that Boniface’s coffers are fully replenished with coin.

Philip arrests a papal legate for inciting an insurrection. He has the legate tried, condemned, and imprisoned by civil authorities. This is a direct affront to papal claims, for the church has long said that only it has the right to try a clergyman. Boniface orders the clergy to suspend payments to the king, demands the release of his legate, and issues a bull, insisting the French king obey the “Vicar of Christ.” Philip officially burns the bull. He calls a States-General (French parliament) in which nobles, clergy, and commoners are represented, and they back his action.

Boniface counters with a council of his own. Philip forbids French bishops to attend, although several disobey him and do so anyway. Immediately after the close of the council, Boniface issues two new bulls in such a manner that it appears they proceed from the council, although there is no record they do. One of them Unam sanctam, is perhaps the most controversial declaration ever issued by a pope.

In it, the pope claims to be head over kings and emperors and to hold both the spiritual and secular swords. His wording seems to rule the Greeks out of salvation because they do not accept the authority of Peter (i.e.: the bishops of Rome, who, under Roman theory, are Peter’s successors), and the bull says, “it belongs to spiritual power to establish the terrestrial power and to pass judgment if it has not been good.” Finally he closes with this bald assertion, “Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”

Philip responds by drawing up a formal indictment of Boniface as an adulterer, embezzler, infidel, murderer, sodomite, sorcerer, and tyrant, calling for a general church council to remove him from office.

Boniface in turn prepares to interdict France, but one of the surviving Colonnas, outfitted by Philip and thirsting for vengeance, bursts into Boniface’s palace at Anagni with 2,000 mercenaries. He strikes the old man in the face, fastens him backward on a horse and parades him through the streets for all to see. For three days the pope’s captors starve him until locals rescue him and return him to Rome where he soon dies.

So hated is Boniface in Florence, that even before he is dead, Dante (a Florentine) relegates him to endless torment in the eighth circle of hell, where he is to be planted on his head in a stone crevice, with feet aflame, suffering among other popes who bought holy offices with money. In the poem, one of the other suffering popes mistakes Dante for Boniface and calls out to him:

“Ha! already standing there?
Already standing there, O Boniface!…”

Centuries later, when Boniface’s bull will have become an embarrassment to the Roman Church and an impediment to its efforts to woo people who reject its authority, some of Rome’s best minds will search for arguments to “prove” that Unam sanctam does not say what it seems to say and will accuse Protestants, Eastern churchmen, and other opponents of misquoting or misinterpreting it. The claims of papal authority over secular authorities are purely historical, these theologians will assert, and insist that the bull’s conditions for salvation were meant to apply only to the Medieval church which Boniface ruled.

— Dan Graves

Dig a Little Deeper

• Dante Alighieri. “Canto XIX of the Inferno.” Divine Comedy, translated by Charles Eliot Norton. Chicago, London, Toronto: Encylcopedia Britannica, 1952.
• Durant, Will. The Age of Faith. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950. Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity. Prince Press, 1984.
• Krisch, J.P. “Unam Sanctam.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
• Rosa, Peter de. Vicars of Christ; the Dark Side of the Papacy. Dublin, Ireland: Poolbeg Press, Ltd, 2000, 1988.
• “Unam Sanctam.” Medieval Sourcebook. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/b8-unam.html.
• Wood, Charles T., ed. Philip the Fair and Boniface VIII; State vs. Papacy. Huntington, New York: Robert E. Krieger, 1976.