Pope Boniface VIII

From Freepedia

Boniface VIII

{{|{{{3}}}}}}|show1|Image:Boniface8.gif}}

Name Benedetto Caetani Papacy began 1294 Papacy ended October 11, 1303 Predecessor Celestine V Successor Benedict XI Born ca. 1235 Place of birth Anagni, Italy Died October 11, 1303 Place of death Rome, Italy

Boniface VIII, né Benedetto Caetani (Anagni, ca. 1235 – October 11, 1303) was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303. Boniface's given name was either Benedict Cajetan or Benedetto Caetani. He was elected in 1294 after Celestine V abdicated. (One of Boniface's first acts as pontiff was to imprison his predecessor in the castle of Fumone, where he died at the age of 81, attended by two monks of his order.) In 1300 Boniface instituted the jubilees, which afterwards became a source of both profit and scandal to the church.

Boniface VIII put forward some of the strongest claims to temporal as well as spiritual supremacy of any Pope and meddled incessantly in foreign affairs. In his Bull of 1302, Unam Sanctam, Boniface proclaimed that it "is necessary for salvation that every living creature be under submission to the Roman pontiff", pushing papal supremacy to its historical extreme. These views and his intervention in 'temporal' affairs led to many bitter quarrels with the emperor Albert I of Habsburg, the powerful family of the Colonnas and with Philip the Fair of France.

Boniface's quarrel with Philip the Fair became so resentful that he excommunicated him in 1303. However, before the Pope could lay France under an interdict, Boniface was seized at Anagni by a party of horsemen under Guillaume de Nogaret, an agent of Philip and Sciarra Colonna. Philip and the Colonnas demanded that he resign, to which Boniface responded that he would 'sooner die'. Boniface was released from capitivity after three days, however, despite his fortitude, he died of shock a month later, on October 11, 1303. No subsequent popes were to repeat Boniface VIII's claims of political supremacy.

Boniface VIII was buried in St. Peter's Basilica, in a grandiose tomb that he had designed himself. (Allegedly, when the tomb cracked open three centuries after his death, his body was revealed to be perfectly incorrupt.)

Dante portrayed Boniface VIII, though alive at the date of his vision, as destined for the Inferno—specifically the Eighth Circle, in a special pit reserved for Popes guilty of simony—in his Divine Comedy. The pontiff earned this when his feud with the Colonnas led him to demolish the city of Palestrina, killing 6,000 citizens and destroying both the home of Julius Caesar and a shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Papal quotations and later process

King Philip IV of France initiated a process against the memory of pope Boniface VIII in 1310. Although inspired by his personal hatred of the deceased pope, the many witnesses and their statements are regarded as credible by some historiographs. The testimonies in the examination held at Groseau in the August and September of 1310 especially revealed many bold sayings of Boniface VIII, partially rather nihilist-hedonist, partially remarkably critical-freethinking. E.g., Boniface VIII was reported to have said,

• The Christian religion is a human invention like the faith of the Jews and the Arabs;
• The dead will rise just as little as my horse which died yesterday;
• Mary, when she bore Christ, was just as little a virgin as my own mother when she gave birth to me;
• Sex and the satisfaction of natural drives is as little a sin as handwashing;
• Paradise and hell only exist on earth; the healthy, rich and happy people live in the earthly paradise, the poor and the sick are in the earthly hell;
• The world will exist forever, only we do not;
• Any religion and especially Christianity does not only contain some truth, but also many errors. The long list of Christian untruth includes trinity, the virgin birth, the godly nature of Jesus, the eucharistic transformation of bread and wine into the body of Christ and the resurrection of the dead.

Most scientists believe these are but rumours created to discredit the Papacy in general and Boniface VIII especially.

In spite of these reported comments, the process against his memory was settled without a result in 1312.

Preceded by: Saint Celestine V

Pope 1294–1303

Succeeded by: Benedict XI

External links

• English text of Unam Sanctam at Wikisource
• More in depth look at the Pope from the Catholic Encyclopedia.