Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/553

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THE GROWTH OF ROYAL POWER IN FRANCE 503 the pontificate of the haughty old man, Boniface VIII (1294-1303), who, unmindful of the growth of Boniface royal power and of national states and of their vni increasing hold upon the people during the thirteenth cen- tury, tried to carry still further the ideals of ecclesiastical supremacy of Gregory VII and Innocent III. He seemed to forget, too, that his own personal position was rather pre- carious. In the first place, he had been elected, not as a result of the death, but of the almost unprecedented resig- nation of Celestine V, the previous pope, — 11 who made from craven heart the great renunciation," — and was placed by Dante among those souls whom both Heaven and Hell rejected. Second, Boniface had quarreled with the powerful Roman family of the Colonna and had ousted two of its members from their posts as cardinals. Third, he had offended others of the nobility about Rome by building up a strong feudal lordship there for his nephew, Peter Gaetano. Boniface not only annoyed both Philip and Edward I of England by trying to interfere as arbitrator in their wars with each other and with Flanders and Scotland, ciericis but greatly offended them by his bull, Ciericis latcos laicos, in 1296, which forbade the clergy to pay taxes to the State. Edward disregarded the bull and threatened his clergy with outlawry if they obeyed it. If they would not contribute to the support of the State, they should not en- joy its legal protection. Similarly Philip decided that if the French clergy would pay him no taxes, the pope and other Italians should derive no income from France. He forbade the export of any money, jewels, food, or military supplies from his kingdom, but ordered all foreigners to depart at once, leaving, of course, their property and business and debtors behind them. It was a sign of Philip's royal power that these commands were strictly executed. Boniface soon saw — or felt — the point, and explained that the bull was not intended to apply to certain classes of clergy, nor to prevent any clergy from helping their native land with