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HISTORY OF POPE BONIFACE VIII AND HIS TIMES
WITH
NOTES
AND DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE<
IN
SIX BOOKS
By
DON LOUIS TOSTI
benedictine monk
of Monte Cassino
TRANSLATED
FROM THE ITALIAN
By
Rt. Rev. Mgr. EUGENE J.
DONNELLY, V.F.
Pastor
of St. Michael’s Church, Flushing, L. I. N. Y.
Book
II
Book III
Book IV
Book V
Book VI
Notes And Documents.
DEDICATION
To thee, Dante
Alighieri,
We consecrate
these books,
Which recall to
a new life
The
memory of Boniface the Eighth.
The political
sorrows which troubled thee,
Do not dare to profane
thy noble heart;
And even when
the anger of thy mind
Suggested the
strangest conceptions
Thou remaindest an Italian.
So in the
presence of Boniface
Whom
thou considerest an enemy.
And whom thou loadest with eternal infamy
As is eternal
the poetry thou madest,
Respectfully bow
thy head;
And venerate the
Vicar of Jesus Christ.
Bear today.
That to thy soul
freed from anger
History may
present herself
And speak to
thee of a man
Whom thou
wouldst raise to the heavens
If the destinies
of thy Florence
Had
been less tempestuous.
More on the
strength of his virtue
Than
on these pages.
He rises so high
As to place
himself without blemish before thee.
He pardons thee.
And on the
volume thou hast written,
A last refuge
Of Italian
grandeur
Let them lie
Reconciled with
him,
The sovereign
keys
As a proof of
this union
Which
alone can render fruitful the hopes
Of
mother country.
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.
A BACKWARD glance through
the history of the Middle Ages may show us not a few
majestic figures among the popes, but none so striking and remarkable as that
of Boniface VIII. Surrounded by stern and simple times he appeals to us with
peculiar directness because of the almost universal and lasting denunciation of
historians, both of his own and later times. The history of the Church during
these times is wholly a history of the struggle of the Papacy against the
supremacy of the Imperial power. Some popes more than others are distinguished
for the bold resistance they showed to this unjust assumption, and strove to
maintain the rights of the Church, among whom are to be particularly
mentioned Alexander III, Gregory VII, Innocent III, and Boniface VIII.
Pope
Boniface VIII deserves to be called the last pope of the Middle Ages. It was during his Pontificate that the temporal power of the Holy See
was, for the first time, attacked by France, and the prestige of the Papacy was
subjected to the most violent outrages. He was a great medieval pope. His
figure can be justly compared with that of Innocent III, or Gregory IX. Like
them he solemnly affirmed the pontifical authority; like them he fought
princes with a stubbornness which alone equaled the consciousness he had of his
own rights. By his sumptuous ceremonies, by his striking and eloquent Bulls,
he manifested to the world the grandeur and power of the Papacy. The
Pontificate of Boniface VIII is the beginning of a transition period; it
exhibits the sinking of the papal power and the rising of the secular
state-idea hostile to the Church. The subordination of the secular under the
spiritual order was denied. The See of Peter was shaken but not destroyed.
But
he is the last pope of the Middle Ages, because in the
combat which he sustained against the enemies of his temporal power, he was, in
the main, vanquished. He disappeared at the dawn of the fourteenth century,
and as is well known this period marked the decline of the Middle Ages. The old Christian republic, into which the European states had resolved
themselves, had disappeared. Nationalities began to assume form; heresies
succeeded in implanting themselves, in living, in prospering, for a time.
After the sojourn of the Popes at Avignon, which was a kind of a gilded
captivity, the Great Schism began to divide Christianity into two or even three
parties who engaged in long and bitter struggles. The faithful were unable to
distinguish who was the true pope; even the saints themselves were beguiled;
Councils did nothing else but increase the evil of the situation, and on all
sides men of courage were bewailing the misfortunes of the Church. At the same
time frightful wars harassed the people and epidemics devastated the half of
Europe. Boniface VIII had long been dead before these disasters appeared, but
be preceded them immediately. His end so sad and gloomy after the outrage of
Anagni seemed to forebode that evils without number would be visited on the
Church; and it was no vain foreboding. This is the reason why we have said
that he was the last pope truly medieval. His grand figure in the last days of
the Middle Ages blazons forth, and his fall precipitates
that of this stormy epoch.
One
can easily understand how the history of such a pope has been the subject of
many impassioned and biased works. French writers had studied the reasons which
led to the differences between Boniface and Philip the Fair, and from the
first, they are violently hostile to the Pope. One can be convinced of this by
reading the work published by Dupuy in 1655. Other
writers are milder and less bitter in tone, but they make no effort to conceal
their bias.
The
chief reproaches that are brought against Boniface VIII relate to the
abdication of Celestine V; his own election to the Papacy; the imprisonment of
Celestine V; the quarrel that arose between him and the Colonna family, and
Philip the Fair. But all these charges will be met and explained to the reader
during his perusal of this history. Moreover the moral portraits of Boniface
and Philip the Fair being traced, there is no doubt that approaching them nearer
in order to observe their conduct in the famous quarrel, the truth will be seen
more plainly and more easily.
Like Gregory VII, who was the foremost man in the
pontificates of his several predecessors, on whom they relied for support, and
who strongly defended the rights of the Church, so Benedict Gaetani (Boniface
VIII), was the great factor and most celebrated personage in the administration
of the five preceding popes; who was sent on the most difficult embassies, and
was called upon to manage affairs of great moment and settle the difficulties
between the Church and princes. The knowledge of all the evils which agitated
the Church within his own memory, together with others which for a long time
previously beset her, served as generating facts which gave form and character
to the one thought which entered deeply into his mind, namely the Church
reduced to servitude not by secret enemies, but by those who called themselves
her children and her vassals, and forced to work in this humiliating condition.
Under such circumstances a man like Boniface, on whom nature had lavished her
choicest gifts, and who was equally skilled in canon and civil law; whose
talents and accomplishments fitted him to be no less a secular prince than the
Head of the Church; whose strong sense and firmness of character enabled him to
fully comprehend his mission and his office, and to go straight through with
whatever business he had in hand, without turning to the right or to the left;
who surpassed all his predecessors in talent for affairs, experience of
practical life, and who was still in the full tide and vigor of manhood, must,
when calling upon the memories of Gregory VII and Innocent III, have resolved
to follow their example in pursuing a well-defined policy, and assuming a bold
and determined attitude. The character of the first decrees issued by him, placed him as a churchman beside Innocent III. Although
the views entertained by Boniface regarding the relations of Church and State,
were not precisely those put forward by his great predecessors, Gregory and
Innocent, they differed from them only because the altered circumstances of his
age called for a corresponding change of ecclesiastical policy.
Boniface during all his Pontificate strove to maintain the rights of the Church and of the Holy See as
he had received them from his predecessors. He aimed at nothing else but to
preserve intact these same rights of the Church, not only in the sanctuary, but
also in the heart of civil society itself, over the temporal destinies of
which he could no more cease to preside, than the soul over the purely material
functions of the body. Philip the Fair was determined to thwart him, and to
exercise his rule with absolute independency from any spiritual control.
The resistance with which he
opposed all manner of injustice during his lifetime, opened a way after his
death to resentment, which furiously assailed his memory and oppressed it. The
tendency of the writers of the time being in favor of either Guelph or
Ghibelline, they portrayed the actions of this Pope to suit their own views,
and just as rumor expressed them. Philip the Fair in France, the Colonnas in
Italy, the proud Roman Patriciate, and all those who
had experienced the strong temperament of Boniface in anger, cast the stone of
vituperation upon his sepulcher, in addition to a cry of execration and
vengeance. Care must be taken so that his character must not be judged by what
French writers say. His character and career ought in all fairness to be judged
by a contemporary instead of a modern standard of ethics and ideas. To judge
him impartially one should transport himself to the age in which he lived, and
take into account the then political institutions, and the principles of
legislation and government. Both those of his own and those of later times,
wrote under the guidance of unreasonable prejudices, because they knew only
French facts, or were under the impression of some momentary quarrel with the
Holy See.
The memory of Boniface has been assailed by Dante, who
puts him in a poetical hell, but his opinion is vilely prejudiced on account
of political reasons, and he speaks with the usual license of a poet, and not
with the truthful spirit of a historian. But after the outrage at Anagni he
relented at its contemplation, and forgot his political feeling to give vent to
his indignation at the insult offered to Christ’s Vicar in the following
verses:
“Entering Alagna, lo the fleur-de-lis,
And in his vicar,
Christ a captive led!
I see him mocked
a second time;—again
The vinegar and
gall produced I see;
And Christ
himself 'twixt robbers slain”
Petrarch his fellow poet and
contemporary calls Boniface (meraviglia del mondo) the
marvel of the world. It has been the sad fate of Boniface VIII to have made
many enemies. Most Protestant authors have numbered him among the wicked popes.
But he has found some apologists and defenders, and
among them the first place is to be given to the celebrated Benedictine of
Monte Cassino, Dom Louis Tosti. This historian is
among the foremost of Italy whose various works have been favorably received
everywhere, and have made him renowned for splendid historical attainments. His
work: “The Life and Times of Boniface VIII”, which we present to the public in
an English dress, is an admirable and effective defense of that Pope. In it he
breathes the true spirit of a historian; he neither apologizes, nor does he
advance a proof, without producing documentary evidence from the most approved
sources. In the compilation of this work Tosti had access to many unpublished
documents in the Vatican Archives, and to have drawn from them much information
of the greatest value. This book which we present to the English reading public, is not a controversial work. It has not been
written, nor translated with the view of reviving doctrines which, confessedly,
exercised a salutary sway in the Middle Ages, but of which no one dreams of
seeing them exercised in the actual state of the world, at this hour, when the
Church, very far from claiming an interference in the temporal affairs of
states, prefers rather to preserve her incontestable spiritual rights.
To establish in its day truth obscured by passions; to
render to virtue its honor, and to avenge the opprobrium of six centuries; to
inflict on crime triumphant the reprobation it deserves; to serve also the
designs of divine Providence, which does not defer always the cause of justice
to the future life, such is the noble purpose which Dom Tosti had in view, and
which we also maintain in our work of translation. “The History of Boniface
VIII and his Times”, is then solely a work of historical reparation, a
satisfaction due morality and society.
If, profiting by the generous efforts of others before
him to restore the memory of a pontiff persecuted and outraged during his
life, and calumniated and execrated after his death, the illustrious
Benedictine has succeeded in defending it in a most complete manner, yet he
has not pretended to have said the last word in this solemn discussion. But by
furnishing some important points of procedure, he has contributed to the
triumph of his client, of his hero; and this service, we confidently believe,
will win for him the sympathy not only of Catholics, but also of all those
honest souls, steadfastly faithful to the sacred principles of equity.
Boniface was a man of great and remarkable qualities.
In his day, before his ordination, he was known far and wide for his knowledge
of civil law, and his fame as a lawyer has been preserved and handed down to
the present day by a collection of laws bearing the title: “The Gaetani Code of
Laws”. He became so well-versed in canon law that he was considered the first
canonist of his age, and his reputation for learning soon became widespread. He
was an admirer of the fine arts, and a strong and liberal protector and patron
of artists. He embellished his beloved town of Anagni, where he fixed his
summer residence, and restored its cathedral, in memory of which the people
placed his statue in a niche of the facade, which exists at the present time.
He completed and opened to divine worship that beautiful Gothic cathedral of
Orvieto. In Rome he rebuilt the church of St. Lawrence in Panisperna.
He invited the celebrated Giotto to Rome, and engaged him to decorate the
churches of St. Peter, and St. John Lateran, and in the latter there is still
to be seen the portrait of Boniface drawn by that artist. His literary
acquirements no one disputes. The Sixth Book of the Decretals will attest them as long as God’s undying Church shall last. He elevated to the
honors of the altar Louis IX, the grandfather of Philip the Fair. He increased
the solemnity of the feasts of the four evangelists; and raised the feasts of
the four Latin Doctors, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome and Gregory, a degree
higher. He composed the hymn “Ave Virgo Gloriosa”, and the prayer: “Deus, qui pro redemptione mundi”;
and he left five orations on the canonization of St. Louis, the purity and
elegance of whose Latin is still much admired. General science owes to him the
foundation of the university of the Sapienza at Rome, as well as the university at Fermo. Religion owes to him the consoling institution of
the Jubilee, the most beautiful conception of his Pontificate.
Cardinal Wiseman who has written an able defense of
this Pope says: “Accustomed as we have been to hear and read so much to the
disadvantage of Boniface VIII, we naturally required some cause, however
slight, to turn our attention towards a particular examination of such grievous
charges. The pencil of Giotto must claim the merits, such as it is. The
portrait of Boniface by him in the Lateran Basilica, so different in character
from the representations of modern history, awakened in our minds a peculiar
interest regarding him, and led us to the examination of several popular
assertions, affecting his moral and ecclesiastical conduct. He soon appeared to
us in a new light; as a pontiff who began his reign with most glorious promise,
and closed it amid sad calamities; who devoted, through it all, the energies of
a great mind, cultivated by profound learning, and matured by long experience
in the most difficult ecclesiastical affairs, to the attainment of a truly
noble end; and who, throughout his career, displayed many great virtues, could
plead in extenuation of his faults, the convulsed state of public affairs, the
rudeness of his times, and the faithless, violent character of many among those
with whom he had to deal. These circumstances, working upon a mind naturally
upright and inflexible, led to a sternness of manner and severity of conduct,
which, when viewed through the feelings of modern times, may appear extreme,
and almost unjustifiable. But after studying the conduct of this great Pope,
after searching through the pages of his most hostile historians, we are
satisfied that this is the only point upon which a plausible charge can be
brought against him; a charge which has been much exaggerated, and which the
considerations just enumerated must sufficiently repel, or in a great part
extenuate”. The same author makes one or two other remarks: “Although the
character of Boniface was certainly stern and inflexible, there is not a sign
of it having been cruel or revengeful. Throughout the whole of his history, not
an instance can be found of his having punished an enemy with death. When he was returning to Rome, after his liberation, in a triumph
never before witnessed. Cardinal Stephanesius tells us, that his principal enemy Nogaret, or Sciarra Colonna, was seized by the people and brought
before him, that he might deal with him as he pleased;
he freely pardoned him and let him go. So, likewise, when Fra. Jacopone fell into his hands, he
dealt leniently with him, and confined him, where others would have treated the
offence as capital. These examples of forgiveness and gentleness, ought surely
to have due weight in estimating the Pope’s character”.
And so we send forth this work to the English reading
public, that they might gain a right idea of his character as well hoping that
it may be able to remove the mass of error and calumny that has accumulated
around the name of Boniface VIII, for the past six centuries, and likewise remove
the obloquy which still rests on his memory. If this end be attained the labor
of translation will be rewarded, and we shall be amply repaid for having undertaken
it. May justice and truth prevail regarding this great, learned and magnanimous
Pope, and may he have the place he merits among the Sovereign Pontiffs, which
is among the highest and the greatest.
Eugene
J. Donnelly.
October
26th, 1910.
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