§ 3. POPE BONIFACE VIII. 1294-1303. 11
predecessor in prison, where he soon died. The cause of his death was a matter of uncertainty. The Coelestine party ascribed it to Boniface, and exhibited a nail which they declared the unscrupulous pope had ordered driven into Coelestine's head.
With Boniface VIII. began the decline of the papacy >, He found it at the height of its power. He died leaving it humbled and in subjection to France. He sought to rule in the proud, dominating spirit of Gregory VH. and Innocent III. ; but he was arrogant without being strong, bold without being sagacious, high-spirited without possessing the wisdom to discern the signs of the times.^ The times had changed. Boniface made no allowance for the new spirit of nationality which had been developed during the crusading campaigns in the East, and which entered into conflict with the old theocratic ideal of Rome. France, now in possession of the remaining lands of the counts of Toulouse, was in no mood to listen to the dictation of the power across the Alps. Striving to maintain the fictitious theorj^ of papal rights, and fighting against the spirit of the new age, Boniface lost the prestige the Apostolic See had enjoyed for two centuries, and died of mortification over the indignities heaped upon him by France.
French_ enemies went so far as to charge Boniface with downright infidelity and the denial of the souFs immortajiij^ The charges were a slander, but they show the reduced confidence which the papal office inspired. Dante, who visited Rome during Boniface's pontificate, bitterly pursues him in all parts of the Divina Commedia. He pronounced him "the prince of modern Pharisees," a usurper "who turned the Vatican hill into a common sewer of corruption." The poet assigned the pope a place with Nicholas III. and Clement V. among the simoniacs in " that most afflicted shade," one of the lowest circles of hell.^ Its floor was perforated with holes into which the heads of these popes were thrust.
1 Gregorovius, V. 597, calls Boniface "an unfortunate reminiscence" of the great popes.
2 n Where Simon Magus hath his curst abode
To depths profounder thrusting Boniface." — Paradise, xxx. 147 sq.
12 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
*' The soles of every one in flames were wrapt — ^ . . . whose upper parts are thrust below Fixt like a stake, most wretched soul
Quivering in air his tortured feet were seen." Contemporaries comprehended Boniface's reign in the description, '.' He came in like a fox, he reigned like a lion, and he died like a dog, intravit ut vulpes^ regnavit ut leo, mortuus est sicut cants.
In his attempt to control the affairs of European states, he met with less success than failure, and in Philip the Fair of France he found his match.
In Sicily, he failed to carry out his plans to secure the transfer of the realm from the house of Aragon to the king of Naples.
In Rome^ he incurred the bitter enmity of the promLand powerful family of the Colonna, by attempting to dictate the disposition of the family estates. Two of the Colonna, James and Peter, who were cardinals, had been friends of Coelestine, and supporters of that pope gathered around them. Of their number was Jacopone da Todi, the author of the Stahat Mater, who wrote a number of satirical pieces against Boniface. Resenting the pope's interference in their private matters, the Colonna issued a memorial, pronouncing C(jelestine's abdication and the election of Boniface illegal. ^ It exposed the haughtiness of Boniface, and represented him as boasting that he was supreme over kings and kingdoms, even in temporal affairs, and tliat he was governed by no law other than his own will.^ The document was placarded on the churches and a copy left in St. Peter's. In 1297 Boniface deprived the Colonna of their dignity, excommunicated them, and proclaimed a crusade against them. The two cardinals appealed to a general council, the resort in the next centuries of so many who found themselves out of accord with the papal plans. Their strongliolds fell one after anotlier. The last of them, Palestrina, had a melancholy fate. Tlie two car-
^ Inferno, xix. 45 sq. 118. '■^ Dupuy, pp. 225-227.
8 Super reges et regna in temporalibus etiam presidere se glorians, etc., Scbolz, p. 338.