§ 3. POPE BONIFACE VIII. 1294-1303. 13
dinals with ropes around their necks threw themselves at the pope's feet and secured his pardon, but their estates were confiscated and bestowed upon the pope's nephews and the Orsini. The Colonna family recovered in time to reap a bitter vengeance upon their insatiable enemy.
The German emperor. Albrecht. Boniface succeedgd^n bringing to an abject submission. The German envoys were received by the haughty pontiff seated on a throne with a crown upon his head and sword in his hand, and exclaiming, "I, I am the emperor." Albrecht accepted his crown as a gift, and acknowledged that the empire had been transferred from the Greeks to the Germans by the pope, and that the electors owed the right of election to the Apostolic See.
^Tn England, Boniface met with sharp resistanca. Edward I., 1272-1307, was on the throne. The pope attempted to prevent him from holding the crown of Scotland, claiming it as a papal fief from remote antiquity. ^ The English parliament, 1301, gave a prompt and spirited reply. The English king was under no obligation to the papal see for his temporal acts. 2 The dispute went no further. The conflict between Boniface and France is reserved for more prolonged treatment.
An important and picturesque event of Boniface's pontificate was the Jubilee Year, celebrated in 1300. It was a fortunate conception, adapted to attract throngs of pilgrims to Rome and fill the papal treasury. An old man of 107 years of age, so the story ran, travelled from Savoy to Rome, and told how his father had taken him to attend a Jubilee in the year 1200 and exhorted him to visit it on its recurrence a century after. Interesting as the story is, the Jubilee celebration of 1300 seems to have been the first of its kind.^ Boniface's bull, appointing it, promised full remission to all, being penitent and confessing their sins, who should visit St. Peter's
iTytler, Hist, of Scotland, I. 70 sqq.
2 Edward removed from Scone to Westminster the sacred stone on which Scotch kings had been consecrated, and which, according to the legend, was the pillow on which Jacob rested at Bethel.
2 So Hefele VI. 315, and other Roman Catholic historians.
14 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
during the year 1300.^ Italians were to prolong their sojourn 30 days, while for foreigners 15 days were announced to be sufficient. A subsequent papal deliverance extended the benefits of the indulgence to all setting out for the Holy City who died on the way. The only exceptions made to these gracious provisions were the Colonna, Frederick of Sicily, and the Christians holding traffic with Saracens. The city wore a festal appearance. The handkerchief of St. Veronica, bearing the imprint of the Saviour's face, was exhibited. The throngs fairly trampled upon one another. The contemporary historian of Florence, Giovanni Villani, testifies from personal observation that there was a constant population in the pontifical city of 200,000 pilgrims, and that 30,000 people reached and left it daily. The offerings were so copious that two clerics stood day and night by the altar of St. Peter's gathering up the coins with rakes.
So spectacular and profitable a celebration could not be allowed to remain a memory. The Jubilee was made a permanent institution. A second celebration was appointed by Clement VI. in 1350. With reference to the brevity of human life and also to the period of our Lord's earthly career. Urban VI. fixed its recurrence every 33 years. Paul II., in 1470, reduced the intervals to 25 years. The twentieth Jubilee was celebrated in 1900, under Leo XII I. ^ Leo extended the
1 Potthast, 24017. The bull is reprinted by Mirbt, Quellen, p. 147 sq. The indulgence clause runs : non solum phnam sed largiorem immo plenissimam omnium suorum veniam peccatorwn conc.edimus. Villani, VIII. 36, speaks of it as " a full and entire remission of all sins, both the guilt and the punishment thereof."
2 Leo's bull, dated May 11, 1899, offered indulgence to pilgrims visiting the basilicas of St. Peter, the Lateran, and St. Maria Maggiore. A portion of the document runs as follows : "Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world, has chosen the city of Rome alone and singly above all others for a dignified and more than human purpose and consecrated it to himself." The Jubilee was inaugurated by the august ceremony of opening the ;)or<a santa, the sacred door, into St. Peter's, which it is the custom to wall up after the celebration. The special ceremony dates from Alexander VI. and the Jubilee of 1500. Leo performed this ceremony in person by giving three strokes upon the door vrith a hammer, and using the words aperite mih i, open to me. The door symbolizes Christ, opening the way to spiritual benefits.