BONIFACE VIII
(d. 1303). Pope. When Celestine V renounced the papacy in 1294, the cardinals elected
Benedetto Gaetani, a noblemen from Anagni, who reigned as Boniface VIII. Gaetani had
been a legate to France, where he silenced temporarily the complaints of the masters at
Paris about the privileges given the friars by the popes. As pontiff, Boniface took charge
of the curia and attempted to prevent war between Edward I of England and Philip IV the
Fair of France by forbidding, in the bull Clericis laicos, lay taxation of the clergy without
papal consent. This attempt to deny him the fiscal resources for war caused Philip to
prohibit the export of bullion from France. Pressed by this embargo, by French
propaganda, and by his own feud with the Colonna family, Boniface made peace with
Philip. Neither pope nor king, however, would remain conciliatory. In 1298, Boniface
incorporated Clericis laicos into his Liber sextus decretalium. In 1300, the pope felt
buoyed by the success of his holy year and by French reverses in Flanders. Philip,
however, took the offensive against the pope, arresting in 1301 the bishop of Pamiers in
violation of canon law, which reserved jurisdiction over the episcopate to the Holy See. A
second propaganda war ensued, in which most of the French clergy backed the king, even
though Boniface’s constitution Unam sanctam claimed that obedience to the pope was
necessary for salvation. In 1303, Sciarra Colonna and Guillaume de Nogaret, one of
Philip’s advisers, seized Boniface in his palace in Anagni. Although a mob forced the
conspirators to release the pope, he died soon after, a broken man, and France would be
dominant in its relationship with the papacy for the next seventy-five years.
Thomas M.Izbicki
[See also: CLERICIS LAICOS; NOGARET, GUILLAUME DE; PHILIP IV THE
FAIR; UNAM SANCTAM]
Boniface VIII. Les registres de Boniface VIII: recueil des bulles de ce pape publiées ou analysées
d’après les manuscrits des archives du Vatican, ed. Georges Digard et al. 4 vols. Paris: Thorin,
1884–1939.
Boase, T.S.R. Boniface VIII London: Constable, 1933.
Rivière, Jean. Le problème de l’église et de l’état au temps de Philippe le Bel: étude de théologie
positive. Louvain: “Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense” Bureaux, 1926.
BOOK OF HOURS
. A late-medieval prayer book used by the laity, particularly common in France and the
Netherlands. In the 13th century, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin was frequently
bound together with the psalter to create the psalter-hours. The psalter was soon dropped
and the Little Office became itself the core of a prayer book for lay use that consisted
primarily of devotional items that had been added to the monastic office in the 9th and
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