of the fourteenth century the Pope was, politically, a tool in the hands of the King of France. More
important than these causes was the rise of a rich commercial class and the increase of knowledge
in the laity. Both of these began in Italy, and remained more advanced in that country than in other
parts of the West until the middle of the sixteenth century. North Italian cities were much richer,
in the fourteenth century, than any of the cities of the North; and learned laymen, especially in law
and medicine, were becoming increasingly numerous. The cities had a spirit of independence
which, now that the Emperor was no longer a menace, was apt to turn against the Pope. But the
same movements, though to a lesser degree, existed elsewhere. Flanders prospered; so did the
Hanse towns. In England the wool trade was a source of wealth. The age was one in which
tendencies which may be broadly called democratic were very strong, and nationalistic tendencies
were even stronger. The papacy, which had become very worldly, appeared largely as a taxing
agency, drawing to itself vast revenues which most countries wished to retain at home. The popes
no longer had or deserved the moral authority which had given them power. Saint Francis had
been able to work in harmony with Innocent III and Gregory IX, but the most earnest men of the
fourteenth century were driven into conflict with the papacy.
At the beginning of the century, however, these causes of decline in the papacy were not yet
apparent. Boniface VIII, in the Bull Unam Sanctam, made more extreme claims than had ever
been made by any previous Pope. He instituted, in 1300, the year of Jubilee, when plenary
indulgence is granted to all Catholics who visit Rome and perform certain ceremonies while there.
This brought immense sums of money to the coffers of the Curia and the pockets of the Roman
people. There was to be a Jubilee every hundredth year, but the profits were so great that the
period was shortened to fifty years, and then to twenty-five, at which it remains to the present day.
The first Jubilee, that of 1300, showed the Pope at the summit of his success, and may be
conveniently regarded as the date from which the decline began.
Boniface VIII was an Italian, born at Anagni. He had been besieged in the Tower of London when
in England, on behalf of the Pope, to support Henry III against the rebellious barons, but he was