that all clerics who paid and all laymen who imposed payments without prior
authorization from the pope “shall, by the very act, incur the sentence of
excommunication.”^12
Reacting swiftly, the kings soon forced Boniface to back down. But in 1301,
testing his jurisdiction in southern France by arresting Bernard Saisset, the bishop of
Pamiers, on a charge of treason, Philip precipitated another crisis. Boniface
responded with outrage, but we already know (see p. 255) how Philip adroitly rallied
public opinion in his favor by calling the Estates together. After Boniface issued the
bull Unam sanctam (1302), which declared that “it is altogether necessary to
salvation for every human being to be subject to the Roman Pontiff,”^13 Philip’s
agents invaded Boniface’s palace at Anagni (southeast of Rome) to capture the pope,
bring him to France, and try him for heresy. Although the citizens of Anagni drove
the agents out of town, Philip’s power could not be denied. A month later, Boniface
died, and the next two popes quickly pardoned Philip and his agents.
The papacy was never quite the same thereafter. In 1309, forced from Rome by
civil strife, the popes settled at Avignon, a Provençal city administered by the
Angevins of Naples but very much under the influence of the French crown. There
they remained until 1377. The Avignon Papacy, largely French, established a sober
and efficient organization that took in regular revenues and gave the papacy more say
than ever before in the appointment of churchmen and the distribution of church
benefices and revenues. Its authority grew: it became the unchallenged judge of
sainthood. And the Dominicans and Franciscans became its foot soldiers in the
evangelization of the world and the purification of Christendom. These were tasks
that required realistic men. When a group of Franciscans objected to their fellows
building convents and churches within the cities, the popes condemned them. The
Spirituals, as they were called, cultivated a piety of poverty and apocalypticism,
believing that Saint Francis had ushered in a new Age of the Holy Spirit. But the
popes interpreted the Franciscan rule differently. They advocated the repression of
the Spirituals and even had a few burned at the stake.
In some ways, the papacy had never been as powerful as it was at Avignon. On
the other hand, it was mocked and vilified by contemporaries, especially Italians,
whose revenues suffered from the popes’ exile from Rome. Petrarch (Francesco
Petrarca, 1304–1374), one of the great literary figures of the day, called the Avignon
Papacy the “Babylonian Captivity,” referring to 2 Kings 25:11, when the ancient
Hebrews were exiled and held captive in Babylonia. Pliant and accommodating to the
rulers of Europe, especially the kings of France, the popes were slowly abandoning
