Pope Boniface Viii's Nationalist Power Summary

In summary, Dante experienced the issues coming from the battle between Philip IV's nationalist power (King from 1285-1314, who, during the war of the so-called Sicilian Vespers helped the Anjou against the Aragonese) and the papacy's universal power that in the while had degenerated more and more until the French King decided to tax the income of the ecclesiastics, provoking Pope Boniface VIII's ire, who, in contrast, published some important bulls trying to limit Philip's powers. In fact, one of them was called 'Clericis laicos' and was issued on 5th of February 1296. Its content unleashed Philip's ire, as the Pope had renewed the regulations set out by the III and IV Lateran councils and by Pope Alexander IV's decrees, underlining also the fact that the Clergy were not allowed to pay extraordinary taxes without the consent of the Pope. Another famous bull issued on 18th of November 1302 by Pope Boniface VIII was called the 'Unam sanctum' and represented a true manifesto of the medieval theocracy and a more explicit Boniface's political document, as in it (mentioning also some biblical scriptures) Boniface claimed the superiority of the soul over the body 'unum corpus mysticum', confirming in this way the superiority of the spiritual power over the …show more content…
Subsequently, the relationship between the two powerful figures of the time degenerated more and more, culminating in the historical episode happened on 7th of September 1303, when Philip the Fair sent his soldiers to Anagni, where Boniface was seized and beaten by the order of the French King. This episode will be recalled by the posterity as the 'outrage of Anagni' and will be cited by Dante in the Divine Comedy "Past ill and future, lo! the flower-de-luce" (Purgatorio XX -