BONIFACE
665
BONIFACE
agents to Boniface with letters in which he denied
having slain King Adolph, nor had he sought the
battle voluntarily, nor borne the royal title while
Adolph li\ed, etc. Boniface eventually recognized
his election (30 Apr., 1303). A litt'le later (17
July) Albert renewed his father's oath of fidelity
to the Roman Church, recognized the papal au-
thority in Cierman}' as laid down by Boniface
(May, 1300), and promised to send no imperial vicar
to Tuscany or Lombardy within the next five years
■without the pope's consent, and to defend the Roman
Church against its enemies. In his attempt to pre-
serve the independence of Scotland, Boniface was
not successful. After the overthrow and imprison-
ment of John Baliol. and the defeat of Wallace (1298),
the Scots Council of Regency sent envoys to the pope
to protest against the feudal superiority of England.
Boniface, they said, was the only judge whose juris-
diction extended over both kingdoms. Their realm
belonged of right to the Roman See, and to none
other. Boniface wrote to Edward I (27 June, 1299)
reminding him, says Lingard, "alnicst in the verj'
words of the Scottish memorial", that Scotland had
belonged from ancient times and did still belong to
the Roman See; the king was to cease all unjust
aggression, free his captives, and pursue at the court
of Rome within six months any rights that he claimed
to the whole or part of Scotland. This letter reached
the king after much delay, through the hands of
Robert of Winchelsea, Archl^ishop of Canterburj-,
and was laid by Edward before a parliament sum-
moned to meet at Lincoln. In its reply (27 Sept.,
1300) the latter denied, over the names of 104 lay
lords, the papal claim of suzerainty over Scotland,
and asserted that a king of England had never pleaded
before any judge, ecclesiastical or secular, respecting
his rights in Scotland or any other temporal rights,
nor would they permit him to do so, were he thus
inclined (Lingard, II, ch. vii). The king, however
(7 May, 1301), supplemented this act by a memoir in
which he set forth his royal view of the historical rela-
tions of Scotland and England. In their reply to this
plea the representatives of Scotland re-assert the im-
memorial suzerainty of the Roman Church over Scot-
land "the property, the peculiar allodium of the
Holy See"; in all controversies, they said, between
these equal and independent kingdoms it is to their
•equal superior, the Church of Rome, that recourse
should be had. Tliis somewhat academic conflict
soon seemed hopeless at Rome, owing to the mutual
violence and quarrels of the weaker party (Belles-
heim, "Hist, of the Cath. Church of Scotland",
London, 1887, II, 9-11), and is of le.ss importance
than the strained relations between Boniface and
Edward, apropos of the unjust taxation of the clergj*.
In 1294, of his own authority, Edward I sequestered
all moneys found in the treasuries of all churches
and monasteries. Soon he demanded and obtained
from the clergy one half their incomes, both from
lay fees and benefices. In the following year he
called for a third or a fourth, but they refused to
pay more than a tenth. When, at the Convocation
of Canterburj' (November, 1296), the king demanded
a fifth of their income, the archbishop, Robert of
Windielsea, in keeping with the new legislation of
Boniface, offered to consult the pope, whereupon the
king outlawed the clergy, secular and regular, and
seized all their lay fees, goods, and chattels. The
northern Province of York yielded; in the Province
of Canterbury many resisted for a time, among them
the courageous archbishop, who retired to a rural
parish. Eventually he was reconciled with the king,
and his goods were restored, but as Edward soon
after demanded in his own right a third of all ec-
clesiastical revenues, his recognition of the Bull
'Clericis laicos" was evanescent.
The memorable conflict with Pliilip the Fair of
France began early in the pope's reign and did not
end even mth the tragic close of his pontificate.
The pope's chief aim was a general European peace,
in the interest of a crusade that would break forever,
at what seemed a favourable moment, the power of
Islam. The main immediate obstacle to such a peace
lay in the war between France and England, caused
by Philip's unjust seizure of Gascony (1294). The
chief combatants carried on the war at the expense
of the Church, whose representatives they sorely
taxed. Such taxation had often been permitted in
the past by the popes, but only for the purpose (real
or alleged) of a crusade; now it was applied in order
to raise revenue from ecclesiastics for purely secular
warfare. The legates sent by Boniface to both kings
a few weeks after his elevation accomplished little;
later efforts were rendered useless by the stubborn
attitude of Philip. In the meantime numerous pro-
tests from the French clergy moved the pope to
action, and with the approval of his cardinals he
published (24 Feb., 1296) the Bull "Clericis laicos",
in which he forbade the laity to exact or receive,
and the clergj' to give up, ecclesiastical revenues or
property, without permission of the Apostolic See;
princes imposing such exactions and ecclesiastics
submitting to them were declared excommunicated.
Other popes of the thirteenth century, and the Third
and Fourth Lateran Councils (1179, 1215), had
legislated similarly against the oppressors of the
clergj-; apart, therefore, from the opening line of
the Bull, that seemed offensive as reflecting on the
laity in general {Clericis laicos infensos esse oppido
tradit antiquitns, i. e., "All history shows, clearly the
enmity of the laity towards the clergy," — in reality a
byword in the schools and taken from earlier sources),
there was nothing in its very general terms to rouse
particularly the roj'al anger. Philip, however, was
indignant, and soon retaliated by a roj'al ordinance
(17 Aug.) forbidding the export of gold or silver,
precious stones, weapons, and food from his king-
dom. He also forbade foreign merchants to remain
longer within its bounds. These measures affected
immediately the Roman Church, for it drew much
of its revenue from France, inclusive of crusade
moneys, whence the numerous papal collectors were
henceforth banished. The king also caused to be
prepared a proclamation (never promulgated) con-
cerning the obligation of ecclesiastics to bear the
public burden and the revocable character of ec-
clesiastical immunities. (For the generous contribu-
tions of the French clergy to the national burdens,
see the exhaustive statistics of Bourgain in ' ' Rev.
des quest, hist.", 1890, XLVIII, 62.) In the BuU
"Ineffabilis Amor" (20 Sept.) Boniface protested
vigorously against these royal acts, and explained
that he had never meant to forbid voluntary gifts
from the clergy or contributions necessary for the
defence of the kingdom, of which necessity the king
and his council were the judges. During 1297 the
pope sought in various ways to appease the royal
embitterment, notably by the Bull "Etsi de Statu"
(31 July), above all by the canonization (11 Aug.,
1297) of the king's grandfather, Louis IX. The
royal ordinance was withdrawn, and the painful
incident seemed closed. In the meantime the truce
which in 1296 Boniface had tried to impose on Philip
and Edward was finally accepted by both kings
early in 1298, for a space of two years. The disputed
matters were referred to Boniface as arbiter, though
Philip accepted him not as pope, but as a private
person, as Benedetto Oaetano. The award, favour-
able to Philip, was issued (27 June) by Boniface in a
public consistory.
In the Jubilee of 1300 the high spirit of Boniface might well recognize a compensation and a consola- tion for previous humiliations. This imique cele- bration, the apogee of the temporal splendour of the
