BONIFACE
670
BONIFACE
vulsed state of public affairs, the rudeness of his times,
and the faitliless, violent character of many among
those with whom he had to deal These circum-
stances, working upon a mind naturally upright and
inflexible, led to a sternness of manner and a severity
of conduct, which, when viewed through the feelings
of modern times, may appear extreme, and almost
unjustifiable. But after searcliing through the
pages of his most hostile historians, we are satisfied
that this is the only point on which even a plausible
charge can be brought against him."
The memory of Boniface, curiously enough, has suffered most from two great poets, mouthpieces of an ultra-spiritual and impossible Catholicism, Fra Jacopone da Todi and Dante. The former was the "sublime fool" of spiritual love, author of the
'Stabat Mater", and chief singer of the "Spirituals", or extreme Franciscans, kept in prison by Boniface, whom he therefore satirized in the popular and musical vernacular of the peninsula. The latter was a GhibeUine, i. e., a political antagonist of the Guelph pope, to whom, moreover, he attributed aU his per- sonal misfortunes, and whom he therefore piUoried before the bar of his own justice, but in quivering lines of immortal invective whose malignant beauty will always trouble the reader's judgment. Catholic historians like Hergenrother-Kirsch (4th ed., II, 597-9S) praise the uprightness of the pope's motives and that courage of his convictions which almost on the eve of his death made him count as straws all earthly rulers, if only he had truth and justice on his side (op. cit., II, 597, note 4). They admit, however, the explosive violence and offensive phraseology of some of his public documents, and the occasional imprudence of his political measures; he walked in the footsteps of his inmiediate pred- ecessors, but the new enemies were more fierce and logical than the extirpated Hohenstaufen, and were quicker to pervert and utilize the public opinion of young and proud nationalities. A contemporary and eyewitness, Giovanni Villani, has left in his Florentine chronicle (Muratori, XIII, 348 sqq.) a portrait of Boniface which the judicious Von Reu- mont seems to consider quite reliable. According to it Boniface, the most clever canonist of his time, was a great-hearted and generous man and a lover of magnificence, but also arrogant, proud, and stern in manner, more feared than loved, too worldly- minded for his high office and too fond of money, both for the Church and for his family. His nepo- tism was open. He founded the Roman house of the Gaetani, and in the process of exalting his family drew down upon himself the effective hatred of the Colonna and their strong clansmen. Grone, a Ger- man Catholic historian of the popes, says of Boniface (II, 164) that while his utterances equal in impor- tance those of Gregory VII and Innocent III, the latter were always more ready to act, Boniface to dis- course; they relied on the Divine strength of their office, Boniface on the cleverness of his canonical deductions. For the process against his memory see Clement V.
Original Materials. — The history of Boniface is best found in DiGAHD, Faucon, and Thomas, Les registres de Boniface Till. (Paris. 1S84, sqq.): Do PoY (Gallican), Hist, du difffrend du pape Boniface VIII. avec Philippe le Bel (Paris, 1655), with a very partial selection and arrangement of valuable, but badly edited, materials; Baillet (violent Jansenist), Hist, des d^s^ melcz du pape Boniface VIII. avec Philippe le Bel (Paris, 1718). On the Roman side see; Vigor, Historia eorum qua" acta sunt inter Philipp. Pulcher. et Bonif. VIII. (Rome. 1639); Rubeus, Bonifatius VIII et Familia Caietanorum (Rome, 1651). The earlier career and coronation of the pope are related (in verse) by Cardinal Stefaneschi (Stephanesius) in .4c/a SS. (May, IV. 461). Ratnaldus. Ann.Eccl. (1294-1303), where many of the most important documents are given in full.
Contemporari/ Chroniclers. — Villani, Hist. Florentine, in Muratori SS. Rer. Hal., XIII. 3-18; Dino Compagni, Chronica. 2d. De Lungo (Florence. 1879-S7); the Italian chroniclera Quoted in Hergenr6ther-Kih.sch (4th ed.) are in Muratori, acriplores. For the election of Boniface see Hefele. Con- cUiengesch.; Souchon, Die Papstwahlen von Bonifaz VIII.
bis Urban VI., etc. (Brunswick, 18SS); Finke, Aus den Tagen
etc., 44-76; Denifle. Die Denkschrift der Colonna gegen Boni-
faz VIII., u. der KardiniHe gegen die Colonna, in Archiv fiir
Litt. u. Kircheng. des M. A. (1892), V, 493. For the .'.nagni
incident see; Kervvn de Lettenhove, in Rev. des quest, hist.
(1872), XI., 511; Digaed. ibid. (1SS8), XXJII, 557.
Catholic Biography. — Besides the general historians, Flehht (Galilean), Rohhbacher, Christophe, see Chantrel, Boni- face VIII. (Paris, 1S62), and the excellent work of Tosti Storici di Bomfazio VIII e de' suoi tempi (Monte Cassino, 1846). The most important modern critical contributions to the life of Boniface are those of Finke, op. cit. (Munich, 1902), the result of new discoveries in medieval archives, especially at Barce- lona, among the papers of the reign of James II, King of Aragon and contemporary of Boniface (reports of the royal agents at Rome, etc.). d. Anal. Bolland. (1904), XXIII. 339; Rev. des quest, hist. (1903), XXVI, 122; Lit. Rundschau (1902), XXVIII, 315; and Canonisle Conlemporain (1903\ XXVI, 122. See also Finke, Bonifaz VIII., in Hochland (1904), I; Idem, Zur Charakteristik Philipps des Schonen in Mittheil. des Inst. f. msl. Geschichtsforschung (1905), XXIV, 201-14. An excellent apology is that of (Cardinal) Wise- man. Pope Boniface VIII, in Dublin Review (1844), reprinted in Historical Essays; Hemmer, in Diet, de iheol. caih., II, i. 992-1003 (good bibliography); and the thorough study of Hefele, op. cit. (2nd ed. Freiburg. 1890), VI, 281 pas'sim; JuNGMANN, Diss, sclccla! in hist. eccl. (Ratisbon, 1886), VI. The (non-Cathohc) work of Drumann, Geschichte Bonifaz VIII. (Kbnigsberg. 1852), is learned but partisan.
Political Situation and Attitude of Medieval Popes. — See the sohd work of Gosselin, The Power of the Pope in the Middle Ages, tr. Kelly (London, 1883); the erudlite work of Heegen- rother, Kath. Kirche und christ. Stoat (Freiburg, 1873; Eng. tr. London, 1876); Baudrillard, Des idles qu'on se faisait au, XIV' Slide surle droit d'inlerven. du Souv. Ponl. dans les affaires polit., in Revue d'hist. el de litt. relig. (1898); Planck. Hist, de la const, de la soc. eccl. chr(t. (1809), V, 12-154 (favourable).
The most notable of the modern French writers favourable to Philip are: Leclerc and Renan, in Hist. Litt. de la France au XIV' siecle (Paris. 1865); [see Renan, Etudes sur la polit. relig. du rigne de Philippe le Bel (Paris, 1889)1; and Langlois, Hist, de France, ed. Lavisse (Paris, 1901), III, II, 127-73; cf. the equitable study of Boutaric. La France sous Philippe le Bel (Paris, 1861); also the fair narrative of Von Reumont, Gesch. der Sladt Rom (Berlin, 1867), II, i, 614-71; Gregoro- ■\in3 (non-Cathohc), Gesch. d. Stadt Rom (3d. ed., Stuttgart. 1S7S), V, 502, tr. by Hamilton; Hofler, Riickblick auf Papst Bonifaz VIII., in Abhandl. d. bayrisch. Akad. d. Wiss. hist. til. (Munich, 1843). Ill, iii, 32 sqq.; Rocon.UN, La Cour de Rome et Vesprit de reforme avant Luther (Paris, 1S95), II, 258-312; Laurent, L'Eglise et I'Etat, moyen Bge et riforme (Paris, 1866), violent and unjust.
Pamphlet Literature. — For both sides, see: Scholz, Die Pu- btizistik zur Zeit Ph. des Schonen und Bonif. VIII. (Stuttgart, 1903); also Scaduto, Stalo e Chiesa negli scritti politici. 1122- 1347 (Florence, 1847); and Riezler, Die lilerariscfien Wider- sacher der Pa'pste zur Zeit Ludwigs des Bayem (Munich, 1874). Important new monographs concerning chief figures in the conflict are those of Holtzmann, Wilhelm von Nogaret (Frei- burg. 1898); and Huyskens. Kardinal Napoleon Orsini, ein LebensbUd, etc. (Marburg, 1902). Among the latest studies, based on the above-described researches of Dr. Finke, are: Scholz, Zur Bcurteilung Bonifaz VIII. und seines sittlich- religiosen Charakters, in Hist. Vierteljahrschrift (1906), IX, 470-506; Wenck, Ifar Bonifaz VIII. ein Ketzerf in Hist. Zeitschrift C1905), 1-66 (maintaining that Boniface was an Averioist), and the good refutation by Holtzmann, Papst Bonifaz VIII., ein Ketzerf in Mittheil. d. Inst. f. mst. Gesch. (1905), 488-98; cf. Wenck's reply, ibid. (1906), 185-95.
The Bull ■■Unam Sanctum": Behchtold, Die Bulle Unam Sanctam, etc., und ihre wahre Bedeutung fiir Kirche und Staat (1887); cf.GBMyERTin Hist. Jahrbuch (.IS87). Mumry, in flcii. des quest, hist. (July, 1887), abandoned his (andDANBERCEH's) thesis that this Bull was a forgery (ibid., 1879), 91-130. On the exact sense of the much-disputed instituere (instruct or establish?) in "Unam Sanctam", see Funk, Kirchengesch. Abhandlungen (Paderborn, 1897), I, 483-89.
For the services of Boniface to the sciences and the fine arts, see Ehrle, Zur Gesch. des Schatzes, der Bibl. und des Archiva der Papste im 14. Jahrh., in Archiv fiir Litt. u. Kircheng. des M. A. (1885), I, i, 228; Idem, Hist. Bibliolh. Avenionen. (Rome.
); MoLlNlER, Inventaire du tr^or du Saint-Si^e sous
Boniface VIII., in Bibl. de VEcole des Charles (1882-85); the writings of the art-historian, MtJNTZ, and Gdir.\ud, L'Eglise et les Origines de la Renaissance (Paris, 1904).
Thomas Oestreich.
Boniface IX, Pope, elected at Rome, 2 Novem- ber, 13S9, as successor of the Roman Pope, Urban VI; d. there, 1 October, 1404. Piero (Perino, Pietro) Tomacelli came of an ancient but impoverished baronial family of Naples. He lacked good theologi- cal training and skill in the conduct of curial business, but was by nature tactful and prudent. His firm character and mild manner did much to restore re- spect for the papacy in the countries of his own obedience (Germany, England, Hungary, Poland, and the greater part of Italy). The Avignon Pope.
