COLONNAS 195
sense, on the side of the worldly power. At the universities the legalists, teachers of Roman law, functioned as theorists of govern- ment and masters of a public opinion favourable to an absolute and universal kingship. They set forth the political goals of the French crown in these slogans: universal world peace, a European League of Nations under French leadership as a substitute for the Imperial, uni- versal monarchy, an international court of arbitration, a grant of the patrimonium Petri to France in the form of a loan, and secularization of Church property in exchange for an annual income.
Philippe, who was in need of money as a result of the war with England, insisted that he had the right to tax the churches and monasteries of his country. He answered the Papal bull by for- bidding the export of gold and silver without the permission of the King, and by restraining the Papal collectors. Then Boniface issued new, friendly decrees which weakened his proud bull, and kept up a semblance of peace by canonizing Louis IX, Philippe's ancestor.
Meanwhile there was a ferment in the circles closest to the Pope. Two cardinals of the mighty family of Colonna were wroth with him because he had taken sides in a family quarrel over property. When they committed high treason by establishing relations with Frederic of Aragon, Boniface demanded that they surrender their castles. This they refused to do and aroused fresh antipathies in the ranks of the Pope's other enemies. The King of France and the University of Paris were invited to review the abdication of Celestine and the election of Boniface. Religious of the strict dispensation in the Franciscan Order, among them poor Jacopone, who was pious and satirical alike, were induced to take up the fight in written and oral discourse. A third Colonna stole money belonging to the Curia, which a highly favoured Papal relative had brought to Rome. Boniface got the treas- ure back, demanded that the robber be turned over to justice, and insisted furthermore that the Colonna must evacuate two of their castles as well as Palestrina, their city. The answer was a manifesto that was nailed to the Church doors of Rome. This said that Celestine had abdicated illegally, that Gaetani was not rightfully a Pope, and that the matter should be settled by a general Council meeting with the future true Pope. Boniface punished the cardinals, who had elected him and had celebrated the occasion with a banquet, with demotion
196
