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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Boniface VIII Biography BONIFACE VIII (Benedetto Gaetano, Pope, 1294-1303). He was born at Anagni, and was elected Pope on Dec. 24, 1294. In 1296 Boniface issued his bull Clericis Laicos, forbidding the payment or collection of taxes on ecclesiastical property without the consent of the holy see. He failed in his attempts to assert a feudal superiority over Sicily and to exercise his papal authority in the disputes between France and England. Philip the Fair, of France, supported by the estates and clergy, maintained the independence of the kingdom, disregarding many bulls and briefs, and even the sentence of excommunication to which the Pope proceeded. Philip at last, with the aid of Italian enemies of Boniface, made him prisoner at Anagni, whither he had fled; and although he was liberated by the people of Anagni after two days' imprisonment, he died within about a month (Oct. 11, 1303) , in consequence of having refused food during those two days, through fear of poison. He instituted the Roman Jubilee in the year 1300 and in 1302 issued the bull Unam Sanctum, wherein be maintained the necessity of the submission of princes to the spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman pontiffs. For his life, consult: Luigi Tosti (2d ed., Milan, 1848, French trans., Paris, 1854); W. Druneann (Königsberg, 1852). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. III (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 507. |