Unam sanctam

On November 18, 1302, Pope Boniface VIII issued the Papal bull Unam sanctam^[1] which historians consider one of the most extreme statements of Papal spiritual supremacy ever made. The original document is lost but a version of the text can be found in the registers of Boniface VIII in the Vatican Archives (Catholic Encyclopedia). It arose due to the Pope's conflict with Philip IV of France over attempts of each to prevent the other from receiving money from taxes.

Content

Most significantly, the bull proclaimed, "outside of her (the Church) there is neither salvation nor the remission of sins". (See Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus.) It is an extreme form of the concept known as "plenitudo potestatis" or the plentitude of power; it declares that those who resist the Roman Pontiff are resisting God's ordination (Collins 2000).

The bull also declared that the Church must be united, that the Pope was the sole and absolute head of the Church: "Therefore, of the one and only Church there is one body and one head, not two heads like a monster." The Bull also stated, "We are informed by the texts of the gospels that in this Church and in its power are two swords; namely, the spiritual and the temporal." The swords being referred to are a customary reference to the swords yielded by the Apostles upon Christ's arrest, which were said to have been buried next to the Apostle Peter (Catholic Encyclopedia). Early theologians believed that if there are two swords one must be subordinate to the other. It then became a spiritual hierarchal ladder, the spiritual judges the secular "on account of its greatness and sublimity (Catholic Encyclopedia), while the lower spiritual power is judged by the higher spiritual power, and etc (Collins 2000). Thus, it was concluded, the temporal authorities must submit to the spiritual authorities: "For with truth as our witness, it belongs to spiritual power to establish the terrestrial power and to pass judgment if it has not been good."

The bull ends "Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff." In the bull, Boniface reiterates what popes since the time of Gregory VII had been declaring (Duffy 2002). Much of what is said can be taken from the writings of Bernard of Clairvaux, Hugh of St. Victor, and St. Thomas Acquinas (Catholic Encyclopedia). The bull also contains writing from the letters of Innocent III, who mainly reasserted the spiritual power and the "plenitudo potestatis" of the papacy (Duffy 2002). A voice heavily noticed in the bull is Egidius Romanus (Giles of Rome), who some hold might have been the actual writer of the bull (Dyson 2004). In his writing On Ecclesiastical Power, Giles voices the supremacy of the Roman Pontiff over the material world. His line of argument states that since the body is governed by the soul and the soul is governed by the ruler of the spiritual, the Roman Pontiff therefore is governer of both soul and body.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia in the registers, on the margin of the text of the record, the last sentence is noted as its real definition: "Declaratio quod subesse Romano Pontifici est omni humanae creaturae de necessitate salutis; thus this phrase, like some in canonic scripture, may have moved from an original position as a marginal gloss to an integral part of the text as it has been accepted. Some believe that this is the only dogmatic definition in the bull because the rest is based on differing "papal claims of the thirteenth century" (Collins 2000).

Following medieval custom, the premises are not based on logical reasoning, but on allegorical interpretations of images in scripture, drawn from the Hebrew bible as well as the New Testament. The bull is brief, and anyone interested in it should read the original text (see links).

Political context

The furious reaction of Philip and his ministry cannot be understood outside the context of a conflict between the increasing power of secular rulers in France and England (who had come to blows) with attempts to tax the clergy to support warfare that was no different from some of the "crusades" that had been authorized during the 13th century — against the king of Aragon for instance — save that the warfare had not been authorized by the Pope and the taxes were also to be levied on the clergy. Known for his very impulsive interference in international affairs, Boniface's stringent reaction was the fierce bull Clericis laicos of 1296.

In England, Edward I withdrew the protection of the English Common Law from the clergy, an action with fearful possibilities. Philip's ministers reacted with their own typical methods: they banished all non-French bankers from France and forbade the export of bullion from the King's territories, without exception. The supply of French money to the Roman curia dried up completely. The royal ministers and their allies circulated open letters asserting the sovereignty of the king within his realm and the duty of the Church to help in the defense of the realm.

Boniface made the tactical error of backing down from some positions. In September 1296 he sent an indignant protest to Philip headed Ineffabilis Amor, declaring that he would rather suffer death than surrender any of the rightful prerogatives of the Church; but he explained in conciliatory terms that his recent bull had not been intended to apply to any of the customary feudal taxes due the King from the lands of the Church.

Then came the Jubilee year of 1300, that filled Rome with the fervent masses of pilgrims and made up for the lack of French gold in the treasury. The following year, Philip's ministers overstepped their bounds. Bernard Saisset, the Bishop of Pamiers in Foix, the farthest southern march of Languedoc was recalcitrant and difficult. There was no love between the south, that had suffered so recently with the Albigensian Crusade, and the Frankish north. Pamiers was one of the last strongholds of the Cathars. Saisset made no secret of his disrespect for the King of France. Philip's ministry decided to make an example of the bishop. He was brought before Philip and his court, on October 24 1301, where the chancellor, Pierre Flotte, charged him with high treason, and he was placed in the keeping of the archbishop of Narbonne, his metropolitan. Before they could attack him in the courts, the royal ministry needed the Pope to remove him from his See and strip him of his clerical protections, so that he could be tried for treason. Philip IV tried to obtain from the pope this "canonical degradation". Instead, Boniface ordered the king in December 1301 to free the bishop to go to Rome to justify himself. In the Bull, Ausculta Fili ("Give ear, my son") he accused Philip of sinfully subverting the Church in France, and not in terms that were conciliatory:

"Let no one persuade you that you have no superior or that you are not subject to the head of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, for he is a fool who so thinks."

At the same time, Boniface sent out a more general bull Salvator mundi that strongly reiterated some of the same ground of Clericis laicos.

Then, at the end of the year, Boniface, with his customary tactlessness having criticized Philip for his personal behavior and the unscrupulousness of his ministry (that being an assessment with which many modern historians would agree), summoned a council of French bishops for November 1302, intended to reform Church matters in France— at Rome. Philip forbade Saisset or any of them to attend and forestalled Boniface by organizing a counter-assembly of his own, held in Paris in April 1302. Nobles, burgesses, and clergy met to denounce the Pope and pass around a crude forgery titled Deum Time ("Fear God"), which made out that Boniface claimed to be feudal overlord of France. The French clergy politely protested against Boniface's "unheard-of assertions." Boniface denied the document and its claims, but he reminded them that previous popes had deposed three French kings.

This was the atmosphere in which Unam sanctam was promulgated weeks later. Reading of the "two swords" in the Bull, one of Philip's ministers is alleged to have remarked, "My master's sword is steel; the Pope's is made of words."

The response to Unam sanctam

Boniface's reputation for always trying to increase the papal power made it difficult to accept such an extreme declaration. His assertion over the temporal was seen as hallow and misguided and it's said the document was not seen as authoritative because the body of faith did not accept it (Collins 2000 & Duffy 2002).

In response to the bull, Philip had the Dominican Jean Quidort issue a refutation. Pope Boniface reacted by excommunicating the king. Philip then called an assembly in which twenty-nine accusations against the pope were made, including infidelity, heresy, simony, gross and unnatural immorality, idolatry, magic, loss of the Holy Land, and the death of Celestine V. Five archbishops and twenty-one bishops sided with the king.

Boniface VIII could only respond by denouncing the charges; but it was already too late for him. On 7 September, 1303, the king's advisor Guillaume de Nogaret led a band of 2000 mercenaries on horse and foot. They joined locals in an attack on the palaces of the pope and his nephew at the papal residence at Anagni, the notorious "Outrage of Anagni". The Pope's attendants and his beloved nephew Francesco all soon fled; only the Spaniard Pedro Rodríguez, Cardinal of Santa Sabina, remained at his side to the end.

The palace was plundered and Boniface was nearly killed (Nogaret prevented his troops from murdering the pope). Still, Boniface was subjected to harassment and held prisoner for three days during which no one brought him food or drink. Eventually the townsfolk expelled the marauders and Boniface pardoned those who were captured. He returned to Rome on 13 September, 1303.

Despite his stoicism, Boniface was clearly shaken by the incident. He developed a violent fever and died on 11 October, 1303. In A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century, Barbara Tuchman states that his close advisors would later maintain that he died of a "profound chagrin".

Boniface VIII's successor, Benedict XI, lasted only nine months before dying in exile. The Conclave to pick his successor was in deadlock for eleven months before deciding on Pope Clement V. In an effort to please Philip IV of France, Clement moved the papacy to Avignon. From this point until around 1378 the papacy, in an effort to keep tensions loose with France, fell under the immense pressure of Philip IV's monarchy. Some theologians feel this stemmed from Boniface VIII's and Philip IV's battle against each other. Philip was said to have held a vendetta against the Roman papacy until his death (Duffy 2002).

It wasn't just the French monarchy and clergy who disapproved of Boniface and his assertions. There were many texts around Europe that attacked the bull and Boniface's bold beliefs toward the power of the papacy over the temporal. One of the more notable writers who opposed Boniface and his beliefs was the great poet Dante who was from Italian origin. His devotion lied to the need for another Roman Emperor. His treatise Monarchia attempted to refute the papacy's claim that the spiritual sword had power over the temporal sword. Dante pointed out that the Pope and Roman Emperor where both humans and no peer had power over another peer. Only a higher power could judge the two "equal swords," as each was given power by God to rule over their respected domains. Just one of his many arguments refuting the bull Unam Sanctam.

Notes

1. ^ The bull is known by its incipit: Unam sanctam ecclesiam catholicam et ipsam apostolicam urgente fide credere cogimur et tenere, nosque hanc firmiter credimus et simpliciter confitemur, extra quam nec salus est, nec remissio peccatorum... ("We are compelled, our faith urging us, to believe and to hold— and we do firmly believe and simply confess— that there is one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is neither salvation nor remission of sins...").

Collins, Paul (2000). Upon this Rock: the Popes and Their Changing Role. Melbourne UP, 150-154.

Alighieri, Dante (1998). Monarchia. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.

Duffy, Eamon (2002). Saints and Sinners: a History of the Popes. Yale UP, 158-166.

Romanus, Egidius (2004). On Ecclesiastical Power. Columbia UP.

External links

The Papal bull Unam sanctam
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15126a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: "Unam Sanctam"]

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Pope Boniface VIII (c. 1235 – October 11, 1303), born Benedetto Caetani, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303.

Biography

Caetani was born in 1235 in Anagni, c. 50 kilometers southeast of Rome.
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For specific bulls see List of papal bulls

A Papal bull is a special kind of patent or charter issued by a pope. It is named after the seal (bulla) that was appended to the end to authenticate it.
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Philip IV the Fair
King of France (more...)

Philippe IV, recumbent statue on his tomb, royal necropolis, Saint Denis Basilica
Reign 5 October 1285 – 29 November 1314
Coronation 6 January 1286, Reims
Titles Jure Uxoris
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The Latin phrase Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, means: "Outside the Church there is no salvation". This expression comes from the writings of Saint Cyprian of Carthage, a bishop of the third century.
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Temporal can refer to:

of or relating to time
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Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, involving (as it may) perceived non-physical eternal verities (or even abilities) involving humankind's ultimate nature, often contrasts with the earthly, with the material, or with the
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Giles of Rome (Latin Ægidius Romanus, or in Italian Egidio Colonna) (c. 1243 – 22 December1316, at Avignon), was an archbishop of Bourges who was famed for his logician commentary on the Organon by Aristotle.
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A Gloss–Margin text, is a note or notation (even 1-word), but often phrases, or sentences-(paragraph) found in documents, manuscripts, etc., (even clay tablets of cuneiform)(?), but especially, paper, papyrus, etc.
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As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages, and after its conquests in Asia the Mongol Empire stretched from Korea to
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Clericis laicos was a Papal bull issued on February 25, 1296 by Pope Boniface VIII in an attempt to prevent the secular states of Europe, in particular France and England, from appropriating church revenues without the express prior permission of the pope.
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Edward I
By the Grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine

Edward I depicted in Cassell's History of England (1902)
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The concept of the Jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In the Biblical book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year is mentioned to occur every fifty years, in which slaves and
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Bernard Saisset (c. 1232 – c. 1314) was an Occitan bishop of Pamiers, in the County of Foix in the south of France, whose outspoken disrespect for Philip IV of France incurred charges of high treason in the overheated atmosphere of tension between the King and his ministry
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Commune of
Foix

Château des Comtes de Foix

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Longitude 01° 36' 28" E
Latitude 42° 57' 59" N

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Country France
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For other uses, see March (disambiguation).

Mark or march (or various plural forms of these words) are derived from the Frankish word marka ("boundary") and refer to a border region, e.g.
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For the language called Langue d'oc, see .

Languedoc (pronounced /lɑ̃gdɔk/) (Lengadòc (pronounced
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The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade (1209–1229) was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the heresy of the Cathars of Languedoc.
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Catharism was a name given to a religious sect with gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th Century and flourished in the 12th and 13th Centuries.
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The former Catholic diocese of Narbonne existed from the times of Gaul to the French Revolution. It was an archdiocese, with its see at Narbonne, and its influence ran over much of south-western France and into Catalonia.
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Order of Preachers (Ordo fratrum Praedicatorum), after 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order, or Dominicans is a Catholic religious order, created by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century in France.
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John of Paris (in French Jean de Paris), also called Jean Quidort and Johannes de Soardis (c. 1255 – September 22 1306) was a French philosopher, theologian, and Dominican monk.

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John of Paris was born in Paris, France at an unknown date.
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In informal logic an objection, also known as a refutation, is a reason arguing against a premise, lemma or main contention. An objection to an objection is known as a rebuttal.

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Content

Political context

The response to Unam sanctam

Notes

External links

Events

Biography

Events

Life

See Also

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