Background
Boniface VIII viewed conflict between England and France as a particularly grave matter. As long as France was at war, it was less likely to be able to offer him any assistance in Italy, and both were unlikely to participate in any expedition to the Holy Land. The hostilities with France also brought increased exactions on the English church to finance them. Benedict sent cardinal nuncios to each court in hope of a brokered truce, [1] but their efforts were unsuccessful.
At a time when the laity were taxed an eleventh on their movable goods, or a seventh if they lived in town or on a royal demesne, the clergy, under Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Winchelsey, offered a tenth for national defense. King Edward I declined and suggested rather a quarter or a third. [1]
The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 reiterated a principle, found in the Lateran Council of 1179, [1] that a secular power might not tax Church property without first obtaining permission from the pope. It had become accepted practice. Philip IV had himself observed it in 1288 in collecting a tenth over three years. With the war with Edward I, however, he dispensed with the formality and so triggered protests from the French clergy and complaints to Rome.
Content
The bull decreed that all prelates or other ecclesiastical superiors who under whatsoever pretext or color shall not, without authority from the Holy See, pay to laymen any part of their income or of the revenue of the Church, likewise all emperors, kings, dukes, counts, etc. who shall exact or receive such payments, incur eo ipso the sentence of excommunication. [2]
James F. Loughlin, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1903), sees this as expressing two underlying principles: (1) That the clergy should enjoy equally with the laity the right of determining the need and the amount of their subsidies to the Crown; and (2) That the head of the Church ought to be consulted when there was question of diverting the revenues of the Church to secular purposes. [3]
The Bull was criticized for the vehemence of its tone, [4] for its exaggerated indictment of the hostile attitude of the laity of all ages towards the clergy, and for its failure to make clear the distinction between the revenues of the purely ecclesiastical benefices and the "lay fees" held by the clergy on feudal tenure. Unscrupulous advisers of Philip were quick to take advantage of the Pope's hasty language and, by forcing him to make explanations, put him on the defensive and weakened his prestige. [3]
Clericis laicos was a reminder of the traditional principle. Surprised by the strong reaction of the French crown and pressure from the French bishops seeking a compromise, [5] in July 1297 Boniface issued another bull, Etsi de statu , which allowed lay taxation of clergy without papal consent in cases of emergency. [6]
Nonetheless, Clericis laicos was included by Pope Boniface in his collection of canon law, the Liber sextus decretalium. Only after the death of Boniface's successor, Benedict XI, would the canonists begin treating the bull as truly revoked. [7]
The Fourth Council of the Lateran or Lateran IV was convoked by Pope Innocent III in April 1213 and opened at the Lateran Palace in Rome on 11 November 1215. Due to the great length of time between the council's convocation and its meeting, many bishops had the opportunity to attend this council, which is considered by the Catholic Church to be the twelfth ecumenical council. The council addressed a number of issues, including the sacraments, the role of the laity, the treatment of Jews and heretics, and the organization of the church.
Pope Boniface VIII was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 December 1294 to his death, in 1303. The Caetani family was of baronial origin, with connections to the papacy. He succeeded Pope Celestine V, who had abdicated from the papal throne. Boniface spent his early career abroad in diplomatic roles.
Pope Clement V, born Raymond Bertrand de Got, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 5 June 1305 to his death, in April 1314. He is remembered for suppressing the order of the Knights Templar and allowing the execution of many of its members. Clement moved the Papacy from Rome to Avignon, ushering in the period known as the Avignon Papacy.
The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by Philip IV of France. Following the subsequent death of Pope Benedict XI, Philip forced a deadlocked conclave to elect the French Clement V as pope in 1305. Clement refused to move to Rome, and in 1309 he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon, where it remained for the next 67 years. This absence from Rome is sometimes referred to as the "Babylonian captivity of the Papacy".
Robert Winchelsey was an English Catholic theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury. He studied at the universities of Paris and Oxford, and later taught at both. Influenced by Thomas Aquinas, he was a scholastic theologian.
Unam sanctam is a papal bull that was issued by Pope Boniface VIII on 18 November 1302. It laid down dogmatic propositions on the unity of the Catholic Church, the necessity of belonging to it for eternal salvation, the position of the Pope as supreme head of the Church and the duty thence arising of submission to the Pope in order to belong to the Church and thus to attain salvation. The Pope further emphasized the higher position of the spiritual in comparison with the secular order. The historian Brian Tierney calls it "probably the most famous" document on church and state in medieval Europe. The original document is lost, but a version of the text can be found in the registers of Boniface VIII in the Vatican Archives. The bull was the definitive statement of the late medieval theory of hierocracy, which argued for the temporal as well as spiritual supremacy of the pope.
Decretals are letters of a pope that formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law of the Catholic Church.
Disputatio inter clericum et militem is a dialogue, written in France between 1296 and 1303. Although anonymous, it could have been written by John of Paris, master of the University of Paris. The treatise examines the relationship between Church and King through a fictional dialogue between a Priest and a Knight.
The Corpus Juris Canonici is a collection of significant sources of the Canon law of the Catholic Church that was applicable to the Latin Church. It was replaced by the 1917 Code of Canon Law which went into effect in 1918. The 1917 Code was later replaced by the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the codification of canon law currently in effect for the Latin Church.
Guido de Baysio was an Italian canonist.
The Liber Septimus may refer to one of three Catholic canon law collections of quite different value from a legal standpoint which are known by this title.
Plenitudo potestatis was a term employed by medieval canonists to describe the jurisdictional power of the papacy. In the thirteenth century, the canonists used the term plenitudo potestatis to characterize the power of the pope within the church, or, more rarely, the pope's prerogative in the secular sphere. However, during the thirteenth century the pope's plenitudo potestatis expanded as the Church became increasingly centralized, and the pope's presence made itself felt every day in legislation, judicial appeals, and finance.
Rome was in disorder due to the ongoing conflict between the Colonna and the Orsini. As soon as Holy Week was over, to escape the violence, Benedict XI withdrew to Perugia, where he died that summer, probably of dysentery. The protracted papal conclave held from 10 or 17 July 1304 to 5 June 1305 in Perugia elected non-cardinal Raymond Bertrand de Got as Pope Clement V. At the time of his election de Got was Archbishop of Bordeaux, and thus a subject of Edward I, King of England, although he was a childhood friend of Philip IV of France. Clement V's decision to relocate the papacy to France was one of the most contested issues in the papal conclave, 1314–1316 following his death, during which the minority of Italian cardinals were unable to engineer the return of the papacy to Rome. This immediately preceded the beginning of the Avignon Papacy.
The Council of Bourges was a Catholic council convened in November 1225 in Bourges, France; it was the second largest church assembly held in the West up to that time, exceeded in the numbers of prelates that attended only by the Fourth Lateran Council. Summoned by the cardinal-legate Romanus Bonaventura, it was attended by 112 archbishops and bishops, more than 500 abbots, many deans and archdeacons, and over 100 representatives of cathedral chapters.
Papal income tax was first levied in 1199 by Pope Innocent III, originally requiring all Catholic clergy to pay one-fortieth of their ecclesiastical income annually in support of the Crusades. The second income tax was not levied until the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, and constituted only a triennial twentieth.
The Taxatio Ecclesiastica, often referred to as the Taxatio Nicholai or just the Taxatio, compiled in 1291–92 under the order of Pope Nicholas IV, is a detailed database valuation for ecclesiastical taxation of English, Welsh, and Irish parish churches and prebends.
Simon de Beaulieu was a French bishop and Roman Catholic Cardinal. He was the son of Guy, Sieur de Beaulieu and of Agnes. Simon's brother, Jean, was Abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Notre Dame-de-Jouy in the diocese of Sens. Simon had another brother, Raoul, who was also buried (1286) at Jouy along with their mother.
In the Middle Ages, hierocracy or papalism was a current of Latin legal and political thought that argued that the pope held supreme authority over not just spiritual, but also temporal affairs. In its full, late medieval form, hierocratic theory posited that since Christ was lord of the universe and both king and priest, and the pope was his earthly vicar, the pope must also possess both spiritual and temporal authority over everybody in the world. Papalist writers at the turn of the 14th century such as Augustinus Triumphus and Giles of Rome depicted secular government as a product of human sinfulness that originated, by necessity, in tyrannical usurpation, and could be redeemed only by submission to the superior spiritual sovereignty of the pope. At the head of the Catholic Church, responsible to no other jurisdiction except God, the pope, they argued, was the monarch of a universal kingdom whose power extended to Christians and non-Christians alike.
Crusades against Christians were Christian religious wars dating from the 11th century First Crusade when papal reformers began equating the universal church with the papacy. Later in the 12th century focus changed onto heretics and schismatics rather than infidels. Holy wars were fought in northern France, against King Roger II of Sicily, various heretics, their protectors, mercenary bands and the first political crusade against Markward of Anweiler. Full crusading apparatus was deployed against Christians in the conflict with the Cathar heretics of southern France and their Christian protectors in the 13th . This was given equivalence with the Eastern crusades and supported by developments such as the creation of the Papal States. The aims were to make the crusade indulgence available to the laity, the reconfiguration of Christian society, and ecclesiastical taxation.
Ad fructus uberes was a papal bull issued by Pope Martin IV on 13 December 1281. It affirmed the right of friars to hear confessions and preach without secular authorisation. The bull was met with fierce opposition from French bishops in particular, who questioned if it contradicted Omnius utriusque sexus.
