Papal Bull

 

   I was around for the Kennedy vs Nixon election in 1960. I was too young to vote but I did follow the election closely since Kennedy was a fellow Bay Stater. One of the arguments against Kennedy was that as a Catholic, he would be under the thumb of the pope. That was ludicrous, but back in the Middle Ages it would have been a legitimate concern.

  Look at Pope Boniface VIII. In 1302 he declared you couldn’t even get into Heaven unless you did everything he said. It hadn’t always been like that. The first few popes were saintly men who avoided politics. They ministered to their flock while trying to avoid state persecution. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century and the money and perks began to flow, everything changed.

  By the eighth century various kings and emperors began donating parcels of land to the church for political reasons, and the Pope eventually became a major player in European affairs. The Pope had his own army to back up his will. The other major players at the time were France and the Holy Roman Empire (modern Germany) with England messing about on the fringes.

  It was a dispute with the king of France that led Boniface to issue his pronouncement or bull on this day in 1302 telling every one he was boss. The French King, Philip the Fair had started taxing the French clergy at a rate of 50% which doesn’t sound very fair. Boniface got upset because he was counting on that money to run his own country.

  The dispute with Philip had been going on for years before Boniface issued his bull. He tried diplomacy first and when that didn’t work Boniface excommunicated Philip. Philip in turn convinced the French upper clergy to proclaim Boniface a sinner. 

  One of Philip’s advisors gathered a gang of mercenaries and attacked Boniface’s home castle outside Rome. They locked Boniface up for three days without food until his supporters were able to rescue him. Boniface returned to St. Peter’s in Rome but died a few months later of a ”profound chagrin”.

  Then the really crazy stuff began. The new pope was French and he moved his throne north to Avignon in present day France. Seventy years and six popes later the pope moved back to Rome then quickly changed his mind and headed back to Avignon which precipitated a crisis leading to a spell of three popes at the same time.

  The Catholic Church itself is a bit fuzzy about who was a real pope and who wasn’t. It must be embarrassing. Here is an explanation from the Vatican's PR department. "Dear people, there have been 260 popes give or take an anti-pope or two. It all happened so long ago and isn’t our present pope such a lovely pope? Now please enjoy your visit to Vatican City."

Things move slowly in Vatican City. The marble list is two popes behind.