The Elasticity and Rigidity of Europe - Strengthened Monarchs and Their Adaptations - The Road to Avignon

5 important questions on The Elasticity and Rigidity of Europe - Strengthened Monarchs and Their Adaptations - The Road to Avignon

What did Philip and Boniface fight about?

  • The issue that first set Philip and Boniface at loggerheads involved the English king Edward I as well: taxation of the clergy. Eager to finance new wars, chiefly against each other, both monarchs needed money.
  • When the kings paid for their wars by taxing the clergy as if they were going on crusade, Boniface reacted, threatening to excommunicate both clergymen who paid taxes to the king and kings who demanded such taxes.
  • The kings forced Boniface to back down.

How did the fight between Philip and Boniface escalate in 1301? How did it end?

  • Philip precipitated another crisis when he tested his jurisdiction in southern France by arresting a bishop there on a charge of treason.
  • Boniface responded to the arrest by issuing the bull Unam sanctam (1302), which declared that "it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human being to be subject to the Roman Pontiff."
  • Philip sent his agents to invade Boniface's palace at Anagni (southeast of Rome).
  • A month later, Boniface died, and the next two popes quickly pardoned Philip and his men.

How did papal authority change from the fight?

  • The papacy was never the same. The popes settled at Avignon in 1309.
  • In some ways, papal authority grew during this time: the Avignon papacy established an efficient organization that took in regular revenues and gave the papacy more say than ever before in the appointment of churchmen and the distribution of Church benefices and revenues.
  • It became the unchallenged judge of sainthood, and the Dominicans and Franciscans became its food soldiers in the evangelization of the world and the purification of Christendom.
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How was the Avignon papacy called?

The Avignon papacy was mocked and vilified by contemporaries. Francis Petrarch called the Avignon papacy the "Babylonian Captivity," referring to 2 Kings 25:11, when the ancient Hebrews were exiled and held captive in Babylonia.

What did popes start to recognize?

Pliant and accommodating to the rulers of Europe, especially the kings of France, the popes were slowly abandoning the idea of leading all of Christendom and were coming to recognize the right of secular states to regulate their internal affairs.

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