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Crisis in the Late Medieval Church

Boniface VIII

Whereas Philip was threatened by the strong English king (Edward I), Boniface was threatened by internal enemies, going back to the circumstances of his election as pope.

Pope Nicholas IV had died in 1292. The city of Rome was at this time split between two powerful families: the Colonna and the Orsini. The College of Cardinals consisted mainly of Italian prelates and most of these belonged or were under the influence of one or the other of these two families. Between them, the Orsini and Colonna deadlocked negotiations for a new pope.

Two years went by and still no pope had been elected. It was causing something of a scandal among the faithful. Various compromise candidates had been proposed, but none were found to be acceptable until July 1294, when someone suggested a hermit of some note who was living in a cave near Naples. The fellow was old, utterly devout, and clearly could not be regarded as the man of either party. So the cardinals traipsed up the mountain and delivered the good news to the hermit, who was utterly devastated. He did not want the honor and begged them to go away, but they insisted. Seeing it as his duty and God's will, he went to Rome and took the name of Celestine V.

It was a disaster. The man was unfit for the office and within weeks administrative chaos had broken out. Humiliated and ashamed, within a year Celestine resigned his office and returned to his cave, leaving the cardinals back where they'd started. One of the men who had encouraged him to resign was one Benedict Gaetani, who was soon after elected pope himself, taking the name of Boniface VIII.

The Gaetani were enemies of the Colonna family, and Boniface immediately set about hounding them out of town and out of their wealth. They were behind many of the plots against him that would come later. Not only they, but others as well, murmured that a pope could not resign and that Boniface's election was therefore invalid.

Up in France, as Boniface began making trouble there, King Philip was inclined to agree with that position.