The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri
XXX INTRODUCTION. Hermit of Merrone. After much hesitation the aged recluse accepted his marvellous metamorphosis, and was crowned Pope under the title of Celestine V. But the cares of sovranty and worldly intrigues were so unsuited to the dreamer of the mountains that he soon abandoned his uncongenial dignity and retired again from the world.
This abdication seems to have been prompted by the purest motives, but Dante could not appreciate such a lack of energetic qualities, and amidst the miserable Angel crew, who sided neither with God nor Lucifer, he places the unfortunate recluse whom hostile Fate had made a Pope : — " I looked, and there his shadow met my view, Who made the great refusal fear advised. Straightway I understood, and surely knew.
That this was that most miserable band, Hateful to God and to His enemies too. « Hell," III., lines 59—63. The cardinal, who was reputed to have both secured the election and prompted the retirement of Celestine, obtained the succession for himself, and as Boniface VIIT. entered like a fox into the holy See, where he was to govern like a lion and die like a dog.
Still alive in 1300, at the supposed date of Dante's vision, the poet ingeniously prefigures his certain fate by putting into the mouth of Nicholas III. the welcome to Hell of his mighty successor. — Canto XIX., lines 53 — 7. Boniface revived the traditions of Papal supremacy arrogated by Gregory VII., and his reign was a continued contest with the monarchs of his time, the Emperor Albert and Philip the Fair of France.
Adolphus, who had been elected Emperor on the death of Rodolph, was shortly deposed by the Electors and Albert chosen in his place. His success was followed by a decisive victory in the field, in which Adolphus was slain by his rival, and Albert, to prevent cavil, went through the form of a second election, and was crowned King of the Eomans in 1298.
Pope Boniface, however, would acknowledge no such mutations in the Western Empire for which his concurrence had not been obtained, and refusing the investiture to Albert he received his ambassador with the
INTRODUCTION. xxxi crown of Charlemagne on his own head, declaring that he was the Emperor.
For five years he stirred up the Electors by his intrigues to resist the rule of Albert, and undertake another election ; and it was only when his quarrel with Philip the Fair rendered it necessary for him to moderate his tone, that in order to obtain Albert's alliance he at length recognised his rule and invited him to Eome to receive at his hands the Imperial crown.
By this time the contest between the Pope and the French king had become of long standing. It had commenced with an attempt on the part of Boniface to prevent Philip from levying taxes from his clergy when engaged in war with our Edward I.
In reply the resolute monarch past a law that no money might be transported from his kingdom on any account, and thus cut off the ample revenues which the Popes had previously drawn from the wealthy Gallican Church. Boniface on this occasion endeavoured to conciliate his opponent, and the storm that had been brewing blew over for a time.
But the imperious Pope was now engaged by war in the very Lateran : — " The leader of the modem Pharisees Being at war within the Lateran, And neither with the Saracens or Jews, For of his foes each was a Christian man. " HeU," XXVII., lines 85—8. Two Cardinals of the Colonna family declared the illegality of Pope Celestine's abdication, and the consequent nullity of his successor's election.
It was enough to make Boniface determine on the total destruction of that princely house. The Cardinals were degraded, a crusade preached against the family, their houses destroyed, and their stronghold of Palestrina, obtained under false pretences, " scant execution of a promise strong," was levelled to the ground.
This episode in the life of Boniface is related in the twenty- seventh Canto of " Hell," where the old partisan leader, Guido da Montefeltro, is introduced as suffering for the fraudulent advice he gave to Boniface on this occasion. The retreat of the proscribed Cardinals to France stung to the quick the haughty Pontiff xxxii INTRODUCTION. against his former foe. Philip was threatened with excommTinication, and the Pope, as God's vicegerent upon earth, offered his kingdom to Albert, the German Emperor. Philip determined now to enlist his whole people in the struggle. The Three Estates were for the first time called in France, and unanimously supported their monarch in his resistance to the Papal encroachments.
The Pope then published a Bull explicitly asserting the supremacy of the Church over kings and princes. The Bull was burnt publicly by Philip, now secure of the support of his people, and before a second meeting of the Three Estates the Pope was charged with every imaginable iniquity, and a General Council was appealed to, as well as the future Pope, to be lawfully elected.
Boni£Etce now retorted by excommunicating Philip, and decreeing that his kingdom had past into the hands of Albert. But the days of Gregory VII. had now past by, and the thunders of the Vatican fell harmlessly on a united king and people. Boniface, mistrusting the citizens of Eome, retired to his native town of Anagni, where he thought that his person would be more safe from insult in the deadly struggle he had courted.
But Italy was now full of French troops, led by the banished Colonna Cardinals, and encouraged by the disaffected Ghibeline leaders. Boniface fell into the very fate he sought to avoid, and was taken prisoner in Anagni by the French forces, under his most inveterate enemy, the injured Sciarra Colonna.
Although he was released in a few days, and returned to Rome, so heavily did the blow fall upon his proud heart that it affected his reason : visions of armed men breaking in on his privacy were ever passing through his mind, and amidst paroxysms of despairing rage he died within a few months of the outrage, A.D. 1303, which proved to him a deathblow by showing that not only the supremacy but the personal sanctity of the Popes had past away.
This act of sacrilege, as it was then considered, was viewed with horror even by the Ghibelines, and Dante, whose hostile spirit to Boniface is evident throughout his poem, makes the shade of Hugh Capet in
XXX INTRODUCTION. Hermit of Merrone. After much hesitation the aged recluse accepted his marvellous metamorphosis, and was crowned Pope under the title of Celestine V. But the cares of sovranty and worldly intrigues were so unsuited to the dreamer of the mountains that he soon abandoned his uncongenial dignity and retired again from the world.
This abdication seems to have been prompted by the purest motives, but Dante could not appreciate such a lack of energetic qualities, and amidst the miserable Angel crew, who sided neither with God nor Lucifer, he places the unfortunate recluse whom hostile Fate had made a Pope : — " I looked, and there his shadow met my view, Who made the great refusal fear advised. Straightway I understood, and surely knew.
That this was that most miserable band, Hateful to God and to His enemies too. « Hell," III., lines 59—63. The cardinal, who was reputed to have both secured the election and prompted the retirement of Celestine, obtained the succession for himself, and as Boniface VIIT. entered like a fox into the holy See, where he was to govern like a lion and die like a dog.
Still alive in 1300, at the supposed date of Dante's vision, the poet ingeniously prefigures his certain fate by putting into the mouth of Nicholas III. the welcome to Hell of his mighty successor. — Canto XIX., lines 53 — 7. Boniface revived the traditions of Papal supremacy arrogated by Gregory VII., and his reign was a continued contest with the monarchs of his time, the Emperor Albert and Philip the Fair of France.
Adolphus, who had been elected Emperor on the death of Rodolph, was shortly deposed by the Electors and Albert chosen in his place. His success was followed by a decisive victory in the field, in which Adolphus was slain by his rival, and Albert, to prevent cavil, went through the form of a second election, and was crowned King of the Eomans in 1298.
Pope Boniface, however, would acknowledge no such mutations in the Western Empire for which his concurrence had not been obtained, and refusing the investiture to Albert he received his ambassador with the
INTRODUCTION. xxxi crown of Charlemagne on his own head, declaring that he was the Emperor.
For five years he stirred up the Electors by his intrigues to resist the rule of Albert, and undertake another election ; and it was only when his quarrel with Philip the Fair rendered it necessary for him to moderate his tone, that in order to obtain Albert's alliance he at length recognised his rule and invited him to Eome to receive at his hands the Imperial crown.
By this time the contest between the Pope and the French king had become of long standing. It had commenced with an attempt on the part of Boniface to prevent Philip from levying taxes from his clergy when engaged in war with our Edward I.
In reply the resolute monarch past a law that no money might be transported from his kingdom on any account, and thus cut off the ample revenues which the Popes had previously drawn from the wealthy Gallican Church. Boniface on this occasion endeavoured to conciliate his opponent, and the storm that had been brewing blew over for a time.
But the imperious Pope was now engaged by war in the very Lateran : — " The leader of the modem Pharisees Being at war within the Lateran, And neither with the Saracens or Jews, For of his foes each was a Christian man. " HeU," XXVII., lines 85—8. Two Cardinals of the Colonna family declared the illegality of Pope Celestine's abdication, and the consequent nullity of his successor's election.
It was enough to make Boniface determine on the total destruction of that princely house. The Cardinals were degraded, a crusade preached against the family, their houses destroyed, and their stronghold of Palestrina, obtained under false pretences, " scant execution of a promise strong," was levelled to the ground.
This episode in the life of Boniface is related in the twenty- seventh Canto of " Hell," where the old partisan leader, Guido da Montefeltro, is introduced as suffering for the fraudulent advice he gave to Boniface on this occasion. The retreat of the proscribed Cardinals to France stung to the quick the haughty Pontiff xxxii INTRODUCTION. against his former foe. Philip was threatened with excommTinication, and the Pope, as God's vicegerent upon earth, offered his kingdom to Albert, the German Emperor. Philip determined now to enlist his whole people in the struggle. The Three Estates were for the first time called in France, and unanimously supported their monarch in his resistance to the Papal encroachments.
The Pope then published a Bull explicitly asserting the supremacy of the Church over kings and princes. The Bull was burnt publicly by Philip, now secure of the support of his people, and before a second meeting of the Three Estates the Pope was charged with every imaginable iniquity, and a General Council was appealed to, as well as the future Pope, to be lawfully elected.
Boni£Etce now retorted by excommunicating Philip, and decreeing that his kingdom had past into the hands of Albert. But the days of Gregory VII. had now past by, and the thunders of the Vatican fell harmlessly on a united king and people. Boniface, mistrusting the citizens of Eome, retired to his native town of Anagni, where he thought that his person would be more safe from insult in the deadly struggle he had courted.
But Italy was now full of French troops, led by the banished Colonna Cardinals, and encouraged by the disaffected Ghibeline leaders. Boniface fell into the very fate he sought to avoid, and was taken prisoner in Anagni by the French forces, under his most inveterate enemy, the injured Sciarra Colonna.
Although he was released in a few days, and returned to Rome, so heavily did the blow fall upon his proud heart that it affected his reason : visions of armed men breaking in on his privacy were ever passing through his mind, and amidst paroxysms of despairing rage he died within a few months of the outrage, A.D. 1303, which proved to him a deathblow by showing that not only the supremacy but the personal sanctity of the Popes had past away.
This act of sacrilege, as it was then considered, was viewed with horror even by the Ghibelines, and Dante, whose hostile spirit to Boniface is evident throughout his poem, makes the shade of Hugh Capet in
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