Boniface VIII, The Bull UNAM SANCTAM, 1302
POPE
BONIFACE VIII (r.1294-1303) believed that all authority derived from
GOD, and that the POPE, as the VICAR (Or Lieutenant) Of Christ, was the HIGHEST Embodiment OF HIS WILL on EARTH.
As such, he believed that PAPAL Authority was superior to that of secular rulers, who Boniface argued derived their
right to RULE FROM GOD and therefore from the POPE, to whom every HUMAN
Being should be subject as to CARETAKER of their SOULS and the
Assurance of their SALVATION.
His belief in PAPAL
SUPREMACY BROUGHT HIM INTO FREQUENT CONFLICT with secular rulers and
divided EUROPE into factions that either supported papal supremacy or
favored the separation of church and state. The most important clash
pitted Boniface against the Centralizing MONARCH, Philip IV the FAIR of
FRANCE 1285-1314), in a struggle for control of the CHURCH'S REVENUES
and for authority over the clergy in FRANCE. To build support for his
resistance to the papacy, in APRIL 1302 Philip
convoked a precursor of the Estates General by inviting representatives of the clergy, the nobility,
and the wealthiest towns to PARIS.
issued his BULL, SANCTUM, in which he declared and Justified the Superiority of PAPAL AUTHORITY to that of the KING, in part with reference to the theory of the TWO SWORDS.
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