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(14 15-1436). Printing is invented
( 1454), large cities arise, tbe age of
exploration is in full swing and a
new humanism is becoming evident.
The Renaissance is about to reach
its most intense period.
The papacy, which could destroy
emperors
in
1250, is fighting for its
existence as early as 1300. The first
dagger to strike the papacy comes
from the French king, Philip IV, in
1303. Philip
TV
is one who is not
happy with papal claims to univer–
sal supremacy. In particular, he
wants to tax the clergy and eccle–
siastical property to finance a war
with England. When Philip refuses
to annul the tax laws, Pope Boniface
issues his famous
Unam Sanctam
of
1302. In the bull, he tells Philip that
"the temporal authority must be
subjected to the spiritual."
PLAIN TRUTH March 1974
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force.
Philip, secure in his k:nowledge
that France and the nobility are be–
hind him, charges Boniface with
every crime imaginable. He then
calls for a General Council to judge
and depose Boniface. Livid with
rage, Boniface prepares a bull ex–
communicating King Philip and
laying aU France under papal inter–
dict.
But Philip is not Frederick II;
France is not Germany; and 1303 is
not 1250. Philip hatches a plot to
kidnap the Pope before he can issue
his excommunication order. From
this time, the papacy is at the merey
of the French monarchy.
Two years later, Philip engineers
the election of a Frenchman to the
papal throne, Clement V (1305-
1314), who takes up residence at
Avignon,
in
southern France. This
so-called "Babylonian Captivity" of
the Catholic Chu rch lasts until
1376.
The chaos in the Catholic Church
continues with the Great Schism
(1378-1418). French cardinals elect
anti-popes who reside at Avignon,
while others reside at Rome. The
schism is not healed until the Coun–
cil of Constance deposes pope and
anti-pope and finally elects a pope
everyone accepts, Martín V (1417-
1431).
Sorne measure of dignity has
been restored to the Papal See.
Meanwhile, the German empire is
on the threshold of a new reviva!
under the Austrian House of Habs–
burg. The Holy Roman Empire will
once again ascend to the pinnacle of
power in Europe, but in a startlingly
ditferent form. O
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