which the papal pretensions were most offensively put forward. This document, called "the little bull," was as follows::

"Boniface, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Philip, king of the Franks. Fear God and keep his commandments. We desire you to know that you are subject to us in temporal as well as in spiritual affairs; that the appointment to benefices and prebends belongs not to you; that if you have kept benefices vacant, the profits must be reserved for the legal successors; and if you have bestowed any benefice, we declare the appointment invalid, and revoke it if executed. Those who oppose this judgment shall be deemed heretics."

Philip ordered this declaration to be publicly burned, and he published a memorable reply, which, however, was probably never sent to Rome. It is a very remarkable proof of the decline of the papal power that such a manifesto should be issued, and presented to the states-general of France, as their monarch's answer to the supreme pontiff. The letter of the king is thus given by historians :

"Philip, by the grace of God, king of the French, to Boniface, claiming to be pope, little or no greeting. May it please your sublime stupidity to learn, that we are subject to no person in temporal affairs; that the bestowing of fiefs and benefices belongs to us by right of our crown; that the disposal of the revenues of vacant sees, is part of our prerogative; that our decrees, in this respect, are valid, both for the past and for the future; and that we will support, with all our might, those on whom we have bestowed, or shall bestow, benefices. Those who oppose this judgment shall be deemed fools or idiots."

The manifestos sent to Rome by the three orders of the states-general, the nobles, the clergy, and the commons, are of greater importance to the historian than "the little bull" or the royal reply. That of the French barons was addressed to the college of cardinals; it openly accused the pope of having periled the unity of the church by his extravagant ambition, and it denied, in the strongest terms, his right to appellate jurisdiction over the kingdom of France. The clergy addressed Boniface himself in a measured and respectful tone, but they declared that they had taken a new oath to their sovereign, that they would firmly maintain the independence of his crown. The declaration of the commons has not been preserved, but like that of the nobles, it appears to have been addressed to the college of cardinals. The court of Rome was alarmed, letters of explanation were sent to the different orders, but the pope declared he would not write to the king, whom he considered subject to the sentence of excommunication.

While Boniface VIII. was thus engaged with France and its ruler, he did not lose sight of his pretensions over other kingdoms. Edward of England, having overcome the feudal turbulence of his vassals, was about to undertake the conquest of Scotland, when the holy see forbade the enterprise. Edward in reply traced his right to Scotland, up to the age of the prophet Samuel, and a synod of the English clergy declared, that the claims of their sovereign were better founded than those of the pontiff. A legate, by command of Boniface, labored to pacify Hungary, which was divided between the grandson of Charles the Lame, king of Naples, and Andrew the Venetian. On the death of the latter prince, the Hungarian barons, fearing the loss of their liberties under a king

imposed upon them by the church, elected for their sovereign the son of the king of Bavaria, and he was solemnly crowned by the archbishop of Colreza. The pope wrote fierce denunciations against the election, and even commanded the king of Bavaria to dethrone his own son. But though Hungary refused submission, the obedience of Spain consoled the pontiff; he declared the marriage of Sancho the Brave valid, after his death, and in consequence of this decision, Ferdinand IV., the eldest son of that monarch, was permitted to retain the kingdom of Castile.

Though Philip had ordered that the goods of all the clergy who quitted the kingdom should be confiscated, many of the prelates braving the penalty, proceeded to the court of Rome. Conscious that this disobedience portended a struggle between the spiritual and temporal power, the French king took the unexpected precaution of denouncing the horrors of the inquisition, and thus representing royalty as the shield of the people against the tyranny of the priesthood. Boniface, encouraged by the presence of the French bishops, yielded to the impetuosity of his passions, and issued the famous bull Ünam sanctam, in which the claims of the papacy to universal dominion are stated with more strength and precision than the court of Rome had yet ventured to use. After this document had been sanctioned by the council, a legate was sent to France, whose instructions contained the demand that the king should not oppose the prelates who wished to travel, the disposal of benefices by the holy see, or the entrance of legates into his kingdom; that he should not confiscate the properties of ecclesiastics, nor bring them to trial, before civil courts; that the king should appear in person at Rome, and answer to the charge of having burned a bull sealed with the effigies of the holy apostles; and finally, that he should recompense the losses occasioned by the depreciation of the currency, and abandon the city of Lyons to its archbishop, as an ecclesiastical fief. Philip the Fair, undaunted by the threat of excommunication, peremptorily rejected all these demands, and in his turn caused Boniface to be accused by William de Nogaret, the royal advocate, of usurpation, heresy, and simony. The advocate required that a general council should be summoned to investigate these charges, and that the pope should be detained in prison until his guilt or innocence should be decided.

Boniface was now seriously alarmed; when he ascended the throne, Celestine had declared "This cardinal, who stole like a fox into the chair of St. Peter, will have the reign of a lion, and the end of a dog ;" his violence in the struggle with the king of France, tended to realize both predictions. But it was necessary to obtain allies, and Frederic, king of Sicily, was won over to declare himself a vassal of the holy see, by obtaining the recognition of his royal title, and absolution from the many anathemas hurled against him. The emperor Albert was similarly prevailed upon to recognise the extravagant pretensions of the papacy, on obtaining a bull confirming his election; he even issued letters patent confessing that the imperial power was a boon conferred at the pleasure of the holy see. Thus strengthened, Boniface laid aside all appearance of moderation, and solemnly excommunicated the contumacious king of France.

Philip on the other hand assembled the states of his realm at the Louvre, and presented to them a new act of accusation against Boniface, in which he was charged with the most detestable and unnatural crimes. It was voted that an appeal should be made to a new pope and a general council, and so general was the disapprobation of the pontiff's ambitious schemes, that the greater part of the French ecclesiastical dignitaries, including nine cardinals, sent in their adhesion to the appeal.

Boniface met the storm with firmness; he replied to the charges urged against him with more temper than could have been anticipated, but he secretly prepared a bull of excommunication, depriving Philip of his throne, and anathematizing his posterity to the fourth generation.

This final burst of hostility was delayed until the 8th of September (A. D. 1303), when the Romish church celebrates the nativity of the blessed Virgin, and Boniface awaited the day in the city of Anagni.

On the eve of the Virgin's nativity the pope had retired to rest, having arranged his plans of vengeance for the following day; he was suddenly roused by cries of "Long live Philip! Death to Boniface!" Nogaret, at the command of the king of France, had entered Anagni with three hundred cavaliers, and being joined by some of the townsmen, was forcing his way into the palace. Sciarra Colonna and Nogaret rushed together into the chamber of Boniface; they found the old man clothed in his pontifical robes, seated on his throne, waiting their approach with unshaken dignity. They made him their prisoner, and prepared for his removal to France until a general council. But Nogaret having unwisely delayed three days at Anagni, the citizens and the neighboring peasants united to liberate the pontiff; Colonna and his French allies were forced to abandon their prey, and could only save their lives by a rapid flight. Boniface hastened to Rome; but fatigue, anxiety, and vexation, brought on a violent fever, which soon put an end to his troubled life.

The reign of Boniface was fatal to the papal power; he exaggerated its pretensions at the moment when the world had begun to discover the weakness of its claims; in the attempt to extend his influence further than any of his predecessors, he exhausted the sources of his strength, and none of his successors, however ardent, ventured to revive pretensions which had excited so many wars, shed so much blood, and dethroned so many kings. The priesthood and the empire, fatigued by so long and disastrous a struggle, desired tranquillity, but tranquillity was for the court of Rome a political death. The illusion of its own omnipotence vanished with the agitations by which it had been produced, and new principles of action began to be recognised in its policy.

The death of Boniface marks an important era in the history of Popery; from this time we shall see it concentrating its strength, and husbanding its resources; fighting only on the defensive, it no longer provokes the hostility of kings, or seeks cause of quarrel with the emperors. The bulls that terrified Christendom must repose as literary curiosities in the archives of St. Angelo, and though the claims to universal supremacy will not be renounced, there will be no effort made to enforce them. A few pontiffs will be found now and then reviving

the claims of Gregory, of Innocent, and of Boniface; but their attempts will be found desultory and of brief duration, like the last flashes, fierce but few, that break out from the ashes of a conflagration.

Benedict XI., the successor of Boniface, hasted to exhibit proofs of the moderation which results from defeat. Without waiting for any solicitation, he absolved Philip the Fair from the anathemas fulminated against him by Boniface; recalled the Colonnas from exile, and encouraged the Roman people to restore the ancient inheritance of that illustrious family; finally, he exerted himself to reconcile the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Tuscany, but unfortunately without effect. His early death prepared the way for a new crisis, in which the political system of the papacy was destined to suffer greater shocks than any to which it had been yet exposed, and to give fresh proofs that it could not be improved, even by the stern lessons of adversity.

SECTION XIV.-State of England and the Northern Kingdoms at the Commencement of the Fourteenth Century.

WILLIAM the Conqueror reduced the Saxon population of England to the most degrading state of vassalage, but he could not destroy the love and memory of their ancient laws and liberties retained by the nation. His sons, William Rufus, and Henry I., were successively enabled to seize the throne in prejudice of the rights of their elder brother Robert, by promising to restore the ancient laws of the kingdom. Henry, to conciliate the English more effectually, married a princess of Saxon descent; on his death he bequeathed the crown to the surviving child by this marriage, Matilda, the wife of Geoffry Plantagenet, earl of Anjou. This arrangement was defeated by the usurpation of Stephen: England was convulsed by a civil war, which was terminated by Stephen's adopting Henry, Matilda's son, as his successor.

Henry II., the first of the Plantagenet dynasty, on ascending the throne, united to England the dutchy of Normandy, the county of Anjou, and the fairest provinces of northwestern France (A. D. 1154). To these he added the more important acquisition of Ireland, partly by a papal donation, and partly by right of conquest.

Ireland was at this period divided into five petty sovereignties, whose monarchs harassed each other by mutual wars, and could rarely be induced to combine for their common interest. The island had been frequently devastated, and once completely subdued, by the Danes; several septs of these foreigners retained possession of the chief commercial cities, and even the king of Man was formidable to a country distracted by intestine wars. When their Norman brethren conquered England, the Danes in Ireland entered into a close correspondence with William and his successors, a circumstance which probably first suggested to Henry the notion of conquering the island. He applied to the pope for a sanction of his enterprise. Adrian, the only Englishman that ever filled the papal throne, was at that time the reigning pontiff; his desire to gratify his native sovereign was stimulated by his anxiety to extend the papal authority. The Irish church had been long independent of Rome; and the connexion between its prelates and the papacy was as yet insecure; it was therefore on the condition of

subjecting Ireland to the jurisdiction of the Romish church that a bull was issued, granting Henry permission to invade the country. The bitter feuds in the Plantagenet family, and the state of his continental dominions, long prevented the English monarch from availing himself of this permission. At length Dermod, king of Leinster, driven from his dominions by a rival sovereign, sought English aid, and was permitted to engage the services of Strongbow, and some other military adventurers, on condition of doing homage for his kingdom to Henry. The rapid successes of Strongbow awakened Henry's jealousy; he went to Ireland in person, and received the submission of its principal sovereigns (A. D. 1172). He returned without completing the conquest of the country, a circumstance productive of much misery and bloodshed through several successive centuries.

The reign of Richard I. was a period of little importance in English history; but that of his brother and successor, the profligate John, led to the most important results. The barons, provoked by his tyranny and his vices, took up arms, and compelled him to sign the Great Charter, which laid the first permanent foundation of British freedom; the pope forced him to resign his crown, and to receive it back again, only on condition of vassalage to the holy see, while Philip Augustus took advantage of these circumstances to deprive the English monarchs of most of their continental possessions. John's death saved England from becoming a province of France: absolved by Pope Innocent III. from his oath, he ventured to abrogate the Great Charter, upon which the English barons proffered the crown to Louis, the eldest son of Philip Augustus, who invaded England with the fairest prospects of success. John was completely defeated (A. D. 1216); he fled toward Scotland, but died upon the road. The English, already disgusted, with their French allies, embraced this opportunity of rallying round Prince Henry, and Louis was glad to conclude a treaty for abandoning the island.

Henry III. was a monarch wholly void of energy; it was his misfortune to fill the throne at one of the most turbulent periods of English history, without talents to command respect, or resolution to enforce obedience. During his long reign, England was engaged in few foreign wars, but these were generally unfortunate. On the other hand, the country was agitated by internal commotions during the greater part of the fifty years that he swayed the sceptre. The discontent of the prelates and barons at the favor that the king showed to foreigners induced them to form an association, by which the king was virtually deposed, and the supreme authority vested in a committee of peers, with the earl of Leicester at its head. Leicester introduced an important change into the constitution, by summoning representatives of counties, cities, and boroughs, to unite with the barons in the great council of the nation (A. D. 1265). This innovation laid the basis for the house of commons, which henceforth had an increasing share in English legislation. The tyranny of the barons being found less endurable than that of the king, Henry was restored to his former power; and his authority seemed fixed so permanently, that Prince Edward led an armament to the Holy Land, in aid of the last crusade of St. Louis. Henry died during his son's absence (A. D. 1272); but though two