The last act of the drama was soon played. Philip sent his
emissaries into Italy to arrest the pope and bring him to trial before a
general council in France. At Anagni, near Rome, a band of hireling soldiers
stormed the papal palace and made Boniface a prisoner. The citizens of Anagni
soon freed him, but the shock of the humiliation broke the old man's spirit and
he died soon afterwards. The poet Dante, in the Divine Comedy,
speaks with awe of the outrage: "Christ had been again crucified among
robbers; and the vinegar and gall had been again pressed to his lips". [4]
The historian sees in this event the end of the temporal power of the Papacy.
[4] Purgatorio, xx, 88-90.
THE "BABYLONION CAPTIVITY," 1309-1377 A.D.
Soon after the death of Boniface, Philip succeeded in
having the archbishop of Bordeaux chosen as head of the Church. The new pope
removed the papal court to Avignon, a town just outside the French frontier of
those days. The popes lived in Avignon for nearly seventy years. This period is
usually described as the "Babylonian Captivity" of the Church, a name
which recalls the exile of the Jews from their native land. The long
absence of the popes from Rome lessened their power, and the suspicion that
they were the mere vassals of the French crown seriously impaired the respect
in which they had been held.
