In August, 1193, Philip Augustus, king of France, married Ingeborg, second sister of King Knut VI. of Denmark. At the time Philip was contemplating an invasion of England and hoped through the marriage to assure himself of Danish aid. Circumstances soon changed his plans, however, and almost immediately he began to treat his new wife coldly, with the obvious purpose of forcing her to return to her brother's court. Failing in this, he convened his nobles and bishops at Compiègne and got from them a decree of divorce, on the flimsy pretext that the marriage with Ingeborg had been illegal on account of the latter's distant relationship to Elizabeth of Hainault, Philip's first wife. Ingeborg and her brother appealed to Rome, and Pope Celestine III. dispatched letter after letter and legate after legate to the French court, but without result. Indeed, after three years, Philip, to clinch the matter, as he thought, married Agnes of Meran, daughter of a Bavarian nobleman, and shut up Ingeborg in a convent at Soissons. In 1198, while the affair stood thus, Celestine died and was succeeded by Innocent III., under whom the papal power was destined to attain a height hitherto unknown. Innocent flatly refused to sanction the divorce or to recognize the second marriage, although he was not pope, of course, until some years after both had occurred. On the ground that the whole subject of marriage lay properly within the jurisdiction of the Church, Innocent demanded that Philip cast off the beautiful Agnes and restore Ingeborg to her rightful place. This Philip promptly refused to do.
The threat of an interdict failing to move him, the Pope proceeded to put his threat into execution. In January, 1200, the interdict was pronounced and, though the king's power over the French clergy was so strong that many refused to heed the voice from Rome, gradually the discontent and indignation of the people grew until after nine months it became apparent that the king must yield. He did so as gracefully as he could, promising to take back Ingeborg and submit the question of a divorce to a council presided over by the papal legate. This council, convened in 1201 at Soissons, decided against the king and in favor of Ingeborg; but Philip had no intention to submit in good faith and, until the death of Agnes in 1204, he maintained his policy of procrastination and double-dealing. Even in the later years of the reign the unfortunate Ingeborg had frequent cause to complain of harshness and neglect at the hand of her royal husband.
The following are the principal portions of Innocent's interdict.
Source—Martène, Edmond, and Durand, Ursin, Thesaurus novus Anecdotorum ["New Collection of Unpublished Documents">[, Paris, 1717, Vol. IV., p. 147. Adapted from translation by Arthur C. Howland in Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints, Vol. IV., No. 4, pp. 29-30.
Let all the churches be closed; let no one be admitted to them, except to baptize infants; let them not be otherwise opened, except for the purpose of lighting the lamps, or when the priest shall come for the Eucharist and holy water for the use of the sick. We permit Mass to be celebrated once a week, on Friday, early in the morning, to consecrate the Host[530] for the use of the sick, but only one clerk is to be admitted to assist the priest. Partial suspension of the services and offices of the Church Let the clergy preach on Sunday in the vestibules of the churches, and in place of the Mass let them deliver the word of God. Let them recite the canonical hours[531] outside the churches, where the people do not hear them; if they recite an epistle or a gospel, let them beware lest the laity hear them; and let them not permit the dead to be interred, nor their bodies to be placed unburied in the cemeteries. Let them, moreover, say to the laity that they sin and transgress grievously by burying bodies in the earth, even in unconsecrated ground, for in so doing they assume to themselves an office pertaining to others.
Let them forbid their parishioners to enter churches that may be open in the king's territory, and let them not bless the wallets of pilgrims, except outside the churches. Let them not celebrate How Easter should be observed the offices in Passion week, but refrain even until Easter day, and then let them celebrate in private, no one being admitted except the assisting priest, as above directed; let no one communicate, even at Easter, unless he be sick and in danger of death. During the same week, or on Palm Sunday, let them announce to their parishioners that they may assemble on Easter morning before the church and there have permission to eat flesh and consecrated bread.... Let the priest confess all who desire it in the portico of the church; if the church have no portico, Arrangements for confession we direct that in bad or rainy weather, and not otherwise, the nearest door of the church may be opened and confessions heard on its threshold (all being excluded except the one who is to confess), so that the priest and the penitent can be heard by those who are outside the church. If, however, the weather be fair, let the confession be heard in front of the closed doors. Let no vessels of holy water be placed outside the church, nor shall the priests carry them anywhere; for all the sacraments of the Church beyond these two which are reserved[532] are absolutely prohibited. Extreme unction, which is a holy sacrament, may not be given.[533]
67. The Bull "Unam Sanctam" of Boniface VIII. (1302)
In the history of the mediæval Church at least three great periods of conflict between the papacy and the temporal powers can be distinguished. The first was the era of Gregory VII. and Henry IV. of Germany [see [p. 261]]; the second was that of Innocent III. and John of England and Philip Augustus of France [see [p. 380]]; the third was that of Boniface VIII. and Philip the Fair of France. In many respects the most significant document pertaining to the last of these struggles is the papal bull, given below, commonly designated by its opening words, Unam Sanctam.
The question at issue in the conflict of Boniface VIII. and Philip the Fair was the old one as to whether the papacy should be allowed to dominate European states in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. The Franconian emperors, in the eleventh century, made stubborn resistance to such domination, but the immediate result was only partial success, while later efforts to keep up the contest practically ruined the power of the house of Hohenstaufen. Even Philip Augustus, at the opening of the thirteenth century, had been compelled to yield, at least outwardly, to the demands of the papacy respecting his marriages and his national policies. With the revival of the issue under Boniface and Philip, however, the tide turned, for at last there had arisen a nation whose sovereign had so firm a grip upon the loyalty of his subjects that he could defy even the power of Rome with impunity.
The quarrel between Boniface and Philip first assumed importance in 1296—two years after the accession of the former and eleven after that of the latter. The immediate subject of dispute was the heavy taxes which Philip was levying upon the clergy of France and the revenues from which he was using in the prosecution of his wars with Edward I. of England; but royal and papal interests were fundamentally at variance and as both king and pope were of a combative temper, a conflict was inevitable, irrespective of taxes or any other particular cause of controversy. In 1096 Boniface issued the famous bull Clericis Laicos, forbidding laymen (including monarchs) to levy subsidies on the clergy without papal consent and prohibiting the clergy to pay subsidies so levied. Philip the Fair was not mentioned in the bull, but the measure was clearly directed primarily at him. He retaliated by prohibiting the export of money, plate, etc., from the realm, thereby cutting off the accustomed papal revenues from France. In 1297 an apparent reconciliation was effected, the Pope practically suspending the bull so far as France was concerned, though only to secure relief from the conflict with Philip while engaged in a struggle with the rival Colonna family at Rome.