The Mistery of Belicena Villca circumstances demand it , that of our children ”. Philip the Fair ' s position was collectively supported by the Estates General .
The Nobles and the Cities signed letters in which they rejected with harsh terms the accusations against the King and denounced , in turn , the intention of the Pope to turn the Kingdom into an ecclesiastical fiefdom ; the letters were sent , not to the Pope , but to the Sacred College . Also , they swore to defend with their blood the independence of France and declared that , regarding the affairs of the Kingdom , there was no one higher than the King , nor the Emperor nor the Pope . The Cardinals , of course , declined to consider charges " for the rude way of referring to the Pope "; but relations were becoming more and more poisoned . During the Assembly , the most heinous crimes attributed to Boniface VIII had been made public : usurpation of papal investiture , murder , simony , heresy , sodomy , etc ; and that lack of moral authority , from who claimed to be Supreme Sovereign , was disclosed in all corners of the Kingdom by the publicists of Philip the Fair . The people was then with its King and would not react adversely to any initiative that was intended to limit the ambitions of Boniface VIII .
As for the Bishops , they were faced with the following dilemma : if they attended the Council , they would be considered " personal enemies " of the King ; could be accused of treason and , as happened to the Bishop of Pamiers , tried by civil courts . But if they did not attend , they would be excommunicated by Boniface VIII . However , despite the terrible retaliation promised by the Pope for those who did not go to Rome , most of the Bishops were on the King ' s side , whom they regarded as a more worthy representative of the Catholic Religion : only the Golen and the spies of Philip IV would go in November to the Council ; that is , only 36 would go out of a total of 78 French Bishops . But before the Council , on July 11 , 1302 , an unfortunate event came to mourn the Mystic Court of Philip the Fair : to quell the general uprising that had unleashed in Flanders , Philip sends a mighty army of Knights , annihilated that day in the Battle of Courtrai ; and in the field of battle remain forever the invaluable Pierre Flotte , Robert de Artois , and the Count of Saint Pol , three Lords of the Dog whose performance was the main factor in the success of the Strategy of Philip IV . Immediately other Domini Canis are promoted , even more fearsome than the three dead : Guillaume de Nogaret , Enguerrand de Marigny and Guillaume de Plasian .
During the Council no resolution is taken against Philip IV because , as in the fable , there would be no mouse willing to rattle the cat . However , Boniface ' s fury knows no limits when he is informed that , in France , the assets of the Bishops present have been confiscated and they have been promoted a high treason trial . Thus , on November 18 he publishes the bull Unam Sanctam , which would be considered the most complete exhibition ever made in favor of papal and priestly absolutism . Unable to take other more effective measures against Philip the Fair , the Golen try to start a legal controversy on the issue of " spiritual power ” and “ temporal power ”; that is why Boniface insists once more using the Two Swords analogy : the tactic is to get to accept , as a syllogism , the truth that the spiritual Sword is above the temporal Sword ; this being admitted , next is the identification of the Pope with the spiritual Sword and the King with the temporal Sword : the conclusion , evident and logic , is that the King must submit to the Pope because with this is fulfilled " God ' s Will ". The idea was not new , but now it was elevated to official Dogma of the Church and its explicit rejection would imply the sin of heresy .
Let us remember , Dr . Siegnagel , the main conclusions of the bull . To begin with , it affirms the existence of a single Church , denying the recent accusation of the Domini Canis that , within the Catholic Church , there is a Golen Church , heretical and satanic , of which Boniface VIII would be one of the chiefs ; from there the name of the bull : Unam Sanctam Ecclesiam ... In this one Church “ we are forced to believe because outside of it there is no salvation or forgiveness of sins ”. And this one Church is analogous to an organic body , in which the head represents Jesus Christ and , also , the Pope , the Vicar of Jesus Christ : “ Therefore , in this one and only Church there is only one body , one head , and
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