Editing Pope Boniface VIII (section)

=== Abduction and death ===
[[File:Bonifac8 Boccaccio.jpg|thumb|right|Depiction of the death of Boniface in a 15th-century manuscript of Boccaccio's ''[[De Casibus Virorum Illustrium|De Casibus]]'']]
[[File:Saint Peter's Basilica 2020 P10 Grotte vaticane Grave of Bonifacius VIII.jpg|thumb|right|The tomb of Boniface VIII in the [[Vatican grotto]]]]
[[File:ColonnaSlappingBoniface.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Sciarra Colonna]] slapping Boniface VIII, illustration by [[Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville]], from [[François Guizot]]'s ''The History of France from the Earliest Times to the Year 1789'' (1883).]]
On [[Maundy Thursday]], 4 April 1303, the Pope again excommunicated all persons who were impeding French clerics from coming to the Holy See, "''etiam si imperiali aut regali fulgeant dignitati''" ("even if they shone with imperial or royal dignity").<ref>Georges Digard (editor), ''Les Registres de Boniface VIII'' (Paris 1907), no. 5345.</ref> This included King Philip IV, though not by name. In response, [[Guillaume de Nogaret]], Philip's chief minister, denounced Boniface as a heretical criminal to the French clergy. On 15 August 1303, the Pope suspended the right of all persons in the Kingdom of France to name anyone as Regent or Doctor, including the King. And in another document of the same day, he reserved to the Holy See the provision of all present and future vacancies in cathedral churches and monasteries, until King Philip should come to the Papal Court and make explanations of his behavior.<ref>Georges Digard (editor), ''Les Registres de Boniface VIII'' (Paris 1907), nos. 5386–5387</ref>

On 7 September 1303, an army led by King Philip's minister Nogaret and [[Sciarra Colonna]] attacked Boniface at his palace in Anagni next to the cathedral.<ref>See the extensive narrative of Gregorovius, 588–596. Giuseppe Marchetti Longhi, "Il palazzo di Bonifacio VIII in Anagni", Archivio della Società romana di storia patria 43 (1920), 379–410. The building still exists: http://www.palazzobonifacioviii.it/</ref> The Pope responded with a bull dated 8 September 1303, in which Philip and Nogaret were excommunicated.<ref>A. Tomassetti, ''Bullarum diplomatum et privilegiorum sanctorum Romanorum pontificum'' Tomus IV (Augustae Taurinorum 1859), pp. 170–174. The date of 8 September has caused much scholarly controversy. {{cite book|last=Chamberlain|first=E.R.|title=The Bad Popes|publisher=Barnes and Noble|pages=120|chapter=The Lord of Europe}} Ian Mortimer: "Barriers to the Truth" ''History Today'': 60:12: December 2010: 13</ref> The French Chancellor and the Colonnas demanded the Pope's abdication; Boniface VIII responded that he would "sooner die". In response, Colonna allegedly slapped Boniface, a "slap" historically remembered as the ''schiaffo di Anagni'' ("Anagni slap").

According to a modern interpreter, the 73-year-old Boniface was probably beaten and nearly executed, but was released from captivity after three days. He died a month later.<ref>{{cite book|last=Reardon|first=Wendy|title=The Deaths of the Popes|publisher=McFarland|pages=120}}. Reardon's narrative does not appear to accord with contemporary sources.</ref> The famous Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani, wrote:<ref>Giovanni Villani, ''Historia universalis'', Book VIII, chapter 65. R. E. Selfe and P. H. Wicksteed, ''Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni Villani'' (Westminster, 1898), pp. 346–350.</ref>
<blockquote>And when Sciarra and the others, his enemies, came to him, they mocked at him with vile words and arrested him and his household which had remained with him. Among others, William of Nogaret, who had conducted the negotiations for the king of France, scorned him and threatened him, saying that he would take him bound to Lyons on the Rhone, and there in a general council would cause him to be deposed and condemned.... no man dared to touch [Boniface], nor were they pleased to lay hands on him, but they left him robed under light arrest and were minded to rob the treasure of the Pope and the Church. In this pain, shame and torment, the great Pope Boniface abode prisoner among his enemies for three days.... the People of Anagni beholding their error and issuing from their blind ingratitude, suddenly rose in arms... and drove out Sciarra della Colonna and his followers, with loss to them of prisoners and slain, and freed the Pope and his household. Pope Boniface... departed immediately from Anagni with his court and came to Rome and St. Peter's to hold a council... but... the grief which had hardened in the heart of Pope Boniface, by reason of the injury which he had received, produced in him, once he had come to Rome, a strange malady so that he gnawed at himself as if he were mad, and in this state he passed from this life on the twelfth day of October in the year of Christ 1303, and in the Church of St. Peter near the entrance of the doors, in a rich chapel which was built in his lifetime, he was honorably buried.</blockquote>

He died of a violent fever on 11 October, in full possession of his senses and in the presence of eight cardinals and the chief members of the papal household, after receiving the sacraments and making the usual profession of faith.