"He Came in Like a Fox, Ruled Like a Lion, and Died Like a Dog."

Pope Boniface VIII. (1294 to 1303) was scarcely dead when the epitaph, "He came in like a fox, ruled like a lion, and died like a dog," was proclaimed to Christendom. Boniface VIII. was elected to the papal chair after Celestine V. had abdicated, and he was soon embroiled in a quarrel with the Colonna family, who denied the validity of his election; hence the saying, "he came in like a fox." That he "ruled like a lion," is very clearly set forth in history; he understood papacy in the sense of universal dominion. His entry into Rome was attended with extraordinary pomp; two kings held the bridle of his palfrey as he rode from St. Peter's to the Lateran after his election. His reign was a series of contests with Philip the Fair, the Colonnas, the Emperor of Germany, and other crowned heads. Bull after Bull was issued. In 1300 Boniface proclaimed the first Jubilee. This celebration, deriving its name from the Jewish Feast of Trumpets, was at first to be proclaimed once in a century, though the ancient solemnity occurred every fifty years. As, however, this festival proved lucrative to the Pope, it was soon celebrated at shorter intervals, and in Jubilee year plenary indulgence was granted to all who should visit the sanctuaries in Rome during that year. This secular Jubilee became a source of revenue and scandal to the Church, in about equal proportions. King Philip the Fair, of France, was the most vigorous opponent to the aggressive policy of the Pope. In 1301 Boniface issued a Bull convoking a council of the French bishops at Rome, to examine into the conduct of King Philip, at the same time affirming it to be heresy not to believe that the king is subject to the Pope in secular as well as spiritual affairs. The French nation supported Philip and formally declared that the king held his power in feoff to no one, and in secular matters was subject to God alone. Philip, therefore, forbade the bishops attending the council. In 1302 the claims of the Pope were still more strongly set forth in a second Bull, convoking the bishops of France in council, under pain of excommunication. Philip again forbade their obeying the mandate, and summoned a general council at Lyons to judge the Pope. In April, 1303, Boniface excommunicated Philip, and in June the assembled Estates of France declared the Pope a heretic and a criminal. The king sent Guillaum de Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna to Rome to seize the Pope and bring him before the Council of Lyons. They armed three hundred malcontent Italian nobles, surprised the Castle of Anagni (where the Pope was then residing), forced the palace, seized the person, diamonds and papers of the Pope, and guarded him as a prisoner. After three days, the citizens of Anagni rescued the Pope and took him to Rome, where he was protected in the Vatican. The haughty spirit of Boniface could not recover from this outrage; he fell into a violent fever and went mad " like a dog," raving at all who approached him, and gnawing off his own fingers in the death struggle. He lived just thirty-four days after his imprisonment, dying in October, 1303. He was buried with great pomp in a splendid chapel which he had built himself and adorned with mosaics. Tosti, Drummond, and Cardinal Wiseman, of later times, have undertaken to defend Boniface VIII.--going so far as to say that his death was peaceful. Boniface, by his persecution of the Ghibellines, incurred the bitter enmity of Dante, who consigns him, in the "Inferno," to one of the lowest circles of hell.