Boniface VIII: The Antithesis of Franciscan Values
Tricia Wessels

At the beginning of the 1200s St. Francis of Assisi was teaching and inspiring Christians to take up a life of poverty and faith in their Lord, Christ. Though Francis, born Giovanni Francesco Bernardone, was son of a wealthy merchant, he soon tired of the worldly, carefree life he led (Galli and Olsen 208). In 1203, after serving in the military and becoming extremely ill, Francis began having spiritual dreams and visions. Inspired by these, he told his father, "'Up to today I called you father, but now I can say in all honesty, "Our Father who art in heaven"'" (Galli and Olsen 209). He left Assisi and went into nature to become a hermit. By 1209, he attracted twelve "brothers" who would become the First Order of the Franciscans, with Francis as superior. The Franciscans grew rapidly and began traveling throughout Europe "preaching the message of repentance, gospel simplicity, and radical obedience to Christ's teaching" (Galli and Olsen 210).

This movement towards "gospel simplicity" seems directly related to the corruption that permeated the Church during this time. Dante Alighieri, born in nearby Florence not long after St. Francis's death, clearly agrees with the Franciscan rejection of the greed and indifference which seemed to be prevalent in the clergy. Dante, a celebrated and highly educated poet, wrote The Divine Comedy: a pilgrimage involving his own spirituality, as well as the spirituality of his audience. It is a journey of repentance, or a turn away from one's self and towards God. To complete this journey, the sinner must first see and understand his or her sins; this is accomplished in the first book of The Divine Comedy: Inferno. In Inferno, Virgil, representing Reason and classical thought, leads Dante the Pilgrim through the nine circles of Hell. In the work itself, the audience can discern Dante the Poet's own spiritual and political beliefs largely through their absence in the sinners being punished here (Havely 5). Some of these ideas are clearly parallel to those of fellow Tuscan, St. Francis, and can be best seen by a careful examination of those who have used their position as spiritual leader for their own worldly gain, such as Pope Boniface VIII.

The Franciscan order idealizes evangelical poverty. Dante seems to relate more and more to this poverty as he nears the end of his life, particularly during his exile. Also, both Dante and the Franciscans seem to be in debate with the Papacy over the Papal role and its political implications. The Franciscans seem to be of the opinion that the Pope should be the supreme example of worldly poverty and spiritual riches. Dante, taking this notion a step further, seems to think that the only way the Pope can be an apostolic model is to separate himself completely from politics. Herein lies Dante's, as well as the Franciscans', problem with Pope Boniface VIII. Boniface was an extremely educated, ambitious and proud man. He came into the Papacy at a time when there were two very distinct and differing ideas about the role of the Papacy. The first, embodied by Innocent III, was that of hierarchy and leadership. The second, more concurrent with Celestine V, was congruent with Franciscan belief advocating material poverty and extreme spirituality through prayer and meditation (Duffy 120). Boniface seems to be more from the former's school of thought rather than the latter.

During his papacy, Boniface declares the first Jubilee year in 1300. According to Eamon Duffy, this caused:

tens of thousands of pilgrims [to converge] on Rome to gain indulgences, adding enormously to the pres tige of the papacy . . . (and in the process enriching the Roman basilicas, where the sacristans were said to have had to scoop in the pilgrim's offerings with rakes). (119)

Basically, Boniface is selling indulgences, or allowing people to believe they can buy their way into heaven. Dante addresses his problems with this through his use of Guido da Montefeltro in Canto 27 of Inferno. Montefeltro says: "Saint Francis came to get me when I died/but one of the black Cherubim cried out:/'Don't touch him, don't cheat me out of what is mine'" (112-14). Boniface promises Montefeltro, the reformed Ghibelline military captain turned Franciscan monk, absolution if he would aid Boniface in his political vendetta against the Colonna family (Musa 322-23). Montefeltro, at his point of death, realizes that Boniface has been dishonest. This illustrates Dante's ideas about sin and forgiveness. You cannot be forgiven for sins you have not yet committed because forgiveness requires true repentance. According to this notion, Boniface aids in the damnation of not only Montefeltro, but also the "tens of thousands of pilgrims" who "enriched" his Church as well as himself. Dante's reference to St. Francis here seems to pay homage to the saint and what he represents-the antithesis of Boniface.

This assertion of spiritual power for Boniface's own advantage rather than the advantage of the Church as a spiritual body is in direct violation of Franciscan-and "Dantean"-belief. He has made his papacy into a career of personal, worldly advancement. He uses his position to "[enrich] his relatives at the expense of the Church, [and to wage] a relentless war against his family's traditional rival's, the Colonna family" (Duffy 121). On a more personal level, many commentators on Dante's life and works feel that Boniface played an important part in Dante's exile from his beloved city.

While it is possible that Dante may have had some personal motive for putting Boniface in Hell, it remains clear that he truly saw Boniface as a perversion of spiritual leadership. It is also clear that Dante formulated some of his ideas on spirituality after those of his fellow countryman, St. Francis of Assisi. The popes Dante has in Hell seem to implicitly go against the Franciscan Order and its apostolic mission. An obvious example of this can be seen in Canto 27 of Inferno when Dante directly contrasts Boniface and St. Francis in the story of Montefeltro's "fall" (Havely 162). Most of all, Dante's use of Boniface (as well as Nicholas and Clement) places him on the Franciscan side of a prominent debate of his time involving spirituality and worldly goods in relation to the Papacy.

Bibliography
Alighieri, Dante, trans. by Mark Musa. The Divine Comedy Vol.I: Inferno. New York, New York: Penguin Group, 1984.
Duffy, Eamon. Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1997.Havely, Nick. Dante and the Franciscans: Poverty and the Papacy in the 'Commedia'.
Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Galli, Mark, and Ted Olsen, eds. 131 Christians Everyone Should Know. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000.

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