s hatreds developed into political
hatreds. It was not sufficient that Avignon should be the land of
heresy. She was destined to become the theatre of schisms.

Permit us, in connection with this French Rome, a short historical
digression. Strictly speaking, it is not essential to the subject
of which we treat, and we were perhaps wiser to launch ourselves
immediately into the heart of the drama; but we trust that we will be
forgiven. We write more particularly for those who, in a novel, like
occasionally to meet with something more than fiction.

In 1285 Philippe le Bel ascended the throne.

It is a great historical date, this date of 1285. The papacy which, in
the person of Gregory VII., successfully opposed the Emperor of Germany;
the papacy which, vanquished in matters temporal by Henry IV., yet
vanquished him morally. This papacy was slapped by a simple Sabine
gentleman, and the steel gauntlet of Colonna reddened the cheek of
Boniface VIII. But the King of France, whose hand had really dealt this
blow, what happened to him under the successor of Boniface VIII.?

This successor was Benedict XI., a man of low origin, but who might
perhaps have developed into a man of genius, had they allowed him the
time. Too weak for an open struggle with Philippe le Bel, he found a
means which would have been the envy of the founder of a celebrated
order two hundred years later. He pardoned Colonna openly.

To pardon Colonna was to declare Colonna culpable, since culprits alone
have need of pardon. If Colonna were guilty, the King of France was at
least his accomplice.

There was some danger in supporting such an argument; also Benedict
XI. was pope but eight months. One day a veiled woman, a pretended
lay-sister of Sainte-Petronille at Perugia, came to him while he was
at table, offering him a basket of figs. Did it conceal an asp like
Cleopatra's? The fact is that on the morrow the Holy See was vacant.

Then Philippe le Bel had a strange idea; so strange that it must, at
first, have seemed an hallucination.

It was to withdraw the papacy from Rome, to install it in France, to put
it in jail, and force it to coin money for his profit.

The reign of Philippe le Bel was the advent of gold. Gold! that was the
sole and unique god of this king who had slapped a pope. Saint Louis had
a priest, the worthy Abbe Suger, for minister; Philippe le Bel had two
bankers, two Florentines, Biscio and Musiato.

Do you expect, dear reader