mperor who knelt and waited in the snow. Philip
burned the Bull; and to prevent other like fulminations, sent an agent
into Italy. Gathering a band, he found the aged Pontiff at Anagni, his
birthplace, seated on a throne, crowned with the triple crown, the Cross
in one hand and in the other Saint Peter's Keys, the terrible Keys of
Heaven and Hell. They called on him to abdicate, but Boniface thought of
Christ his Lord, and cried out in defiant answer, "Here is my neck, here
is my head. Betrayed like Jesus Christ, if I must die like him, I will
at least die Pope." For reply, Sciarra Colonna, one of his own Roman
Counts, struck him in the face. Buffeted by a noble, and openly defied
by a king, Boniface died "of shame and anger." A month later, this same
king rejoiced, if nothing more, at the death of the Pope's successor;
and in the dark forests of Saint-Jean-d'Angely, Philip bargained and
sold the great Tiara to a Gascon Archbishop who, if Villani speaks
truly, "threw himself at the royal feet, saying, 'It is for thee to
command and for me to obey; such will ever be my disposition!'" As was
not unnatural, the will of the French king was that the Pope should
remain within the zone of royal influence. So Clement lived at Bordeaux
and at Poitiers, and finally retired to the County of Venaissin which
the Holy See possessed by right, and established the pontifical court at
Avignon.

This transfer of the papal residence to Avignon has left many and deep
traces on the history of French Catholicism. The Holy See was no longer
far remote; the French ecclesiastic desirous of promotion had no
dangerous mountains to traverse, no strange city to enter, no foreign
Pontiff to besiege, ignorant or indifferent to his claims. The next
successor of Saint Peter would logically be a Frenchman, and there was
not only a possibility, but a probability for every man of note, that he
might be either the occupant of the Sacred Chair or its favoured
supporter. So Avignon became a city of priests as Rome had been before
her; and as France was the richest country in Europe and the Church
regally wealthy, splendour, luxury, and constant religious spectacles
rejoiced the city, and Bishop, Archbishop, and Abbot, brazenly
neglecting the duties of their Sees, lived here and were seldom "in
residence." Every one had a secret ambition. Of such a situation, the
Popes were not slow to reap the benefits. Difference of wealth, which
brought difference of positi