t God gives me the
good things of this life, I care not a bean for that to come. A man has
no more a soul than a beast. Did you ever see any one who had risen from
the dead?" He took delight in deriding the blessed Virgin; "for," said
he, "she was no more a virgin than my mother." As to the presence of
Christ in the Host, "It is nothing but paste." Three knights of Lucca
testified that when certain venerable ambassadors, whose names they
gave, were in the presence of the pope at the time of the jubilee, and a
chaplain happened to invoke the mercy of Jesus on a person recently
dead, Boniface appalled all around him by exclaiming, "What a fool, to
commend him to Christ! He could not help himself, and how can he be
expected to help others? He was no Son of God, but a shrewd man and a
great hypocrite." It might seem impossible to exceed such blasphemy: and
yet the witnesses went on to testify to a conversation which he held
with the brave old Sicilian admiral, Roger Loria. This devout sailor
made the remark, in the pope's presence, that if, on a certain occasion,
he had died, it was his trust that Christ would have had mercy on him.
To this Boniface replied, "Christ! he was no Son of God; he was a man,
eating and drinking like ourselves; he never rose from the dead; no man
has ever risen. I am far mightier than he. I can bestow kingdoms and
humble kings." Other witnesses deposed to having heard him affirm,
"There is no harm in simony. There is no more harm in adultery than in
rubbing one's hands together." Some testified to such immoralities and
lewdness in his private life that the pages of a modern book cannot be
soiled with the recital.

[Sidenote: Philip consents to abstain from the prosecution.] In the
meantime, Clement did all in his power to save the blackened memory of
his predecessor. Every influence that could be brought to bear on the
revengeful or politic king was resorted to, and at last with success.
Perhaps Philip saw that he had fully accomplished his object. He had no
design to destroy the papacy. His aim was to revolutionize it--to give
the kings of France a more thorough control over it; and, for the
accomplishment of that purpose, to demonstrate to what a condition it
had come through the present system. Whatever might be the decision,
such evidence had been brought forward as, notwithstanding its
contradictions and apparent inconsistencies, had made a profound
impression on every thinking man. It was th