Pierre Dubois

Pierre Dubois (c. 1255 – after. 1321), a French publicist in the reign of Philip the Fair, was the author of a series of political pamphlets embodying original and daring views.

Dubois was known to Jean du Tillet in the 16th, and to Pierre Dupuy in the 17th century, but remained practically forgotten until the middle of the 19th century, when his history was reconstructed from his works. He was a Norman by birth, probably a native of Coutances, where he exercised the functions of royal advocate of the bailliage and of the university.

Dubois was born in Normandy, France and was educated at the University of Paris, where he heard St. Thomas Aquinas and Siger of Brabant. He was, nevertheless, no adherent of the scholastic philosophy, and appears to have been conversant with the works of Roger Bacon. Although he never held any important political office, he must have been in the confidence of the court when, in 1300, he wrote his anonymous Summaria, brevis et compendiosa doctrina felicis expeditionis et abbreviationis guerrarum et litium regni Francorum, which is extant in a unique manuscript, and is analysed by Natalis de Wailly in the Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes (2nd series, vol. iii).

In the contest between Philip the Fair and Pope Boniface VIII Dubois identified himself completely with the secularizing policy of Philip, and poured forth a series of anti-clerical pamphlets, which did not cease even with the death of Boniface. His Supplication du peuple de France au roy contre le pape Boniface le Ville, printed in 1614 in Acta inter Bonifacium VIII. et Philippum Pulchrum, dates from 1304, and is a heated indictment of the pope's temporal power.

...
Wikipedia