Pope Boniface VIII
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Pope Boniface VIII |
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| Papacy began | 24 December 1294 |
| Papacy ended | 11 October 1303 |
| Predecessor | Celestine V |
| Successor | Benedict XI |
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| Consecration | 23 January 1295 |
| Created Cardinal | 12 April 1281 by Martin IV |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Benedetto Caetani |
| Born | c. 1230 Anagni, Papal States, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 11 October 1303 Rome, Papal States |
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Papal styles of Pope Boniface VIII |
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| Reference style | His Holiness |
| Spoken style | Your Holiness |
| Religious style | Holy Father |
| Posthumous style | None |
Pope Boniface VIII (Latin: Bonifatius VIII; c. 1230 – 11 October 1303), born Benedetto Caetani, was Pope from 24 December 1294 to his death in 1303.
He organized the first Roman Catholic "jubilee" year to take place in Rome and declared that both spiritual and temporal power were under the pope's jurisdiction, and that kings were subordinate to the power of the Roman pontiff. Today, he is probably best remembered for his feuds with King Philip IV of France and Dante Alighieri, who placed the pope in the Eighth Circle of Hell in his Divine Comedy, among the simoniacs.
Benedetto was born in ca. 1235 in Anagni, some thirty-one miles (c. 50 kilometres) southeast of Rome. He was a younger son of Roffredo Caetani (Podestà of Todi in 1274/1275), a member of a baronial family of the Papal States, the Caetani, or Gaetani of Aquila. Through his mother, Emilia Patrasso di Guarcino, a niece of Pope Alexander IV (Rinaldo dei Conti di Segni—who was himself a nephew of Pope Gregory IX), he was not far distant from the seat of ecclesiastical power and patronage. His father's younger brother, Atenolfo, was Podestà di Orvieto. He took his first steps in the religious life when he was sent to the monastery of the Friars Minor in Velletri, where he was put under the care of his maternal uncle Fra Leonardo Patrasso. In 1252, when his paternal uncle Pietro Caetani became Bishop of Todi, in Umbria, Benedetto followed him to Todi and began his legal studies there. He was granted a canonry of the cathedral in the family's stronghold of Anagni, with the permission of Pope Alexander (1254-1261). His uncle Pietro Caetani granted him a canonry in the Cathedral of Todi in 1260. He also came into possession of the small nearby castello of Sismano, a place with twenty-one fires (hearths, families). In later years Father Vitalis, the Prior of S. Egidio de S. Gemino in Narni testified that he knew him and conversed with him in Todi and that Benedetto was in a school run by Rouchetus, a Doctor of Laws, from that city. Benedetto never forgot his roots in Todi, later describing the city as "the dwelling place of his early youth," the city which "nourished him while still of tender years," and as a place where he "held lasting memories." Later in life he repeatedly expressed his gratitude to Anagni, Todi, and his family.
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