Philip III Vs Boniface Viii Case Study

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What was the significance of the conflict between Philip IV and Boniface VIII: The struggle for authority between Pope Boniface the 7th and Philip the 4th isn't the first time we have seen breach in the bond between the HRE and the Pope. Fredrick Barbarossa and his son both had quarrels with Popes. And it normally starts with the HRE getting the idea that the state should rule the church and they usually break all sorts of rules out of desperation. As we see Philip began to tax the church estates and the clergy because he could not keep up with England in the war. However it really started when Boniface declared that anyone who payed the tax was instantly excommunicated. Kings, bishops, peasants, and church clergy were excommunicated and declared unfit to hold office. Philip was probably not ready for such a big hit as instant excommunication, but that is the way Boniface was, he was very bold and was not going to lay down and have his authority challenged by some French King, but neither …show more content…

This is because people were praying to God for years and no one got better and the plague kept spreading. Church authority dwindled and it was probably a factor that lead to so many HRE trying to either eclipse the church in influence or take over areas that simple were not up for grabs. However it could have had a long term benefit for Europe, skip ahead to Columbus time and you would see that Europe was running out of land to feed people. Since the plague killed so many people the future population was also decreased. If there were more people in Europe around 1492 we could see that the entire European landscape had been completely deforested and the wildlife killed out, people would be starving and an overall sense of urgency on finding new resources might have pushed for a sooner colonization of

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