On 7 June 1304, Pope Benedict XI excommunicated Guillaume de Nogaret, the minister of French king Philip IV, and several Italians who had played a part in the seizure and abuse of Pope Boniface VIII in the bull Flagitiosum scelus. Boniface and Philip had come into serious conflict regarding the power of the papacy versus the power of the secular ruler. This conflict had led Boniface to issue the bull Unam Sanctum proclaiming that salvation required that one be subject to the Roman pontiff and Philip to send Guillaume and his army to arrest Boniface in the hopes of putting him on trial. While Boniface had escaped, he died soon after regaining his freedom.
Benedict after a pontificate of only eight months and while there was some suspicion that Guillaume may have had him poisoned, there is no direct evidence for this. After Benedict’s death, Clement V will become pope and under French pressure will lift the excommunication of Guillaume de Nogaret. Guillaume will also be very active in Philip IV’s persecutions of the Knights Templar.
On 2 June 455, the Vandals led by their king Genseric began their sack of the city of Rome. Genseric had made a peace treaty with the previous emperor of the Western Roman Empire Valentinian III. However, when Valentinian was killed and replaced by Petronius Maximus, Genseric declared the peace treaty had been broken.
According to Prosper of Aquitaine, Pope Leo I managed to persuade the Vandals to only plunder the city of Rome and not burn any buildings or murder its inhabitants. Though writers in the 17th century who idealized Rome would blame the Vandals for its destruction. For example, the poet John Dryden wrote, “Till Goths, and Vandals, a rude Northern race, Did all the matchless Monuments deface.” In 1794, bishop Henri Grégoire would use the term vandalism to describe the destruction of art during the French Revolution based upon the presumed devastation which took place during the 455 sack of Rome.
The Vandals would plunder the city for fourteen days, whereas the previous Visigothic sack of 410 was only three days. Much gold and silver would be taken as well as several boats full of captives including the Eudoxia, the wife of Petronius Maximus who had been killed by a Roman mob as he tried to flee the attack of the Vandals. Among the treasures taken by the Vandals was the wealth of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem which had been captured by Emperor Titus in 70 AD.
On 29 May 1982, Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit the Canterbury Cathedral.
The pope described the visit as one “which centuries and generations have awaited”.
While there was some controversy because of the decision for the Pope to enter the Cathedral from a back door, because of “security and tiredness”, rather than the more ceremonial entrance – the Great West door – at the front of the cathedral; Peter Jennings described the visit to the Cathedral as “a hugely important step because here was the successor of St Peter coming to Britain really bridging a gap since the 400 years or more of the Reformation.”
While at Canterbury, the Holy Father and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, renewed their baptismal vows together, lit candles for Christian martyrs and knelt in prayer before the spot where St Thomas-à-Becket was murdered in 1170. They also issued a common declaration thanking God for progress in the work of reconciliation between the Anglican and Catholic communities.
Homily of Pope John Paul II at the Canterbury Cathedral
On 27 May 1084, after an appeal from Pope Gregory VII, Norman duke Robert Guiscard entered Rome to defend Gregory from the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and his anti-pope Clement III.
The roots of the conflict between Gregory and Henry lay in what was known as the Investiture Controversy, whether the secular ruler or the pope possessed the authority to appoint bishops within particular dioceses. Henry wished to appoint bishops within his empire and so placed a “pope” supportive to this view – Clement – in power at Saint Peter’s in Rome. Yet, as the conflict between Henry and Gregory grew, the issue of contention became more and more one concerned with the power of the papacy versus the power of the king.
At the time anti-pope Clement III was installed by Henry at Saint Peter’s, Gregory continued to resist Henry just a short distance away at Castel San Angelo. He asked for help from Robert Guiscard who responded by sending and army of 36,000 soldiers to enter Rome and rescue the pope. However, Guiscard’s armies also pillaged Rome for three days and partially burned the city – leading to the destruction many ancient buildings including the original basilica of San Clemente and the church of Santa Maria in Cosmodin.
Gregory died a year later in exile but his views on the secular primacy of the pope would be taken up by his successors while the support of Henry IV would decline.
Pope Gregory VII
On 19 May 715, Gregory II began his papacy which would last until 11 February 731. During his papacy, Rome would move closer to the Franks and further away from Constantinople due to both the Iconoclastic controversy and the threats of the Lombards.
Byzantine Emperor Leo III had ordered the destruction of all images of the saints and Christ on the grounds that it was idolatry. But this policy was greatly opposed in the West and even civil conflict between the Eastern and Western parts of the former Roman empire erupted after the decrees of Leo III regarding images reached Rome in 727.
Moreover, at this same time Gregory was looking for help against the Lombard threat in Italy. Unable to obtain assistance from Leo III due to the iconoclasm controversy, Gregory will seek help from Charles Martel land the Franks. This turning of Rome toward the West rather than the East will contribute both to the eventual crowning of Charles’ son, Charlemagne, as the Holy Roman Emperor and the eventual schism between Rome and Constantinople.
Gregory II to Leo III on Holy Images
Gregory II to Charles Martel of the Franks
On 17 May 1809, Napoleon annexed the Papal States on the grounds that what Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor had given, Napoleon as the new Emperor could take away. However, one of the main reasons for Napoleon’s action was Pius VII’s refusal to support the French against the British.
Napoleon joined the Papal States to the French Empire, made Rome a free imperial city, and planned for a constitutional government to be placed upon the former territory of the Pope.
In response, Pope Pius VII had bulls of excommunication placed on the doors of Rome’s churches which imposed this sentence on anyone who participated in the annexation, including Napoleon himself. Pius VII, fully expecting to be imprisoned or executed by Napoleon also issued a bull calling for a new papal election. Indeed, French troops would arrest Pius VII in July of 1809 and he would remain a prisoner of Napoleon until May 1814.
The annexation documents
On 15 May 1956 and on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pius XII issued the encyclical Haurietis Aquas (You will draw water).
Pius XII used this encyclical to encourage greater devotion to the Heart of Jesus both because it is united to the “Person of the Incarnate Son of God Himself” and because it is a sign of the love of Jesus for all people. Pius XII also stressed that devotion to the Sacred Heart is for all people and designed to encourage growth in faith today.
Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI have referred to this encyclical in their own encouragement of a greater love of the Sacred Heart.
Haurietis Aquas
Pope Benedict XVI on Haurietis Aquas
On 14 May 1971, Paul VI issued the Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens. The Letter was addressed to Cardinal Maurice Roy, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The letter was issued in honor of the eightieth anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum.
Octogesima Adveniens discusses problems with economic inequality discrimination and other issues of Catholic Social Teaching mentioned in earlier papal documents; but also discusses new issues such as urbanization, the environment, and social communication. It criticizes the problems of Marxism and warns of the dangers of contemporary ideologies which fail to recognize human dignity.
In Octogesima Adveniens, Paul VI notes, “It is to all Christians that we address a fresh and insistent call to action.” Urging laity to “take up as their own proper task the renewal of the temporal order”. In response to this, the bishops of the United States put together the first Call to Action Conference in Detroit, Michigan in 1976. This delegates at this conference in turn would ask for the Catholic Church to reexamine teachings on priestly celibacy, male clergy, birth control and other issues and would lead to the foundation of the Call to Action movement in the United States.
Octogesima Adveniens
On 13 May 609, Pope Boniface IV converted the pagan temple known as the Pantheon in Rome into the Church Sancta Maria ad Martyrs or Santa Maria dei Martiri.
The original Pantheon had been built by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus Caesar but it had been replaced by another structure after burning to the ground. In 609, the Byzantine Emperor Phocas gave the rebuilt Pantheon to the Pope who wished that no longer would the demons be the object of veneration but rather the Mother of God and the saints.
Because the Pantheon was converted into a Church it was spared the destruction that befell many of the ancient Roman buildings during the medieval period. It has since been used as a model for many other structures including St. Peter’s Basilica and the Jefferson Memorial.
More on the Pantheon
On 12 May 1328, Pietro Rainalducci was consecrated anti-Pope Nicholas V at St. Peter’s Basilica during the pontificate of John XXII. He was elected through the influence of the excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian and was the last Imperial anti-pope. Rainalducci was a member of the Franciscan spirituals who supported Louis’ view that the secular authority was of greater power than the Church. Rainalducci took the name Nicholas in honor of Franciscan pope Nicholas IV and Pope Nicholas III who had written the Franciscan rules of poverty Exiit qui seminat which John XXII had torn to pieces, causing a schism in the Franciscan order.
One of the most interesting acts of his period as anti-pope was to preside over a trial of Pope John XXII at the Duomo of Pisa. John XXII was represented by a straw puppet dressed in pontifical robes. Nicholas condemned John and handed him [that is, the puppet] over to the secular authority to be executed.
John XXII, for his part, excommunicated Nicholas in April 1329. Later Nicholas would repent, confess both to the archbishop of Pisa and to Pope John, who absolved him on 25 August 1330. However, Nicholas would remain in a comfortable imprisonment in the papal palace at Avignion until his death in October 1333.
More on anti-pope Nicholas V
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