Robert the Bruce on This Day in History

 

This day in History: Robert the Bruce became the King of Scots (Scotland) on this day in 1306. 

"In 1317, the Pope demanded that King Robert I of Scotland (better known as Robert the Bruce) embrace a truce with the English in the First War of Scottish Independence. He didn't. For his refusal to follow the Pope’s orders, Robert was excommunicated. Scottish nobles took their King’s defiance to the next level in 1320 in a letter known as the Declaration of Arbroath. It was the first time in history that an organized group of people asserted it was the duty of a King to rule by the consent of the governed and the duty of the governed to get rid of him if he didn’t. 'It is not for honors or glory or wealth that we fight,' they declared, 'but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life.' See Seven Centuries Since William Wallace." Source

The snubbing of the pope by Robert the Bruce came to be one of the greatest and oldest acts of civil disobedience.

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Bad Pope Boniface VIII on This Day in History

 

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Boniface VIII was elected pope on this day in 1294, replacing St. Celestine V, who had resigned. He is considered on the eight Bad Popes in Russell Chamberlin's book of the same name. Bonifacio VIII imprisoned his predecessor Celestine V, who died in captivity. Accused by his contemporaries of such wrongdoings as violating confessional secrets, Boniface VIII was himself imprisoned, and died soon after of a violent fever.

The pope is said to have been short-tempered, kicking an envoy in the face on one occasion, and on another, throwing ashes in the eyes of an archbishop who was kneeling to receive them as a blessing atop his head.

Also: "A famous and horrifying quote of Boniface VIII was that paedophilia was no more problematic than 'rubbing one hand against the other.' Elected in 1294, Boniface VIII established a string of statues all around the city and even destroyed the city Palestrina over a personal feud. He had a reputation for stubbornness and a knack for starting fights." Source

Boniface was so hated that posthumous trial for heresy was planned but eventually abandoned.

The pope was so bad that Dante, in his Inferno portrayed Boniface VIII as destined for hell for the offence of buying and selling offices of the church (simony). Boniface's eventual destiny is revealed to Dante by Pope Nicholas III, whom he meets. A bit later in the Inferno, Dante recalls the pontiff's feud with the Colonna family, which led him to demolish the city of Palestrina, killing 6,000 citizens and destroying both the home of Julius Caesar and a shrine to Mary. Boniface's ultimate fate is confirmed by Beatrice when Dante visits Heaven. It is notable that he does not adopt Guillaume de Nogaret's aspersion that Boniface VIII was a 'sodomite', however, and does not assign him to that circle of hell (although simony was placed in the eighth circle of fraud, below sodomy, in the seventh circle of violence, designating it as a worse offense and taking precedence above activities of sodomy).

He is also mentioned in François Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel. In the chapter that Epistemos lists the inhabitants of hell and their occupations, he says that Boniface was (in one translation) "skimming the scum off soup pots".

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The Hated Pope Formosus on This Day in History

This Day In History: Formosus was elected pope on this day in 891. 

Pope Formosus (891-896) was a man who excited strong feelings amongst many in his time. You could say he was the Donald Trump of his day. Some saw him as pious, others saw him as ineligible for the papal throne...and accusations of bribery were also floated.

One pope who was extremely triggered by Formosus was Stephen VII. He dug up the remains of Pope Formosus who by then had been dead for over nine months. In what came to be known as the Cadaver Synod, there, before a group of bishops and cardinals, the former pope was dressed in the rich apparel of the papacy with a crown upon his loose scalp, and the scepter of the holy office in the stiff fingers of his rotting hand!

A terrified young deacon was placed there to ineffectively reply on behalf of the dead Formosus.

Inevitably the dead Pope was found guilty and was stripped of his garments, and several fingers of his right hand that were used in bestowing the benediction were amputated, the body was then dragged through the streets and eventually thrown into the Tiber river.

This was not the end of poor Pope Formosus. 10 years later, Pope Sergius III, had Formosus exhumed and condemned again. He also had his corpse beheaded and then removed three more fingers before again casting him into the Tiber river. The headless remains eventually became entangled in a fisherman’s net, and then returned a second time to the ground at St Peter’s.

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